CALGARY — Alberta’s energy regulator may have ignored provincial law by not publicly disclosing that waste from a large oilsands tailings pond was escaping containment and seeping into groundwater, says a lawyer. Drew Yewchuk of the University of Calgary’s Public Interest Law Clinic is asking the province’s Information Commissioner to investigate how and why the […]

MANITOBA — Education’s response to a scathing report that concludes the way Ontario schools teach students how to read — a popular approach in local classrooms — is failing children with learning disabilities is being met with skepticism. Internal documents shed light on government officials’ limited analysis of Ontario Human Rights Commission’s Right to Read […]

WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government has been mailing out cheques to people in recent years to help with issues ranging from property taxes to inflation to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the cost of printing those cheques and putting them in the mail — not including the cost of the benefits themselves — […]

SASKATOON — Amanda Michayluk’s final moments were spent walking alone in the cold and snow through a Saskatchewan field as her family anxiously waited for an RCMP search and rescue team that would never arrive. A scathing report from the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP says officers responding to calls for help […]

SASKATOON — Saskatchewan underestimated how many rapid antigen tests were needed during the height of the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, while also touting the tests as a key part of its plan to halt transmission of the virus, internal emails indicate. Documents obtained under freedom of information laws show the province emailing Health Canada in […]

As of April 2023, patients checking into any Manitoba hospital or emergency room will be asked for one additional item of personal information at the registration desk: the race or ethnicity with which they identify. This new aspect of personal data collection comes as a joint initiative of Shared Health and the University of Manitoba. Its purpose […]

MASKWACIS — An Alberta First Nation signed a two-year agreement with Ottawa Wednesday that gives it the autonomy to administer its own child welfare. Louis Bull Tribe in Maskwacis, Alta., south of Edmonton, is the first in the province to sign such an agreement. “This is an important day for Louis Bull Tribe,” Chief Desmond […]

SASKATOON — Public Safety Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces were caught off guard by a request for help from Saskatchewan during the height of the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Documents obtained under freedom of information laws show employees in the federal departments were surprised when Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman sent a letter in October 2021 […]

A report of a suspect vehicle in Saskatchewan’s capital hours after a stabbing rampage on a First Nation some 300 kilometres away suddenly pulled city officers into the investigation and kept residents on edge for days. The sighting “swiftly brought us into the unexpected storm,” Regina police Chief Evan Bray would later say in an […]

More than $3 million set aside to improve air quality in schools during the COVID-19 pandemic has been spent on duct cleaning — a measure not backed by research as an effective way to limit infectious-disease transmission. Manitoba earmarked nearly $11.3 million, including provincial and federal pots of about $6.8 million and $4.5 million, respectively, […]

WINNIPEG — Nearly $700,000 was spent repairing vandalism to Winnipeg bus shelters over 15 months as city and community leaders urge more support for an unhoused population that has exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data obtained by The Canadian Press through freedom-of-information requests shows that from June 1, 2021, to Aug. 31, 2022, the estimated damage to bus […]

VICTORIA — Sensitive personal health records of British Columbia residents, from mental health to sexually transmitted disease histories, are “disturbingly” vulnerable to leaks, the provincial privacy watchdog says. Information and privacy commissioner Michael McEvoy says in a report released by his office Thursday that security gaps in the public health computer system put it at […]