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The provincial government announced today that through the Manitoba Restart Program, $4.4 million will be going to Brandon to create a new detention facility as an add on to the Brandon Police Service headquarters.
Justice Minister Cliff Cullen made the announcement saying they’re supporting the construction of new or enhancement of existing police detention facilities.
“Our government is committed to the safety of all Manitobans including safe conditions for detainees and the staff operating these facilities.”
The money in Brandon will be used to construct modular cells at the Brandon Police Station to address demand in the interim period while the designing and construction of the permanent structure take place.
The funding is being provided to ensure the BPS has a facility with the appropriate capacity to support their police agency.
The minister announced the province has also provided almost $200,000 to the Brandon Police this year through the Criminal Property Forfeiture Fund for training and equipment upgrades, noting $25,000 of the funding was shared with the Brandon Bear Clan organization to purchase a van for their operations.
$3.5 million is also going to the Winnipeg Police Service to facilitate updates to its Central Processing Unit.
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Parents will have an opportunity to ask questions and get answers from Mountain View School Division officials tomorrow evening.
MVSD Superintendent Dan Ward says the town hall will get started at 6:30 pm.
"Our assistant superintendent will receive questions and certainly parents, community members, and students can ask questions throughout the evening. It'll start off with a short presentation, it'll cover such things as what school's likely going to look like, we'll talk a little about what a cohort means, we'll present the new pandemic response system and how that applies to schools, we'll talk about the school year and how things may change."
Ward anticipates a lot of participants will be there just to listen and learn.
"If a question kinda pops into their head from the discussion, they may put it in the chat or ask a question live and hopefully we'll be able to provide an answer, or direct them to where an answer can be found. So, I think that's generally the goal and the plan is to have future meetings like this as well when things develop."
Ward hopes to have another town hall at some point in September.
The meeting will be hosted on Zoom, at the following URL:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82392735106?pwd=KzNLT1kyaUxNM1htU1AzVW9yOU5wdz09
You do not need to pre-register, but the meeting on Wednesday evening does require this password: 008939.
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There is some frustration in Roblin over the decision to relocate some diagnostic and emergency services out of town.
Volunteers with the Roblin Clinic Board took it upon themselves to begin recruiting more lab technicians, in response to concerns that their diagnostic and emergency services could be shut down due to staff shortages.
Sean Keeler, the board’s president, says they found an x-ray technician and a lab technician who were interested in moving to Roblin.
Despite the board’s attempt to fill the positions in Roblin, they were told by health authorities that the priority for seven vacant positions would be given to Russell and Shoal Lake, before Roblin.
The emergency department in Roblin will be shut down until further notice as of Friday, September 4, at 4 p.m. This follows the news from last week that two lab technicians from Roblin are being relocated to the Russell Health Centre.
A release from Prairie Mountain Health states a number of clinical services remain available at the Roblin District Health Centre, including in-patient care. Diagnostic services such as ultrasounds, ECG exams and phlebotomy (lab sample collection, including blood samples) are also available. Hours of operation in Roblin will be 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday to Friday.
Manitoba NDP leader Wab Kinew will be in Roblin on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. holding a socially distanced town hall with local residents upset over the provincial government's decision to move diagnostic services out of the community. CKDM reporters will be there to hear more from Kinew.
CKDM has reached out to Prairie Mountain Health for comment.
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The Manitoba government is seeking feedback from the public on some proposed measures to combat rural crime and metal theft.
A new online questionnaire was announced Monday by Justice Minister Cliff Cullen.
Cullen says while the province will definitely be consulting with law enforcement on the issue, the government have launched the questionnaire “to hear from people in rural, northern and remote areas, as well as other Manitobans, about their experiences with crime, so we can ensure the justice system responds to their needs.”
The Justice Minister also said the province is also considering whether to adopt legislation from other provinces to improve Manitoba’s trespass laws and discourage stolen metal sales.
Manitobans can provide their feedback through the public engagement questionnaire at EngageMB until Oct. 31.
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Public health officials announced 28 new cases of COVID-19 in their Monday update, and are reintroducing some travel restrictions to northern Manitoba communities.
The province says the increased number of cases in southern Manitoba is why public health will be reimplementing travel restrictions to northern Manitoba and remote communities, effective Thursday, September 3.
Chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin also asked Manitobans to respect any travel restrictions that First Nation communities may have in place.
The 28 cases announced on Monday include 13 in the Prairie Mountain Health, with two in the Interlake-Eastern health region, six in the Southern Health region, and 7 cases in Winnipeg.
This brings the province to a total of 1,214 cases.
There are 469 active cases in Manitoba. The Brandon health district is home to 168 active cases.
None of Monday's cases are in the Dauphin health district, where there have been a total of 7 cases, all of which are recovered.
The number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 14.
Public health officials are advising of a possible exposure at the Frederickson Performance Centre, Unit F-1212 18th St. in Brandon on Aug. 17 from 7 to 8:30 a.m. and Aug. 23 from 9 to 10:30 a.m. While the risk of transmission is considered low, information is being provided to help people assess their risk and seek testing if symptoms appear.
Case investigations indicate that of the three cases identified at the Assiniboine Centre at the Brandon Regional Health Centre, two of the individuals were health-care workers and one is a patient. At this time, it appears the patient contracted the virus at the facility.
