Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 12, 2012, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A3 JUNE 2012 ONLY ALL NEW 4 WHEEL WALKERS K3J304 2011 1717 WAVERLEY 1- 877- 432- 8670 mymidtownford. com $ 35 , 943 or $ 407 / month Price & payment plus freight, fees & taxes OAC. 0% Lease or Finanace 2013 EDGE SEL 2.0 EcoBoost, 6 spd auto, MyFord Touch voice navigation, SYNC voice communication, reverse camera, reverse sensing, power liftgate, touch start, remote start, 18" chrome clad wheels, 43 MPG rating. Lease or purchase @ 0% APR 48 month lease @ 2.99% APR with 10% down. 31 2012 Escapes to choose! Best Buy - Correction Notice NEWSPAPER RETRACTION FOR THE BEST BUY JUNE 8 CORPORATE FLYER Please be advised that the Samsung Galaxy S III pre- order offer ( advertised on the June 8 flyer, page 7) will be closing after June 8. No more orders will be taken after this time. Also, please note that the item will be limited in quantity with no rainchecks on the the anticipated release date ( June 20) due to unforeseen carrierrelated issues. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused our valued customers. TOP NEWS WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 2012 winnipegfreepress. com A 3 YOUNG people who are picked up by police while drunk or high on drugs will no longer be held at the Manitoba Youth Centre under a provincial plan to build a detox facility in St. Boniface. Healthy Living Minister Jim Rondeau said Monday the centre, slated to open early next year, will house several programs that deal with youth substance abuse. The Catholic Health Corporation and Marymound are also involved in the project. Marymound has operated a five- bed youth drug- stabilization unit since 2006, but not for youth who are held under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act ( IPDA). " Right now, we have three separate programs," Rondeau said. " We have the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act, we have some other programs we offer through Marymound and the Behavioural Health Foundation, and we're going to put them all together." Operating the centre, to be located in a renovated warehouse on Provencher near Archibald, is forecast to cost more than $ 1 million a year, he added. Marymound CEO Ian Hughes said its program will be expanded to 10 beds, with two used for IPDA cases. He and Rondeau said the new centre will end a long- standing police practice of holding intoxicated youth under 18 at the Manitoba Youth Centre. The facility, which hasn't been announced by the province, was mentioned in the Manitoba ombudsman's 2011 annual report, released Monday. Since 1998, the ombudsman's office has criticized the detention of intoxicated youth at the MYC, a jail, even if they haven't been charged. Adults are detained at the Main Street Project. The ombudsman said intoxicated youth are in need of care and a safe place where they can be supervised until they can be safely released. Only youth that pose a public safety risk will continue to go to the MYC. Both the province and City of Winnipeg have tried for years to end the use of the MYC for youth to sober up. Police take an average of 155 youth a year to the MYC for supervision until a responsible adult is found. bruce. owen@ freepress. mb. ca Province plans youth detox facility By Bruce Owen O TTAWA - A large part of Manitoba's history is about to be boxed up and shipped off, likely to a warehouse in Quebec, as part of the Harper government's recent budget cuts. Larry Ostola, vice- president of heritage conservation and commemoration at Parks Canada, confirmed Monday the agency will bring hundreds of thousands of artifacts - furniture, clothing and even pieces of permafrost - from across the country to a centralized location, likely near the Parks Canada headquarters in Gatineau, Que. The consolidation is part of cost- cutting that's slashing $ 29 million from the Parks Canada budget over the next three years. But archaeologists in Winnipeg aren't so sure this isn't a step toward killing off Canada's history, piece by piece. " They are literally closing down the vast majority of records and our heritage and our history," said Leigh Syms, former curator of archeology at the Manitoba Museum and a professor at the University of Manitoba. Parks Canada has an enormous collection of artifacts in numerous locations. Each item has been studied and preserved by teams of archeologists, museum curators and other experts. In Manitoba, the artifacts are used to tell the stories of the province's history at Canada's national parks and historic sites, such as Lower Fort Garry near Selkirk and the Prince of Wales Fort National Historic Site of Canada near Churchill. The items include such things as the clothing of early settlers and First Nations people. There is even organic matter from northern permafrost in Manitoba. All the artifacts not currently on display in Manitoba will be shipped to Gatineau. Experts say taking them to a central depository removes them from the rotation museums use to change up their exhibits. And it could take days or even weeks to recall specific objects from Gatineau if a Manitoba- based institute needs it for an exhibit or for research purposes. Greg Thomas, a former