Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 13, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba B2 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM Freeman said the plan does aim to better connect transit, though no details have been finalized. “No matter where we live, we share the same challenges, we want the same things. We want good jobs, we want to grow old in our communities, we want the water that we drink to be clean, we want our kids to stay here. That is what Plan 20-50 is.” For example, Freeman said goals to in- crease housing diversity could help folks stay in their home communities, such as by creating alternatives to single-family homes for those who need to downsize. “We’re talking about how we could plan communities wisely so people can stay in their communities as they age … It’s not about confining people to any one place,” said Freeman. She stressed metropolitan regional plans are already in place in many parts of Canada. A lack of coordination has prevented the Winnipeg area from at- tracting some businesses and some fed- eral funding, she said. “At its core, this is about attracting in- vestment.” Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham supports the plan. “The idea of having and establishing a regional plan where we, as municipal- ities, are working in co-operation is very critical. It’s critical so that we make good, wise decisions as to how we use our land,” said Gillingham. “This plan is not about restricting people’s freedoms,” he added. He said Winnipeggers should read the plan themselves to understand its goals, noting the work is mandated and led by the province. The planning document suggests “gentle density and compact commun- ities will ensure efficient use of existing infrastructure, preservation of natural areas, and protection of drinking water and agricultural lands” in the future, which would happen in a “subtle, incre- mental way.” Meanwhile, the City of Selkirk has re- peatedly asked the province to be exclud- ed from the regional plan over concerns it will take over its authority to make key decisions. “When you look at the capital planning region in legislation, it has sweeping powers. It is not just limited to land-use planning. It includes municipal servi- cing and oversight,” said Duane Nicol, Selkirk’s chief administrative officer. Freeman said the meeting postponed from Aug. 8 has not yet been resched- uled. A provincial government spokes- person declined comment, referring questions to the planning board. joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca X: @joyanne_pursaga FRENCH LANGUAGE SERVICES GET BUMP THE provincial and federal governments have signed a new five-year deal on French language services, with the annual federal contribution increasing by $576,704, to a total of $1,976,704. The new agreement runs from April 2023 to March 2028, a Manitoba government news release said Monday. It said the federal gov- ernment is matching provincial investments in a broad range of program areas and sectors that are priorities for Manitoba’s francophone communities. The agreement includes a new strategic work plan to build the bilingual capacity of the public service and enhance services in French. Areas being targeted for new and enhanced services include immigration, justice, health care, sport, recreation and wellness, social services, early childhood education, tourism, municipal services and public communi- cations. The strategic plan also contains a number of initiatives aimed at supporting the recruitment and retention of bilingual em- ployees in the public service, as well as new language training and professional develop- ment opportunities, the release said. WOMAN DIES AFTER COLLISION IN RIVER A Portage la Prairie woman was killed when a boat and a personal watercraft collided on the Whitemud River this weekend. RCMP were called at about 4:25 p.m. Satur- day after the crash north of Road 81 North in the Rural Municipality of Westlake-Gladstone. A boat with five people onboard travelling north on the river and a southbound Sea-Doo collided as they came around a bend in the river, police said in a news release Monday. The two injured people on the Sea-Doo were taken aboard the boat, which returned to a nearby campground to meet with emer- gency crews. The 39-year-old passenger on the personal watercraft was pronounced dead at the scene. The 31-year-old Portage la Prairie man oper- ating the Sea-Doo was transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Amaranth RCMP are investigating. CITY SEEKING TO FILL BOARD VACANCIES THE City of Winnipeg is accepting applications for positions on various boards and commis- sions. The deadline to apply is 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 18. Canadian citizens and permanent residents who live in Winnipeg are eligible to apply. They must be 18 or older on the application date. For more information, or to apply, go to http://wfp.to/boards. HIGHWAY CLOSED FOR MOVIE PRODUCTION HIGHWAY 3 will be closed between Highway 242 and Road 53 West from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. today because of a movie production. The area was closed for the same period Monday. The closures affect the community of La Rivière in southwestern Manitoba. TWO DEAD IN ROLLOVER, TWO CRITICALLY INJURED TWO people were killed and two others were in critical condition after a rollover crash on Provincial Road 287 south of Cormorant at about 4:20 p.m. Saturday. The driver