The Wrap: Record Manitoba deficit, reconciliation in education, Portage Place deal reached, triple homicide plea

Good evening. Here’s a look at what our newsroom has been working on today:

'A lot of hard work to be done'

Manitoba’s government posted a whopping $1.97-billion deficit in the last fiscal year — the largest deficit in the province’s history outside of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The deficit is the result of a drop in tax and Manitoba Hydro revenues, and increased health-care spending.

Finance Minister Adrien Sala said the NDP is cleaning up a “fiscal mess” from the previous government and aims to balance the books by 2027, but the Progressive Conservatives say Manitoba is on a path to “financial disaster.”

Carol Sanders reports from the legislature, and columnist Tom Brodbeck weighs in on what it could mean for the province’s future.

Carol Sanders:

Sagging revenue, soaring spending contribute to Manitoba’s $2-B deficit

’A lot of hard work to be done’: NDP sticks to promise to balance books by 2027

Tom Brodbeck:

NDP’s love for tax cuts equals budget madness

It may be too early to hit the panic button, but debt could become a serious problem for the NDP government if the province continues to cut taxes in an environment of slow economic growth.

Get ready to savour Manitoba's freshest summer flavours

'I can see the slow changes'

“Education got us into this mess and education will get us out,” chief commissioner Murray Sinclair said when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission completed its work in 2015.

Free Press education reporter Maggie Macintosh looks at lesson plans in early, middle and senior levels to see how educators are undertaking the challenging task of carrying out Sinclair’s vision to reframe Canada’s residential school history.

Meanwhile, columnist Niigaan Sinclair looks back on the week leading up to the first Orange Shirt Day recognized as a provincial holiday, and Rebecca Chambers reflects on the universal childhood fear of being wrenched from one’s family.

Maggie Macintosh:

Teaching truth

From writing letters to Orange Shirt Day creator to cooking Indigenous dishes, teachers — from early years to high school — educate students on residential schools

Niigaan Sinclair:

How was my week? Satisfyingly orange, thanks

For Canadians, wearing orange is an invitation by Indigenous peoples to share in the work of reconciliation for every day, for the rest of our lives.

Rebecca Chambers:

Exploiting primal fear long a tool in forced assimilation

Canada has come a long way, but we still have more to do to repair the damage and ease the trauma of a system designed to terrify young children in an effort to rebuild them as something they were not and did not want to be.

Free Press staff:

What’s open, what’s closed on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Some businesses and government services change their hours in observation of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Here is a selection of what’s open and closed.

'This is a generational opportunity'

True North Real Estate Development says it’s poised to close its purchase of Portage Place mall and turn it into affordable housing, health-care service facilities and gathering spaces.

An agreement with all three levels of government and the Southern Chiefs’ Organization was reached after more than two years of work on plans to convert the 1.2-million square feet of downtown retail and office space into a $650-million multi-use facility.

City hall reporter Joyanne Pursaga has the story.

Joyanne Pursaga:

‘This is it’: True North reaches deal to buy Portage Place for $650-M redevelopment project

More than a year after sharing its vision for the massive redevelopment of Portage Place mall, True North Real Estate Development says all the pieces are now in place to finalize the project.

'He’s been violating and victimizing women and children his entire life'

Standing in the prisoner’s box flanked by his lawyers, Trevis Zane McLeod appeared calm and relaxed as he confirmed his guilt Friday afternoon in the killings of his wife and two children.

Shantelle Murphy, 32, and the couple’s two children, six-year-old Isabella and three-year-old Mason, were bludgeoned to death inside their Portage la Prairie duplex in April 2022. McLeod then set the home on fire.

Mcleod, 52, will return to court Oct. 24, at which time Crown and defence lawyers will jointly recommend he be sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 16 years.

Justice reporter Dean Pritchard was in court.

Dean Pritchard:

‘Monster’ pleads guilty to 2022 murders of wife, two young children in Portage la Prairie

A Portage la Prairie man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the slayings of his wife and two children after a psychiatric assessment found he was not suffering from a mental disorder at the time of their deaths.

Nicole Buffie:

Rural Manitoba has highest domestic-violence rate in Canada

Rural Manitoba holds the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of intimate partner violence in Canada, where the domestic-related homicide rate is 10 times higher than urban areas, according to data compiled by the Research and Education for Solutions to Violence and Abuse committee (RESOLVE).