It’s a pound to podium dream for a dog from Manitoba who’s earned a trip to Vancouver for the Olympics. Flash will sniff for explosives in Vancouver after a whirlwind 15 months that saw him go from a shelter near Steinbach to a job as a trained bomb hunter. Trainer Cliff Samson and the former stray dog will be at the games for the next 6 weeks, providing security for global VIP’s.
The provincial Tories say Manitoba Hydro shouldn’t be allowed to increase its rates until the utility can explain why they want to. Hydro will appear before the Public Utilities Board today, asking for an increase of almost 6 per cent over 2 years. That by the way, would work out to about 50 cents extra a month for the average home owner.
Some are not gonna like this news. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says the City should quit paying firefighters and paramedics for a career’s worth of unused sick days. A federation spokesperson says the practice costs two million dollars a year. But, the firefighters union says the sick day payout is really a form of early retirement money, paid to firefighters too sick or injured to keep working.
So we finally have some answers to what exactly happened yesterday with water and power around town. Apparently, thanks to a minor car accident in St. Boniface which toppled a power line, the Goulet substation had what officials call a power bump. That then set off a chain of events which ended with all 3 of the city’s water station’s not functioning and power out to a good chunk of old St. Boniface. Both hydro and the city are now conducting investigations.
The scope of the Haitian earthquake catastrophe has certainly widened, but today comes with new potential for reinforcements to help with security and disaster relief. The United Nations Security Council is expected to approve additional peacekeeping forces. One thousand more Canadian soldiers are set to arrive this week, adding to the many other foreign troops, police and search experts already there. Also, now that Canadian warships have arrived offshore, equipment and personnel can be unloaded, and its work can finally begin.
It seems nothing is immune to getting lost by an airline. Not even hockey’s prized Stanley Cup ! The Cup is back where it belongs today, after it was shipped to the wrong city by an Air Canada employee on Sunday. Hockey Hall of Fame employee, Mike Bolt, who accompanies the Cup on its travels, says he noticed there were 2 cities on the cup’s baggage tag, but thought all would be fine. That is until he arrived in Vancouver, and the Cup went to Toronto.
Political pundits had said the federal cabinet was going to be “tweaked” today, as the feds kind of recalibrate themselves amid an improving economy. But new reports this morning say, Prime Minister Harper is about to make more than just some minor changes in shuffling his inner circle. Sources say 8 to 10 ministers will be on the move today.
Authorities now estimate the number of dead in Haiti from last week’s earthquake could be 200 thousand….double the previous best guess. It’s also left almost 2 million others homeless. 12 Canadians have been confirmed dead from the quake, and Foreign Affairs says 849 are still unaccounted for. Despite the arrival of foreign troops and aid, the unmet needs of hundreds of thousands grow by the hour. Injured survivors are dying in the streets, doctors are begging for help, and looters are tearing at one another for basic necessities.
