Good morning!
Hospitals over capacity: We begin with troubling figures that show some Winnipeg hospitals have been operating over or right at patient capacity since the middle of last year. According to a Winnipeg Regional Healthy Authority weekly patient-flow report, St. Boniface and Victoria hospitals have been operating at above-normal capacity since the beginning of August 2015, while the Grace has been 100 per cent full since mid-March of this year. And at times Concordia is bursting at the seams, too. Free Press legislative bureau chief Larry Kusch has the story. READ MORE
Your forecast: Don’t keep staring out the window and then glancing back at the clock at work today. It’ll drive you nuts. Of course you want to get out there and begin the May long weekend, particularly with the weather forecast Environment Canada is offering up. After a mostly sunny, warm Friday, we’re headed for bright blue skies Saturday and Sunday, with temperatures of 28 C and 27 C, respectively. Sure, we’ll likely get some showers late Sunday night and the holiday Monday, but two out of three ain’t bad.
In case you missed it
MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESSFinance minister Cameron Friesen announced his department has discovered the previous NDP government may have misled Manitobans on the size of the deficit, which they are now saying is $1.012 billion.
Billion dollar details: Manitoba’s finance minister nailed down the province’s billion-dollar deficit, releasing details Thursday on how we got to this dubious water mark on the province’s books. Spending was $148 million more than the previous government projected 10 weeks ago, revenues were down $180 million, health care costs were up $66 million and the province is still paying on 2011 flood claims ($29 million), and heavy rain claims from 2014 ($24 million). The Tories revised tax revenues down by $33 million. READ MORE
Morley Safer dies: The veteran journalist who helped create CBS News died in his Manhattan home. He was 84. Safer had a 61-year career where he was described as equally at home reporting on social wrongs, the Orient Express, abstract art and the horrors of war. On Sunday “60 Minutes” aired a tribute to the one-of-a-kind newsman. He watched the program at home, tweeted out “It’s been a wonderful run and I want to thank the millions of people who have been loyal to our 60 Minutes broadcast. Thank you!” The Toronto-born journalist died suddenly four days later. READ MORE
RCMP shooting: A brief but spectacular high-speed chase ended with RCMP ramming a vehicle about 10 a.m. at Highway 240. Both vehicles ended up in off the shoulder of the highway. In the aftermath, an RCMP officer discharged his weapon, hitting the suspect who was reported in hospital Thursday evening in stable condition READ MORE
Up next
Better communication: Premier Brian Pallister is in Morris this morning, along with representatives from Bell Canada and MTS, to outline plans to improve telecommunications services across the province. The event is slated for 10 a.m. at the Morris Multiplex, 380 Stampede Grounds.
Diversity walk: Over 2,000 Winnipeg School Division students are walking a circle around the Canadian Museum of Human Rights today, marking the finale of another year of incorporating “Everybody has the Right” into the division’s curriculum and learning. School groups have created spectacular silk art banners depicting the students’ voices on human rights and equity. Banner carriers will lead each school as they make the walk from The Forks festival stage north along the walking path, circling the museum and returning back to the starting point. The walk begins at 10:45 a.m.
Plenty of buzz: A pair of honey beehives are being installed this morning at The Forks in partnership with BeeProject Apiaries. It’s part of the first urban bee project in the city’s downtown area. The two hives, each with approximately 10,000 honeybees and one queen, will be placed on the Caboose, which is close to flowers and the public orchard, and offers the honeybees a clear flight path above Forks patrons. It all starts at 7:30 a.m.
Around the water cooler
SEAN KILPATRICK / THE CANADIAN PRESSNDP MP Niki Ashton
Brouhaha in Ottawa: A tense situation in the House of Commons that exploded on the house floor this week went viral, with a backlash in social media, some of it against Manitoba’s NDP MP Niki Ashton. The issue was sparked when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau waded into a clutch of MPs — mostly New Democrats — to take Opposition whip Doug Brown through the crowd and inadvertently elbowed NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau. Brosseau left the chamber and missed the vote on time allocation for the assisted-dying bill. The PM has said sorry in so many ways since. Ashton took the issue up Thursday in the Commons, only to draw the ire of many on social media who condemned her for overreacting and making unfair comparisons to violence against women. READ MORE
“Spectacularly hideous”: Winnipeg councilor Janice Lukes (South Winnipeg-St. Norbert) used the colourful phrase in city hall when she questioned where tax dollars were really being spent on green spaces. This was after city officials said no funds were budgeted for the new Bridgwater suburbs. Lukes said taxpayers were being billed on their property tax for parks and green spaces and she wanted to know where the money was going. She summed by saying the flower garden in the roundabout that greets motorists into Bridgwater Forest were “spectacularly hideous,” and the gardens along the pathways throughout that neighbourhood were in the same state of neglect. READ MORE
Rookie MLA work amid tragedy: Judy Klassen braved blizzards and slept in her car to get out the vote in the vast Keewatinook riding, all the while coping with a horrendous set of family troubles that will surprise many but come across as distressingly familiar to people on and off reserve in Canada. Free Press reporter Nick Martin has the story. READ MORE
Trending now
Egyptian Defense Ministry / The Associated PressAn Egyptian plane flies over a ship during the search in the Mediterranean Sea for the missing EgyptAir flight 804 plane which crashed after disappearing from the radar early Thursday morning while carrying 66 passengers and crew from Paris to Cairo.
#Alexandria: Debris from EgyptAir 804, which crashed while carrying 66 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo, has been found 290 kilometres north of the Egyptian port city of Alexandria. The plane fell off the radar early Thursday morning while flying over the Mediterranean Sea.
#NationalCaesarDay: That classic Canadian beverage — vodka mixed with Clamato, a lime slice, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce served in a salt-rimmed glass with a celery stick — has its very own day. So, did you celebrate Thursday with your own, personal concoction? We at Head Start insist on a dash of horseradish.
On this date
On May 20, 1970: The Winnipeg Free Press reported that the federal government moved to increase the minimum wage from $1.25 an hour to $1.65 an hour. The United Nations condemned Israel’s attacks on Lebanon. The Canadian Union of Postal Employees looked prepared to strike, as negotiations between the union and the treasury board of Canada continued over wages and job security. In Saskatchewan, the deputy premier said most citizens were pleased with the province’s compulsory, publicly run car insurance program, but had doubts whether a similar system would work in Manitoba. Dutch Elm disease was spreading north and indications were it could hit southern Manitoba and the greater Winnipeg area within a year.
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