Bear Debby leaves a hole

Winnipeg, police and downtown crime

A safer downtown is not much use if people are still afraid to walk there.

That is the uncomfortable message from Winnipeg’s latest police citizen survey, and one city council should take seriously.

Downtown crime has fallen this year, according to the most recent police statistics. Violent crime is down even more. But for most Winnipeggers, the downtown still feels like a place to avoid, particularly after dark.

Only 44 per cent of survey respondents said they feel very or reasonably safe walking alone downtown during the day. At night, that number plunges to just eight per cent. Among women, it is an appalling three per cent, compared with 14 per cent of men.

Rogers, Telus deny blame for June twister alert barrage

Telecom companies say they aren’t to blame for the barrage of tornado alerts Manitobans received during severe thunderstorms in early June.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced in August it would investigate the unusually high number of alerts, and called on the Pelmorex Corp., which operates the national Alert Ready system, along with telecom companies Bell, Rogers and Telus to respond to a number of questions.

They were given until last Friday to describe their possible roles in the creation, receipt, processing or distribution of alerts issued from Environment and Climate Change Canada in the midst of the June 9 storm.

Telus said in its response that it received 133 alert requests targeted to Manitoba created by Environment Canada and forwarded by Pelmorex between 2:35 p.m. June 9 and 3:29 a.m. the following day. While the majority of those messages contained identical information and were automatically suppressed, 17 were ultimately sent out as alerts in Winnipeg.

Nothing wrong with planting trees, but it won’t get province very far on path to net zero

Manitoba’s new plan to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 is a lot of things. It’s detailed. It’s certainly comprehensive in scope. But when it is all said and done, it is still very much a work in progress.

Transit safety drives first mayoral debate

The safety of Winnipeg Transit drivers was front and centre Monday as the first mayoral debate of the 2026 election focused on public transit.

Kevin Klein, the most experienced of the 10 candidates at the Amalgamated Transit Union 1505-hosted debate, said the time for partial safety shields has passed.

“The partial shields have failed drivers. That’s why we need change,” the former PC MLA and city councillor said, adding driver safety is not a staffing issue, but a “protection failure.”

If elected, Klein said he will bring in full-shield implementation across the city within two years and start a nine-bus pilot project immediately.

Bear Debby leaves a hole

Debby the polar bear may have departed this perilous planet, but her likeness lives on at the Assiniboine Park Zoo.

The province of Manitoba has donated a statue of the Guinness record-setting carnivore to the zoo to help celebrate the life of its famous resident.

Debby, who passed away last year at the age of 42, was believed to be the oldest member of her iconic Arctic species before she died in November from multiple organ failure, a consequence of living more than twice the average lifespan of a wild polar bear.

A statue in her honour -- creation of artist Charles Johnston -- now stands near her old enclosure, which no longer meets provincial standards for housing polar bears.