Dead Saskatoon tattoo artist’s skin put on display, travelling across Canada

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.”

‘Huge resource gaps’: judge shortage leads to circuit court cuts

A shortage of judges is forcing Manitoba’s provincial court to slash sittings across the province.

The court announced in a notice to the profession Wednesday that it will be reducing the number of annual court sittings at nine rural circuit locations and St. Boniface provincial court in Winnipeg by 68 sittings, effective April 1, 2027.

The reductions are necessary to balance “access to justice needs with the complement of judicial resources currently insufficient to maintain the current court schedule,” said the notice, signed by provincial court Chief Judge Ryan Rolston.

Affected circuit courts include Altona, Arborg, Beausejour, Easterville, Cranberry Portage, Lundar, Grand Rapids, Moose Lake, and Pine Falls.

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.

Manitoba gains doctors for third straight year, but loses at pandemic-level rate: report

Manitoba is adding doctors at a record clip — but it’s also losing them at a rate not seen since the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, a physicians advocacy organization cautioned Wednesday.

Time to revamp Hydro’s water licence

On Sept. 1, Manitoba Hydro’s 50-year licence to divert 85 per cent of the flow of the second largest river in the province and flood the fourth largest lake expired. How different will the next 50 years of the Churchill River Diversion look?

The northern project is a cornerstone of the engineering wonder that provides Manitoba with inexpensive and reliable electricity.

Using control structures and a nine-kilometre channel blasted through granite, the project backs up the Churchill River — which carries five times more water than the Red — as it flows through Southern Indian Lake, a lake 50 times larger than West Hawk and Falcon lakes combined, causing it to overflow southward toward the huge dams on the distant Nelson River.

After touring Southern Indian Lake in 2022, Wab Kinew — then opposition leader — referred in a statement to witnessing “islands disappearing into the lake, shorelines eroding quickly, a landscape covered with debris, (and) fish spawning grounds lost….”

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: Caution! Avoid shopping (except food and gas) and major decisions all day until 7:30 p.m. After that, the moon moves from Virgo into Libra.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Be careful, because most of this day is a moon alert, which can promote creative, outside-of-the-box thinking. However, it can also promote unrealistic, crazy decisions. Write down your imaginative ideas. Don’t act until the moon alert is over. (See above.)

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)