of the vehicle lost control. The eastbound vehicle, with five people inside, went into a ditch and rolled. A 35-year-old man from Opaskwayak Cree Nation and a 36-year-old man from Prince Albert, Sask., were pronounced dead at the scene. The 39-year-old driver — an Opaskwayak man — and a 28-year-old woman from The Pas were transported to hospital and later air- lifted to Winnipeg with life-threatening injur- ies. Another passenger, a 25-year-old woman from The Pas, was treated and released. MAN CHARGED IN COMMERCIAL B&E SPREE A 38-year-old Winnipeg man has been charged in a series of commercial break-and- enters in the West End area since mid-June. An estimated $283,000 in property was stolen and $51,000 in damage was done between June 18 and Thursday. “Several stolen vehicles were used during this crime spree, many of which were stolen from the related commercial businesses,” the Winnipeg Police Service said in a news release. The man has been charged with 23 counts of breaking and entering, among other offences. He remains in custody. T HE cat came back but it took five years. A volunteer from Winnipeg Lost Cat Assistance, a group that tries to re- turn lost cats to their families, found Fluffy in a Winnipeg neighbourhood — nearly 250 kilometres from the Killar- ney home where he vanished — earlier this month. Rosanne Turski, the group member who found Fluffy, said she was shocked to find out how long the senior cat had been missing. “I’ve never lost a cat, so I couldn’t imagine what someone’s going through, first of all, when they lose a cat, and then searching and all these years go by,” Turski said. “Eventually, you probably think you’re never going to see them again. I’m sure that for the family it brings so much closure and so much happiness and excitement.” Turski, who has been with the group since 2019, saw a post on Facebook about a cat in the Weston neighbour- hood that didn’t seem to have an owner, and she decided to look for him. Within 10 minutes of going to the area, Turski said she spotted the grey long-haired cat. She called his name and he ran to her, rubbing against her legs. It didn’t take long to get him in a carrier and take him home to look for his owners, she added. Turski said she’s rescued many sen- ior cats before that don’t have anyone looking for them. Fluffy’s unique ear tattoo helped lo- cate his family, she said, noting the marking is in his left ear. Manitoba veterinarians generally place tattoos inside the right ear, so there was good chance the cat was originally from Al- berta or Saskatchewan, where the other ear is favoured. “The fact that there’s an owner or a family who is missing the cat and ready to open their arms back and take him back immediately is amazing,” Turski said. “It’s really heartwarming.” The cat was in fairly good condi- tion, Turski said. For that reason, she believes someone was looking after him for all or some of the time he was missing. Bella, her owner, was living in Killar- ney with her parents when Fluffy went missing. She said being reunited last week was like seeing a ghost. Bella asked that her last name not be used. In Killarney, Fluffy was allowed to go outside. One day, they let him out and he didn’t come back. Bella lives in Winnipeg now. She took Fluffy in and is getting him the vet care he needs to put on weight and make sure he’s healthy. She’s hoping to find a friend or family member to adopt him; she has two cats now. “I do want him to be an indoor cat be- cause he deserves it,” she said, adding Fluffy is nearly 14 years old. “He de- serves retirement.” As long as he’s warm, fed and safe, she said she figures he won’t care who takes him in. Fluffy’s story goes to show there is a possibility of finding a lost cat, even long after it disappears. jura.mcilraith@freepress.mb.ca NEWS I MANITOBA TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2024 IN BRIEF SUPPLIED Bella is reunited with her cat Fluffy after he went missing five years ago. JURA MCILRAITH Owner gets lost cat back — five years and 250 km later Manitoba to provide update on cellphones in classrooms MANITOBA, now the only western Canadian province without an over- arching cellphone ban in school class- rooms, said an update is coming. “Manitoba’s plan on cellphone use in classrooms will be revealed later this week,” Ryan Stelter, a spokesman for Premier Wab Kinew, said Monday in a statement. Manitoba became the only western Canadian province that has not intro- duced plans to restrict cellphones in schools following Saskatchewan’s deci- sion last week to ban the use of the de- vices in the upcoming school year. Saskatchewan’s policy applies to all kindergarten to Grade 12 classrooms, and followed announcements in Al- berta, B.C., Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia. The bans are designed to reduce distractions and help students focus in class. Manitoba’s education department said right now it is up to individual school divisions to develop and enforce technology use policies in their schools. But in a statement, the department said it is talking to stakeholders “to ensure that provincial curriculum and use-of-technology guidelines are up- dated to be responsive to current tech- nology-use patterns.” The Opposition Progressive Conserv- atives have already called for a prov- incewide ban. PC education critic Grant Jackson said he has heard from teachers who want policies in place so that they are not left to police these devices on their own in the classroom. The