New data measuring Manitobans’ overall well-being finds positive gains in education and the ways we balance our work time, but shows a dip in leisure time and in feeling connected to the community over the past three decades.
The Manitoba Blue Cross commissioned the first Manitoba Index of Wellbeing through the University of Waterloo, which produces the Canadian Index of Wellbeing. It’s based on how Canadians — and now Manitobans, specifically — are faring in eight different categories: living standards, education, time use, democratic engagement, healthy populations, environment, community vitality and leisure and culture.
By those measures, Manitoba’s overall well-being index has risen only 0.4 per cent since 1994, which means well-being measures aren’t keeping pace with economic growth in the province nor with the national index.
The well-being indexes were created to provide a more complete picture of quality of life beyond the economy and Canada’s GDP.
Benjamin Graham, president and CEO of Manitoba Blue Cross, said the company has heard from groups and organizations that see signs of community well-being first-hand.
Blue Cross wants to have a better view of health in Manitoba and how it compares to the rest of the country. It’s hoping to use the data to drive public policy, Graham said.
“I think we’re going to start to look at how those other parts of the holistic wellness picture impact physical and mental health,” he said.
Blue Cross wellness plans have been focusing on living standards and financial health while allowing for family time.
“We’re going to do what we can as Manitoba Blue Cross, but we’re actually hoping that others can read this, be it the provincial government, and they can start looking at policies and types of changes that they need to make, be it from funding, be it from programming, that’ll increase the wellness of the province,” he said.
The data tracks the Manitoba population’s progress in those categories from 1994 to 2020, finding stark inequity still exists. Certain groups, including women, Indigenous people, racialized people and those living in rural and remote areas, are less likely to enjoy the same levels of well-being that men, white people and urban dwellers are able to access, the report indicates. The major barrier is a lack of equitable access to resources.
Despite some progress, particularly in education levels across the province, mental health and well-being have not necessarily improved.
“Fewer Manitobans feel a strong sense of belonging to their communities,” the report states. “Their mental health is in decline. And people are sacrificing the things that often make life worthwhile: leisure, arts and culture, volunteering and social connections.”
The report calls for public-policy focus on reducing poverty, fighting climate change, dealing with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and finding ways to build community bonds and prevent people from feeling so isolated.
katie.may@freepress.mb.ca
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