Good morning!
The age of austerity: The Pallister government announced Thursday the budget will be delivered April 11, and they warned it will involve drastic measures to reduce the province’s $1-billion deficit. Watch for wage controls on civil servants, cuts to provincial department spending and a reduction in management positions. Nick Martin reports. READ MORE
Your forecast: With delightful meteorological serendipity, nice weather will arrive when the weekend does. Today will be cold, though, with wind from the south making the high of -6 C feel like -30. But Saturday’s high will be +2, and Sunday’s high will be +4.
In case you missed it
RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESSDr. Malcolm Doupe is the lead author in the study, Factors Affecting Emergency Department Waiting Room Times in Winnipeg.
Inside emergency rooms: A new study released Thursday on Winnipeg’s hospital emergency rooms shows that in 2003, there were about 550 ER visits a day in Winnipeg. By 2013 that increased to about 610 visits a day. The report includes possible cures for ER overcrowding. Larry Kusch reports. READ MORE
Mom jailed for texting daughter: Sandra Giesbrecht, a Winnipeg mother accused of abducting her children after her husband was given full custody, was sentenced on Thursday to three months in jail for disobeying a court order and exchanging texts with her 11-year-old daughter via a secret phone that was hidden in the child’s boxspring mattress. Katie May reports. READ MORE
Up next
MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESSDancers with the Alberta Ballet perform in Love Lies Bleeding, a tribute to Sir Elton John at the Centennial Concert Hall.
Ballet after-party: Following tonight’s performance of the ballet Love Lies Bleeding, the party starts. From 9:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. at the Centennial Concert Hall, an event called The HUB: Ballet Electric will feature a who’s who of Winnipeg’s most talented artists and performers in the LGBTTQ* community. It will include drinking, dancing and a fashion show. Tickets are $15.
The art of persuasive talking: Winnipeg is hosting the Canadian Negotiation Competition, which lets law students hone negotiating skills. The competition simulates negotiations around a series of legal problems. Today’s talented talkers match wits from 5 to 7 p.m. at Robson Hall, at the University of Manitoba.
Around the water cooler
Touchy topic for premier: Premier Brian Pallister chided reporters Thursday for continuing to ask him about his vacation home in Costa Rica. “I’ve been away on vacation less time than most members of the NDP,” the premier insisted with a testy tone. Nick Martin reports. READ MORE
Trending now
#SuperOldHeroes: How will your favourite character in tights pursue derring-do in their golden years? Will you call for such heroes as Wonder Why I Came In Here Again Woman, the Silver-Haired Surfer, Iron Supplement Man, Crazy Cat Woman, or the Fantastic Fourth Hip Replacement?
On this date
On Mar. 3, 1975: The Winnipeg Free Press reported that employees at the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg and in Hull, Que., returned to work, ending a strike that began on Jan. 9. United States secretary of state Henry Kissinger hinted that the U.S. was moving to lift its embargo against Cuba. In New York City, a strike by truck drivers prevented the Daily News, the country’s largest-circulation paper, from being delivered. READ MORE
|
