Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 2, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A2 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMA2 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2022 VOL 151 NO 110 Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 2022 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 News / 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 independent 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 Arts and Life C1 Business B5 Classifieds D7 Comics C5 Diversions C6-7 Horoscope C6 Jumble C6 Miss Lonelyhearts C6 Obituaries D6 Opinion A6-7 Sports D1 Television C4 Weather B8 COLUMNISTS: Tom Brodbeck B2 David McLaughlin A7 Martin Cash B5 Mike McIntyre D3 READER SERVICE ● GENERAL INQUIRIES 204-697-7000 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. - 4 p.m. Monday-Friday.; 7 a.m. - noon Saturday; Closed Sunday TO SUBSCRIBE: 204-697-7001 Out of Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 The Free Press receives support from the Local Journalism Initiative funded by the Government of Canada BIDEN ● FROM A1 CHOIR ● FROM A1 DOWNTOWN ● FROM A1 D OCTORS are urging caution as the province lifts restrictions, es-timating more than half of Mani- tobans could be at higher risk of devel- oping a serious COVID-19 infection. Dr. Kristjan Thompson, president of Doctors Manitoba, said the pandemic is not over just because public-health re- strictions have been lifted. “I don’t want Manitobans to think that we’re out of the woods,” he said Tuesday. “COVID-19… it’s a virus. It doesn’t care about government policies, it doesn’t care about orders. It is a virus that is deadly, it will continue to infect. It will continue to mutate and evolve.” The organization, which represents more than 4,000 physicians in the prov- ince, set up a website (newcovidnormal. ca) so Manitobans can assess their own risk. The group advises people to gather gradually, in fresh air or well-ventilated spaces, on top of getting vaccinated and boosted. An advisory group of physicians used health data to estimate that more than half of Manitobans have a risk fac- tor that gives them a higher chance of becoming severely ill or dying from COVID-19. Risk factors include un- derlying medical conditions, disabili- ties, obesity, smoking, age, and being Black, Indigenous or a person of colour. Vaccination reduces the risk. Thompson, an ER physician at St. Bon- iface Hospital, didn’t weigh in on what he described as “government policy deci- sions” that led to Manitoba following oth- er provinces’ lead to lift all restrictions. Vaccine requirements have been lift- ed as of today, March 1, and indoor mask mandates will be lifted March 15. But he said medical and public-health advice remains the same, regardless of the or- ders in place. He said Doctors Manitoba still recommends people wear masks to reduce risk and it wants everyone to get vaccinated, including health-care work- ers. He said 99 per cent of physicians have been vaccinated. “I think we’re concerned that people are getting the wrong message. I’m hearing from many patients and many folks and Manitobans who are saying they believe the pandemic’s over just because these protections are being lifted. But the end of restrictions and protections does not mean the end of the pandemic,” Thompson said. The provincial government released data that shows declining hospitaliza- tion and intensive-care admission rates as part of its announcement about lift- ing restrictions. Those indicators may be on the decline, but hospital capacity isn’t back to pre-pandemic levels yet. Thompson said hospitals are still op- erating over capacity and patient wait times are still high. As of last week, patients were waiting 11 hours in the emergency room to see a doctor, and he said ER patients who need to be ad- mitted to hospital are still waiting many hours or even days for a hospital bed. “Our hospitals are still stretched and are still over-capacity. So, I think it behooves us to tread carefully and softly so that we can get on top of these numbers, address this surge in volume, and get back to pre-pandemic numbers,” Thompson said. “Once the dust settles, I think we do need to look at our health-care system as a whole and understand why this happened and why our system is always filled to the brim.” katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com Doctors warn Manitobans not to let pandemic guard down KATIE MAY “Before, there were so many people around here all day. Since (COVID-19) started… it’s like a ghost town around here,” said Ryu. “Even though I work all day here from Monday to Friday, I cannot make rent,” she said. At the concourse store Deals for Dollars, which would also receive the credit, business owner Jong Sung Jung said his customer base has dwindled to a fraction of pre-pandemic levels. “(During) COVID, my sales dropped down… a big amount,” said Jung. While he hopes his business will outlast the pandemic, he said con- cerns about crime and poverty have increased. Jung said his business has been broken into twice since the beginning of this year. He said people often sleep in a near- by stairwell, which is sometimes used as a bathroom by others. The area had a strong smell of urine on Tuesday. He believes those challenges are why shoppers have stopped visiting the concourse. “It’s very slow,” said Jung. The rent subsidy will be considered by council’s property and development committee on March 7 and would require full council approval. A city staff report said the extend- ed absence of downtown workers has caused a “significant decline in sales” for those leasing businesses, with at least four retail units now vacant in the city’s walkway system, which includes the underground concourse and the downtown skywalk. “In an effort to retain the existing retail tenants and not expand the inven- tory of vacant