Royal Winnipeg Ballet workers unionize with MGEU

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.

Royal Winnipeg Ballet workers unionize with MGEU

Workers at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet have unionized.

The RWB workers’ application to join the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union as a single bargaining unit was approved by the Manitoba Labour Board Thursday.

The new Local 466 will include employees of both the RWB and the RWB School, including teaching staff, student boarding staff and accompanists as well as those working in marketing, development, facilities and security, data services, finance, food services and administration.

Physiotherapists, students of the RWB School and employees represented by another bargaining unit will not be members of Local 466.

Letters, Oct. 13

The major assumption Manitoba Hydro undertakes is the weather. Hydro projected a $214 million profit for the 2025-26 fiscal year. On Sept. 29, it reported a $446 million loss. It took on additional debt due to $751 million in operating losses. In addition, Hydro stated the fiscal results for 2025-26 were “significantly influenced by circumstances largely beyond Hydro’s control.”

Police, street groups looking to extend co-ordinated outreach-first approach to drug-use, trafficking crackdown

Winnipeg police and street outreach groups are discussing how to extend an initiative that tries to link people with addictions and homelessness services, while targeting open drug use and dealing.

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.”

Every few years, a sword over the baby

On Oct. 19, people in Alberta will answer 10 referendum questions. Nine are about things such as immigration, voter ID, judges and the Senate. The other asks if Alberta should remain in Canada or begin the legal steps toward a binding vote on leaving.

I want to share a perspective, as a patriotic Canadian, which I feel is lacking from the discourse.

Many of us who read those nine complaints can understand where Alberta is coming from. Ottawa kept control of the Prairies’ Crown lands and resources until 1930, allowing the East to grow at the West’s expense. The national energy program of the 1970s is still a sore spot west of Kenora, nearly 50 years later. Ontario and Quebec have almost 60 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons, so you can win everywhere from the Lakehead to the Pacific and still not change anything. Decisions are made about us, not with us. That frustration is real and being a Manitoban shouldn’t mean having to be Ottawa’s lawyer in this case. We are the original West, born in 1870 from Métis resistance to the same kind of treatment Alberta is protesting now.

So yes, we can understand how truly frustrated they are with the state of things in this country. But what bothers us even more is seeing someone threaten our children’s future every few years and call it leadership in their province.