RUSSELL, Man. – Health and safety concerns dominated the 10 resolutions approved at the Manitoba Women’s Institute annual meeting April 22-24.
Health is always an issue for the group, said MWI president Helen Rigby. She suggested it is probably because the women’s institute was started by a mother mourning the loss of her son to tainted milk.
“We’re very concerned about how the RHAs (regional health authorities) in Manitoba will deliver the health care; that good judgment is used and that we don’t lose the benefits we have had and that we gain in the delivery system and that concerns be listened to or acted on wisely.”
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Mildred Keith, the president of the 23,000-member Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada, who was at the Manitoba meeting, said many provincial branches have passed similar health motions.
“I see several provinces discussing food additives, cell phones in cars. A lot are safety related.”
Keith said the motions become the policy of the WI and have value because they are issues the membership believe in. Keith noted the MWI has another advantage in that it meets annually with the provincial government’s cabinet and can press its issues at a high level.
The resolutions were all approved with little debate and near-unanimous votes. They include requests that the government or RHAs increase funding for home care, improve palliative care, return to a subsidized children’s dental program, have speech therapists in each region, and allow the Alzheimer treatment drug Aricept.
The MWI also asks that all school employees get a first aid course to deal with emergencies, that a public program explain the new lighting requirements for farm equipment in transport and that all university agricultural graduates take a course in farm and chemical safety.
In a motion directed at the federal government, the MWI wants stay-at-home parents to receive the same tax breaks as parents who take their children to day cares.
In a special debate, the MWI members approved a motion to continue to lend support to the campaign to keep the University of Manitoba’s human ecology faculty as an independent unit. The university planned to dissolve the faculty but under pressure from a public lobby led by home economists, it has agreed to retain the college as an independent degree for four more years. The U of M has the only independent home economics college left in Canada.
