Age-old advice: Richer or poorer

Age-old advice: Richer or poorer

Dorothy Dix Letter Box, originally published April 12, 1930

Dear Dorothy Dix — I wonder if most of your letters from discontented and unhappy wives and husbands aren't from rich people who have so much idle time in which to get into mischief?

We are poor people, yet we are happy. My husband only makes $4 a day* and have four children to support.

We do not have fine clothes or furniture, but we have a second-hand car that takes us on many a picnic. We have no radio, but we have pleasant evenings at home.

Gaps in homecare leave Winnipeg man in perilous situation

Tom Landy fears he won’t live long enough to receive adequate homecare.

The 49-year-old Winnipegger has spinal muscular atrophy, a degenerative disease, and requires 24-7 homecare, but gaps in his care leave him sitting in one spot for hours and lately he’s developed bed sores.

Landy was approved for around-the-clock care in June 2025, but staffing issues and an investigation into a homecare worker’s workplace injury have left him without help for periods of time throughout the day and forced his 76-year-old father to fill in.

“This is what they’re here for, to take care of me, and now it feels like I’m a burden,” he said from his home in the Maples.

Letters, July 29

I was excited to see the cover of (the July 27) Free Press. However, it appears the Canadian Press reporter, Ian Bickis, missed key aspects of the story. Purpose Construction not only bought the lot: they built the home Mr. Bettcher now lives in using labour from the neighbourhood as a part of a trades-training program. And they helped build the financing model.

911: It’s a matter of life and death

Imagine the frustration and fear that would follow if you faced an emergency situation and the response to your desperate 911 call was … nothing.

For a number of Manitobans — too many, regardless of what the actual total turns out to be — this harrowing prospect has not been a hypothetical; rather, they have been failed by the 911 system that is supposed to provide an anytime/anywhere connection to critical police, fire or ambulance services.

The most recent occurrence was on July 22, when 911 service suddenly became unavailable to areas of Manitoba outside Winnipeg. According to Bell Canada, which provides 911 service in this province, the outage — which lasted from 1 p.m. to shortly after 4 p.m. — was caused by a “third-party cable cut” during construction near Winnipeg; a fibre optic line was severed, disrupting calls routed to the public safety answering point in Brandon. Nearly 90 emergency calls were affected, according to an official at the Brandon facility.

An alert sent out to some mobile customers during the event referred to “a province-wide 911 service disruption impacting Manitoba, excluding the City of Winnipeg,” and directed users to try 911 first, but if they were unable to get through, to “call your local 10-digit emergency numbers for fire, police and ambulance.”

Decision on corridor for Trans-Canada twinning near Ontario border expected this fall, province says

The Manitoba government is taking more time to evaluate and select a preferred corridor for the twinning of a 16-kilometre section of the Trans-Canada Highway near the Ontario boundary.

An earlier timeline indicated Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure expected to choose an alignment by the fall of 2025. A provincial spokesperson told the Free Press on Monday a decision is expected this winter, but a different spokesperson said Wednesday a decision is expected this fall.

“The department continues to evaluate corridor alternatives and will undertake additional geotechnical, environmental and design work as part of the (functional design study) to support the selection of a preferred corridor,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The study, which will include Crown-Indigenous and public consultation, is expected to be completed in late 2027, with a detailed design to follow.