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Dynacare workers provide essential services that must be maintained during strike, labour board rules

The Manitoba Labour Board has ruled Dynacare workers are essential employees and their services must be maintained during a labour dispute.

Minimum wage hikes set to begin across five provinces

The minimum wage is going up in five provinces.

The bumps of between 25 and 40 cents come in Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Like other government announcements, Ontario has tied the increase to the rising cost of living.

It's moving its minimum wage up to $17.95 an hour, while P.E.I. is boosting it to $17.30 and Nova Scotia moves it to $17.

Sisters relieved hospital takes accountability after mother’s death

Eight months after losing their mother, two Winnipeg sisters say an internal hospital review has finally given them something they had been seeking since her death: accountability.

Chelsea Mann and Samantha Burns said St. Boniface Hospital officials acknowledged mistakes were made in the care of their mother, Judy Burns, during a recent meeting to discuss the findings of a critical incident review into her death.

The acknowledgement marked a significant departure from an earlier meeting with hospital officials, when they felt their concerns were largely dismissed.

Burns, 68, died on Jan. 21, three days after being admitted, after experiencing rectal bleeding.

J’accuse!: Kinew uses French to fry interim Tory leader over alleged caucus subterfuge

NDP Premier Wab Kinew took a dig at the Progressive Conservatives’ leadership change while facing off with Obby Khan’s short-term replacement for the first time in question period Thursday.

It came after interim Tory leader Konrad Narth accused the New Democrats of failing to implement “stronger” bail reform and enforcement measures as promised.

“Now we see there is less crime in Manitoba than there was when the Progressive Conservatives were in government. What are they doing now? Well, they found knives and chased their old leader out,” Kinew said, speaking in French.

“We don’t even know who’s going to be the PC leader next month… next year? We don’t know. What we know is that we’re working on making communities safer.”

Gillingham talks trash, pledges big bin boost

Scott Gillingham says he would add hundreds of locked garbage bins downtown to prevent unsightly trash piles if re-elected as mayor.

Gillingham led a program that added about 120 locked garbage bins along Portage Avenue and Main Street last fall, after trash was repeatedly strewn around the area. If he wins a second term, he plans to add at least 200 more of the receptacles.

A look at how one locked Main Street recycle/garbage bin in front of city hall fared offers an example of the bins’ success so far, he said.

“Every day, you would see the lids up, and people had been rifling through it, or someone left the lid up and the wind picked up the garbage and (spread) it everywhere. It’s much more difficult now. Once the garbage is in, the garbage stays in,” said Gillingham.

Jets new backup Stevenson ‘stoked’ to be in tandem with Skinner

It didn’t take long to get the dirt on the newest member of the Winnipeg Jets.

Meet Clay Stevenson, who has no problem if you prefer to refer to him by his long-standing nickname of “Mud.”

“You know, Clay is in the mud, and there you go. That’s it, right there,” Stevenson said Wednesday with a laugh. “I got it in juniors when I was playing in Coquitlam, and kind of stuck ever since.”

Stevenson is now hoping to make a name for himself in a city that, quite fittingly, translates to “muddy water” in Cree. The 27-year-old from Alberta was placed on waivers by the Washington Capitals and claimed by the Jets, who were looking to clarify a goaltending situation which was as murky as the Red River.