PCs would like to see a ban in place for kindergarten to Grade 8. “(Cellphones are) just the way of the world and I’m not saying go back in time. But I am saying that students need to be able to focus,” Jackson said in an interview. “I don’t think we’re setting our stu- dents up for success by allowing eight- and nine-year-olds to police themselves on their device use and that’s currently what’s going on.” Some school divisions have already imposed their own cellphone bans, with one taking the restriction of screen time even further. Manitoba’s francophone schools div- ision is set to restrict computer usage for elementary and middle school stu- dents starting this school year. It is di- recting teachers to limit screen time to no more than an hour a day while in the classroom. This follows the division’s decision to ban cellphones last year in all of its schools. “We focus on maintaining literacy on computers so that kids are up to par. But is it the right thing to be five hours in front of a screen all day? We believe not,” said division superintendent Alain Laberge. Teachers for the francophone div- ision’s 24 schools told administrators it has been challenging to make sure the students are on task each day, said La- berge. For the most part, Laberge said, staff and parents have been on board with the recent changes. There came some growing pains, such as substitute teachers not familiar with the changes or some students flouting the rules, but those eased with time, he said. The Hanover School Division in southern Manitoba embarked on a pilot project with one of their schools last year to see if a ban would be effective. The division spoke with principals, the school board and parent councils and found they were in favour of a div- ision-wide policy change for kinder- garten to Grade 8, which is set to begin this school year. Staff-reported behaviour in the school improved and there were fewer office referrals because of misuse of technology or problems that were oc- curring online, said Colin Campbell, Hanover’s assistant superintendent. The division found social media con- flict would spill into the classrooms causing a distraction for students and teachers and would cut into instruction and social time. — The Canadian Press Majority of provinces have curtailed phone use in class BRITTANY HOBSON Cat that went missing from Killarney turns up in city Manitoba health support workers set to vote on new deal that keeps them among worst paid in Canada, union says MANITOBA health-care support work- ers are among the lowest paid in Can- ada, data released by their union amid ongoing contract negotiations suggests. The Manitoba Government and Gen- eral Employees’ Union, which repre- sents about 6,500 health-care support workers in the Interlake-Eastern and Prairie Mountain health regions, pub- licized the federal labour market and provincial collective agreement data on health-care aide and other sup- port-worker wages Monday. The release of the figures comes ahead of a scheduled contract vote to- day through Thursday. Union president Kyle Ross said he thinks low wages make it difficult for the province to recruit workers in sup- port roles, playing a role in staff short- ages. “Right now, they’re doing more with less, there’s just not enough of them to do the work,” he said. The federal labour market numbers indicate that Manitoba has the lowest hourly rate for the most senior health- care aides, at $22 an hour, compared to the other provinces and territories. Provincial wages for aides at the bot- tom of the scale — $15.30 an hour — are equivalent to those in New Brunswick. Median wages for health-care aides in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are also low- er than Manitoba’s $19.23 hourly rate, federal figures show, but other prov- inces and territories median wages are higher. The union suggested that with the new contract offer, health-care aide wages are projected to remain the low- est, assuming wage increases rise just 2.5 per cent in other provinces where bargaining is ongoing. Based on a review of collective agreements elsewhere in the country, starting hourly wages for facility jobs, including housekeeping, laundry and dietary aides, as well as cleaners and maintenance workers, are the lowest among the provinces. Ross said the province should ensure wages are competitive, adding he’s heard from union members who work other part-time jobs on top of their health-support roles to make ends meet. “(Health care) is no longer an employ- er of choice and if we want a strong, robust public health-care system, we need workers to provide that service to Manitobans,” he said. “When we’re paying the same wages you could make working at McDon- ald’s… and those (health-care) jobs take special people, and they’re going to take those easier jobs, because work- ing in health care is hard.” The workers will either vote to accept the latest offer from the province or reject it to give their bargaining com- mittees a strike mandate. Results are expected to be made public Thursday. Ross said MGEU is continuing to bar- gain. “We’ll go back to the table and work with government to find something that’s fair,” he said. The provincial government directed a request for comment on the figures to Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara’s office. A spokeswoman declined comment while collective bargaining continues. erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca ERIK PINDERA REGIONAL ● FROM B1 ;