Time to stand up to old, intruder aunt

Gillingham to push for new crisis response model at EPC

Mayor Scott Gillingham’s proposal to overhaul the city’s crisis-response system to try to divert thousands of calls away from police, firefighter and paramedic response, will be presented to council’s inner circle next week.

The model, described as a “fourth crisis response pathway,” would transfer 911 calls that are non-violent in nature to citywide crisis response teams. Potentially, 10,000 calls could be removed from police, fire and paramedic response, Gillingham said during the July 28 announcement.

Gillingham is set to present his idea to city council’s executive policy committee Tuesday. His motion asks that the city adopt the crisis response model, in part through a “partnership framework” with the provincial government.

The motion notes the partnership would “support a co-ordinated whole-of-government and whole-of-community approach to implementation, recognizing that sustainable crisis response reform cannot be achieved by any single organization, sector, or order of government acting alone.”

Letters, Sept. 9

As River Heights residents caught in a swath of rain and wind on Sunday evening, we survived 10 hours with no power after a big boom and an electric arc favoured us with a strike in our back lane. So far, we have had two brief additional outages (Monday) and in the early hours of (Tuesday) morning. This doesn’t begin to compare with the damage on Mathers Avenue, which is still under repair.

‘Dynacare sucks:’ premier muses about bringing lab services back into public system after strike halted

Manitoba’s premier said the province is looking at bringing diagnostic lab services back into the public system rather than continuing to contract Dynacare, declaring the for-profit company “sucks.”

“Maybe we’ll take over the whole system… we’re working on it, we’re looking at it, the situation is not great, this company’s making a mess — I think it’s pretty clear I’m not happy with them,” Premier Wab Kinew told CBC Radio Wednesday morning. “At the same time, nobody should be trying to use people’s health care as leverage.”

Kinew made the comments the day after the Manitoba Labour Board cut short a strike by 350 lab technicians and technologists employed by Dynacare, which administers blood, urine and other medical tests for patients in Winnipeg, Brandon and surrounding communities.

Dynacare, which is contracted by the provincial government, performs the majority of non-emergency blood and urine tests in the province.

Winkler-based internet provider delivering high-speed service to 30 rural and First Nations Manitoba communities

Valley Fiber says it is undertaking one of its largest fibre optic projects and is building infrastructure that will deliver internet to 10,000 homes and businesses in rural and First Nations communities across Manitoba.

“These communities will now have access to the fastest internet network in Manitoba, and it will power their lives and their business,” Ryan Klassen, chief executive officer of the Winkler-based internet provider, said Tuesday from Fisher River Cree Nation.

The province has granted Valley Fiber use of two of its underused cables on the existing Manitoba Hydro fibre optic network for up to 20 years as part of the project, which will connect nearly 30 communities — including Buffalo Point, Hollow Water, Black River and Peguis First Nations, along with Fisher River and Fox Lake Cree Nations — to high-speed internet.

Construction should be finished by 2027.

DNA on beer can helps solve killing

Two years after 74-year-old James Monaghan was stabbed in his Sherburn Street home, DNA found on a beer can led police to his killer.

Shara Harper, 29, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and on Tuesday was sentenced to six years in prison.

A neighbour found Monaghan dead in his home on July 29, 2022. He had been stabbed twice in the chest and back.

The investigation into Monaghan’s killing had stalled until June 2024, when DNA found on an empty beer can in Monaghan’s home was confirmed to be a match for Harper.

Grieving families, local leaders want review of Interlake intersection after teens die in crash

A two-vehicle crash that killed four teenage friends in the Interlake Sunday night prompted outpourings of grief in several communities and calls for safety improvements at the intersection, which was also the site of a death in July.

Recent high school graduates Maya Borsa and Chloe Vermette, both 18, were identified by their families as victims of the collision at Highway 8 and Provincial Road 229, just west of Winnipeg Beach.

“(Chloe) was a very bubbly, loving personality. Always giving, always caring. Her friends meant the world to her,” said her mother, Veronique Vermette, who struggled to comprehend the tragedy when she went to the scene Monday. “We sat in the rain for hours, and it blew my mind that four lives were taken.”

The teens’ parents are waiting for RCMP to provide more information about the cause of the crash. Chloe, who graduated from Windsor Park Collegiate in Winnipeg in July, was driving one of the vehicles, her mother said.