Winnipeg Free Press

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Get Ready For on the Historic Red River Age-In-Place Living 50 Ridgecrest Avenue, Winnipeg, MB • Weekly Dance Parties • Transportation for Scheduled Outings and Medical Appointments • 24/7 Care & Support All the Independence with a little Extra Care & Support At Your Service: • Weekly Light Housekeeping • Staff 24/7 • Pet Friendly • Wellness Checks • Home-Cooked meals in our Full Service Dining Room • Month to Month Leases Gracious Retirement Living Assisted Living Join Our Waitlist Today! Call Lori at Where Caring is Our Number One Concern™ www.allseniorscare.com FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2025 A4 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I PROVINCE Project to cost $100M, previous option scrapped after community opposition Carberry overpass set for 2030 C ARBERRY — An overpass on the Trans-Canada Highway north of Carberry will be completed by 2030 and cost $100 million, Premier Wab Kinew announced Thursday. Construction on the intersection at Highway 5 will start in 2027 and take 2.5 years to complete, Kinew told about 50 people at the Carberry Community Memorial Hall. “We heard loud and clear the re- sponse,” Kinew said. “Now we’re back here with something that we think fits the bill.” The crowd gave the premier a stand- ing ovation. The decision to build an overpass, announced in Tuesday’s throne speech, was made after the community de- manded the government scrap its pre- ferred option of a restricted crossing U-turn, or RCUT. Residents said it would be confusing for drivers and dif- ficult to navigate. “Hopefully, this is proof that we lis- ten,” Kinew said. Design work must be completed which is why construction won’t start until 2027, he said, adding the overpass could be completed as early as 2029. “We’re very, very confident that we can do this in a way that’s going to guarantee safety, guarantee usability, for you, the folks who use it,” Kinew said. The intersection has been a focal point of safety concerns since June 2023, when a bus full of seniors from the Dauphin area, headed to the Sand Hills Casino south of Carberry, was hit by a semi-truck. Seventeen seniors were killed. Debra Steen, one of the people who opposed the RCUT, said she never real- ly thought the community would get an overpass. “This means the world. We’re beyond happy,” Steen said. “They listened, they heard us and they’re putting in the safest alternative.” The RCUT was a “recipe for disas- ter,” she said, adding the overpass is the best way to reduce the chance of an collision caused by human error. Kinew thanked the community for its input at several open houses, which at times included residents yelling at provincial staff and consultants who pitched the RCUT model. Residents also held a rally near the intersection in May and gathered more than 2,100 signatures in opposition to the RCUT. Kinew scrapped the RCUT in July, saying the province would take a fresh look at the project. The RCUT design would have forced drivers heading straight or turning left from Highway 5 to turn right before crossing over three lanes and making a U-turn 900 metres later. Drivers turning left from the Trans-Canada would have been able to turn at the intersection. It would have been the second RCUT built in Canada. Kinew said Thursday the overpass and RCUT are similar in terms of safe- ty, although the RCUT would have cost $20 million. “When that RCUT was dismissed, or maybe identified by the community as not being the right fit, that left one op- tion in terms of safety,” Kinew said. Kinew told reporters an overpass is in a “whole other category of increased safety,” compared to traffic lights or a widened median. He said he “would love” the federal government to help pay for the project. “No federal commitment today, but the hope is that we’ll be able to work together,” he said. Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor said details of the project still have to be ironed out. She wasn’t able to answer if the access roads next to the highway would be af- fected. The province will buy pieces of land next to the intersection from owners at “fair market value,” Naylor said. “It’s fair to say there will be some dis- ruption during construction … but it’s a short-term pain for long-term gain.” Carberry Mayor Ray Muirhead said the entire community is thankful for the overpass. “I firmly believe this overpass will save lives,” Muirhead said. “This is big time for our community.” Muirhead said he remembers advo- cating to the province for an overpass in 1989 when he became a councillor. Ray Drayson, reeve of the Rural Municipality of North Cypress-Lang- ford, where the intersection is locat- ed, called the overpass a “big time improvement.” It also shows that the province took notice of the community’s opposition, he said. “They’ve heard the community on this, and they’ve listened,” Drayson said. — Brandon Sun ALEX LAMBERT TIM SMITH / BRANDON SUN Premier Wab Kinew and Carberry Mayor Ray Muirhead after Kinew announced plans for an overpass at Highway 5 and the Trans-Canada Highway, near Carberry. Muirhead says the project is ‘big time for our community’ and believes it will save lives. Union slams province for wildly inflated paramedic stats THE provincial government is walking back numbers suggesting Manitoba had a net gain of hundreds of paramedics in recent years, sparking outrage from the union representing such profession- als in rural regions. Following a news conference to intro- duce a direct-entry paramedicine pro- gram at Red River College Polytechnic on Wednesday, a provincial spokes- person told the Free Press 231 net new paramedics joined provincial ranks since October 2023. The province corrected that figure in a statement Thursday, saying “the pre- vious number was provided in error.” “From October 2023 to September 2025 we have added 18 net new para- medics to our province. This counts only full-time or part-time employees who are employed by Shared Health and serve rural and northern Manitoba. These 18 paramedics are part of the 401 net new allied health professionals who have been added to the province since October 2023.” Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals president Jason Linkla- ter, whose union represents all para- medics in rural Manitoba, said he was baffled and frustrated by the mistake. “Paramedics were shocked to hear the Province of Manitoba providing wildly inaccurate and misleading infor- mation on a matter of life and death for Manitobans,” Linklater said in a state- ment. “The fact that the government made an announcement about paramedics without having accurate information at hand underscores the need for a thorough and transparent allied health workforce plan that shows vacancies, turnover rates, future staffing needs and clear steps to address the staffing crisis.” The NDP government pledged during the 2023 election to add 200 new para- medics before the end of its first term. tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca TYLER SEARLE ;