No storybook ending for Manitoba Book Awards

Tenants battling landlords find help in short supply from province

For nearly three years, Quincy Houdayer and Avery Helm repeatedly pressed their landlord to address plumbing failures, water damage and other maintenance problems at their West Broadway apartment, with records showing some issues persisted until the couple turned to the Residential Tenancies Branch.

Emails and text messages between the tenants, Clearwater Management and the RTB reviewed by the Free Press document recurring leaks and flooding, periods without heat or hot water, concerns about mould and basement conditions and repeated followups from the couple seeking repairs.

“Most of the experiences we’ve had with them can be boiled down to, like, they either are very dismissive about it, they act like it’s not their problem… or they will just fully, blatantly ignore you,” Helm said, adding that the only way to get Clearwater to respond was to threaten going to the RTB, a provincial government agency.

RTB data obtained by the Free Press also shows 13 orders involving the three-building complex at 193-197 Furby St. in 2026 alone. All but one favoured the tenant, while the remaining order ruled in favour of both the tenant and landlord on different items.

Ontario to move northwest regions to permanent daylight time

TORONTO - Ontario is set to move parts of the province's northwest region to permanent daylight time in order to align with Manitoba, Indigenous Affairs Minister Greg Rickford told The Canadian Press.

Rickford said there is overwhelming consensus among municipalities, First Nations and businesses to make the time change permanent.

The province intends to make a regulatory change in the Time Act on Nov. 1 to allow regions west of the 90th meridian to align with Manitoba, he said.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew announced last month the province would stop twice-annual clock changes and stay on daylight time year-round in the central time zone, leaving it one hour ahead of the other Prairie provinces rather than aligned with them.

‘Unique’ crackdown leads to dozens of arrests, hundreds of referrals to outreach groups

More than 200 people were referred to support organizations and police made 55 arrests during a two-month crackdown on drug use and disorder on city streets.

The Winnipeg Police Service and community group leaders released the latest details Tuesday of a sweep focused on open drug use and trafficking that began in August. An earlier blitz, in June, drew rebuke from some community groups that led police to take an outreach-first approach when it was relaunched.

“I feel it’s something that’s very unique, we’ve looked across the country and from what I’m hearing, what we’re hearing, I think we’re definitely going in the right direction, if not leading the way in some of our initiatives,” said police Chief Gene Bowers of the service’s partnered approach to cracking down on open air drug use.

Between Aug. 7 and Oct. 6, community organizations participated in 14 joint outreach and enforcement efforts, police said on Tuesday. Ten people were helped into Main Street Project detox programs, 48 people were given access to support services and 553 naloxone opioid antidote kits were handed out. Outreach organizations engaged with a total of 3,758 people.

Piece of magic history disappears

A piece of Winnipeg’s magic history has vanished, and internationally renowned escape artist Dean Gunnarson is offering a $500 reward to anyone who can make it reappear.

The plaque marked the birthplace of what has become the world’s largest organization of professional and amateur magicians, the International Brotherhood of Magicians, which was founded in Winnipeg more than a century ago.

Gunnarson said fellow magician and local magic historian Bruce Thompson discovered the disappearance Tuesday while on his way to work.

Thompson returned to inspect the site and found what appeared to be evidence it had been forcibly removed.

Hydro’s unpredictable fortunes

Hope for rain. Or snow. Or both. There’s a truism buried deep in a financial outlook in Manitoba Hydro’s 2025-26 annual report, released in late September: “Manitoba Hydro’s net income is highly dependent on several uncontrollable factors.”