The Flash falters

It’s one thing to climb aboard rail-relocation train, quite another to pay for the ride

Anyone who wants a brighter, safer, healthier future for the city of Winnipeg should really want the renewed hopes of rail relocation to finally become reality. And the sooner, the better.

Premier Wab Kinew announced Wednesday the province was going to forge a plan to relocate the Canadian Pacific Kansas City central yards and many of other the lines that run through Winnipeg to a bypass that runs around the city.

This “plan to design a plan” strategy was devised by a task force headed up by former federal MP and cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy, who in 2024 was given a two-year mandate to find the best way to rid the city of some or all of its rail infrastructure.

For the record, Kinew and Axworthy said a relocation would likely take 20 years to complete, which makes this week’s announcement an important statement of intent, but little more. The sobering reality is that this promising idea has been proposed by political leaders, and then abandoned, for decades.

Inmate captured after escape from Manitoba jail

Manitoba RCMP have arrested an inmate who escaped from Milner Ridge Correctional Centre Wednesday.

Mounties apprehended Justin Paul at about 11 a.m. Thursday near Highway 11 and Minnewawa Street W in Lac du Bonnet.

Court records show Paul was in custody charged with multiple offences, including assault, uttering threats, robbery, theft and numerous weapon offences.

Last April, Paul pleaded guilty to failing to appear in court and was sentenced to six months probation.

Trailblazing Western Scrap Metals heavy-equipment operator relishes role at massive crane’s control

Less than five per cent of heavy-equipment operators in the country are women but that number is trending upward, according to a study conducted by trade magazine Crane & Hoist Canada.

It was reported that in Ontario roughly eight per cent of jobs in the transport and heavy-equipment field are currently held by women. Furthermore, in 2024 almost 20 per cent of graduates at an Edmonton-based heavy-equipment operator training school were female, the article stated.

That brings us to Harmony Guspodarchuk, the first female crane operator in the 70-year history of Western Scrap Metals, a family-owned business at 18 Sutherland Ave. Three years ago, Guspodarchuk literally stepped into the driver’s seat of a 27,500-kilogram, Liebherr C 924 Heavy Lift Litronic crane. The 29-year-old hasn’t looked back much since. Well, except to ensure that her machine’s 900-kilogram, five-claw grappling hook isn’t releasing a derelict air conditioner or bed frame on top of anything valuable.

“There are seven (metal) scrapyards in the city and unfortunately, I don’t know of any other women doing this,” says Guspodarchuk, dressed in a bright-orange T-shirt, dark pants and scuffed pair of steel-toe boots, her shoulder-length hair tied back in a ponytail. “That’s a shame because if you’re asking me, scrapyards could definitely use a woman’s touch. I like to think I’m very organized and one of my goals has been to clean up the yard to make things more efficient, which a lot of people tell me is now the case.”

Opaskwayak restorative justice court to give offenders opportunity to ‘heal’

The Manitoba government, provincial court and Opaskwayak Cree Nation are signing a memorandum of understanding today to establish a community-led court focused on Indigenous restorative justice principles.

Justice Minister Matt Wiebe is in the northern First Nation, which neighbours The Pas, to attend this week’s Opaskwayak Indigenous Days summer festival, ahead of the signing of the nation-to-nation agreement after a pipe ceremony today.

“This is really a pivotal marker on the path to reconciliation for our justice system and an incredible opportunity to begin the process of reconciling the two systems of justice, that being the traditional Indigenous justice system with our colonial system,” Wiebe told the Free Press on Wednesday.

“I’m just excited to be here to have the opportunity to formally mark the collaboration, but really to listen and to hear from community about the best ways, the best path forward.”

Revered Broadway rail anchors Winnipeg’s resilient skateboarding scene

The Woodsworth Building at the corner of Broadway and Kennedy Street is an accidental, unofficial mecca of Winnipeg skateboarding.

‘Disrespectful’: residents frustrated after Wyatt arrives hour late to committee meeting

Several Winnipeggers attending a city development hearing on Thursday expressed frustration that one councillor arrived about an hour late, delaying the matter from being heard.

Coun. Russ Wyatt, who continues to attend city hall while facing criminal charges, began participating in the 9:30 a.m. East Kildonan-Transcona community committee meeting at 10:35 a.m.

A resident who hoped to speak at the meeting about a development plan in south Transcona noted the tardiness led the committee to bump the topic down on its agenda, while dozens waited to speak on it.

Christina Pyra eventually opted to leave city hall instead of waiting for her turn to make a presentation, to avoid missing a work commitment.