Construction to begin on new ER at Victoria Hospital in South Winnipeg

Residents in South Winnipeg will soon see work begin on a long-awaited emergency room at Victoria Hospital.

“It never made sense that I had to drive past a hospital in my own neighbourhood to reach an emergency room somewhere else in the city,” said Greg Parent, a resident of the area. “Soon, it’ll be just a five-minute drive to the Victoria.”

Premier Wab Kinew says the province will award the construction contract this month and have shovels in the ground by March. He expects the ER to be open in the first half of 2027. 

“This is a fast-growing part of our province, and it deserves to have its own emergency room,” said Kinew. 

The province says the addition will include added inpatient beds, expanded diagnostic capacity and a high-observation unit.

“One nurse for one patient,” said Kinew. “It has the highest level of diagnostics and medical equipment at the bedside for patients. It resembles an ICU in any way that you or I would notice.”

The president of the Manitoba Nurses warns against conflating the two. 

“Patients that are critically ill that need a very high level of care will need to be transferred to either the HSC, the Grace or St. Boniface where they have an ICU,” said Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union.

It’s been eight years to the day that Victoria’s emergency room closed to become an urgent care centre as part of the Progressive Conservatives’ plan to consolidate healthcare.

Re-opening them was part of the NDP’s campaign promises. They now believe they have the staff, with nearly 3400 net-new healthcare workers across the province, to open the ER.

But Jackson is less optimistic, and she questions the province’s numbers on nurses specifically.

“I get calls from nurses all the time saying where are these nurses because I’m still working overtime, I’m still mandated,” said Jackson. “We’re still working short, we have vacant positions that aren’t filled.”

The province says a new mature women’s centre will open alongside the emergency department and the Anne Oake Family Recovery Centre will also begin construction soon.

The first phase of the emergency department at St. Boniface Hospital has now been completed. It’s expected to be fully functional next year.