Health minister sorry for election breach

Manitoba's elections commissioner has found the governing New Democrats broke the rules in the leadup to last fall's election, forcing Health Minister Theresa Oswald to apologize.

Elections Commissioner Bill Bowles said the NDP broke pre-election rules when they used government staff to conduct a media tour of a new birthing centre in the blackout period prior to last fall's vote.

"The other parties running candidates in the election did not have access to government staffers to arrange their media events, nor did they have the ability to use the birth centre to stage a media event," Bowles wrote in a decision dated April 30 and made public Wednesday.

"Those uses of government resources are, in my view, what section 56 (of the Elections Finances Act) was intended to prevent."

The law prohibits government advertising, except in cases of emergencies, during the 90-day period prior to election day, which was held Oct. 4, 2011, under the province's fixed election-date law.

On Aug. 30, two media outlets were offered a tour of a community birth centre in south Winnipeg.

The centre, which gives women an alternative to hospitals as a place to have their babies, had been announced more than a year earlier and was nearing completion.

On the tour, and appearing in newspaper photographs the following day, were Health Minister Theresa Oswald and Education Minister Nancy Allan.

'I made a mistake': Oswald

The Opposition Progressive Conservatives filed a complaint with the elections commissioner, which accused the NDP of using government resources for what amounted to a campaign-style event.

Bowles ruled the NDP's violation was inadvertent but clearly used government resources.

"The chain of events leading to the media presence on the tour also includes Oswald's staff. I understand these people to be government employees who work for the Department of Health. They were part of the department's resources," Bowles wrote.

The NDP did not think it had broken any rules, Bowles added, because the birth centre had been previously announced.

"Without a doubt I made a mistake," said Oswald on Wednesday. "I humbly apologizeI accept the ruling."

Tory leader Hugh McFadyen stopped short of saying Oswald deserves to lose her job but he said Premier Greg Selinger should hold his cabinet ministers accountable.

"Premiers have all kinds of options available to them," he said. "But what we've seen to date are excuses and side stepping and what we need are direct action and some accountability."