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Winnipeg’s homeless problem is out of control, says the executive director of a prominent outreach organization — while the mayor says taxpayers aren’t getting value for their money when it comes to managing the crisis.

There are currently between 1,500 to 2,000 encampment residents in Winnipeg, said Marion Willis of St. Boniface Street Links. She estimates there are less than 5,000 people experiencing various kinds of homelessness across the city.

There were around 1,256 people in various homeless situations in Winnipeg during the month of May 2022, according to End Homelessness Winnipeg (EHW) survey. The current estimate is 3,038 people.

“We are dealing with a level of social distress unlike anything I have seen in my 40-year career, and we don’t have the resources to address these things,” said Willis, who thinks the City and province are running low on funds to cover social programs.

“We are now living through this post-pandemic period, as though the pandemic ended and we are all just getting back to life as it was. There is no life as it was.”

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As Manitoba plans its first supervised drug consumption site in Winnipeg, Alberta’s minister responsible for addictions says residents are being deceived about the effectiveness of the sites that operate across Canada under a harm reduction model for managing addictions.
“Canadians have been lied to for the past 25 years, and it’s a failure of activist academics and ideologues, and they lied to us and told us that we had to choose between being compassionate to those in addiction or having safe communities,” said Dan Williams, Alberta’s minister of mental health and addiction. “That’s not the case.”

 

 

Alberta Minister of Mental Health and Addiction Dan Williams
Alberta Minister of Mental Health and Addiction Dan Williams. Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta PHOTO BY CHRIS SCHWARZ/GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA /Winnipeg Sun

 

According to the Government of Canada, supervised consumption sites save lives and help communities. They provide a safe, clean area for users to bring their own drugs to use, in the presence of staff.

“This prevents accidental overdoses,” says a government website. “Supervised consumption sites may offer a range of evidence-based harm reduction services, such as drug checking. The sites also provide access to important health and social services, including substance use treatment for those who are ready.”

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A member of Manitoba’s trucking industry is calling out the alleged “human trafficking” of foreign truckers, some of whom are earning few, if any, wages in the province.In several cases, trucking companies set up corporations, bought houses, then moved in foreign workers, many from South Asia, an anonymous industry executive told the Winnipeg Sun, noting the problem is Canada-wide and years old.

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SNELL: Trudeau, Singh and the great Canadian cow

“Canada is like an old cow. The west feeds it, Ontario and Quebec milk it and we can well imagine what it is doing in the Maritimes,” Tommy Douglas, the father of Medicare and former Saskatchewan premier once said of our economy.

Canadians elected a new livestock manager in 2015, Justin Trudeau, who didn’t know the difference between a teat and a tail. Like a city cousin showing up at the family farm, Trudeau donned jeans, a cowboy hat and spurs and began wreaking havoc. Canadians stood and watched as he leapt onto the cow’s back, shouted “sunny ways” and drove the economy straight through the nearest fence. Continue reading “SNELL: Trudeau, Singh and the great Canadian cow”

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LNG ‘watchmen’: merging economic opportunity and environmental protection key for remote B.C. First Nation

There’s a good reason Chief Clifford White, a First Nations LNG Alliance board member and hereditary leader of the Gitxaala Nation near Prince Rupert, B.C., walks a fine line when it comes to resource development on or near his territory.  

There’s a lot happening near the remote island village of Lax Klan (Kitkatla) – the $14.5 billion Coastal GasLink pipeline terminus, the $18 billion first phase of LNG Canada, and the proposed $3 billion Cedar LNG facility, 50 per cent owned by the Haisla Nation – all at the Port of Kitimat 120 kilometres east. To the north, the Nisga’a Nation and its partners have proposed the $10 billion Ksi Lisims LNG terminal on Pearse Island.  

Once operating, the projects will deliver LNG by ship to Asian markets. A 2022 study by Wood Mackenzie found that Canadian LNG exports could reduce net emissions in Asia by 188 million tonnes per year through 2050 by providing a cleaner alternative to coal. 

Continue reading “LNG ‘watchmen’: merging economic opportunity and environmental protection key for remote B.C. First Nation”

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Kitselas First Nation language keeper helping monitor Coastal GasLink pipeline construction

With an eye on legacy, Edward Innes is helping maintain environmental standards along a section of the Coastal GasLink pipeline near Terrace B.C.

The 78-year-old Elder of the Kitselas First Nation has been a construction monitor and community liaison (CMCL) on the project since 2019 – observing people, projects, and wildlife. He has completed over 550 reports, which are uploaded to a community database.

“I tell these people who are working on the [Coastal GasLink] project – this is history, just like the highway and railway,” says Innes, adding he sometimes reports in Sm’algyax – the Kitselas language. He is one of the last language keepers in the community. Continue reading “Kitselas First Nation language keeper helping monitor Coastal GasLink pipeline construction”

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Kitimat, B.C. thriving alongside emerging LNG industry

Even though Kitimat, B.C. receives around two metres of rain a year, nothing can dampen the spirit of its three-term mayor when it comes to the emerging liquefied natural gas (LNG) export industry and its benefits.

Phil Germuth is enthusiastic as he speaks about the west coast town of 9,000 permanent residents. There’s a lot happening – around 6,000 camp-based construction workers at the LNG Canada site within eyeshot of town and 6,000 in the region and beyond working to complete the Coastal GasLink pipeline. The proposed Cedar LNG terminal, 50 per cent owned by the Haisla Nation, will also create hundreds of construction jobs.

“Kitimat is a great example of Canadian industries that are at the leading edge of environmental protection,” says Germuth, who owns a local automotive repair business.

Continue reading “Kitimat, B.C. thriving alongside emerging LNG industry”

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Haisla Nation taking delivery of new tugboats as B.C. LNG project approved to proceed

The Haisla Nation on Canada’s west coast has reason to celebrate.  

The community’s $3 billion proposed Cedar LNG project now has provincial and federal environmental approval to proceed.  

Meanwhile, the Nation is taking delivery of a fleet of environmentally friendly tugboats to support the LNG Canada project.  

Days before Cedar LNG’s approval, HaiSea Marine, majority owned by the Haisla Nation in partnership with shipbuilder Seaspan ULC, celebrated the naming and blessing of its new tugboat fleet, which is under construction in Istanbul, Turkiye.  

The fleet – with arrival dates in 2023 – includes three fully electric harbour tugs and two LNG-powered escort tugs that will guide LNG carriers through the Douglas Channel to open water – 36 hours round trip.  Continue reading “Haisla Nation taking delivery of new tugboats as B.C. LNG project approved to proceed”

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The future of nuclear power in Canada: Q&A with John Gorman, CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association

Nuclear energy provided about 10 per cent of global power in 2021, says new research from the Canadian Energy Centre.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), global nuclear power generation increased over the last twenty years, reaching 2,653 Terawatt hours in 2021. Canada’s share has remained comparatively stable (86.8 TWh in 2021), but it could grow as small modular reactors are built to help satisfy increased electricity demand across the country.

John Gorman, CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association, shared his perspective with the Canadian Energy Centre on the state of nuclear power and what the future could hold.

CEC: What role does nuclear energy play in the world today? Continue reading “The future of nuclear power in Canada: Q&A with John Gorman, CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association”