Manitoba's Minister of Education says something needs to be done regarding the Midwifery Program in Manitoba.

Ian Wishart says the program has struggled in the last 10 years and explains why.

"We have two problems. We need to do something for the existing students because we're obliged to them, and they're in the program and they need to have some options moving forward. We also need to build a sustainable long-term program, which is something that the previous government wasn't able to do. The program has been moved around, and it's changed a number of times and nothing has really worked out very well, and the option that we were looking at, moving forward, just didn't exist anymore, so we need to change something."

He says there are a number of students in the program right now that are unable to advance any further with their schooling because of how the previous government had set up the program.

"Right now we don't have a path forward for the 14 students in the program, caught in between the 1st and 2nd year. As the program existed previously, there was not an option to move forward, so we have to try and work with post-secondary institutions to create a new program. I think everybody is on the same page when it comes to Midwives, and that we do need more of them in the province of Manitoba."

Wishart notes they need to find a way to help increase the number of graduates from the program as well.

"The program that's existed for the last 10 years has struggled basically the whole time. Over the 10 years, they really only had 9 graduates and the total cost for that was over $8,000,000 so it's kind of an expensive program. We're looking to put something together that is more cost effective, and something that will actually stay in place so that we get graduates fairly frequently, maybe not every year, and a much higher success rate in terms of graduates."