WINNIPEG — The Progressive Conservatives renewed calls to put Manitoba’s child and welfare system under the microscope Thursday, tabling a motion that urged the province to appoint a commissioner to lead a public inquiry.

Families critic Jodie Byram’s opposition day motion, which was ultimately defeated by the NDP majority, reiterated demands for an inquiry into the systemic failures of Child and Family Services, more than 20 years after the death of Phoenix Sinclair first prompted demands for answers.

“We have seen far too many children die under the care of CFS, and we need to determine where the gaps are in the system in order to make the system a safer place for children,” Byram, the MLA for Agassiz, told reporters before the motion was defeated in the legislature.

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said in an interview that her department, CFS agencies and authorities are “doing good work” and won’t call an inquiry.

LATE WEDNESDAY

Wheat Kings 3, Blazers 1

First Period

No Scoring.

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Wheat Kings 6, Royals 2

First Period

1. Victoria, Virk 3 (Schmidt, Vauhkonen) 2:57 (pp).

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Cougars 3, Wheat Kings 1

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1. Prince George, Foster 3 (Kozicky, Vaughan) 10:49 (sh).

WINNIPEG — A 911 outage that affected Manitoba and four other provinces for about 90 minutes last month was caused by a software failure, according to Bell Canada’s report to a federal regulator.

An abridged version of the report, which was made public Friday, did not say how many callers were affected when Bell’s next-generation 911 platform stopped receiving new calls and transferring new calls to local 911 communications centres due to the glitch.

The outage, which lasted from 2:13 a.m. to 3:40 a.m. central time, was not caused by a cyberattack or any change activity, Bell said.

“Rather, the outage was caused by a latent software issue that triggered an unexpected condition in certain network components within the (next-generation 911) network,” Philippe Gauvin, Bell’s assistant general counsel, wrote in the report, which was published on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s website.

WINNIPEG — The number of critical incidents reported within Manitoba’s health-care system declined again in 2025, with delays, gaps and “missed opportunities” among the most common circumstances of deaths or injuries.

Quarterly reports from Manitoba Health listed 121 critical incidents, including 32 deaths, in hospitals, personal care homes and other settings, down from 134 incidents in 2024, when 32 deaths were also reported, and 166 incidents (42 deaths) in 2023.

“We’d obviously like to see those at zero,” said Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, which represents more than 7,700 allied health workers.

“It’s good that they’ve come down. What we really want to see is those numbers drastically reduced overall, and I just fear that’s not going to happen until staffing is dealt with.”