MIT researchers channel AI to turn hand gestures into robot training data

What’s open, what’s closed, what’s up in Winnipeg on Terry Fox Day

The first Monday in August marks Terry Fox Day in Manitoba, honouring the legendary Canadian who was born in Winnipeg in 1958. 

Hydro CEO needs to reckon with winds of change

Methinks Hydro CEO Allan Danroth protests too much.

At a recent hearing in front of the Public Utilities Board, Danroth suggested Hydro’s plan to build a $3-billion natural-gas-powered generating plant near Brandon was being subjected to unfair criticism. The gas turbines are meant to bolster Hydro’s grid in the event that drought lowers output from hydro-generating stations.

After hearing submissions from interveners concerned about the gas-turbine plan, Danroth lashed out at the “constant, uninformed criticism” that has not only shaken trust in Hydro but also triggered threatening responses from the public.

Danroth said Hydro is monitoring “eight credible threats” against employees, five of which targeted the CEO himself. Although Danroth cited some specific incidents — employees being threatened with guns, and one where a homeowner set his dogs on a meter reader — he refused to elaborate on the circumstances.

Steinbach ER nurses ask for triage help as wait-averse Winnipeg patients strain hospital capacity

Nurses at Bethesda Regional Health Centre in Steinbach have called on the regional health authority and provincial government to hire an extra triage nurse for the emergency department as increased visits from Winnipeggers stress the rural hospital.

Forty nurses from the hospital’s emergency department signed an open letter stating because of the current staffing ratio, nurses are witnessing “excessive and unacceptable safety risks on a daily basis.”

“(Nurses) constantly fear for the safety of our patients and community,” said the July 28 letter, addressed to Premier Wab Kinew, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, Southern Health-Sante Sud interim CEO Dana Human and the health authority’s board chair, Adam Monteith.

It is common for patients at the hospital to wait more than an hour before being seen by a triage nurse after they arrive, and eight hours before their conditions are reassessed, the letter states, adding the emergency department’s sole triage nurse can be responsible for up to 30 patients at a time.

Bell sheds 19 more Manitoba employees

At least 19 Manitoba jobs were lost recently during Bell Canada’s ongoing restructuring.

Parent company BCE Inc. confirmed in June it’d axe nearly 700 jobs through organizational changes. Those changes began last year.

A dozen Manitoba staff were laid off on July 30, according to Team-IFPTE Local 161, the union representing the workers.

Another seven union members left voluntarily though a departure program, the union reported Tuesday.

Toronto’s alternative crisis response model deemed a success

A Toronto emergency response program that helped inspire Winnipeg’s proposed alternative crisis response model has already expanded city-wide, just four years after launching as a pilot project.

The Toronto Community Crisis Service, launched in 2022, has become the city’s fourth emergency service, providing a 24-7, community-based response to people experiencing mental health crises. The service has handled nearly 50,000 calls through 911 and 211, dispatched mobile crisis teams to more than 41,000 incidents, made more than 11,600 referrals to health and social services and resolved the majority of eligible 911 calls without police involvement.

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham last week proposed creating a similar “fourth crisis response pathway” that would allow 911 calls that aren’t violent or criminal in nature to be transferred to community-based crisis teams.

Under the proposal, which has support from both the Winnipeg Police Service and the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, a centralized crisis dispatch and co-ordination hub would receive triaged calls and match them with citywide response teams, staffed in part through existing community organizations, including the Downtown Community Safety Partnership and The Link’s mobile crisis teams. The goal is to divert appropriate calls away from the WPS and WFPS.