space… the public ser- vice recommends that a rental waiver be approved,” the report states. Since March 2020, many skywalk and concourse businesses have endured closures, followed by a long stretch of reduced walkway hours, it notes, warning that has put some rents out of reach. “Requiring tenants to pay full market rent at a time when revenues are down could lead to small business bankruptcies and long-term vacancy issues within the city’s inner-city retail portfolio,” the report warns. The rent waiver would cost the city about $72,000 in lost fees, though other revenue is expected to offset that loss. Coun. Cindy Gilroy, who heads the city’s property committee, said she supports the motion. “There’s just not many people work- ing downtown and we don’t know when those numbers are going to come back. This would really relieve some of the people who are renting from us… Some people are really, really struggling right now,” said Gilroy. The councillor said the city and its taxpayers should also benefit by helping tenants stay put, since the pandemic has also made it a struggle to find new ones. “The six months will give us a little bit of time to help alleviate the stress of the business owners,” she said. joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga As is customary, one Cabinet secre- tary, in this case Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, was kept in a secure location during the address, ready to take over the government in the event of a catastrophe. In an interview with CNN and Reuters, Ukrainian President Volody- myr Zelensky said he urged Biden to deliver a strong and “useful” message about Russia’s invasion. In a show of unity, Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova joined first lady Jill Biden in the gallery. In a rare discordant moment, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado yelled out Biden was to blame for the 13 service members who were killed during last August’s chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. “You put them in. Thirteen of them,” Boebert yelled as Biden mentioned his late son Beau, a veteran who died from brain cancer and served near toxic military burn pits, used exten- sively in Iraq and Afghanistan. Biden is pursuing legislation to help veterans suffering exposure and other injuries. Rising energy prices as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine risk exacer- bating inflation in the U.S., which is already at the highest level in 40 years, eating into people’s earnings and threatening the economic recovery from the pandemic. And while the cri- sis in eastern Europe may have helped to cool partisan tensions in Washing- ton, it didn’t erase the political and cultural discord that is casting doubt on Biden’s ability to deliver. A February AP-NORC poll found that more people disapproved than approved of how Biden is handling his job, 55 per cent to 44 per cent. That’s down from a 60 per cent favourable rating last July. Ahead of the speech, White House officials acknowledged the mood of the country was “sour,” citing the lingering pandemic and inflation. Biden, used his remarks to highlight the progress from a year ago — with the majority of the U.S. population now vaccinated and millions more people at work — but also acknowledged that the job is not yet done, a recognition of American discontent. “I have come to report on the state of the union,” Biden said. “And my report is this: The state of the union is strong—because you, the American people, are strong. We are stronger today than we were a year ago. And we will be stronger a year from now than we are today.” Before Biden spoke, House Republi- cans said the word “crisis” describes the state of the union under Biden and Democrats — from an energy policy that lets Russia sell oil abroad to challenges at home over jobs and immigration. “We’re going to push the president to do the right thing,” said House Minori- ty Leader Kevin McCarthy. Biden also appealed for action on vot- ing rights, which has failed to win GOP support. And as gun violence rises, he returned to calls to ban assault weap- ons, a blunt request he hadn’t made in months. He called to “fund the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.” In addition, Biden led Congress in a bipartisan tribute to retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and pressed the Senate to confirm federal judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first Black woman on the high court to replace him. — The Associated Press Moments before Hoosli began to sing, True North delivered a mes- sage over the public address system: “During this devastating time of unrest, True North and the Winnipeg Jets express heartfelt support for Ukraine and for the more than 180,000 Ukrainian Canadians living in Manito- ba. We express our sadness for the loss, devastation and the continued threat to Ukraine. We join the world in its calls for peace.” That message and the response from everyone in the building means the world not only to Hoosli, but to everyone they know who has been affected by the war. “Many of us have family and friends in Ukraine that we’ve been in touch with over the last number of days,” said Hoosli chairman Christopher Sklepowich. “The message we get from them is that they hear us, they feed off of our support and something on this grand of a scale, that we feel will be seen around the world, is just our message amplified so that the people of Ukraine know that Canada is behind them.” taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca PHOTOS BY RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Seoul Nami Sushi owner Brad Park explains the challenges of staying afloat during COVID-19 with his business located in the concourse at Portage and Main. ‘It’s like a ghost town around here’: lottery kiosk owner Julia Ryu. A_02_Mar-02-22_FP_01.indd 2 2022-03-01 10:36 PM ;