For up-to-date information on COVID-19 in Manitoba, click here.
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The RCMP is following the advice of public health and are providing front-line staff with non-medical masks.
The masks will be worn by officers on duty in situations where personal protective equipment (PPE) is not required but where physical distancing may be difficult to maintain.
Police are acknowledging that some people may be uncomfortable being approached by a police officer with a mask on, and say the public may ask to see police identification, when it’s safe to do so.
For this reason, RCMP officers will be carrying one, or all, of the following with them:
· RCMP badge
· RCMP photo identification
· RCMP name tag on their uniform
· RCMP business cards with detachment phone numbers to verify their identity
RCMP say that in most situations, the officer you are interacting with will be able to provide you with identification or information to verify that they are an RCMP officer.
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US-based Novavax and the Canadian government have reached an agreement to supply the country with up to 76 million doses of a possible vaccine for COVID-19.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement this morning in Montreal.
Novavax’s vaccine is in preliminary trials in the US and Australia and needs to pass safety reviews then be approved by Health Canada.
The vaccine is in its second phase of clinical trials and is set to enter the third phase in September.
The 76 million doses of the vaccine in the contract would almost be enough to give every Canadian 2 doses.
This is the third deal that the Canadian government has made with COVID-19 vaccine developers.
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The emergency department in Roblin will be shut down until further notice as of Friday, September 4.
Some community members are now expressing their concerns, with this news coming just days after the announcement that Roblin’s lab staff were being relocated to Russell to address staff shortages.
The suspension of emergency department services goes into effect at 4 p.m. on September 4.
In a press release, Prairie Mountain Health CEO, Penny Gilson, says "we acknowledge the community has concerns about this impact on local service and that has been reflected in the number of emails and phone calls we have already received.” Gilson added that ultimately the decision was made to “temporarily direct community members in need of urgent care to other facilities in the area."
In the event of a health emergency, health officials are advising community members to call 911, or make the 30 minute trip to the emergency department in Russell or Grandview.
A Shared Health spokesperson said in an email that services are being “temporarily consolidated at Russell Health Centre due to a number of staff vacancies throughout the area”. The spokesperson added that recruitment to fill these positions is ongoing.
At this time there are still several clinical services that will continue at the Roblin District Health Centre. This includes in-patient care, diagnostic services like ultrasounds, ECG exams and lab sample collection.
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- Contributed by Matt Hamel
The Progressive Conservative government is announcing more than $50 million in water and waste infrastructure as part of the #RestartMB Program, and some of that money will be making its way to the Parkland.
In Grandview, the Water and Wastewater Renewal project will receive some funding, along with two water infrastructure projects in McCreary.
The province says funding these projects will provide safe drinking water, environmentally sustainable wastewater treatment and promote economic opportunities in rural Manitoba.
Dauphin MLA, Brad Michaleski says these investments in local infrastructure projects “will ensure Manitobans have access to modern, reliable water and wastewater services”.
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- Contributed by Matt Hamel
Manitoba health officials reported 35 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday.
The province’s total case number is now 1,186, with 462 cases considered active. The number of deaths related to COVID-19 is 14.
Data about the number of hospitalizations was unavailable this weekend, but is expected to be provided on Monday.
Over the weekend, a total of 90 new cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba, with 43 in the Prairie Mountain Health region.
None of the newly announced cases are in the Dauphin health district, where there have been a total of 7 cases, all of which are listed as recovered.
It's recommended that only individuals experiencing COVID-19 symptoms should go for testing, unless otherwise directed by health officials. Individuals with symptoms are asked to seek testing as soon as possible once symptoms are present.
Case investigations indicate three cases previously-identified in the Prairie Mountain Health region are linked to a unit on the second floor of the Assiniboine Building of the Brandon Regional Health Centre. Close contacts of staff have been notified, and the case investigations are continuing.
While the risk is assessed to be low, the site has initiated outbreak protocols out of an abundance of caution. As a result, the second floor of the Assiniboine Building is putting additional measures in place to further reduce the risk to residents and staff, and is restricting visitation. The second floor of the Assiniboine Building is moving to Critical (red) on the #RestartMB Pandemic Response System.
For up-to-date information on COVID in Manitoba, click here.
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- Contributed by Matt Hamel
To start the weekend, public health officials have announced 55 new cases of COVID-19 in the province.
This brings the total number of cases in the province to 1,151.
31 of the new cases are from the PMH region, 19 are in Winnipeg, and 5 are from the Southern Health region.
444 cases are considered active, while 693 have been listed as recovered.
Dauphins total is still 7, all of which have recovered.
The number of deaths due to COVID is 14.
The province doesn't have the number of hospitalizations available today because of system upgrades, but they expect that information to be available tomorrow.
Preliminary investigations show that 19 of today's cases are close contacts of previously announced cases.
Public health officials say a previously identified case from the PMH region is a health care worker at the Hillcrest Place personal care home in Brandon. The individual wore protective equipment and is self-isolating. Close contacts have been identified and the case investigation is continuing.
Manitobans are strongly encouraged to return to the fundamentals to help stop the spread of COVID-19. This means not going out while you feel ill, practicing proper hand hygiene, covering your cough, and physical distancing when with people from outside your household. If you can't physical distance, wear a mask.
For up-to-date information on COVID in Manitoba, go to www.manitoba.ca/COVID19.
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