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The provincial government announced the second phase of their healthcare plan.
Nurse practitioners could replace ER doctors in some rural communities.
Wab Kinew, leader of Manitoba’s NDP was quick to share his disappointment.
“Basically, what you saw with them closing emergency rooms in Winnipeg and all the chaos that created for Winnipeg emergency rooms, it now looks like they are trying to ship that outside of the perimeter to communities across rural Manitoba.”
Kinew’s major concern is the ER’s that stay open, such as Dauphin’s, could see a major uptake in patients and might cause problems and increase wait times. Kinew says the conservatives didn’t take the time to learn from the mistakes they made in closing Winnipeg emergency rooms.
“What I mean by that is they didn’t stop to talk to the nurses and healthcare aids who said things were going off the rails. Before having done that they’re now trying to move ahead with this plan that will close emergency departments in rural Manitoba, probably in Westman and the Parkland.”
The province is investing 2 billion dollars in Manitoba’s healthcare system over the next four years, 250 million will go towards initiatives to improve access to services and reduce waitlists for Manitoba patients.
Kinew would’ve done some things a little differently.
“There should be investments made in prevention, preventing heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Let’s keep people healthy in the community and then when you see people have better health, and then you could look at changes to clinics and things like that. But here we’re seeing the government do the exact opposite. They’re trying to make the changes on the clinical level without actually having done anything to make people healthier.”
Over the next five years, the plan is expected to move 21,000 days of care away from Winnipeg’s acute facilities and back into local communities across the province, prevent the need for 2,500 patient transports to Winnipeg, as rural facilities are better equipped to provide care, give all Manitobans access to lab results via a new secure patient service portal, eliminating the need to travel to doctors and specialists to retrieve those results, provide 50,000 additional in-person home care visits while modernizing the system to provide more and better care, provide 800 Manitobans with access to remote monitoring of their chronic conditions, allowing them to remain in the community, closer to home, and extend Manitoba’s acute care electronic record system to 800,000 patients, enabling health-care providers to have a clear and consistent understanding of their patients’ care requirements.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
A six-year-old from the Sandy Bay First Nation is recovering from being hit by a semi-trailer truck while boarding a school bus.
It happened on Highway 50 yesterday morning and left Leland Campbell with bumps and bruises.
The RCMP say the bus's flashing lights and stopping arm were activated when the truck either hit the boy or came close enough to knock him off his feet, causing injuries.
The 48-year-old man driving the truck has been charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
If you’re looking to finish off your Christmas shopping, you will have the perfect chance this weekend.
Weekend Madness is taking over the town, with businesses staying open later and offering sweet deals to help you scratch off everyone on your list.
Stephen Chychota, the Executive Director of the Dauphin and District Chamber of Commerce says the weekend is a great experience.
“It’s an opportunity where people can go out, be out into businesses at later hours, have those businesses open a lot later, having those special deals that really get people excited and coming out for their holiday shopping,” said Chychota.
Stores participating in the event include Dauphin Music and Electronics, Reit-Syd Equipment, Dauphin Speed n’ Sport, Super Thrifty Dauphin, Dauphin Decorating Centre, and Nutters Everyday Naturals.
The weekend will also feature the Dauphin Christmas Parade of Lights on Saturday starting at 5:30 pm.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
The Manitoba Government is proposing legislation that adds flexibility to Manitoban’s pensions.
The proposed changes are based on recommendations from the Pension Commission and online feedback.
The more notable changes allow those with money in Manitoba locked-in accounts to unlock funds under certain financial hardships such as medical costs, allow those aged 65 or older to fully unlock their Manitoba locked-in accounts for greater ability to manage their own retirement funds, and allow parties to split pension assets up to 50 per cent based on their circumstances in the event of a relationship breakdown instead of the current format of a 50-50 split or no division.
Right now, employers are required to fund on the basis that 100 per cent of the funds are available to cover obligations of a defined benefit pension plan, should the pension plan terminate and the employer is required to immediately pay out members’ benefits. To reduce the burden on businesses, that would change to 85 per cent.
Employers will be subject to stronger funding requirements on the basis the plan continues to operate indefinitely.
Other proposed changes are removing the requirement for the commission to approve requests for one-time 50 per cent unlocking of a person’s pension funds, in order to reduce red tape, introduce small modernization measures to reduce administrative inefficiencies, and relax the solvency funding rules for a defined benefit pension plan while still providing a level of protection for members’ benefits.
Finance Minister Scott Fielding says these changes are similar to that of other provinces.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
A five-year-old is dead after a house fire early Thursday morning in McCreary.
At 1:40 a.m., Ste. Rose Du Lac RCMP responded to a report of a house fire on 4th Avenue, in McCreary.
Initial reports from witnesses indicated that the house was fully engulfed in flames and that there were people trapped inside.
A 28-year-old female was taken to the hospital with serious injuries while a 3-year-old child was rescued and taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The RCMP, along with the Office of the Fire Commissioner continues to investigate.
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- Contributed by Darnell Duff
Wintery precipitation is coming to the Parkland and is expected to last until Sunday.
A Colorado low will cross the northern plains and with it will be periods of snow and freezing drizzle.
Long periods of freezing drizzle, leading to icy sidewalks and roads are very possible.
Most areas will experience a mix of precipitation until late Saturday when it will shift to snow.
We won’t face the worst of the storm as the heaviest snow and strongest winds will be experienced in the US in the Dakotas.
Areas near the US – Canada border could see more than 10 cm of snow.
The storm will be gone from the area by the middle of Sunday.
The communities under the weather statement are:
- Gilbert Plains Mun. incl. Ashville
- Grandview Mun. incl. Valley River Res.
- Mossey River Mun. incl. Winnipegosis and Fork River
- Mun. of Ethelbert incl. Garland
- Mun. of Roblin incl. Makaroff Shortdale and Bield
- Mun. of Russell-Binscarth incl. Gambler Res.
- R.M. of Dauphin incl. Sifton and Valley River
- R.M. of Lakeshore incl. Ochre River and Makinak
- R.M. of Lakeshore incl. Rorketon and Toutes Aides
- R.M. of Riding Mountain West incl. Asessippi Prov. Park
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
On Wednesday at around 12:45, Dauphin RCMP responded to a farm accident near the intersection of Road 114 West and Road 168 North, in the RM of Dauphin.
A 40-year-old male, from the RM of Dauphin, was caught in a large piece of farming equipment and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Workplace Safety and Health has been advised.
RCMP continue to investigate.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Travis Stewart and Sharon Basaraba are the 2 new town councillors in Gilbert Plains after Wednesday's by-election.
Stewart received 187 votes and Basaraba got 161.
The third candidate, Steven Perih, came in 3rd with 131 votes.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Five of Manitoba’s commodity groups are discussing the possibility of amalgamating their organizations.
The Manitoba Corn Growers Association, Manitoba Flax Growers Association, the National Sunflower Association of Canada, Winter Cereals Manitoba, and the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association are proposing to become the Manitoba Crop Alliance.
Before officially merging, members of the five organizations will vote in-person at each organization’s AGMs at CropConnect in February.
Darcelle Graham, executive director of the National Sunflower Association of Canada, says that the vote must be “all or none”, meaning that each organization needs to have two-thirds of their members present at the AGMs to vote in favour of the amalgamation for it to go forward.
Graham says that the idea for the organizations to merge just made sense.
“Growers grow more than one crop, so they’re not just a member of a single organization, they are likely members of at least two or more organizations currently,” said Graham. “The goal is to bring members together, and look at developing a working relationship that would be efficient, effective, and advantageous for our farmer members.”
Producers looking to learn more about the process and procedures of the amalgamation before the AGM can take in an online webinar meeting on Thursday, December 12.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Manitoba Public Insurance is establishing an independent Claim Dispute Tribunal to speed up the appeal process.
Physical damage claim issues and liability disputes for customers will be resolved quickly with the CDT.
The CDT will not be handling bodily injury appeals.
MPI expects the CDT to be fully operational in late 2020.
Claimants won’t have to worry about knowing whether or not they can go the CDT because MPI will let them know if the decision is eligible for a CDT review.
Decisions will be rendered within 90 days in most cases.
MPI currently deals with about 200 thousand physical damage claims each year and based on the current amount of disputes, the CDT is anticipated to review about 700 applications per year.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
1.9 million dollars is being invested annually to expand the RCMP’s crime reduction and enforcement teams.
The goal of this move is to improve public safety for rural Manitobans.
Serious, prolific offenders and drug dealers are the focus of crime reduction teams.
The four member team in the north is receiving funding to expand to six members, while funding will be used to create two new teams of five members in the east and west districts.
Funding will also add four members to the D Division Enforcement Team, that targets criminal organizations and street gangs that traffic drugs and guns in Manitoba.
The RCMP has almost 1000 sworn police officers across Manitoba.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
