Free Press Head Start for Feb. 7

Good morning.

Nicole Sellers, an emergency dispatcher in western Manitoba who volunteers to rescue dogs and cats in her spare time, says Sandy Bay Ojibwa First Nation is littered with dead dogs discarded on roads or at the landfill. She and other advocates are pleading for more funding and better oversight from the province. Scott Billeck reports.

Three decades after an East Kildonan homeowner replaced four concrete steps outside his front door, the city discovered he didn’t have a railing. “It was threatening,” said the 79-year-old man, who didn’t want to be identified, referring to the registered letter the city sent about three weeks ago. Kevin Rollason has the story.

— David Fuller

Your forecast

Cloudy with a 30 per cent chance of light snow this morning then a mix of sun and cloud. Wind becoming northwest at 20 km/h near noon. High -11 C, wind chill near -23.

A dog and its caretaker go for a walk along on the Assiniboine River Thursday morning despite the blowing snow and temperatures hovering around -17 C. (Mike Deal / Free Press)

What’s happening today

Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers will present Canadian dance icon Margie Gillis’s latest full-length solo work, Old, at the Rachel Browne Theatre, starting tonight at 7:30 p.m. Jen Zoratti has a preview here.

The set for Margie Gillis’s Old is filled with of a pile of antiques. (Mike Deal / Free Press)

Today’s must-read

The NDP government has promised to spend $72 million to nearly double the number of beds at Transcona’s only personal care home by 2028 in an effort to alleviate some of the pressure on the beleaguered long-term care system.

Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced plans Thursday for a 90-bed expansion at the Park Manor Care Home.

Construction is scheduled to begin this year and be completed by spring 2028, Asagwara told reporters, and will come with new hires once operations begin. Chris Kitching and Erik Pindera report.

Minister Uzoma Asagwara shakes hands with Park Manor CEO Abednigo Mandalupa before announcing the expansion. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press)

On the bright side

The Manitoba legislature is hosting a first-of-its-kind exhibition for Black History Month showcasing painted portraits, multimedia projects and other works by local artists.

Three Black Manitobans — Efe Ogboru, Laura Iboje and Andrew Idemudia — have lent a combined 14 canvases to the province to decorate both the front lobby and grand staircase inside 450 Broadway.

Their works have been on display since Monday and will remain until Feb. 14. Maggie Macintosh has more here.

Artist Andrew Idemudia has five paintings on display in the Manitoba Legislative building during Black History Month. This one is from his Water No Get Enemy Series, Ganvié Shallows, 2025, (Oil on canvas). (Mike Deal / Free Press)

On this date

On Feb. 7, 1980: The Winnipeg Free Press reported a Manitoba court told an anti-smoking group it could not keep a car it put up as a raffle prize that nobody claimed, and would have to sell the vehicle and donate the proceeds to another charity. Concerned emplyees and former staff of the 74-year-old Selkirk Nursing Home were worried for the safety and health of the facility’s elderly and infirm residents. Read the rest of this day’s paper here. Search our archives for more here.

Today’s front page

Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.

Top news

Maggie Macintosh:

Future of Shared Health ‘interesting question’ after audit report: health minister

Shared Health’s financial-planning failures have renewed questions about whether the NDP government will revive a 2023 election pledge to dismantle it, but the agency’s chair says board members are fo... Read More

Joyanne Pursaga:

Curling club-adjacent housing plan crashes on the guard

A hotly debated proposal to build dozens of affordable housing units on a parking lot next to the Granite Curling Club has divided a city council committee. Read More

Dean Pritchard:

Self-defence claim denied in wrong suite assault

After a night of drinking, Liam Barron returned to his Brandon apartment building and fumbled with his keys as he tried to open the door to his suite. Read More

New in Sports

Mike McIntyre:

Jets focus on taking care of business

NHL front-runners will need to make sure 15-day hiatus doesn’t hurt momentum Read More

Joshua Frey-Sam:

Team McDonald comfortable in spotlight on curling’s big stage

Jordon McDonald is comfortable with a target on his back. It’s something the 21-year-old Winnipeg skip had to deal with constantly during his last two years in the junior curling ranks, as he won t... Read More

Ken Wiebe:

Anticipation builds for 4 Nations Face-Off

Jets figure to play prominent roles in best-on-best tourney Read More

New in Arts and Entertainment

Jen Zoratti:

People twice removed

Black and Indigenous artists in conversation at WAG-Qaumajuq Read More

Randall King:

JFK assassination film brings murderers’ row of actors to town

A film purporting to tell the inside story of the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy is likely heading to Winnipeg in May with an impressive cast that includes John Travolta (Pulp Fiction), Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon), Mandy Patinkin (The Princess Bride) and Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding). Read More

New music: The Weather Station, Sarah Klang, Satoko Fujii GEN, Mozart and Bruch

POP/ROCK The Weather Station Humanhood (Next Door) The Weather Station’s 2021 album, Ignorance, was Toronto songwriter and musician Tamara Lindeman’s lush, jazz-inflected, art-pop expression of t... Read More

New in Business

Gabrielle Piché:

‘Opportunity to be at the table’

Black-Manitobans Chamber of Commerce seeks voice in province’s U.S. Trade Council Read More

Aaron Epp:

Real people, real spaces, real solutions

‘We just want to serve our community’: Three Pines Organizing’s custom work seeks to clear away stress, vulnerability Read More

Fresh opinions

Editorial:

Shedding private agencies in health care isn’t easy

A certain part of the political spectrum is always talking about making government operate more like a business — and governments everywhere seem to have gotten into the habit of calling every scrap of government spending an “investment,” even when there’s no way those “investments” will ever have anything like a return. Read More

Tom Brodbeck:

Audits zero in on budgeting, not bureaucracy, in diagnosing province’s resource-deficient patient care

If the NDP government was hoping a series of audits of health authorities would support its claim that bloated bureaucracies are contributing to poor patient care, it didn’t get it. The Kinew gover... Read More

Allan Levine:

Trump is not the first American to covet Canada

Let’s start by stating the obvious: there is absolutely no reason for U.S. President Donald Trump to levy a 25 per cent tariff on Canada and start a trade war. There is no fentanyl crisis at the U.S.-Canada border and the so-called U.S. trade deficit of $US64.3 billion in goods with Canada is misconstrued fiction. Read More

Head Start