To help ease the workload of Health Minister Cameron Friesen during the pandemic, Premier Brian Pallister is thinking about appointing a second health minister.
In a year-end interview with The Canadian Press, Pallister wanted to make it clear that this isn’t a criticism of Friesen.
"It's not a reflection on my faith or trust in Cam Friesen. Nobody has worked harder."
As Manitoba continues to deal with high COVID cases, Pallister says the move would be temporary because he doesn’t want to make permanent changes due to a short term demand.
During the fall Manitoba led the country in new infections per capita, causing testing capacity and contract tracing to fail to keep up with the high demand.
There are other provinces that have double health ministers such as Ontario where one focuses on long-term care and BC where the other focuses on mental health and addictions.
