Visual verses rich with imagery

Manitoba Hydro’s energy plan set to be scrutinized

Manitoba Hydro is set to face questions and concerns over its plan for the province’s future energy needs, which includes proposed natural gas-powered turbines in Brandon and Indigenous-owned wind farms.

The Public Utilities Board, an arm’s-length regulator, will begin six weeks of hearings Monday into the 10-year blueprint and potential ways to satisfy electricity demand, while Hydro grapples with a projected energy shortfall, debt of $25 billion and aging infrastructure.

“The development plan reflects the best available information and analysis of how Manitoba Hydro can meet growing energy demand, while balancing factors we know are important to our customers, including cost, reliability and the environment,” Peter Chura, a spokesman for the Crown corporation, told the Free Press.

“We are confident in our analysis and that we’ve appropriately balanced reliability, affordability, safety and risk.”

‘Eight credible threats’ against Hydro employees: CEO

Manitoba Hydro president and CEO Allan Danroth took aim at critics and revealed he and staff members have been threatened while defending the Crown corporation’s plan for three new combustion turbines Monday.

Without identifying individuals, Danroth said “constant, uninformed criticism” of Hydro and misinformation has eroded public trust and contributed to hostilities and an unsafe workplace for employees.

“Manitoba Hydro is currently managing eight credible threats against our employees, five of them directed at me personally,” Danroth told a Public Utilities Board hearing in Winnipeg.

“More troubling is these threats are increasingly affecting our front-line workforce. In the last year, my employees have been threatened with weapons, including guns, while performing their duties, and in one recent incident a homeowner directed his dogs to attack one of our meter readers.”

Visitors from across Canada make Somerset restaurant’s social media challenge a success

There may not be another restaurant in Manitoba that can say it has welcomed visitors from as many communities across the province and beyond as the Somerset Food Bar & Lounge has this summer.

In just over a two week span, visitors from more than 100 towns have come out to the family-owned restaurant tucked away in Somerset, a community of roughly 450 people in the Pembina Valley 130 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.

It started as a challenge, “60 Towns in 60 Days,” where the restaurant wanted to document how many different places they could reach, as it often sees people travelling across Canada stop at the restaurant. The goal was also to encourage people to make a drive they normally wouldn’t.

“The more we started sharing, the more people really started getting behind it, and it turned into this really big thing fairly quickly,” said Jay Friesen, restaurant manager.

Letters, July 28

Thank you for sharing the news of Blizzard’s passing. I walked the path (near the bison enclosure) many early mornings and was always compelled to say “Salaamelykun” (“Peace be with you’) to him. He would often walk to the wire fence, and we would just look at each other.

Mayor backs new way to handle 911 mental health, addiction calls

The mayor of Winnipeg has pitched a revamp of the city’s crisis response system that he says could divert 10,000 calls away from police, fire and paramedics every year.

The proposed “fourth crisis response pathway” would allow 911 calls that aren’t violent or criminal in nature to be transferred to citywide crisis response teams, staffed in part through current community resources, including the Downtown Community Safety Partnership and The Link’s mobile crisis teams.

A community crisis dispatch and co-ordination hub would receive triaged calls and match them with the teams, which would move them out of the Winnipeg Police Service and Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Service calls for service.

“Every day, our 911 dispatchers receive calls from Winnipeggers who are in distress, dealing with complex mental health struggles, addiction, or wellness concerns,” Mayor Scott Gillingham said after releasing a report on the proposal Tuesday.

Fences to be installed at Whiteshell park site where brothers drowned

The Manitoba government will install fences and signs to restrict access to a popular natural attraction in Whiteshell Provincial Park, where two brothers drowned this month.

Environment Minister Mike Moyes announced the safety measures to the Sturgeon Falls Trail in a news release Tuesday.

On July 19, Maximo Au Ramirez, 10, and his brother, Aaron Au Ramirez, 13, disappeared into the rapidly moving water and their bodies were recovered days later. The site has claimed other lives in recent years.

“As a father myself, my heart goes out to the family of the two boys who tragically lost their lives, and also to the families who have lost a loved one to drowning at this site,” Moyes said.