Heather Stefanson was sworn-in yesterday as Manitoba's 24th premier amid a legal challenge of the Progressive Conservative leadership election results filed by ousted candidate Shelly Glover.
At Premier Stefanson's first press conference as leader of Manitoba, CKDM was able to jump in and ask her about the possiblity of reopening the Dauphin Correctional Centre. Former PC leadership candidate Shelly Glover had mentioned doing just that in late September while she was in Dauphin.
"I think there's been a decline in the population within our correctional facilities...these are tough decisions that are made and do have impacts on communities and we want to work with Dauphin and work with those people in the community there, to ensure that we find other ways that we can create economic development opportunities within these communities", said Stefanson.
When the new premier was asked about how her government will reach out to communities outside of Winnipeg and further North, she mentioned they'll head out as they can under current public health orders and will be reaching out to people all over the province. "We'll continue to listen to those Manitobans to see what the challenges are in their own communities and we'll help them through this time", she stated.
Some key issues Stefanson and her government would like to tackle are surgical and diagnostic backlogs in healthcare, economic recovery, and earning the trust of Manitobans.
The premier also mentioned that changes to her cabinet will come eventually but it's not something she wants to rush in to.
After the press conference, the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party issued a statement regarding Shelly Glover's legal challenge of the leadership election results:
"The party has received the court papers from Ms. Glover's legal counsel. Our election process was run independently and without preference to either candidate. All ballots from the time they were received to the time they were counted were in the care and control of initially our independent security firm and subsequently our independent auditors. The counting was overseen by our auditors together with a scrutineer from each campaign.
We hope that after our election committee talks to Ms. Glover and her advisors and respond to her concerns that they will see that the process and the results were handled appropriately, accurately and without favour."
