Let’s be honest. A lot of the time, the world sucks. It’s really easy to look at world news with war, famine, crime, starvation, pain, political missteps and the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer and think that there’s nothing good out there.
There’s plenty of happy news out in the world. Sometimes, you just have to dig for it.
There’s even plenty of happy news here at home. Let’s take a look at some of it, shall we?
First, there are a few things going on locally that, due to deadline constraints, we couldn’t get into this week’s paper. I feel like these things need to be mentioned.
A class at Many Faces Education Centre is using 3D printing services to create items for seniors – plastic arms for grabbing things out of reach, for example, or smaller items like bookmarks or shoehorns.
Anyone ranting about “kids these days” being overwhelmingly bad obviously hasn’t met the young people I have through this job. The majority of young people I’ve met, including ones here, are driven, determined and eager to make a difference in the world.
Hudbay made a sizable donation to the Lord’s Bounty Food Bank right after our deadline earlier this week. The food bank has made leaps and bounds in the past few years, and even though it would be nice to live in a world where food banks weren’t needed at all, it’s good to know that they’re there if needed and receiving support.
Also before this week’s issue, a pair of missing people who were last heard of in the north were found safely. Last week, a woman who was reported missing on her way to Pelican Narrows was found safe and sound. A coupled days later, a young mother and her infant son were reported missing from their home in Winnipeg. On Sunday morning, the two were found by police safe. On Monday, another missing person, a 17-year-old from Nelson House, was also found safely.
On our front page this week, you may have noticed that Manitoba’s provincial government is making it more costly to drive drunk, increasing penalties for anyone caught over the legal limit and operating a vehicle. That might not be good news for people who drive tipsy, but for the rest of us, that’s certainly good news.
Elsewhere in Canada, a company in Toronto has announced a goal of planting a billion trees throughout the country in the next eight years, using drones to drop specially formulated seed pods into existing forests and on deforested land.
The cost of planting those trees is estimated by the company to be about a quarter the price of planting trees by hand and will cover half the federal government’s pledge to plant two billion trees in the next decade.
Will it succeed? I’m not sure, but the information I can glean so far sure seems promising.
Moving over to Calgary, a new housing development has been built for homeless Armed Forces veterans. The area, named the Homes for Heroes Village, is made up of 15 houses, each with the same amenities as a conventional home. The village also includes mental health staff, career training and guidance counselling for any vet who may need it. There are already similar housing developments operating in Ontario and in Edmonton.
Back in June, the federal government announced a ban on several types of single-use plastics in as little as two years, including plastic water bottles, coffee cup lids, straws and other items that are used once and thrown away. The measure is meant to keep as much plastic as possible from entering Canadian waterways and polluting nature.
Researchers at the University of Waterloo are developing a new sensor that can determine when a baby or pet is left alone in a vehicle. The sensor, which is currently designed to be placed on the vehicle’s rear-view mirror, may become standard equipment in vehicles in the coming years. The sensor runs off the car’s battery and uses radar to determine whether or not any further measures should be taken to help whoever’s inside.
In Winnipeg, ground was just broken for what will be one of Canada’s largest legal cannabis growing facilities. The operation will harvest four times a year and employ up to 200 people. Peguis First Nation has invested millions into the project to get it built and the nation is anticipating they’ll make their money back within three years.
Finally, good news for northern trappers came late last week, when the North West Company reversed a previous decision and decided that it would continue to buy furs harvested in the north. There aren’t a lot of places to sell fur in 2019 and people who rely on the fur trade to make their living were in serious doubt about what would come after their main source of sales dried up. Thankfully, we don’t have to worry about that now.
It’s normal to think that nothing good ever happens in the world. Positive stories aren’t exactly easy to find. That said, when good news can be found around here, we do our best to help tell it to you. We’ll cover the bad things too, of course, but if somebody does something that could help the region, we’ll let you know when we know.
From all of us at The Reminder, have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.
