Your forecast
A mix of sun and cloud, with a 30 per cent chance of showers late this morning and this afternoon with a risk of a thunderstorm. Fog patches dissipating this morning. Wind becoming north at 20 km/h late this afternoon. High 25 C. Humidex 30. UV index 6 or high.
What’s happening today
🎶 Blue Cross Park will be alive with the sound of contemporary country music and throwback hip-hop tracks this weekend.
The third annual Country Rising and Tacos and Tequila festivals take place on the field of the local ballpark this Friday and Saturday, respectively. Read more here.
Tacos and Tequila will include a chihuahua beauty pageant.(Michelle Reynolds photo)
Today’s must-read
Despite promises made by the NDP government during the 2023 provincial election to reduce ER and urgent care wait times, they continue to rise.
The median wait time for all hospitals in Winnipeg hit a record 4.47 hours in April and remained close to that in June at 4.32 hours, according to the latest available data from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.
Manitoba faced among the highest emergency-room wait times in Canada in 2024-25. (Ruth Bonneville / Free Press files)
But it’s the 90th percentile measurement — where nine out of 10 patients experienced a shorter wait time and one in 10 waited longer — that more accurately describes how long some patients are waiting in the ER to see a doctor.
That number hit a staggering 12.3 hours in June for all Winnipeg sites, the highest number on record and about triple what it was prior to the pandemic. Tom Brodbeck has the story.
On the bright side
Not everyone enters medical school with a built-in study buddy.
Sisters Maya and Dana Jalal joined 135 of their classmates to don white coats and mark the beginning of their journey through the University of Manitoba’s Max Rady College of Medicine Wednesday morning.
Maya, 22, and Dana, 21, were accepted into medical school at the same time. “Thankfully, we both got accepted in the same area, same time. So we decided we’d rather go together than apart,” Maya said. “It’ll be nice seeing different perspectives during our studies. We are siblings, but we each have our own perspectives, our own lived experiences.” Nicole Buffie has more here.
Sisters Dana Jalal (left), 21, and Maya Jalal, 22, during the White Coat ceremony introducing the University of Manitoba’s Max Rady School of Medicine Class of 2030 on Wednesday. (Mike Deal / Free Press)
On this date
On Aug. 21, 1967: The Winnipeg Free Press reported Winnipeg postal workers would not join a coast-to-coast walkout on the coming Friday; the threatened walkout by the 12,000-member union was to protest that some 2,500 workers received no compensation for the Dominion Day holiday because July 3 was their regular day off.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
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