Students at Niverville High School recently embraced the world of neurodivergence by celebrating unique human quirks.

Student Cooper Lavin is behind the planning of Neurodiversity Spirit Week for the second year in a row. Lavin is a 16-year-old Grade 11 student who identifies as autistic, one classification of neurodivergence. The goal is to create awareness and education through participation.

On Monday, students were encouraged to wear tie-dye or vibrant colour schemes. Wednesday produced crazy hair or hats.

“For a lot of neurodivergent people, their thoughts are all over the place,” Lavin says. “The thoughts are inconsistent, loud, and out there, like vibrant colours.”

Landmarks across Manitoba are being illuminated in red and blue this month to shed light on fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD), a cardiovascular condition that experts say is far more common than its “rare” label suggests.

On May 1, the Island Park causeway and City Hall in Portage la Prairie were lit up to mark Fibromuscular Dysplasia Awareness Month. The initiative is part of a growing movement led by Julie Vogelsang, a Winnipeg-based volunteer for the Fibromuscular Dysplasia Society of America.

Vogelsang, who was diagnosed with the condition in 2022 through MRI testing, has co-ordinated the illumination of 16 landmarks across the province, including the Esplanade Riel Bridge and ‘Winnipeg’ sign in Winnipeg later this month, along with the York Lobby at the Convention Centre. Joe the Steamer train in Austin was also lit up. Other prominent landmarks have been illuminated across the country thanks to Vogelsang’s efforts.

“Researchers used to call it a rare disorder, and now they’re saying they don’t think it’s rare, but rarely diagnosed,” Vogelsang said. “The lack of awareness and education is not just within those who have it, but also in the medical community.”

Inuit associations and the Government of Nunavut should get more money from the mining industry, according to economist Erin Weir.

Weir, a senior associate at SILO Strategy and former NDP MP from Saskatchewan, presented his research on royalty payments during the Nunavut Mining Symposium on April 20.

“Both Inuit organizations and the Government of Nunavut are receiving only a tiny percentage of the value of minerals being extracted from the territory,” Weir said.

AGNICO EAGLE

With Mother’s Day just around the corner and a too-long winter finally receding from our landscape at a glacial pace, it’s time for the second annual Blossom Festival taking place Mother’s Day on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Assiniboine Food Forest, aka. AFFI.

On a recent day, Dave Barnes, a founding member of AFFI, was in the sugar shack boiling syrup and shared a couple of sweet memories from the inaugural Blossom Festival that took place a year ago.

“People were excited. People were very happy, you know, to get a Mother’s Day flower, and Mother’s Day sweet treats on the house in the beautiful forest setting. It was a very nice day for sure,” Barnes said.

The first Blossom Festival drew 40 or so people, happy to be in the fresh air on the second Sunday in May, when the weather can be unpredictable. But Barnes said it was a beautiful time to be there.

Municipal leaders are calling on the federal government to accelerate the delivery of infrastructure funding, warning that a lack of urgency is hampering local economies as construction season begins.

Joe Masi, a Portage la Prairie city councillor and Manitoba director for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), said the recent federal spring economic update missed a critical opportunity to scale up investment for shovel-ready projects.

“We were looking for something to say, ‘OK, we’re really going to accelerate, get money out the door,’ because we’re into the construction season now,” Masi said. “FCM is going to have to continue to work with the federal government to scale up infrastructure over the next few months so that we can, as municipalities, succeed.”

The local priority remains the multi-million dollar expansion of the Portage la Prairie water treatment plant. The project has already secured $40 million from the provincial government, but the city is still awaiting word on an application for federal support through the Build Community Strong Fund.

If there’s one true thing you can say about Manitoba in the spring it’s this: the river is rising. On this day, Tobin Praznik, emergency manager for the City of Brandon has been watching it do just that.

“We’ve been keeping a close eye. The river’s been pretty dynamic over the last couple of days,” Praznik said.

And if that’s not enough to get you thinking about a contingency plan, May 3 to 9 is National Emergency Preparedness Week, a federally designated week to remind all Canadians that emergencies happen and readiness is imperative.

“Emergencies can happen at any time and without warning, that’s the reality. The benefit in preparing is it supports and ensures our safety as individuals and families,” Praznik said.