Manitoba spending $80M on 3 new water bombers to fight forest fires
The new DHC-515 Firefighter water bombers will have upgraded navigation systems, increased tank capacity and more fuel-efficient engines, the province said in a Friday news release.
The first water bomber is expected to join the fleet for the 2031 fire season, with the other two expected to be added in 2032, the release said.
The new bombers were promised within a decade in the latest provincial budget, released last month.
Premier Wab Kinew and Natural Resources Minister Ian Bushie held a news conference to highlight the new firefighting aircraft on Friday.
Bushie said the additional aircraft are integral to protecting communities and forests from the increasing frequency and severity of wildfires.
Earl Simmons, the executive director of Manitoba Conservation and Wildlife Service, called the purchase of the water bombers a "monumental commitment."
Friday's news release also highlighted other 2025 budget commitments for firefighting, including an additional $6.7 million toward new equipment and systems, and $1.1 million over four years for a new weather information system, wildfire mapping and reporting systems, the release said.
The province also noted the latest budget doubled tax credits for volunteer firefighters and volunteer search and rescue members from $3,000 to $6,000.
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Winnipeg Free Press
8 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Placing the economy over the environment
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Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Big campaign health-care promises, not much post-election progress
Opinion When the Manitoba NDP won a majority government in October 2023 on a campaign built almost entirely around fixing health care, they didn't promise miracles. The party and its leader, Wab Kinew, were careful not to claim the crumbling health system they inherited could be transformed overnight. But at the same time, nobody expected things to get worse. According to a new survey by the Manitoba Nurses Union, more than three-quarters of nurses say conditions on the front lines of health care have either deteriorated or stayed the same since the NDP took office. It's a stark reminder that political promises, while good for winning elections, don't necessarily translate into change for burned-out nurses or patients waiting hours in emergency rooms. This is not an opposition talking point. It's what nurses themselves are saying. The union survey paints a bleak picture: a health-care workforce that remains deeply demoralized, exhausted and unconvinced that real change is around the corner. More than half of nurses surveyed report that safety in the workplace has worsened in the past year. Many say they're still working short-staffed more often than not. And few believe the culture inside the system is improving. It's fair to ask: how long should the public — and those working in the trenches of the system — wait before judging the government's progress? No government can undo seven years of deep cuts, closures and centralization in less than two years. The previous PC government decimated parts of the health system, including ERs and surgical capacity. The Tories drove experienced staff out and failed to replenish the pipeline. Their reforms were poorly planned and unevenly executed, causing chaos that still hasn't fully settled. But Wab Kinew and the NDP knew all that when they took over. They knew they were walking into a mess. In fact, they campaigned on it and vowed to clean it up. Now that they're in charge, the responsibility is theirs. So far, though, the improvements have been hard to spot. Wait times in emergency departments are largely unchanged and, in some places, worse than they were a year ago. Primary-care access remains scarce. And while there has been a net increase in nurses working in the system since the NDP took over, it hasn't translated into lower wait times, better access to care or reduced burnout for front-line workers. Manitobans are still waiting — literally — for the core promises of the 2023 election to materialize: shorter waits, more staff and better care. And make no mistake, public patience has limits. The political honeymoon the NDP has enjoyed since taking office is already starting to fray. The MNU survey is just one piece of evidence. 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If wage issues are still discouraging nurses from picking up extra shifts, fix them. If violence in hospitals is rising, then get serious about security and staff safety. Stop studying the problem and start acting on what front-line workers already know. It's also time to stop blaming the past. Yes, the PCs left a disaster behind. But the NDP ran on the idea that they were the ones to clean it up. If they didn't anticipate how deep the damage went, that's on them. Health care is a long game. But it's not an infinite one. Voters are willing to wait for real improvements, but only if they believe progress is being made. Right now, that belief is fading. The government has time. But not forever. By this time next year, if wait times haven't dropped and nurses still say the workplace is as toxic as it is today, the Kinew government will have a real problem on its hands — and no one left to blame. Because when you promise to fix health care, people expect you to fix it. Not just say you're trying. Tom BrodbeckColumnist Tom Brodbeck is a columnist with the Free Press and has over 30 years experience in print media. He joined the Free Press in 2019. Born and raised in Montreal, Tom graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and commerce. Read more about Tom. Tom provides commentary and analysis on political and related issues at the municipal, provincial and federal level. His columns are built on research and coverage of local events. The Free Press's editing team reviews Tom's columns before they are posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CBC
29-07-2025
- CBC
Kinew cabinet uses order to dismiss appeals against Chinese miner's environmental licence
Wab Kinew's NDP cabinet has dismissed four attempts to appeal Manitoba's decision to let a Chinese-owned company continue mining critical minerals alongside a lake in eastern Manitoba's boreal forest. On July 16, Kinew's cabinet issued an order in council that allows Environment and Climate Change Minister Mike Moyes to dismiss appeals of an August 2024 decision to grant the Tantalum Mining Corp. of Canada a new environmental licence. Also known as TANCO, the Chinese-controlled company operates a cesium, tantalum and lithium mine at Bernic Lake, a small body of water located between Whiteshell and Nopiming provincial parks. The mine itself has operated on and off since 1929. The new environmental licence replaces one originally granted by the province in 1983. Sinomine Resource Group, which purchased the TANCO mine in 2019, applied for the new licence in order to continue mining ore and processing it at Bernic Lake — as well as to produce new forms of cesium at the site, once home to two thirds of the world's cesium deposits. The licence application did not include a proposal to drain Bernic Lake in order to create an open-pit mine, something the company mused about in a 2023 Globe and Mail story. There is a worldwide scarcity of cesium, a volatile element used in drilling fluids for oil and gas wells, medical imaging and maintaining time in atomic clocks, among other uses. During the licensing process, the province fielded 49 submissions about the application, mostly involving concerns about road safety and water quality downstream in the Bird River watershed, according to Manitoba Environment and Climate Change. The Kinew cabinet's order in council states those concerns were addressed during the licensing process. Four subsequent appeals involved the same concerns, prompting Moyes to propose dismissing them without holding public hearings, the order stated. "The issues raised by the appellants were similar to those raised during the public review period and were addressed during the environmental assessment process through licensing conditions," the order in council stated. The Kinew government did not make Moyes available for comment. In a statement, the minister repeated cabinet's assurance the concerns raised by the appellants have already been addressed. Dismissal not transparent or accountable: advocate Eric Reder, an environmental advocate who works as a campaigner for the Wilderness Committee, said this was not a transparent, responsible or accountable way for Manitoba to consider appeals under the Environment Act, even though he took no issue with the approval of the TANCO licence itself. Reder said the TANCO mine has a history of conducting its operations reasonably and properly, without creating excess waste outside of its Bernic Lake site. His issue is with the way Manitoba denies environmental appeals in general. He said the province does not name appellants or make their concerns public, does not respond to their concerns in a substantive manner and creates a hostile political environment for appeals in the first place. "The only recourse to appeal an Environment Act licence is to the same minister whose department issued the licence," Reder said. He suggested the province create an independent body to consider environmental appeals or hand that duty off to the arm's-length Clean Environment Commission. A spokesperson for Sinomine did not respond to a request for comment prior to publication. A spokesperson for the Bird River Cottage Owners' Association, several of whose members made submissions in opposition to the mine's new environmental licence, was not available to comment. In recent years, Kinew and his predecessor Heather Stefanson have touted Manitoba's critical mineral deposits as a strategic asset for the province. Nonetheless, the province has lagged behind most others when it comes to major mining, energy and forestry projects.
