Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 6, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba WINNIPEG’S new water bus service embarked on its maiden voyage Sunday, marking the first time the Red and Assiniboine rivers have been used for transit in six years. Will Belford, co-owner of Winnipeg Waterways, estimated as many as 300 passengers tested out his company’s transportation service throughout the day. “I think our numbers were beefed-up a little from folks who were here at The Forks and hopped on just for the fun of it but I can confirm there were legit- imate transit users going from one stop to another,” Belford said in an interview Monday. “One thing you get on the water that you don’t get on the land bus, as we call it, is the chance to see some fawns and beaver and just enjoy nature. When you’re down on the dock and on the boat, you are transported to a different place. You are in Winnipeg but you are in it at a different level.” Winnipeg Waterways and The Forks have partnered on the water bus service, with the latter providing two boats for the company to operate. In total, the business’ fleet includes six boats, two of which are dedicated to providing transit services from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on weekdays and 3:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily. The buses run every 15 minutes, with a live online map showing their location at all times. Stops include docks at The Forks, Hugo, Norwood, Stephen Juba Park, the Manitoba Legislative Build- ing, the Assiniboine river walk at the Midtown Bridge and the Esplanade Riel. Each boat can carry a maximum of 12 people. Pets and bicycles are permitted on board, space permit- ting. Belford and his business partner, Griffin Hewitt, developed the schedule and bus route after surveying around 1,800 Winnipeggers before launching Winni- peg Waterways back in May. “Overwhelmingly, folks said they would use (the bus service) for recreation in the afternoon hours but we wanted to push the envelope and offer it during commuter hours as well,” Belford said of the survey results. “We want this to be transit, and we have to live in the future today for it to work… We can’t wait until there are people on the dock, stamping their feet and saying, ‘Let us ride in the morning’ — we have to pro- vide it and allow people to show up.” The pair now operates the only water bus service in the city. The new company is headquartered at The Forks and has been running boat tours since the May long weekend. Belford planned to introduce the bus service earlier this summer but the high amount of rainfall affected water levels and postponed the start date. He said he hopes the service will expand to include more stops in future years, saying providing more transportation near Tache and Osborne streets would be ideal. For now, the company is focusing on getting the word out about the service. “We really see this year as a re-building, re-educat- ing, proof-of-concept year to just get back in the mix,” Belford said. tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca TUESDAY AUGUST 6, 2024 ● ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM SECTION B CONNECT WITH WINNIPEG’S NO. 1 NEWS SOURCE ▼ CITY ● BUSINESS NDP not getting to root cause of rising ER wait times M ANITOBA’S NDP government has been in office nine months and still can’t figure out how to reduce emergency-room wait times. Cutting ER wait times was one of the NDP’s key campaign promises leading up to last year’s provincial election. De- spite several announcements in recent months aimed at speeding up access to ER physicians and nurse practitioners, wait times have increased. According to new statistics released by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Thursday, the median wait time for ERs and urgent-care centres in Winnipeg increased to 3.6 hours in June from 3.52 hours the previous month. It’s up from 2.87 hours in June 2023. It’s the same for the longest wait time for nine out of 10 patients (referred to as the 90th percentile). By that mea- surement, wait times increased to 9.83 hours in June, up from 9.49 hours the previous month. It was 7.37 hours in June 2023. The main reason ER wait times con- tinue to rise is because government and health authorities are not addressing the core problem: a lack of overall capacity at hospitals. That causes bottlenecks in emergency departments, which ER physicians refer to as “access block.” When there aren’t enough staffed hos- pital beds available on medical wards, admitted patients languish sometimes for days in ER hallways waiting for a bed. The more admitted patients there are waiting in ER hallways, the less time emergency-room physicians have to see new patients, and wait times increase. But instead of tackling that issue — which is complex and expensive — the government has been focusing primar- ily on trying to divert low-acuity pa- tients from ERs to minor-injury clinics or other non-acute care facilities. As expected, it hasn’t worked. That’s because study after study has shown diverting low-acuity patients from ERs to clinics has little, if any, impact on wait times. It makes for good sound bites be- cause, intuitively, it seems like a good idea: get low-acuity patients out of ERs and free up resources for more-acute patients. But that’s not what causes backlogs in ERs. Admitted ER patients who can’t access staffed beds on medi- cal wards are the main drivers. But solving that problem is a lot more difficult than expanding clinics. Gov- ernment can’t add more hospital beds overnight because experienced health- care professionals are required to staff them. And those front-line workers, including nurses, are in short supply. TOM BRODBECK OPINION ● BRODBECK, CONTINUED ON B2 PHOTOS BY JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Winnipeg Waterways returned water-bus services to the city’s rivers after six years this weekend with scheduled daily routes between 3:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Anchors aweigh TYLER SEARLE Water bus service launches on Red and Assiniboine The operators of Winnipeg Waterways estimate as many as 300 passengers tested out the service over its inaugural weekend. A group of pro-Palestine protesters is planning to demonstrate outside the Israel Folklorama pavilion this week as war wages on in the Middle Eastern states. Supporters of Palestine have pro- tested outside the Israel pavilion sev- eral times in previous years but the upcoming protests come at a time of heightened tensions between the cul- tural groups. “We are aware of the demonstrations that are scheduled,” Jewish Federation of Winnipeg chief executive officer Jeff Lieberman wrote in an email statement. “These demonstrations occur every year and they have always been peace- ful without any disruption to the Israel Pavilion. We expect that the demonstra- tions will be the same as in previous years.” Lieberman did not say whether sec- urity measures have been heightened this year but he noted the Israel pavil- ion, like all pavilions, has a security plan in place. While each pavilion is responsible for developing health, safety and security plans, Folklorama employs policies to guide the process, said Kathleen Mason, the festival’s communications director. “With an event as large in size and scope as the Folklorama festival, we take the safety and security of all fes- tival-goers, volunteers and staff ser- iously,” Mason wrote in an email. “In any given year, our Festival Oper- ations team meets with the Winnipeg Police Service and third-party security services to ensure any security con- cerns are addressed and mitigated ap- propriately.” Folklorama works with a safety management company to develop best-practice recommendations for fes- tival participants. Pavilions that have late-night party components are man- dated to have third-party security as per Folklorama policy, Mason said. Mason noted Folklorama also has official policies to ensure pavilions re- main apolitical and culturally respect- ful. “We would credit a large part of Folk- lorama’s ongoing success, now in its 53rd edition, on the adherence to these policies as well as operating with an idealism that actively focuses on com- ing together to embrace and celebrate cultures from around the world,” she said. There is no Palestine pavilion at Folk- lorama but Mason said all ethno-cultur- al communities interested in partici- pating in the festival are encouraged to reach out. In 2022, the long-running Russian pavilion cancelled its participation in the festival in protest of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The two countries remain at war, and the pavilion has not returned in the years since. Ramsey Zeid, president of the Can- adian Palestinian Association of Mani- toba, confirmed the demonstrations will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Wednes- day and Thursday outside the Asper Jewish Community Campus on Doncas- ter Street. tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca Folklorama prepares for planned Israel pavilion protest TYLER SEARLE JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Police were at the Israel pavilion at the Asper Jewish Community Campus Monday. Pavilion organizers expect peaceful demonstration ;