Mayor of Melita, Manitoba seeks return of primary health care (2025)

By: Michele McDougallPosted: 2:00 AM CDT Monday, Mar. 31, 2025Last Modified: 7:34 AM CDT Monday, Mar. 31, 2025 | Updates

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BRANDON — Melita Mayor Bill Holden says he, along with the reeve of a nearby municipality and the Canupawakpa Dakota Nation, have ideas about how to breathe life into the community’s failing health-care system, and he’s managed to get Prairie Mountain Health on board.

The challenge is to convince the province to bring primary care — which includes a physician, emergency medical technicians and an additional lab technician — back to the community in the southwestern corner of the province, he said.

“We actually have a proposal that was drawn up by the Town of Melita, our neighbouring Municipality of Two Borders and the regional health authority,” Holden said. “We’re putting (it) to the provincial government for funding.”

In September 2023, the emergency department in the Melita hospital closed permanently. The hospital is a transitional facility for patients waiting to go to long-term care.

The town’s physician retired at about the same time, and eight months ago, Melita lost its last EMT to higher pay in Winnipeg, said Holden.

“We had eight EMTs at one time and now we’re down to zero. So, we have no ambulance service in our community. We have two nice ambulances, but they’re parked.”

The request involves an increase to the hospital’s operating budget. Holden said he couldn’t reveal the exact amount.

“Prairie Mountain Health is in charge of hiring and paying doctors, nurses and support staff, and Shared Health is in charge of lab techs, EMTs and ambulances, but the bills are all paid by Manitoba Health,” he said.

“So, we’ve had to go through this whole minefield to try and find out where the answers are.

“Our proposal is not outrageous. We’ve even modified it twice with (Prairie Mountain) to show that we can save more money.”

Partnerships between municipalities and regional health authorities make health care stronger, Manitoba’s Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said.

“Their proposal really reflects that willingness to work together,” Asagwara said, “So, I think their asks are reasonable, and our government is going to work directly with Prairie Mountain Health and with Melita and the mayor to take steps to stock the front lines and repair the services that the previous government damaged.”

Melita is about 131 kilometres southwest of Brandon and has a population of a bit more than 1,000 people, with 1,000 more in surrounding communities.

The health centre is currently staffed by two nurse practitioners and Dr. Alexander McKinnon, who goes to Melita from Deloraine once a week. The lab has one technician who works weekdays, doing tests and X-rays weekly.

Included in Melita’s catchment area is Canupawakpa Dakota Nation, which has given its own proposal to Melita and municipality to add capital to the hospital.

Holden said he welcomes any contribution to making health care better for everyone, as long as it aligns with the regional health authority’s guidelines.

“We’ll listen to anybody that has some kind of a proposal,” Holden said. “I’m well aware of the needs that they have in First Nations communities, so if we can work with them, that would be great, but it also has to be with the RHA.”

Holden said he has received many calls and emails about the status of the hospital, the proposal to the government and the one from Canupawakpa Dakota Nation. That’s why the Melita council and the reeve of the Municipality of Two Borders have scheduled a community meeting on Tuesday.

Representatives from Prairie Mountain and Shared Health are slated to be in attendance.

“There are so many small communities that are struggling just like us, and maybe this proposal that we put together can be used in other communities that are similar to ours, as a template,” the mayor said.

— Brandon Sun

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Updated on Monday, March 31, 2025 7:34 AM CDT: Adds photo

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