News briefs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025

MITT to offer early child educator diploma

5:28 PM

The Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology is offering courses to help early childhood educators level up without pausing their career.

MITT’s newest workplace diploma, a two-year program targeted at early-career ECEs, is slated to launch in January 2026.

Candidates will split their time between a post-secondary classroom and their current workplace.

“Their child care job serves as both an employment and a learning lab,” MITT said in a news release Wednesday.

Dean Curtis Aab said in the release that the program aims to address a growing demand for skilled child care workers across Manitoba.

The model “meets that need without pulling people out of the workforce,” Aab said.

Students will be able to apply for up to $5,000 in tuition rebates per year via the Canada-Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.

Child-care centres can apply for a provincial grant to hire a replacement when an student-employee is at school.

MITT has temporarily waived application fees for the new program.

Police get warrant to search homeless camp

3:57 PM

Three people were arrested Wednesday after police executed a search warrant at an encampment on Waterfront Drive and found more than a dozen bikes in a wooden-frame structure.

Winnipeg Police Service Insp. Helen Peters said it is the first time the service has obtained a warrant to search a structure in a homeless camp.

Police had blocked off a stretch of the path along Waterfront Drive near Fort Douglas Park and were collecting bicycle parts from inside the structure.

No charges have been laid and the probe continues.

Kinew didn’t breach ethics when he took Bombers-chartered flights: ethics commissioner

1:55 PM

The premier has been cleared of any wrongdoing in taking Grey Cup flights chartered by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Ethics commissioner Jeffrey Schnoor announced Wednesday that he found “no breach” following an ethics investigation into Wab Kinew’s flights to the Canadian Football League finals in 2023 and 2024.

“Premier Kinew paid fair market value for his flights; therefore, he was not required to obtain approval or to file information afterwards,” Schnoor’s office said in a news release.

Progressive Conservative MLA Greg Nesbitt requested an inquiry into Kinew’s travel history on March 24.

Ten new measles cases announced this week

1:32 PM

There were ten new confirmed cases of measles announced in Manitoba this week, doubling August’s count from 10 to 20, with 187 total cases counted since February.

The numbers were published Wednesday afternoon and are accurate as of Saturday. There were no new probable cases. August has had the lowest case count of measles so far since April, when 13 total cases were reported.

RCMP search for trio of thieves

1:32 PM

RCMP are looking to identify three suspects who rifled through vehicles at private residences in the Rural Municipality of West St. Paul.

A male and two females, believed to be travelling in a dark-coloured SUV, were seen stealing from cars parked in driveways or garages after midnight on Aug. 17 near River Springs Drive and Tamarack Drive.

Anyone with information is asked to call the RCMP Selkirk detachment at 204-482-3322, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477 or online.

Missing Pimicikamak man found dead

8:34 AM

A man who went missing from Pimicikamak Cree Nation in early August has been found dead.

Geoffrey Kolomaya, 37, was reported missing on Aug. 17. His family told RCMP at the time they hadn’t heard from him since Aug. 4. He was last seen in Pimicikamak Cree Nation on or around Aug. 10.

Mounties said Wednesday Kolomaya was found dead in the marshy area of Nakow Bay.

The investigation will continue pending the results of an autopsy.