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Unsafe conditions force Sea Bears, Honey Badgers into winner-take-all CEBL final here Saturday

BRAMPTON — The Canadian Elite Basketball League’s new Finals format lasted one minute and 46 seconds.

And it’s possible even that was too long.

What was supposed to be a historic best-of-three series between the Winnipeg Sea Bears and the Brampton Honey Badgers will now return to the league’s previous format of a single-game elimination. Wednesday’s Game 1 at the CAA Centre in Southern Ontario was cancelled shortly after tip-off due to condensation on the court, which made the playing surface unsafe for competition.

The championship will flip to the Manitoba capital for a single, winner-take-all contest at Canada Life Centre on Saturday (3:30 p.m.).

Western Manitoba communities begin return to normalcy after deluge

BRANDON — Municipal officials in Western Manitoba say their communities are slowly getting back to normal after severe flooding earlier this summer.

“A lot of people have gotten to the point where it’s no longer a disaster. It’s just really annoying and has to be dealt with,” Swan Valley West Reeve Bill Gade said.

There are still a lot of bridges and roads that are out of commission due to two rounds of flooding in June and early July, he said, but noted residents are able to go about their lives without much interruption.

“People have, for the most part, got their houses cleaned up to the point where they can go to work and not worry about them during the day,” Gade said.

Winnipeg couple feels flush after highway porta-potty scare

Talk about a crappy situation.

Two Winnipeg seniors were driving on the Trans-Canada Highway Monday afternoon when they collided with an unlikely projectile: a porta-potty.

Ed and Helen Toews were driving to their cottage in Sioux Narrows from Kenora, Ont., when a portable toilet came loose from the bed of a passing truck and launched into their car.

Ed Toews, 87, was sitting in the passenger seat when a flash of green came into his line of sight.

Nurses union questions explanation for delayed opening of new Neepawa hospital

BRANDON — The new Neepawa Health Centre — initially expected to welcome its first patients early next year — has had its opening delayed until late summer or early fall.

Prairie Mountain Health CEO Trina Slate confirmed the postponement Wednesday, saying it would allow “appropriate time to onboard and train staff and familiarize teams with the new facility.”

The hospital, more than three times larger than the current facility, was first announced as a $127-million construction project in December 2021 by the former Progressive Conservative government, with a tentative completion date in 2025.

As of January, the hospital was reported to be 75 per cent completed with an anticipated opening date in early 2027, Prairie Mountain Health said at the time.

Boyd Group hits US$1 billion sales in a quarter

The company behind Boyd Autobody & Glass cracked $1 billion in sales within a quarter — the first time it’s done so in its 36-year history.

On Wednesday, Boyd Group Services announced sales of US$1.013 billion for its second quarter. It’s a 29.9 per cent increase from the year prior.

Over that year, Boyd Group Services added 340 new locations. Those sites added $211.3 million to its overall sales and accounted for most of the growth.

Same store sales grew 2.9 per cent.

Ducks Unlimited makes province’s largest-ever conservation-land purchase

A Manitoba landscape that helped save the Giant Canada goose from extinction has now been permanently protected in the province’s largest conservation land purchase in history.