Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 30, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A6 A 6 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2015 MANITOBA winnipegfreepress. com 289 KING STREET . 204- 946- 0729 Mon- Fri 8: 30- 5: 00 Sat 9: 00- 3: 00 . Closed Sun New, factory seconds, and more. tagwarehouse. ca to Winnipeg's best kept shopping secret. FURNITURE, WINDOWS, DOORS & MORE Hours: M, Tu, F: 10 - 5 W, Th: 10 - 7 Sat: 9 - 5 JANUARY FACTORY INCENTIVES ON ALL MODELS Just 2 blocks North of our old location. YYS ELS 1512 St. James St. COME IN AND SEE OUR NEW LARGER SHOWROOM LCL SPAS NEW Showroom NOW OPEN AT 1512 ST. JAMES ST. Date: Saturday, January 31 Larry's Guest: Darlene Landino Double D's Cheesescake & Coffee House Topic: You know Larry will ask! Tune in to find out if Darlene has come up with a new veggie cheesecake flavour! valued at over $ 18.00 before taxes and receive the 2nd entree of greater value 1/ 2 off Expires April 30, 2015 one coupon per visit. UNIT 5 - 1140 WAVERLEY ST. | 204- 474- 5900 VIRTUAL FACILITY TOUR NEW MON - THURS 4 PM - 9 PM . FRI 12 PM - 11 PM . SAT 10 AM - 11 PM . SUN 11 AM - 8 PM www. lasertopia. ca Come in with your friends, family, or co- workers . . . NO RESERVATIONS REQUIRED! We run Laser Tag games every 15 minutes. It's LASER TAG . . . And So Much More! YOU HAVE GOT TO TRY IT! GO TR IF YOU HAVE NEVER PLAYED LASER LASER G TA T H I SPL A C E I S THIS PLACE IS SO MUCH FUN! Join us for birthday cake, hot chocolate, shortbread cookies for the first 200 participants and Scottish entertainment. Sign Sir John A's birthday card. Attire: Tartans and other Scottish wear welcome. Kilts encouraged but not required. Kilted skaters will be rewarded. Skate rentals available at The Forks Market. In Brief Natural gas prices going down in February THE cost of heating a home with natural gas is going down. The Public Utilities Board said Thursday it approved Centra Gas Manitoba Inc.' s application to decrease the current primary natural gas rate effective Feb. 1. The PUB says the projected annual bill impact for a typical residential customer is a decrease of about 5.5 per cent, or $ 50 a year. Primary gas rates will be reviewed again May 1. Primary gas rates for customers who have signed fixed- term fixed- price contracts with either Centra or a private broker are not affected. The PUB said at an upcoming, hearing the board wants to consider whether a portion of the gas company's retained earnings should be used to further reduce the impact on ratepayers from the higher cost of home heating during last winter's frigid weather. Centra earned $ 20 million of net income in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014, and its retained earnings totalled $ 62 million. The PUB said this compares to the net income approved by the board of $ 2.5 million in 2013- 14, which the PUB expected Centra to earn in a normal weather year. " The board understands that the cold winter of 2013- 14 is the predominant reason for the substantial increase in net income and the record levels of retained earnings," the PUB said. Head- on crash results in serious injuries EAST St. Paul RCMP reported serious injuries after two pickup trucks collided late Thursday afternoon on Highway 59 between Dunning and Garven roads. RCMP responded to reports of the crash in the northbound lanes of Highway 59 about 4: 45 p. m. Police said the injuries were serious but offered no further details Thursday. An RCMP forensic collision reconstructionist was assisting with the investigation. The northbound lanes of Highway 59 near the crash site were closed for several hours Thursday but were reopened before 8 p. m. There was no word from RCMP on the condition of the injured people late Thursday. S HARON Blady says she has no " magic wand" to speed patient transfers from ambulances arriving at city hospitals, but the new health minister says she's determined to fix the problem that has frustrated officials for years. Statistics released Thursday show paramedics waited an average of 78 minutes to pass control of patients to Winnipeg hospitals last year - a record since such stats have been kept. In 2013, the average wait was 75 minutes. The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority paid more than $ 1.6 million in fines to the City of Winnipeg last year - up from over $ 1.4 million the year before - due to long ambulance waits at hospitals. The city charges the WRHA a penalty of $ 119 per hour when ambulances are tied up for longer than 60 minutes at an emergency room. Long waits for paramedics in passing control of patients to city ERs has been a problem for years. Conservative health critic Myrna Driedger said the Selinger government has failed to address the issue despite promises in recent years to do so. " We've had years of commitment by three different ministers of health who unequivocally have said they're working on it, they're going to fix it. And it's not fixed. It's getting worse," said Driedger, who obtained the 2014 statistics through a freedom of information request. Paramedics must remain with their patients until the emergency room is ready to accommodate them. If there are patients in the ER with more pressing issues, those arriving by ambulance must wait. " I've had paramedics tell me that sometimes they're stuck there for nine hours," said Driedger. " That means there's a patient on a stretcher in a back hallway that can't access care." Blady is the third person to hold the health portfolio in a little over a year. In early November, she replaced Southdale MLA Erin Selby, who quit cabinet as part of the Gang of Five cabinet revolt against Greg Selinger's leadership. Selby had succeeded Theresa Oswald - now an NDP leadership candidate - as minister in October 2013. Blady said she brings " a new set of eyes" to the problem and has made the issue a top priority. " I'm an academic by trade. I'm asking ( department staff) to get me the numbers to figure out what trends are there that maybe we're not seeing because we haven't been looking for them," she said. She said she wants more information about how flu season affects emergency rooms, including the number of flu patients that arrive by ambulance. She wants to know what preventive measures can be taken to lessen those numbers. " One thing I'm completely aware of though, is that this is a complicated situation that's not going to be solved by any one thing," Blady said. " I'm not going to make a naive and blind promise to wave a magic wand and fix things." She noted the issues behind long ER waits are varied and complex. They are tied to whether beds are available for patients needing to be admitted to hospital and even to the availability of personal care home spaces, since patients awaiting placement in nursing homes take up hospital beds. She noted the province has already undertaken measures to try to ease the load on hospital ERs, including establishing QuickCare clinics and introducing hospital home teams to treat elderly patients with complex needs in their homes. larry. kusch@ freepress. mb. ca Ambulances hurry up, then wait Major delays continue in transferring patients into hospital By Larry Kusch KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES A Winnipeg ambulance races to a call: Then it probably waits about 75 minutes after reaching a hospital to transfer the patient to ER staff. Sharon Blady brings ' a new set of eyes to the problem.' 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