WINNIPEG — Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says his government has added more than 4,700 new health-care workers since taking office, but that demand for care is also rising. The premier said Tuesday during a press conference that while there is still much to be done to get wait times down and improve care, adding more health-care workers is crucial. "The first step, and the most important foundational piece, will always be the staff," he said, speaking at the Seven Oaks General Hospital in Winnipeg. The added staff since 2023 includes about 2,100 health-care aides, 1,464 nurses and 370 physicians. The new recruits will help meet the rising need for services, said Kinew. "Those who present at emergency departments and urgent care centres are getting sicker, and there are more folks, there are bigger volumes," he said. "So we're trying to aim for a moving target." Groups representing both doctors and nurses welcomed the news of additional staff, but said more needs to be done. Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, said many nurses aren't seeing conditions improve on the front line. "We continue to hear from nurses facing serious staffing shortages and unsustainable workloads," she said in a statement. Dr. Alon Altman, president of Doctors Manitoba, said it's good news to see the doctor shortage getting better, but that work needs to be done on retention through efforts like reducing paperwork and improving technology. "Manitoba loses more physicians to other provinces than it gains, and too many of our own medical graduates move away to practise," he said in a statement. Kathleen Cook, health critic for the Opposition Progressive Conservatives, said in a statement that frontline staff are still working unsustainable overtime and wait times are too long. She noted that nurses have grey-listed four hospitals over safety concerns, Seven Oaks was added to the list in June. "Lack of action from this government has directly contributed to staff burnout and undermined retention rates." Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the province has added over 130 safety officers to help address security concerns, including at Seven Oaks hospital starting in June. "That is a tremendous step forward," said Asagwara. "When we came into government, there wasn't a single institutional safety officer working across the province." The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, which represents allied health workers, said the province needs to develop a plan for all specialized professions. Association president Jason Linklater said the province is still facing a shortage of technologists who administer diagnostic tests -- a problem that is driving high wait times. Before his election win, Kinew promised $500 million over four years to hire more nurses, physicians and other health-care workers. Part of that effort has been to attract more staff internationally. Among the successful recruits was Dr. Ayomikun Soyombo, who is joining the urgent care team at Seven Oaks. He said the eagerness of Manitoba's recruiters, answering emails at all hours and being the first to get back to him of the many provinces he applied to, helped win him over. "By the time I was signing for Manitoba, the others were just like catching up," he said. "So it's just the dedication." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2026. Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press
