Badminton World Federation freezes rankings for Tokyo Games

Province tables legislation to cover health-care system changes

The Pallister government has introduced broad legislation to support several of its key planned health-care reforms.

Health Minister Cameron Friesen said Wednesday that Bill 10 (The Regional Health Authorities Amendment Act) will provide the framework to simplify the administration of the health-care system and improve accountability.

All health services in Manitoba will be delivered through the five current regional health authorities, CancerCare Manitoba and a new provincial authority called Shared Health. The administrative changes are set to begin next month and will continue to be rolled out over the next two to three years.

The Health Department will cease to administer health services directly and focus its activities on planning, policy development, funding and oversight. It will set system-wide performance goals and track results.

The ‘Gang of Nine’ and business as usual at city hall

In the early 1990s, after the province reduced the number of municipal wards in Winnipeg to 15, critics spoke at length of how a theoretical “Gang of Eight” could control all decision making at city hall. In subsequent years, there were various incarnations of a Gang of Eight, although it was never conclusively shown that eight members of city council could consistently stay on the same page long enough to dominate civic affairs.

That is an apt tale to consider now, as Winnipeg city hall welcomes nine rookie councillors, the largest number of non-incumbents elected in more than 30 years.

Theoretically, this new group of councillors could band together and push through various reforms. It’s a highly intriguing scenario for anyone who has watched the city, on occasion, shun riskier strategies in favor of status quo politics.

However, as was the case in the early 1990s, the chances of that happening begin to fall apart once you consider the work of building and sustaining a coalition of rookie councillors who come from a broad array of backgrounds.

Killer pleads guilty in three-year-old daughter’s fatal stabbing

A Winnipeg man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the shocking stabbing death of his three-year-old daughter.

Frank Nausigimana, 29, entered his plea before Queen’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey during a brief hearing Thursday morning.

Asked if he understood he was waiving his right to a trial, Nausigimana, through an American Sign Language interpreter, told McKelvey: “ Yes, I accept the punishment and I am following the law of God.”

“I’ve decided that I am going to pray,” Nausigimana said. “I admit I am guilty.”

The Leaf at Assiniboine Park welcomes first visitors

The parking lot was full and Winnipeggers came out in droves Saturday morning for the public opening of The Leaf, the new indoor horticultural attraction at Assiniboine Park.

New council, new opportunies for Winnipeg

Last week, Winnipeg voters returned Mayor Scott Gillingham to city hall for a second term, but the more surprising election storyline is that nine of the 15 councillors surrounding him will be new faces.

One encouraging aspect of the results is the community-building experience several of these new councillors bring to the job. Their backgrounds in urban planning, neighbourhood advocacy and community development offer valuable perspectives as Winnipeg confronts difficult questions about how it grows.

These perspectives will be particularly important because some of the most consequential decisions councillors can make happen when they evaluate residential development proposals at committee meetings. Over the next four years, the 16 people we’ve just elected will bear the enormous responsibility of deciding where and how Winnipeggers live. These choices will have profound implications for quality of life, social opportunity and the economic viability of our city. They will shape not only the Winnipeg we know today, but the city we leave to our children and grandchildren.

At committee meetings, councillors will hear endless arguments about parking, traffic, and protecting “neighbourhood character.”