Staff shortage forces province to reduce traffic court, ticket-payment hours in Winnipeg

The Manitoba government quietly began closing the Winnipeg provincial offences court office early three days a week in mid-October, in a temporary measure tied to staffing shortages.

The office at 373 Broadway, where traffic tickets are paid and where provincial offence hearings are held, began closing at 3 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on Oct. 13. The reduction in hours is expected to remain in place until early 2026.

The office remains open until 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

A provincial government spokesman said the office is not at a full staff complement, but added there is an active recruiting effort underway to fill vacancies.

Ticket volumes have also increased, said the spokesman, leading to temporary measures meant to maintain service levels, which also included reallocating resources.

But Manitoba Government Employees’ Union president Kyle Ross said there has been no major increase in the number of tickets issued.

“We’re happy to see the government is taking notice of the workers struggling to keep up, but really, we’d like to see the government put some effort into hiring people to do this work,” said Ross.

”This work is not going away, there’s not an extra spike in tickets that’s causing this problem; it’s because there’s just not enough people in that office to perform those duties.”

He said there’s frustration among staff about their ability to do their job and that he can imagine members of the public, too, will be frustrated when they learn of the reduction in hours.

There are currently four full-time staff vacancies at the office, out of a complement of 18 positions that are meant to be staffed full time.

Casual staff are also hired to assist during periods of higher volume, the spokesman added.

The government spokesman said the reduction in hours is allowing staff to process matters efficiently.

The provincial government did not widely announce the early closures, but has put a notice on its website, on the office’s door and in its voicemail message.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca