CMHR exhibit brings humanity to war

South Winnipeg neighbourhood will be first to go geothermal

A new neighbourhood in south Winnipeg will be Manitoba’s first to use a shared, large-scale geothermal system to heat and cool hundreds of homes over coming decades.

The province is giving up to $4 million to the developers of Southwood Circle, just north of the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry campus, for a district geothermal system as part of the NDP’s goal to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

“It means a whole neighbourhood can tap into geothermal, which means low-carbon heating and cooling for at least 1,000 homes,” Premier Wab Kinew said at a news conference Wednesday.

Geothermal systems, equipped with pumps and pipes, use underground temperatures to heat and cool one or more buildings. Proponents point to long-term energy and cost savings compared with conventional heating and cooling systems.

Childfree Winnipeg group gives women without kids a place to gather

Katelyn Sawatzky founded Childfree Winnipeg Women in 2021 to bring together women who don’t have kids — be it by choice or circumstance — and do not plan on raising children.

The group is designed to help them share experiences and build meaningful friendships.

The community welcomes cisgender, straight, transgender, bisexual and lesbian women. Parents, including empty nesters and men, are turned away.

“Our group is a safe space where women can hang out with other women without being asked when you’re going to have kids or why you don’t have kids … where you don’t feel like you have to validate or defend your choices in any way, because everyone gets it,” Sawatzky says.

Councillors say Main Street Project scuttles other agency’s efforts to house homeless

A Winnipeg outreach agency that’s been largely shut out of government funding says it has found housing for more people in the last five months than Manitoba’s homeless strategy that began last year.

Supportive housing operator sued after man with dementia walks away

The Public Guardian and Trustee of Manitoba is suing a health services company after a man with dementia under its care allegedly wandered away from an apartment it operates for vulnerable people and was later found face down in a puddle — unresponsive, hypothermic and severely injured.

The public trustee — a provincial government agency that, among other duties, makes financial and personal care decisions for vulnerable adults who cannot do so themselves — filed the lawsuit against Cambridge Health Inc. and a related numbered company in the Court of King’s Bench earlier this month.

The agency did so on behalf of a now-38-year-old man, who has been under its care since 2018, as a result of his frontotemporal dementia. The disease often starts in mid-life, rather than old age, as is the case with most other forms of dementia.

The lawsuit alleges the man, who resided at a Henderson Highway apartment complex where Cambridge Health operated a supportive residence for people with complex behavioural health issues, was in a common area of the home at about 4:30 p.m. on April 3 last year.

Premier tells grieving parents site of fatal collision under review

Premier Wab Kinew promised to pursue safety improvements at an Interlake intersection when he spoke to parents of some of the four teens who died in a crash at the site on the Labour Day weekend.

The collision at Highway 8 and Provincial Road 229, just west of Winnipeg Beach, prompted a review by Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure, which is standard after a fatal crash, while some of the victims’ families and community leaders publicly called for changes.

“When you see the loss of these beautiful young lives, any parent, any Manitoban feels a sense of loss. On behalf of the whole province, I send my condolences to these families,” Kinew said in Winnipeg Wednesday.

“I did so directly earlier today, and I heard some of the parents’ suggestions for how we could make this safer for everybody. I committed to them that we’re going to take those actions — both stuff we can do relatively quickly and some longer-term fixes, as well.”

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

Premier Wab Kinew says Manitoba may bring Dynacare’s diagnostic lab services back into the public system rather than continue to sign contracts with the for-profit company.

“Dynacare sucks. They’ve made an absolute mess of this situation,” the premier said Wednesday, the day the company’s 350 employees reported back to work after the labour board halted their strike after just one day.

Kinew first made the remark about Dynacare in a CBC radio interview Wednesday morning and added he is “not happy with them.”

Dynacare performs the majority of non-emergency blood and urine tests in the province.