Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 24, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba ADVANCING HEALTHCARE Turn Waiting into Healing Double Your Impact thanks to: Donate today at: TheVicFoundation.ca/Healing SCAN TO DONATE for 4 months 4.60 % * LIMITED-TIME OFFER when you open a Promotional Daily Growth Savings Account. * Conditions apply. SCU.MB.CA/DAILYSAVINGS A SECOND company has its sights on mining silica sand in southern Manitoba — this time, near La Salle. Consultants for Silex Resource Corp. plan to hold an open house about the proposed project in the Rural Munici- pality of Macdonald on Wednesday. Donovan Toews, managing partner of Landmark Planning and Design, which is the consultant on the Silex project, said they want to inform resi- dents at this early stage. “They haven’t done anything except the research to know that this is a very good location to look for silica,” Toews said. “It’s there, it’s just a matter of tak- ing samples at this stage and testing the quality. That’s the objective, and that’s as far as we are going for now. Let’s get the samples and see how good it is.” Highly pure silica has many uses, including in the manufacture of semiconductors for electronics, solar panels, batteries and wind turbines. Toews said the company started in Alberta, but if the project gets off the ground, it will move its offices to Manitoba. The open house will allow residents to view proposed drilling test sites. It has 13 claims of between 40 to 60 acres in size, but its initial testing will be in a large area south of La Salle and Landmark. “It’s exciting,” Toews said. “Mani- toba does have a resource almost no other place has… it is needed for just about everything, from cellphones to everything else, and we get it from places like Argentina and China. And we have it right here.” The other proposed sand mine, spearheaded by Sio Silica in the RM of Springfield, east of Winnipeg, was shot down by the provincial government after community opposition. People feared the sand mine would pollute the aquifer that supplies their well water. THE Kinew government is applying for a special designation to put its growing francophone community on the map and tap into new markets in French-speaking countries across the world. Manitoba’s “truly bilingual province” consultations wrapped up on Oct. 31. Francophone Affairs Minister Glen Simard is reviewing six months of oral and written feedback from Manitobans about what they want their province to sound like. “What we’re hearing is people want to live their lives in French, and they want it to be easier,” Simard said in a phone interview Sunday. The minister spoke to the Free Press, in both English and French, from his constituency of Brandon East. He was scheduled to meet with francophone community leaders in the evening before heading back to Winni- peg to start the work week. Simard’s office is creating a com- prehensive roadmap to bolster local French-language services and cultures. The government’s immediate actions include submitting an application to join l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, also known as OIF, a group with 90 affiliates. Canada, New Brunswick and Quebec are among its 53 members — a title only given to governments with legis- lation enshrining French as an official language. Manitoba wants to join OIF as an ob- server “to be at the table,” Simard said, noting Ontario and Nova Scotia are the only two Canadian provinces with that special title. “It’s really important to be able to increase those diplomatic ties — wheth- er it’s for commerce, immigration, partnerships,” the MLA for Brandon East said. SERVING MANITOBA SINCE 1872 PROUDLY CANADIAN MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2025 TODAY’S WEATHER MAINLY SUNNY. HIGH 3 — LOW -4 SPORTS JETS LACKING CONSISTENCY / C1 Province eyes francophone designation ‘to be at the table’ MAGGIE MACINTOSH ● FRANCOPHONE, CONTINUED ON A2 JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS READY FOR HIS CARNIVAL CLOSEUP Everett gets face-painted by Buttons the clown during the Holiday Carnival for Kidz at the RBC Convention Centre Sunday. Nearly 150 children who are battling a life-threatening, debilitating or chronic illness were treated to an indoor midway, K-pop, princesses and Santa Claus. MAGGIE MACINTOSH MANITOBANS who’ve experienced meth-induced psychosis and health- care workers have signed a petition to ensure drug-related detentions are “a last resort.” More than 200 people gathered on the legislative grounds Sunday to call for reforms to newly unveiled detox facilities built to hold people for up to 72 hours if they are causing a distur- bance in public. “Do people in custody get access to phones? Do they get a shower? Are they going to be allowed to call the people they love — the people who can offer hope, grounding and a reason to fight for recovery?” organizer Monica Ballantyne told the crowd. “Connection is not a luxury. It’s a lifeline.” Ballantyne collected signatures to lobby the province to ensure there is oversight, including independent re- views of detentions and public report- ing on outcomes, related to Bill 48. The Protective Detention and Care of Intoxicated Persons Act passed on Nov. 5. It received royal assent the next day. The NDP government has billed the changes as necessary to address the meth crisis and alleviate pressure on emergency rooms. “Our government is making sure people suffering from addiction who are a danger to themselves and others are stabilized,” Bernadette Smith, minister of housing, addictions and homeless- ness, said in a Nov. 5 news release. Smith said these people will not be criminalized but rather provided with “appropriate care and treatment options.” Chelsea Smith said she was “really taken aback” to learn the minister and Premier Wab Kinew have endorsed this approach. She held up a sign that likened the NDP’s new drug policy to “HUMAN RIGHTS WABBERY.” Other attendees used the slogan, “Care not cages!” Rally urges reforms for new 72-hour drug detox detention ● DETENTION, CONTINUED ON A2 KEVIN ROLLASON Second silica sand mine proposed for southern Manitoba Company planning to start drilling for samples at test sites near La Salle ● MINE, CONTINUED ON A2 ;