Province to use tobacco company settlement funds to pay for new CancerCare building

Money the province is get‐ ting from a settlement with tobacco companies will go toward building a new CancerCare Manitoba headquarters and other prevention measures, Pre‐ mier Wab Kinew an‐ nounced Saturday.

Kinew said the initial pay‐ ment could be anywhere from hundreds of millions to even half a billion dollars. The timeline of when those funds will be injected into the province isn't fully clear yet, but Kinew said he's expecting the first payment to arrive later this year or early 2025.

"It's with the federal gov‐ ernment right now, but we expect that it will be a series of payments over time, but the first initial one will be in that order of magnitude," said Kinew following his speech at the gala dinner as part the ongoing NDP con‐ vention.

The NDP learned about the possibility of a settlement shortly after taking office and are waiting on more details, but Kinew said the full arrangement could potential‐ ly be worth billions. The number of payments after the initial one and how long it will take to receive the en‐ tire settlement sum also isn't known yet.

"Those are details that will come out when the settle‐ ment gets concluded, that's with the federal government right now," said Kinew.

Manitoba sued major to‐ bacco companies to recover the costs of providing healthcare services for tobacco-re‐ lated illness under the then NDP government in 2012. Lawsuits by all 10 provinces named Imperial Tobacco, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and JTI-Macdonald.

The cases were stalled by a range of court battles, but in March 2019 a group of people in Quebec received $13.5 billion in damages in a class-action lawsuit against the companies. This forced the companies to seek credi‐ tor protection, putting a freeze on all other lawsuits against them.

So, the provinces were pushed into the creditor pro‐ cess. Six provinces - New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Mani‐ toba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia - are work‐ ing together with the same legal team.

"These lawsuits have been in the works for many many years and it just so happens that we now expect a settle‐ ment to be reached later this year, perhaps next year," said Kinew.

The money will help the NDP fulfil its election promise to build a new CancerCare headquarters. The party said building capital would cost around $350 million while on the campaign trail.

A total of $635 million is also earmarked in the province's 2024 budget for health-sector capital projects, including starting the process of building the new head‐ quarters and acting on other election promises of opening a new Victoria ER, along with an emergency room in the In‐ terlake community of Eriks‐ dale.

Kinew said the govern‐ ment would've found a way to pay for its CancerCare promise, but the settlement allows the NDP to make "for‐ ward thinking decisions" with organizations in the sector.

"I would expect that we would use a good chunk of that for the new CancerCare facility," said Kinew. "But we'll also have resources there for prevention, for clinical re‐ search and the other priori‐ ties that will allow us to build towards that goal of having the best cancer treatment in the world for Manitobans here in our province."

Emergency resolution slated for debate Sunday

The gala dinner at the

RBC Convention Centre was the highlight of the NDP's an‐ nual convention, running this weekend at the Fairmont Ho‐ tel in Winnipeg.

In addition to speeches from federal NDP Leader Jag‐ meet Singh and a conversa‐ tion between Kinew and fel‐ low NDP Premier David Eby of B.C., party members en‐ dorsed a range of uncontro‐ versial resolutions essentially affirming the government's existing policy positions, such as calling for more mental health workers and early childhood educators.

One emergency resolu‐ tion, slated for debate Sun‐ day, asks the government to develop legislation that would prevent the rich and powerful from using lawsuits to silence their critics. It's commonly referred to as an‐ ti-SLAPP legislation - short for "strategic lawsuits against public participation."

The text of the anti-SLAPP resolution, submitted a few days ago, states the NDP "supports victims when they speak truth to power as we have seen in recent days in the Peter Nygard case" - a reference to a recent CBC News story about a defama‐ tion lawsuit Nygard has launched against one of his accusers.

Kinew said Saturday he's keeping an open mind, but also wants to understand if there are "complicating fac‐ tors factors that might have to be taken into account."

"I do think that what's happening with Peter Nygard appearing to try to intimidate witnesses with legal action is wrong," said Kinew. "And if we can step in with a public policy choice here to alleviate that situation, I'm very open to hearing that."

The NDP government it‐ self is not required to act on resolutions put forth at con‐ vention by party members, but sometimes it does: mem‐ bers called for a ban on re‐

placement workers last year, and the NDP, now in govern‐ ment, is planning to intro‐ duce legislation to that effect.

Anti-SLAPP legislation has already passed in Ontario and B.C.

In 2023, the Manitoba Lib‐ erals introduced a private members' bill to implement anti-SLAPP legislation. The bill didn't pass before the election.

Last July, Nygard, the con‐ victed sex offender and dis‐ graced fashion mogul, was charged with sexually as‐ saulting April Telek. A month later, Nygard sued her for defamation, in response to comments she made in a CBC story in 2023.

Legal experts have said Nygard's actions are part of a growing trend of witness in‐ timidation intended to have a chilling effect that might pre‐ vent other victims from com‐ ing forward with their own al‐ legations.

The NDP's convention al‐ so included numerous refer‐ ences to upcoming provincial and federal byelections hap‐ pening at unspecified dates.

River Heights MLA Mike Moroz told the audience the historically safe provincial Tory constituency of Tuxedo is within the NDP's grasp.

Former PC Premier Heather Stefanson is resigning as MLA on Monday.

Moroz himself stole a stronghold Liberal seat from veteran MLA Jon Gerrard in last year's election.

"Don't ever let them tell you it can't be done," he said. "River Heights is proof that it can."

Meanwhile, federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh asked the audience for help in re‐ taining his party's ElmwoodTranscona seat.

Singh met Friday with the party's two nominees, Leila Dance, executive director of the Transcona Business Im‐ provement Zone, and Leilani Esteban, executive director of the Chalmers Neigh‐ bourhood Renewal Corpora‐ tion. Party members will se‐ lect their candidate on May 22.