WINNIPEG – The NDP agriculture critic is calling for rural Manitobans to pick up their phone and dial the health minister.
Rosann Wowchuk said she thinks Jim McCrae might find the money needed to run the Farm and Rural Stress Line if he heard from enough rural residents.
The line stopped operating last week because it ran out of money.
Wowchuk says an urban line run by Klinic, a Winnipeg health centre, can’t provide the service that rural people need because urban volunteers answer the calls.
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For example, she said for a city dweller, a heavy rain means having to cut the grass more, or maybe dealing with a flooded basement. But Wowchuk said a storm on a farm can have major implications for a family’s financial situation if a crop is damaged.
In a telephone news conference last week, she also accused the government of setting a double standard for urban and rural residents.
Wowchuk said Klinic’s line receives $400,000 per year from the government, yet it wouldn’t provide $80,000 to keep the rural line going.
“I can’t understand why the government isn’t funding this line,” she said. “I don’t believe this one will slip away.”
Wowchuk said she plans to raise the issue when the legislature opens Sept. 15.
