Flooding and a landslide in eastern China leave 5 dead and 3 missing

Feds hold back on stable health funding

The federal government wants provinces to improve health care, expand treatment services and find better ways to deliver care. But it’s refusing to provide provincial governments with the one thing they need most to plan for the future: stable, predictable funding.

Detox centre ready but staffing challenges persist

Peter McMullen’s decade-long struggle with addiction gives him insight into the challenges Lighthouse Mission hopes to address with a new Main Street detox facility focused on connecting people with longer-term treatment.

McMullen, executive director of Lighthouse Mission, knows how difficult it can be to navigate Winnipeg’s addiction treatment system, particularly when someone is ready to seek help but the services they need aren’t immediately available.

Now, after years of planning and a lengthy renovation of two century-old buildings, the downtown organization is preparing to open a 10-bed detox facility at 667 and 669 Main St., with five beds each for men and women.

The facility could begin accepting clients as early as November, provided Lighthouse Mission can overcome one final hurdle: recruiting enough staff to operate it.

Empty desks: Advocates talk chronic school absenteeism

Concerned that school and government leaders are downplaying the state of student absenteeism, community organizers are strategizing to create urgency around who’s regularly missing class — and why — in Winnipeg.

The inaugural Youth at Risk in Winnipeg Symposium, held over the weekend at the Canadian Mennonite University, drew roughly 100 people to discuss barriers to attendance and brainstorm ways to remove them.

Nearly 20 years after he began calling attention to the issue, first as a volunteer with the Point Douglas Residents Committee, Sel Burrows gave an impassioned speech about the lack of political will to take meaningful action to help students from “dysfunctional homes.”

“I’ve dealt with nine cabinet ministers, Conservative and NDP, and five deputy ministers, and the issue has not gotten any better,” Burrows told teachers, reseachers and community support workers gathered Saturday on CMU’s Shaftesbury campus.

Winnipeg soldiers help search and rescue efforts in Wainwright

Eleven military search and rescue technicians from Winnipeg were deployed to Wainwright, Alta. following a fire that killed four military members and injured 39 others during a live-fire training exercise Saturday.

It was the largest mobilization of SAR Techs, elite primary-care paramedics in the Royal Canadian Air Force, in recent memory, a military spokesperson told the Free Press.

Every search and rescue technician available from 435 Transport and Rescue Squadron, located at 17 Wing Winnipeg — even those off duty — were sent to Wainwright.

The technicians, who have special training to jump from aircraft into extreme environments, parachuted onto the scene from a CC-130H Hercules airplane to provide care for those injured in the fast-moving grass fire that engulfed a training area at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright.

Grifols plasma collection centre reopens after temporary shutdown

A Grifols plasma donation centre in south Winnipeg reopened Tuesday as part of the company’s phased return of operations, while a second location remains closed after its licence was suspended.

The Spain-based company has faced scrutiny after two people died following donations at Grifols’ sites on Taylor Avenue and Innovation Drive. The latter location is open again.

Health Canada suspended the Taylor location’s licence Sept. 23, saying the company failed to effectively implement corrective and preventive actions, and did not demonstrate that the centre has an effective quality management system.

Grifols voluntarily closed all of its clinics, including those in Winnipeg, in August. The Innovation Drive location’s licence was not suspended.

Renters get break from proposed hikes

A call from Premier Wab Kinew’s office reduced Aidan Wilson to tears Monday after learning tenants of a West Broadway apartment no longer face hundreds of dollars in rent increases next month.

“It’s been a lot to deal with, it’s a lot to push for, and it’s a lot to speak up. All of these emotions just kind of came flooding out,” Wilson, who lives in the building, said Tuesday afternoon at a news conference alongside Kinew.

The premier announced that renters facing massive hikes on Nov. 1 — some exceeding 100 per cent — will no longer be forced to pay the increases before they are approved by the Residential Tenancies Branch, following a policy change announced by the province.

The move comes after tenants at eight Winnipeg apartment buildings owned by Alberta-based Wingspan Properties pushed back against proposed rent increases of between 54 and 125 per cent, arguing they should have the opportunity to challenge the hikes before being required to pay them.