Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 3, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A2 A 2 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM VOL 149 NO 295 Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 2020 Winnipeg Free Press, a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership. Published seven days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B6, PH: 204-697-7000 Publisher / BOB COX Editor / PAUL SAMYN Associate Editor Enterprise / SCOTT GIBBONS Associate Editor Operations and Engagement / STACEY THIDRICKSON Associate Editor Digital News / WENDY SAWATZKY Director Photo and Multimedia / MIKE APORIUS NEWSMEDIA COUNCIL The Winnipeg Free Press is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an in- dependent organization established to determine acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please send them to: editorialconcerns@freepress.mb.ca. 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INSIDE Business B4 Arts and Life D1 Classifieds B7 Comics D5 Diversions D6,7 Horoscope D4 Jumble D6 Miss Lonelyhearts D4 Obituaries B6 Opinion A6-7 Sports C1 Television D4 Weather C12 READER SERVICE ● GENERAL INQUIRIES 204-697-7000 The Free Press receives support from the Local Journalism Initiative funded by the Government of Canada CIRCULATION INQUIRIES MISSING OR INCOMPLETE PAPER? Call or email before 10 a.m. weekdays or 11 a.m. Saturday City: 204-697-7001 Outside Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 press 1 6:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. Monday-Friday.; 7 a.m. - noon Saturday; Closed Sunday TO SUBSCRIBE: 204-697-7001 Out of Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 BERGEN ● FROM A1 SCHOOL ● FROM A1 PALLISTER ● FROM A1 The Tories are struggling to gain support among female voters, and Ber- gen said her party will highlight women for their competence, instead of a quota system Trudeau has used to form his cabinet. “Canadian women deserve positions of authority,” she said. “I hope that women look at me, a hard-working woman who has earned her way, and is providing leadership at a top level in this country. I hope that those women see themselves in me.” Standing at a distance from Ber- gen on Parliament Hill, O’Toole said Wednesday the Tories want to provide the Trudeau government with con- structive solutions to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, but are prepared for a fall election. The Liberals suspended hearings on the WE Charity affair by proroguing Parliament, and will unveil a throne speech on Sept. 23, which will lead to a confidence motion that could bring the minority government down and trigger a fall election. A poll from the Angus-Reid Institute this week shows the Liberals and Con- servatives tied for support nationally. In Manitoba, the Tories were ahead, thanks to a split between Liberal and NDP support. However, most Manitoba respon- dents who support the NDP said they’d likely switch their vote if the Conserva- tives were headed toward a victory. Despite ethics investigations, the SNC-Lavalin scandal and revelations of blackface, Trudeau continues to poll well among urban Canadians. Bergen said she only focuses on elections and not interim polls. dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca All students will be required to wear face coverings on school buses, but only students in Grade 4 and up, as well as staff members, have to wear a mask inside school buildings. The youngest students in Grade 3-4 split classes are asked to wear masks where physical distancing is not possible. The province asks individuals to wash their hands before putting on and taking off masks and not to dangle them or move them below the nose or mouth. Mask-wearing exceptions will apply to community members who are under age two, have breathing difficulties or are unable to remove a mask without assistance due to age, ability or devel- opmental status. Medical notes will not be required. K-8 students will return to school full time next week, while most high schoolers will start the school year with blended learning. But if the prov- ince’s new colour-coded alert level — currently yellow — changes, so could learning models. If the COVID-19 situation improves to green, in-person classes will resume full time for all. If it slips to orange, stricter occupancy rules will be im- posed and Grade 9-12 students will pivot to full-time remote learning. A red status could prompt school closures for all except children of es- sential workers, teachers included. Goertzen said Wednesday his hope is the new details will alleviate anxiety about the school year. Opposition lead- ers, however, were quick to call out the province for releasing plans so close to Tuesday’s resumption of classes. “It’s a bit reminiscent of the time I woke up on the morning that a term paper was due, and tried to write it before class,” said NDP Leader Wab Kinew, who criticized the government for failing to invest in smaller classes and hiring more school clinicians. Parents, Brazeau included, continue to call on the province to provide a universal online learning option. When asked about the matter Wednesday, Goertzen stood by the province’s plans. “The best place for a child’s learning is in the classroom,” he said, adding home-schooling remains an option for families. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca The province also reported Wednesday one staff member had tested positive for COVID-19 at each of two personal care homes in Winnipeg: Fred Douglas Lodge and Beacon Hill Lodge. Close contacts are being identified in each facility and investigations are continuing. Pallister said Manitoba has adopted measures in its school plan that will allow it to isolate cases and remove students from high-risk situations without closing an entire facility. “We got some really good advice from our medical people. We got some really good practices and plans put in place — or being implemented now — by our school divisions,” he said. Meanwhile, the premier took a swipe at critics who have accused him of worrying about the economy at the price of public safety. He said the province can pursue both goals at the same time. “If there was ever a time for people to learn, if they didn’t know already, that there’s a symbiotic relationship between health and social services and the economy of Manitoba, this is the time to figure it out,” he said. “The safer we are, the more discretionary income we have, the better chance we have to create jobs and wealth for each other, the more tax we generate... that can support our social services.” Pallister said he will watch keenly when the latest employment numbers are released Friday. The most recent figures