Royal Albert not re-opening this weekend

Despite outbreaks, Winnipeg care-home residents allowed to leave, visit families

When an email from the personal care home where Marie Tremblay’s mother lives landed in her inbox with the subject line “holiday season visitation,” her mind started racing.

Tremblay’s mom is a resident at Park Manor Personal Care Home in Transcona, where an outbreak of COVID-19 has infected 73 residents and 37 staff. Twenty-two residents have died due to the disease.

“They’ve asked families not to go in there during COVID; it’s bad enough with staff getting it. So, I haven’t gone in to visit her since the lockdown,” Tremblay said Friday.

In a follow-up email to Tremblay, the chief executive officer explained he was obligated to inform families that the regional health authority has set guidelines for out-of-home visits, or a “social pass,” despite the home strongly discouraging such visits.

MamiMarkets connecting ethnic food vendors, customers

A West African soup recipe and a fruitless search for ingredients led to a business opportunity for two Manitoba entrepreneurs.

La Salle-based husband and wife Tayo Olayinka and Adeola Adegoke are two of the co-founders behind MamiMarkets.com, an online marketplace that connects ethnic stores to their customers. Launched in Winnipeg around 2 1/2 years ago, the service is now available in seven Canadian cities.

Ethnic grocery vendors add their products and storefront to MamiMarkets, with no point-of-sale integration required.

Customers then search for the specific brands and ingredients they need, and identify which nearby vendor has them. They can then place an order and have the products delivered to their home that day.

Multi-year budget to force councillors, bureaucrats to focus on the big picture

City hall is putting the final touches on the 2019 preliminary budget -- but the real tough job will start after that.

The city is committed to developing a four-year budget beginning with 2020, and having it in place by the end of this year.

It's a process that is filled with uncertainties, trying to balance four successive annual budgets at the same time, using assumptions on revenues and expenses that can change without notice: a provincial government that has frozen funding to city hall at 2016 levels and is reluctant to disclose annual funding commitments or share in unexpected revenues; erratic fuel prices; a possible change in government in Ottawa, which could bring new spending priorities. And in the middle of that four-year span, another civic election where new members of council may have other priorities than those laid out by the current crop of office holders.

Municipal governments across Manitoba are required to approve their annual operating and capital budgets by the end of March each year. But the criticism of decision-making at city hall has been that all the decisions are made on a year-to-year basis, keeping voters happy with an eye on the next election.

‘It’s ridiculous’: Leisure Guide website belly flops on swim lesson day

Karly Mooney got up early Tuesday to dive in front of her computer, hoping to snag a swimming lesson spot for her son.

Dream season for Ponder who has yet to miss a cut on PGA Tour Americas

He may not be a household name to average golf fans just yet, but that’s likely about to change rather quickly.

And local lovers of the sport might want to hurry down to Elmhurst this week to catch a glimpse of Thomas Ponder before he’s off to play where the grass is even greener. Or, at the very least, where the paycheques are much bigger.

Ponder enters this year’s Manitoba Open atop the PGA Tour Americas points list and is a virtual lock to, at the very least, earn promotion to the Korn Ferry Tour for 2027, which is awarded to the top 10 finishers.

A jump directly to the PGA Tour — the way recent Manitoba Open winners such as Hayden Springer and Johnny Keefer, and other competitors such as Neal Shipley and Michael Brennan, have made — wouldn’t be a huge surprise, either.