Latest news with #safetyissue
The Independent
25-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Train drivers vote for further strikes in long-running dispute
A fresh wave of strikes has been announced by drivers at a train company in a long-running dispute over the sacking of a colleague. Members of Aslef at Hull Trains have voted to continue taking industrial action after months of walkouts. Unions have to ballot members on industrial action every six months. The union already announced a strike from Sunday June 1 to Saturday August 9. Nigel Roebuck, Aslef's organiser in the north east of England, said: 'Hull Trains has been telling our members that they wish to sort out this issue, but it's nearly a month since their last meeting with Aslef and the silence is deafening. 'They also have a new managing director who, it appears, doesn't wish to get involved. 'So trains are cancelled, passengers inconvenienced, and we now have a further mandate for six months to seek a proper and just resolution to this matter.' The driver was sacked over a safety issue.
CBC
23-07-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Ban homeless encampments beside major roadways, says Winnipeg city councillor
Winnipeg Coun. Jeff Browaty says tent encampments alongside major roads are a safety issue and he wants to see them banned. He intends in September to submit an amendment to a motion fellow Coun. Cindy Gilroy tabled this week to prohibit encampments in public places where children gather — playgrounds, spray pads, community gardens and community centre spaces. Browaty called Gilroy's motion "a good, important first step" but said it should go further. He planned to speak to her Wednesday "to see if she would be amenable to having this added on." The addition would be a restriction on encampments beside thoroughfares to further increase the safety of all people in the city, he said. That would include Portage Avenue, Main Street, McPhillips Street, Henderson Highway, Regent Avenue, St. Mary's Road, St. Anne's Road, Pembina Highway, Kenaston Boulevard, Abinojii Mikanah and Lagimodiere Boulevard — a list of roads Browaty said were "off the top of my head." The danger of people experiencing addictions and mental health issues while living beside those roads is they might wander into traffic, he said. "I hear from residents, especially around Disraeli, they're worried somebody's going to get hit. Members of the public that are driving down these streets, they don't want to cause a fatality. They're just trying to get home," Browaty said. "This is why this is unacceptable." Browaty said he's not pretending such a ban will "fix the ills of the city," but he hopes it helps avoid some tragedy. Addressing those larger issues requires more housing with wraparound supports, he said. "Obviously we need more and we need it faster," he said. In the short term, "we need to encourage and find ways to make living on the street undesirable" for those who do have the capacity to move into any form of existing housing, such as with friends or family, he said. Couch surfing "is better than living on the street," he said. For those with more severe challenges, there needs to be quicker movement on getting "deeper supports" and proper housing, he said. That echoes concerns highlighted by Mayor Scott Gillingham last week about building housing faster to end homelessness. There are legal challenges in forcing people out of encampments, but at the very least, Browaty wants to see those who are breaking laws dealt with as soon as possible. "If there's use of drugs in these areas openly, enforce that. If they're running bicycle chop shops, as I've heard that they apparently are along Disraeli, follow up on that. Find any laws that are being broken and enforce those stringently," he said. The Manitoba government has been slowly adding to public housing stock to address homelessness. As part of the province's Your Way Home strategy launched earlier this year, those units are being offered to people living in encampments. Sam Tsemberis, the founder and executive director of Pathways to Housing, a Housing First program for people with serious mental illnesses, long histories of homelessness and substance abuse, said it's time to bring landlords into the conversation. "Both the private landlords and the social housing landlords are essential to ending short-term homelessness quickly," he told CBC Manitoba Information Radio host Marcy Markusa on Tuesday. That means governments and other agencies helping people in encampments should present them to landlords with a rent subsidy, the first month's rent and a guarantee of support for the tenant once they move in, Tsemberis said. "So that the landlord is willing to take the risk to house someone without a credit history and coming in with that difficult background." Avrom Charach, spokesperson for the Manitoba Professional Property Managers Association, agrees that supports — and not just financial supports — are absolutely necessary to enlist landlords. "About 20 years ago, when Housing First first hit in Winnipeg … my company that I worked for took the very first Housing First person in. What we found was after 5 p.m. on a weekday, you couldn't find support," he said. "If people were flailing, you ended up having to treat them like any other tenant. It's like, 'I'm sorry, you can't live here anymore,' because you couldn't get someone to come in and help deal with their issues." For some people, all they need is a social worker to talk to, so they know how to behave around others, Charach said. Last year, a tenant would glare at people in the hallways and lash out if someone even looked at them, he said. In other cases, even though the rent is being paid, tenants are damaging property beyond what any damage deposit will cover, he said. Charach plans to call Bernadette Smith, Manitoba's minister of housing, addictions and homelessness, to see what part his association can play, but says many members who stepped up when Housing First began might be less willing now. However, there have been improvements, he said. Landlords who house tenants supported by some service agencies do have a number to call if someone is having a breakdown, and the response has been good, he said. Altogether, there are 74 members in Charach's association with many housing units. "If each one of our members … put two people in, it would be 150, easy," he said. "And two people is not a lot to take. So we could probably house 200 or 300 if vacancy is there, and if they meet the three very simple criteria that we use: pay the rent, don't bother the neighbours and don't damage the property."
CTV News
27-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Standing water in Montreal KFC parking lot raises health and safety concerns
Standing water in the parking lot of a KFC in Côte-des-Neiges-N.D.G is a growing health and safety concern for residents nearby.