showed 40,000 fewer Manitobans were working, compared with at the start of the pandemic. “That doesn’t make me happy,” he said. larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca MANITOBA Premier Brian Pallister says he’s pushing for a new federal funding arrangement on health care that will address chronically long wait times for services. Ottawa needs to play a greater role in health-care funding, he said Wednesday, and higher annual incremental increases to the provinces won’t be enough to correct a trend that results in the federal government paying a lower share of health-care costs. Emerging from a meeting with federal Intergovern- mental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Pallister said Manitoba is working on a plan to address inequities in health funding that it will soon present to the federal government and other provinces. He said he wouldn’t divulge details until they are worked out. “We’ve done a lot of work on this. I think this is the No. 1 issue for Canadians,” Pallister said. He noted, in a recent three-month period, an esti- mated 400,000 surgeries were postponed in Canada. In addition to health care funding, Pallister said he impressed upon LeBlanc, at their meeting at the Manitoba Legislative Building, the importance of mov- ing ahead with a massive flood-mitigation project that would see outlet channels built from Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin. The project has been stalled over regulatory issues. The premier announced he will travel to Ottawa in a “couple of weeks” to discuss issues further with LeBlanc and perhaps with Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. While in the nation’s capital, he said he would bring up the need to proceed with upgrades to Winnipeg’s north end sewage treatment plant. “We’ve got to get going on that,” the premier said. — Larry Kusch O TTAWA — Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole says overcoming western alienation and helping Canada’s post-pandemic economic re- coveries are among his top priorities. A fall election, he said, is not, though the Conservatives will be ready if it comes to that. O’Toole has been in his post for a lit- tle over a week. He named his House of Commons leadership team Wednesday, including bringing on Manitoba MP Candice Bergen as deputy leader. He is the first leader of the Conserva- tives who is not from Western Canada since the 2003 unite-the-right move- ment brought the fractured wings of the party back into one. His staff is largely drawn from eastern provinces. Five of the eight people he named to the House of Commons team Wednes- day are eastern MPs. O’Toole would not say how worried he is about the rise of Wexit, an Alberta- based party that advocates for the four western provinces to secede from Can- ada. It is led by Jay Hill, a former Con- servative MP who was the government House leader for several years under prime minister Stephen Harper. When the Reform party grew out of western alienation sentiment in the 1980s, it eventually split the right-wing vote with the Progressive Conserva- tive party. That helped the Liberals win three consecutive majority govern- ments. “I’m reminding everyone that it worked out well for the Liberals,” O’Toole said. “I will be listening and I think people that are frustrated, I’m saying, ‘Don’t let Justin Trudeau win.’ Make sure we are united. Make sure we win the next election.” Fear that former Conservative MP Maxime Bernier’s upstart People’s Party of Canada might hurt the Con- servative vote in 2019 turned out not to be justified. But the party’s strength is in Western Canada: almost two-thirds of its MPs are from the West, and almost half the votes cast for Conservatives in 2019 came from western voters. In Alberta, where Wexit sentiment developed and is strongest, the Conservatives won 70 per cent of the vote. If split votes did put western Conservative seats at risk, the consequences for the Tories could be dire. Bergen, who was briefly in Harper’s cabinet before 2015 and was the party’s House leader under former leader An- drew Scheer, said western alienation was the first thing O’Toole raised when he spoke to Prime Minister Justin Tru- deau last week. “Erin and I have talked briefly over the last few hours and one of the things he has asked me to focus on is western alienation,” she said. “And the fact that westerners need to know that Conserv- atives know this is an issue.” Trudeau prorogued Parliament last month, intending to return Sept. 23 with a new throne speech outlining how the Liberals plan to help Canada’s economy recover from the pandemic. The speech will result in a confidence vote. O’Toole said the Conservatives will be ready if an election is necessary, but that isn’t what he wants. “I’m not here for an election,” O’Toole said. “I’m here for the relaunch of our economy post-COVID.” Missing from O’Toole’s team is Leona Alleslev, who was deputy leader under Andrew Scheer until July, when she re- signed to endorse Peter MacKay for the leadership. Conservative spokeswoman Kelsie Chiasson said traditionally the deputy leader comes from a different region than the leader and O’Toole’s Dur- ham riding and Alleslev’s Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill riding are less than 50 kilometres from each other on Toronto’s outskirts. O’Toole will announce his shadow cabinet next week and Alleslev is ex- pected to be part of it. O’Toole said so will Alain Rayes. He was the party’s Quebec lieutenant under Scheer but was replaced Wednesday by Richard Martel, the only Quebec MP who en- dorsed O’Toole for the leadership. In all, O’Toole’s team includes four MPs who endorsed him, two who en- dorsed MacKay and two who stayed neutral. Quebec MP Gerard Deltell is the new Tory House leader. Alberta MPs Blake Richards and Tim Uppal will be the chief whip and the caucus-party liaison. Ontario MPs Karen Vecchio, Alex Ruff and Eric Duncan will, respectively, be deputy house leader, deputy whip, and question period co-ordinator. — The Canadian Press Western alienation a priority: O’Toole MIA RABSON Premier lobbies for change to way health care funded ‘I will be listening and I think people that are frustrated, I’m saying, “Don’t let Justin Trudeau win.” Make sure we are united. Make sure we win the next election’ — Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen and his son, Malachi, 13, walk down a hallway at the legislature Wednesday before a news conference about school openings. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Brian Pallister says the province can pursue public safety and economic growth at the same time. ● See response for six COVID-19 scenarios at: wfp.to/hnh A_02_Sep-03-20_FP_01.indd A2 2020-09-02 10:37 PM ;