May 21, 2021
Statement from Premier Brian Pallister on Meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
This morning I spoke with Prime Minster Justin Trudeau to provide an update on Manitoba’s COVID-19 situation and collaborative steps we can take to shorten the third wave. I want to thank the prime minister for his time and willingness to support Manitoba through these challenging situations.
I reaffirmed our government’s commitment to get as many vaccines as we can get into the arms of Manitobans as quickly and safely as possible as best way to shorten the third wave in Manitoba. I updated the prime minister on our initiatives with North Dakota and urged him to reinforce our message to the Biden administration to allow excess U.S. vaccines to come to Canada immediately. The U.S. has millions of excess vaccines available right now that Canadians can use. I was pleased to hear the prime minister support the need for having the U.S. provide surplus vaccine doses to Canada now when they are needed most.
The prime minister and I discussed how the federal government could provide temporary urgent support for our health system, as it has with other provinces, to assist Manitoba in dealing with increased COVID-19 cases in our hospitals and ICUs. Health officials from both governments have been in discussions about providing additional human resources support in the form of critical care trained nurses and respiratory therapists. Expanding the current arrangement for some additional contact tracing support from Statistics Canada was also identified. The prime minister signalled his willingness to provide whatever additional support he could to meet these requests, for which I thanked him. Our government will continue to keep the lines of communication with Ottawa open as we work together to protect Manitobans and all Canadians.
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