Good morning!
‘Spectacular’ summer: Manitoba has enjoyed the best summer of any province, Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips confirms. “It didn’t matter if people wanted to go barbecuing, tenting, camping, off to festivals or off to the cottage, it was spectacular,” he says. Winnipeg also enjoyed historic lows for mosquito levels. Ryan Thorpe reports. READ MORE
Your forecast: Sticking with the weather, it will be sunny today with a high of 26 C.
In case you missed it
DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILESDave Daley, shown in 2010, with one of his sled dogs. The president of the Churchill Chamber of Commerce says town residents will blockade any attempt by Via Rail to get its stranded rail cars out of the town unless its by rail.
Biz leader vows blockade: Churchill is “dying” because its rail service remains shut down, and Dave Daley, the president of the northern town’s chamber of commerce, says residents will form a blockade if Via Rail tries to remove its stranded rail cars by ship. “What kind of message does that send… That they’re never going to fix the tracks?” Dylan Robertson reports. READ MORE
Making the grade: Terry Shaw, the executive director of the Manitoba Trucking Association, says grade separations, while expensive, are the best way to keep major highways safe. Several people have been killed in recent crashes at a ground-level interchange west of Portage la Prairie. Nick Martin reports. READ MORE
Public picket: Winnipeg Airports Authority employees have been been picketing in a more public location recently, with strikers marching through the crosswalk at the intersection of Century Street and Wellington Avenue, near the airport. “A lot of people are unfortunately giving us the middle finger. We’re just following the crosswalk and making ourselves visible,” strike captain Jessica Klym says. Ben Waldman reports. READ MORE
Up next
Gearing up for games: The national flag tour for the Invictus Games includes a stop at the Royal Canadian Legion branch at 1755 Portage Ave. at 5 p.m. today. Sarah Dentry-Travis, a former Team Canada competitor, will be the flag-bearer. The games — in which wounded, injured or sick soldiers compete in a variety of sports — were founded by Prince Harry in 2014 and take place in Toronto next month.
Around the water cooler
Manitobans wants to the KPMG report, Michelle Gawronsky says, because they want to know what the plan is. (Joe Bryksa / Winnipeg Free Press)
Majority want report released: Eighty-six per cent of Manitobans want the Tory government to release the KPMG report on health-care sustainability, a new poll by Probe Research and the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union survey suggests. “The fact that they can’t release it or they won’t release it shows that there’s a gap between what the report may say and what they’re doing,” NDP health critic Matt Wiebe says. Jane Gerster reports. READ MORE
Pump prices up: Gas prices increased at local stations Tuesday afternoon in the wake of massive flooding along the Texas Gulf Coast. The price per litre reached 101.9 cents at at least 15 stations by mid-afternoon Tuesday, which was well below the Canadian average of 109.3 cents, according to GasBuddy.com. Murray McNeill reports. READ MORE
Monument moved: A forgotten monument honouring Louis Riel has been restored and moved to a new location in St. Vital’s Riel Park. Coun. Brian Mayes says it had become unrecognizable and was being used as a notice board. Aldo Santin reports. READ MORE
Trending now
David J. Phillip / The Associated PressA man carries a girl in Houston.
Houston: Still trending locally and nationally as the humanitarian disaster continues to unfold in the wake of Hurricane Harvey and unprecedented levels of precipitation causing massive flooding and disruption in Texas. Today’s Free Press editorial looks at the differences between the flooding Manitoba has experienced and how Houston is getting it far worse, with far less warning. READ MORE
On this date
On Aug. 30, 1958: The Winnipeg Free Press reported that Manitoba’s attorney general Sterling Lyon said he found no basis for a probe requested by Moore’s Taxi against the Winnipeg Teamsters union, after the taxi company allegedly received threats of violence via telephone from thugs connected with the union. Manitoba premier Charles “Duff” Roblin and his fiancee Mary Linda MacKay got married. Iceland fined a British trawler for fishing within its four-mile limit. Soviet Russia agreed on a date to begin talks with the U.S. and Britain on ending nuclear tests. READ MORE
|
