Premier Greg Selinger was scheduled to be in Flin Flon today to officially open the new Technical Vocational Institute (TVI) at Hapnot Collegiate.
Construction on the provincially funded TVI wrapped up earlier this year, giving area high school and college students another option for trades training.
Selinger was at Hapnot in late 2013 to announce the TVI, saying the province wants to ensure there are “good opportunities for young people starting right out of high school.”
The TVI is open to Hapnot and Many Faces Education Centre students. There were also plans for joint courses with students from the Frontier and Creighton school divisions as well as University College of the North, the Northern Manitoba Mining Academy and Northlands College.
Mayors ousted
Flin Flon was not the only northern Manitoba community to elect a new mayor last week as a couple of former Flin Flonners emerged victorious.
In The Pas, incumbent mayor Al McLauchlan lost to one-time Flin Flon area resident Jim Scott by a margin of 59 votes.
Further north in Lynn Lake, incumbent James Lindsay, another former Flin Flonner, bested challenger C.M. Dale by 37 tallies.
In Thompson, where incumbent Tim Johnston did not seek re-election, Deputy Mayor Dennis Fenske won a decisive, 1,082-vote victory over his lone challenger, Coun. Luke Robinson.
In a five-way race for mayor of Leaf Rapids, incumbent Geraldine Cockerill lost by nine votes to Leslie Baker.
In Churchill, incumbent Michael Spence was acclaimed as mayor. In Gimli, incumbent Lynn Greenberg lost to Randy Woroniuk by 139 votes in a five-way race.
As previously reported, Kim Stephens has been acclaimed mayor of Snow Lake. Incumbent Clarence Fisher did not seek re-election.
In Flin Flon, incumbent mayor George Fontaine lost to former city councillor Cal Huntley by just four votes.
Poor harvest
The wet and snowy weather of the past year is making for a disappointing crop for Cranberry Portage-based wild rice producer Naosap Harvest.
“People say, ‘How the heck does wild rice drown when it grows in water?’ But if it gets too deep, the plant actually does,” owner Tracy Wheeler-Anderson tells the Winnipeg Free Press.
“We had tons of rain last fall, which put water tables way up. Then we had abnormal amounts of snow. Then in spring, tons of rain again. All of our lakes, the water levels are way higher than normal.”
The Free Press report added that whereas Naosap harvests more than 200,000 pounds of wild rice in a good year, this year’s crop is expected to be just 70,000 pounds.
Care at a distance
Saskatchewan Health Minister Dustin Duncan is citing a pilot project in Pelican Narrows as an example of the good work being done by the province’s health care workers.
The project involves an advanced robotics telemedicine platform that enables a health care provider (such as specialist or physician) to instantly connect with a patient remotely, and perform real-time assessment, diagnosis and patient management.
The technology consists of robotic and portable devices equipped with high-resolution cameras located at the point of care. A health care provider can connect with these devices from a remote location, using a laptop with a camera and a secure wireless network.
Diagnostic information gathered at the point of care is transmitted in real time to the specialist’s laptop.
The Pelican Narrows pilot is led by Dr. Ivar Mendez, Fred H. Wigmore professor and unified head of the Department of Surgery at the University of Saskatchewan, in partnership with Northern Medical Services and Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation.
New Callinan CEO
Callinan Royalties Corp. last week terminated president and CEO Roland Butler.
Callinan, which has a profit-sharing agreement with Hudbay relative to the 777 and 777 North mines, said the termination came “without cause,” meaning no misconduct on Butler’s part is alleged.
“I am thankful for the opportunity to serve Callinan for the past four years and wish the company and its shareholders well in the future,” said Butler, who has also resigned from Callinan’s board of directors.
Glenn R. Brown, a Callinan director, has been appointed interim president and CEO.
