Earnest essays offer some serious insight

The port of Churchill — but done right

The seagoing grain carrier wasn’t christened with a champagne bottle. There was no confetti or streamers. Nevertheless, the Aug. 31 event marking the first shipment of grain to be loaded at the Port of Churchill since 2020 was celebrated like the launch of a brand new vessel.

The presence of the federal minister of northern and arctic affairs, provincial cabinet ministers and leaders and elders from several northern First Nations signalled that the fast-tracked process of refurbishing and buffing up Manitoba’s deep-water seaport gem is gaining momentum.

For OneNorth, the partnership of 29 First Nations and 12 northern communities which owns the Port of Churchill and the Hudson Bay Railway (both operated by the Arctic Gateway Group) the event heralded a new beginning. It’s been eight years since OneNorth purchased the port and railroad, and six years since grain was moved by rail through Manitoba and then by ship to European markets. Two more grain shipments, plus shipments of potash and critical minerals, will continue through the fall.

When Prime Minister Mark Carney solicited the premiers to suggest “nation-building” projects following his election in 2025, Premier Wab Kinew pitched a Manitoba trade corridor that would move wheat, critical minerals, potash and energy (oil or liquid natural gas) through the Port of Churchill.

Earnest essays offer some serious insight

Whenever the word “best” gets tossed around, there are bound to be disagreements and disputes. Are these the best Canadian essays written in 2021? Editor Mireille Silcoff, who collected, chose and arranged them, seems to think so. A list of entries that were near misses, that didn’t make the final cut, is not included.

Retired sportscaster Scott Oake determined as fundraising for women's addictions treatment facility enters home stretch

For now, the patch of land just east of the Victoria Hospital doesn’t look like much: just a field of rocks, mounded dirt, and concrete piles driven into the earth. Yet when Scott Oake looks over the site, he can already imagine how it will look in just over a year’s time, when the new Anne Oake Family Recovery Centre is expected to open.

It’s easier to picture this time around. In 2020, when the recently-retired CBC sportscaster and his late wife, Anne, were building their first labour of intermingled grief and love, the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre for men, it was hard for him to wrap his mind around how a raw construction site could transform into a welcoming addictions treatment facility.

When that centre opened in 2021, Oake found it looked “almost identical” to the architect’s renderings. So it’s easy to hope the Anne Oake Centre will be the same. It will be the first facility of its kind, its founders believe, not only in Canada but in North America: a place where 50 to 70 women can pursue sobriety while staying with their children.

“At Bruce Oake there’s a culture of love, and most of all a culture of hope,” Oake said, speaking at the site Thursday after a media conference to announce the final push of the centre’s fundraising campaign. “I can feel it every time I walk into that building. And I know it will be the same here.”

Tory health critic ‘disappointed’ after being rebuffed by health officials

The health critic for the Progressive Conservative party says her ability to get information about the accelerated reopening of Dauphin’s emergency department was stymied by Prairie Mountain Health officials because they refused to meet with her.

“I wanted to meet with PMH staff to discuss the status of the facility and the challenges they’re facing and getting services back online,” Kathleen Cook said Friday.

“I was very disappointed that Prairie Mountain Health declined me that opportunity.”

Cook said she asked for a meeting a few days after the Sept. 7 reopening of a temporary ER at the hospital, that was severely damaged by flooding.

Pokemon thieves clear out collectibles shop

Terri Settle loved watching children walk into her collectibles shop to hunt for their favourite Pokemon cards.

After the latest break in stripped her shelves of much of the inventory, she’s not sure she’ll get to see it again.

Thieves broke into Terri’s Trinkets and Toys on Tuesday evening, punching through a grate and then the store’s bathroom wall to reach the storefront.

They made off with about $6,000 worth of merchandise, including all of the store’s Pokemon cards — about 7,000 of them — along with toys, Lego, jewelry, video games, a debit machine and personal laptop. They even took her vacuum cleaner.

Port of Churchill expansion could chase belugas away, U of M researcher says

As plans to expand the Port of Churchill into a four-season trade corridor gathers momentum, a University of Manitoba researcher has published a report on what ship traffic could mean for the beluga whales that gather in the Churchill River estuary each summer.

Veronica Coppolaro said more vessels in the waterways bring a risk that belugas will stop using the estuary for migration, which would impact the ecological landscape, tourism and communities that rely on the animals for food and cultural purposes.

“There are studies showing that (noises) change the way they swim, they change the way (the whales) are vocalizing, they change their main activity, and so this (expansion) can have consequences at different levels,” she said.

The Churchill river estuary is a marine habitat where the Churchill River empties into Hudson Bay. During the summer months belugas gather in the area to feed and give birth.