COVID-19 by the numbers By: Winnipeg Free Press Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Apr. 7, 2020 Last Modified: 5:08 PM CDT Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022 Updates

Quiet opening fitting for controversial site

One of this city’s most loudly debated facilities — after all the angst, all the opposition and all the vocal support — began operations in the most low-key way possible.

There was none of the usual fanfare that accompanies a new social or medical offering, no news conference, no speeches. Only a quiet Tuesday, around which was woven a lot of hope, and a great deal of worry.

Winnipeg’s first supervised drug consumption site has been a long time in the making. It’s been just over two years since the province first announced it would partner with the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre to design and open the site; advocates had been calling for a supervised consumption facility for years.

But the launch, originally eyed for 2025, was repeatedly delayed as the province and service providers sorted out approvals and negotiated community concerns. In the meantime, the drug crisis in Winnipeg kept growing, with paramedics burdened by a skyrocketing number of overdose calls.

Surgery backlog, St. Boniface ER big-ticket items in health budget

The provincial government will spend more than $200 million this year to tackle the massive backlog of surgeries and expand emergency room capacity, while slashing its COVID-19 response budget.

Finance Minister Cameron Friesen said his government will spend a combined $7.2 billion to deliver health care, mental health and addictions services, a new seniors strategy and deliver promised improvements to long term care in 2022-23, representing a 2.5 per cent spending increase over last year.

The provincial budget, unveiled Tuesday, includes $9 million to fund 28 new critical care beds provincewide; $100 million for the redevelopment of the St. Boniface Hospital emergency department; and $110 million to expedite an estimated 167,000 surgical and diagnostic cases that were delayed due to the pandemic.

“Our government is very serious about driving down these times that were elongated as a consequence of a global pandemic,” Friesen said. “That’s why we’re putting a very significant effort into combating that.”

First Inuk GG sparks hope for new relationship

More than five years after he refused to intervene in a young man’s death by suicide in High Park, then lied about being on another call, a Toronto police officer has been demoted in rank for two years for his “serious” misconduct.

Time to consider Indigenous names

Indigenous people have had a long connection to the land on which our city is built. Traditional place names were descriptive of the land and practised through a complete and meaningful understanding of locality. The names reflected the animate tendencies within Indigenous languages, which were illustrative of nature.

When colonialism forcibly displaced Indigenous people, Indigenous lands and their names were either modified or removed. Places were renamed after settlers, or assumed names taken directly from Europe to reflect the settlers’ own culture and history. Names were altered from Indigenous languages to English or French adaptations, such as in the case of Winnipeg, which derived from the Cree word “Win-nipi” or “murky waters.”

The loss of Indigenous place names contributed to the loss of Indigenous languages and traditions, including oral histories.

Today, the reclamation of space, land, culture and language has risen for Indigenous people. Histories and contributions of Indigenous people within our city are moving toward being recognized and restored. Additionally, the city has begun to acknowledge the hurt caused by place names and monuments that represent colonial figures who advocated for the erasure of Indigenous people.

Grim outlook for airport authority

The Winnipeg Airports Authority revealed a particularly grim outlook of their consolidated financial statements at their annual public meeting Thursday morning.

A year marred by COVID-19, executive members from the airports authority said urgent support is needed from the federal government to save them from their dire future beyond the pandemic, outlining the many ways in which Ottawa has failed regional airports like Winnipeg's so far.

Nicole Stefaniuk, vice-president of finance and administration, said 2020 was the worst year in the airport's history — mostly because passengers typically make up about 90 per cent of airport revenue and because almost 80 per cent of costs are fixed items the authority has to continue paying (such as utilities, personnel employment and taxes).

Passenger traffic fell from an average of 12,300 travellers per day to less than 250 people on a good day for Winnipeg's airport — a symptom of mandated lockdowns, border closures and travel restrictions across Canada.