Thousands of students’ tax rebates go unclaimed

WINNIPEG - The Manitoba government has paid out less than a third of the cash it budgeted for its much-touted tuition tax rebates because barely half of Manitoba students are claiming the free money.

A freedom of information request revealed that, since 2007, only 13,000 grads have applied for the rebate designed to reward them for staying and working in the province.

The records do not reveal how many grads applied more than once.

Still, this figure falls significantly short of the 21,000 students that have graduated from Manitoba’s top five post-secondary institutions – University of Manitoba, Red River College, University of Winnipeg, Brandon University and the University College of the North – since the rebate was implemented.

French callers face the longest 311 waits

WINNIPEG - Calling 311 may not be a problem, but calling trois-un-un could translate into a long wait on hold.

Documents released by the city show about 20 per cent of callers to the city’s centralized information line hang up before they get a live person.  The average caller waits 90 seconds before receiving service, though many get help right away.

But some callers have stayed on the line much longer, and those tend to be people asking for service in French.

The wait-time stats cover more than a million phone calls made in the first seven months of the service, which was introduced in January.

Take this restaurant job and … complain about it

WINNIPEG - Restaurant employees who feel they’ve been screwed out of wages or tips may have a second battle to fight — this one with the Manitoba government.

Documents released by the province after a freedom of information request show there have been roughly 2,235 complaints made by restaurant and café employees to the Employment Standards branch in the last five years.

About 87 per cent of the complaints were settled without the help of the employment standards branch, either because employees gave up or settled the problem themselves. In these cases, it’s impossible to know whether the employee got the wages they believed they deserved.

About 50 complaints were formally investigated by the department -- and of the cases investigated, 11 people settled for less money than they were owed — and nearly a dozen others didn’t get a penny.

Some red-light cameras issue thousands of tickets; some none at all

WINNIPEG - Some people never forget a face, and some Winnipeg drivers never forget a red-light camera.

Winnipeg police fire guns 33 times in 8 years

WINNIPEG - In the last eight years, Winnipeg police officers have fired their guns after tripping on a carpet, during a lecture about new weapons and while returning a gun to its holster.

But the shortlist of almost-comical weapons mishaps belies a more troubling issue: Most of incidents where police fired their guns are listed as “unresolved,” even though some date back seven years.

According to documents obtained through a freedom of information request, Winnipeg police officers have fired their weapons 33 times in the eight years between 2000 and 2008.

Of those 33 incidents, only one third — 11 cases — have been resolved by an internal board of inquiry.