archeologist for Parks Canada in Winnipeg, said moving everything to the Ottawa area is a blow to many tourism attractions. Thomas said the regional offices provide a level of knowledge and expertise that a consolidated national location cannot match. It just doesn't make sense for someone in Manitoba to have to turn to someone in Ottawa when they want to learn about Manitoba history, he said. The amount of work that can be done to collect, preserve and use artifacts also won't be matched, with an estimated 65 per cent of the professional staff at Parks Canada being laid off. " We're talking the researchers, the historians, the archeologists," Thomas said. " These are the ones who can take these collections and work with the ( national historic) sites to bring them to life." Parks Canada is keeping a team of 10 national archeologists who will be called on when needed to go anywhere in the country, Ostola said. The move will take place over the next three years, but there shouldn't be any worry that warehousing the items in Gatineau will be any different than warehousing them in separate locations across the country, he said. " We will continue to have the expertise needed in all the relevant areas," he said. Any time someone wants to access an item, they will be able to, he said. Syms isn't buying it, noting it is hard to believe a smaller number of people can properly preserve and offer the same kind of access to thousands of items. " They won't be accessible for historians for exhibits or for researchers," he said. Thomas said the numbers aren't there to ensure the same level of service. There used to be more than 10 archeologists and historical professionals working in the western region alone. Now there will be 10 for the country, two based in Winnipeg. mia. rabson@ freepress. mb. ca MANITOBA'S politicians are begging Ottawa to reconsider a decision to close the historic Riel House. Winnipeg city councillors said the humble wood- frame house in St. Vital is a critical part of the province's history, while Manitoba's francophone senator said closing Riel House will save Ottawa only a pittance while eroding M�tis heritage in the province. Due to budget cuts, Parks Canada will no longer help fund the St. Boniface Historical Society program that hires, trains and co- ordinates a small group of interpreters who don historical costumes and keep Riel House open to visitors four months a year. The historical society, one of Manitoba's most senior Parks Canada officials and staff at Riel House all say the funding cut means the house will close its doors in September, its artifacts will be sent elsewhere and its programming will be cancelled. Parks Canada has said it must focus resources on sites and periods with peak demand. Parks Canada will still maintain the house and offer self- guided tours of the property. Robert Allard, vice- president of L'Union nationale m�tisse Saint- Joseph, Manitoba's oldest M�tis organization, has called the decision " a slap in the face." St. Boniface Tory MP Shelly Glover, who represents the riding and is M�tis, could not be reached for comment Monday. But other Manitoba politicians condemned the decision to padlock the home where Louis Riel lay in state following his hanging in 1885. Liberal Sen. Maria Chaput said Monday she hopes the decision isn't an attack on francophone heritage so much as poor planning. " The minister has been asked to cut and maybe when they do it, they don't take the impact on francophone heritage into consideration," she said. Chaput said Riel House fundraises to leverage cash from other sources, but it cannot do that without the small amount of help from Ottawa each year. " It's $ 56,000 a year," Chaput said. " It is such a small thing." St. Boniface Coun. Dan Vandal said Monday he was angry about the decision, and St. Vital Coun. Brian Mayes drafted a motion for Monday night's community committee meeting calling on Winnipeggers to write and call their MPs. The motion passed. " It's a quiet little museum, a historical landmark, but it's still of historical significance," he said. " It's important to a lot of people. It's important to history." Greg Thomas, a former archaeologist at Parks Canada, said the government may have thought it could get away with some of the cuts it's making to Parks Canada because many of the areas don't have advocates to plead their case to the public. " They are playing with fire," he said. " It's a symbol for the M�tis in Manitoba." - with files from Jen Skerritt maryagnes. welch@ freepress. mb. ca mia. rabson@ freepress. mb. ca ' They are literally closing down the vast majority of records and our heritage and our history' - Leigh Syms, former curator of archeology at the Manitoba Museum and a professor at the University of Manitoba History sent packing by cuts Artifacts not currently on display to be shipped out of the province By Mia Rabson Riel House reprieve sought Manitoba politicians seek to keep site open By Mia Rabson and Mary Agnes Welch JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Interpreter Quillan Daniel walks outside Riel House, Louis Riel's mother's home, where the Manitoba founder lay in state after his death. A_ 03_ Jun- 12- 12_ FP_ 01. indd A3 6/ 11/ 12 10: 44: 41 PM ;