PortageOnline Newsroom

With little detail, high school students in Manitoba were told last Friday that they wouldn't take the provincial English exam the following Monday as planned.

Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Nello Altomare responded to the situation.

A fire has devastated a business on Main Street in Stonewall.

Few details are available; however, RCMP have said that the damage to the building is significant, with damage to surrounding buildings also being reported.

A call was made around 6:30 a.m. Friday, alerting emergency services to the blaze, but as of yet, there is no report of a cause or damage estimates.

PortageOnline will provide updates as they become available.

After a significant storm last year, and more hail this year, Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) is hoping to get back on track regarding estimates with a big announcement.

Starting next week, MPI is opening a dedicated hail estimating centre at its Physical Damage Centre in Winnipeg to make more appointments available for impacted customers. 

The Manitoba Wildfire Service, the Office of the Fire Commissioner (OFC), Manitoba Emergency Management Organization (EMO) and the Manitoba Fire Service continue to respond to the two active fires in the area around Flin Flon and The Pas. Continued favourable weather conditions and work by crews on the fire have lessened their impacts and have enabled residents of affected communities to return home as of Sunday, May 19.

A 76-year-old man was seriously injured and taken to hospital following an assault on Tuesday evening. 

According to Police, the incident took place on May 7, around 8:10 p.m. at a residence on Burns Bay.

While officers were en route, it was reported that the suspect was assaulting an elderly man. Once at the scene, RCMP located the suspect jumping on the roof of a vehicle. He was arrested and taken into custody.

The victim was taken to a local hospital and then transferred to Winnipeg, where he remains in care.

The Central Plains RCMP has released the weekly report for the period between April 22 and April 28. The report covers Portage la Prairie, Treherne, Amaranth and the surrounding Rural Municipalities.

On April 23, around 10:30 p.m., Portage RCMP received a report of a suspicious person on Highway #1 and Road 19 West. The suspect was laying beside the highway. 

Officers arrived and spoke to the 30-year-old man from Edmonton, Alberta. He was on court-ordered conditions and the officer found him violating three of those conditions. 

Update:

Both the passenger in the northbound vehicle, a 36-year-old man from Langruth, and the 19-year-old man who was driving the southbound vehicle, from The Pas, have since succumbed to injuries sustained in the collision. They both died in hospital.

The investigation continues as investigators are still awaiting reports from the RCMP Forensic Collision Reconstructionist and the Medical Examiner’s Office.

Original story:

Between the daytime highs nearly ten degrees above average, the very strong southerly winds and the dusty conditions produced by the combination of both, it was quite the Thursday across the Central Plains and Pembina Valley. In fact, Portage la Prairie tied a modern-day record with the temperature almost reaching 26 degrees.

And why was it so windy, yesterday?

The weekly report released by Portage la Prairie RCMP last week revealed a sharp increase in calls for service from the previous week. 

Larry Neufeld, the Community Media Liaison for Portage RCMP, says that weather is a contributing factor.

"During the wintertime, our call volumes actually decrease because people are not going outside causing issues or travelling. Right now, with the increase in temperatures, we're seeing a lot more foot traffic, we see more vehicle traffic. So, our call volume for motor vehicle speeding and driving habits increase."

Update: The lights have been fixed. Traffic is now moving normally.

Original story: Stoplights have partially lost power at the intersection of Saskatchewan Avenue and 24th Street.

The north and south lights are currently flashing red, while the east and west lights are flashing yellow.

Red flashing lights must be treated as a stop sign, while a yellow flashing light indicates that you should proceed with caution, yielding to pedestrians and oncoming traffic.