PTE ‘restructuring’ will include layoffs at season’s end

First Crumbl cookie shop opens in Winnipeg

The early birds got their cookies.

Klaudia and Jayson Ballantyne were the first in line for the grand opening of Winnipeg’s first Crumbl location at 1570 Regent Ave. West, arriving at 2 a.m. Friday — six hours before the cookie chain was set to open.

The brother and sister brought their lawn chairs and blankets and hunkered down.

Roughly 90 minutes later, by their count, the next customers arrived.

Opening of Portage and Main shows even seemingly insurmountable impasses can be overcome

There are places in a city that become more than places. Portage and Main is one of them. For generations of Winnipeggers, the intersection has represented downtown, traffic, development and civic identity. Its reopening to pedestrians in 2025, after 46 years of closure, was about more than crossing a street. It was a reminder that decisions made by one generation can shape the choices available to another — and that even seemingly permanent decisions can be reconsidered.

I have spent much of my professional life thinking about Winnipeg as a planner, working in public, private and non-profit settings. My PhD research gave me an opportunity to examine Portage and Main differently: not simply as a debate about cars and pedestrians, but as a window into how power operates in a city. I reviewed 569 archival documents spanning the 1960s to the present, interviewed 48 planners with experience in Winnipeg, and mapped the relationships between planners, politicians, developers, engineers, residents, businesses and advocacy groups.

What emerged was a story about how planning decisions become embedded in a city’s institutions, agreements, infrastructure, professional practices and political expectations — shaping not only what gets built, but who gets to influence what gets built.

The closure of Portage and Main in 1979 did not remain a decision confined to a particular political moment. Over time, it was reinforced by development agreements, physical infrastructure, property relationships, traffic-engineering practices, administrative routines, and public narratives about mobility and downtown revitalization. The people who made many of those original decisions eventually left office. The arrangements they created remained. Later planners inherited them.

‘Tough part of the business’

Relief? Regret? Rage?

How are the Winnipeg Jets feeling following Friday’s Connor Hellebuyck trade — particularly those with deep roots and strong bonds with the franchise goaltender who now finds himself a member of the New Jersey Devils?

“It was a bit of a cloud hanging over our heads,” captain Adam Lowry admitted on Saturday. “It’s nice we can look forward now. We don’t have to keep talking about it. We’ve got guys that want to be here.”

That was a bit of a common theme around the room following an outdoor practice at Princess Auto Stadium ahead of Sunday’s Heritage Classic game against the Montreal Canadiens.

Security under magnifying glass after suspicious death on Mountain Avenue

Homicide detectives are investigating the suspicious death of a 70-year-old man at a seniors high-rise on Mountain Avenue.

Forensic investigators and detectives have been at the building, at 595 Mountain Ave., and questioning residents about the death of Richard Boychuk, whose body was found in his second-storey suite Tuesday morning.

The 70-year-old, who used a wheelchair, had lived in the Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corp. apartment for several years, said close friend Angela Abdilla.

She would clean, shop and take care of Boychuk, a former Elvis impersonator.

Province orders ban on private teacher-student messaging

Manitoba teachers are no longer allowed to text or use social media to contact a student – regardless of whether they coach a school sports team or supervise other activities outside typical instruction times.

Brown to rescue

Don’t let the final score fool you.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers clinched a playoff berth with a 34-10 victory over the B.C. Lions on Friday night in Vancouver, but it was anything but pretty.

Had they not been facing a lineup loaded with second- and third-stringers, the Bombers might be preparing for the off-season instead of another game right now.

Luckily for them, they survived three horrendous quarters to prevail. A loss would have ended their season and handed a playoff spot to the Calgary Stampeders instead.