Four debut novels among the Writers’ Trust fiction short list

Safety officers responded to three assaults in first 4 1/2 months at downtown Hydro HQ

Manitoba Hydro Place beefed up its security after an employee was assaulted in the main-floor gallery while leaving work in January leading the Crown corporation to close the building to the public for several weeks while it hired and trained institutional safety officers.

Potential Jets backup options include two possible netminder reunions

Kevin Cheveldayoff couldn’t help but make light of the situation.

Near the end of the press conference to discuss where things stand with training camp holdout Connor Hellebuyck, the general manager of the Jets was asked if he felt comfortable with the five goalies who were in training camp.

“You know I can’t have five on the roster,” Cheveldayoff quipped.

Only Cheveldayoff knows for sure how he feels about the organizational depth at the position and whether he’s planning to open the campaign with either Dom DiVincentiis or Thomas Milic in the backup role behind Stuart Skinner.

Mayor introduces charter change motion to remove council members charged with crimes

Mayor Scott Gillingham is urging council to move forward with his plan to force a paid leave of absence on elected civic officials charged with criminal offence.

The mayor introduced a new “notice of motion” at Thursday’s city council meeting that calls on the province to change the City of Winnipeg Charter to allow the process, days after Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt registered to run for re-election despite facing sexual assault charges.

“This is about the electorate, the people of the City of Winnipeg who elect members of council, the mayor, to public office, to serve them. There should be no distraction, there should be confidence and public trust that people of Winnipeg can have for their elected officials,” said Gillingham.

Union leaders, the mayor and some councillors have publicly urged Wyatt to step aside from his council role to deal with the charges.

No more Jets 1.0 or 2.0: League announces all eras of Winnipeg’s club to be merged

Mark Scheifele’s goal was always to chase down his mentor and former Barrie Colts head coach Dale Hawerchuk, no matter what the official record book said.

So when the NHL and the Winnipeg Jets announced on Thursday morning that they were consolidating the franchise history to include the 1.0 and 2.0 eras (including the Atlanta Thrashers chapter of the club), Scheifele was among those to give the move two thumbs up.

“Yeah, it clarifies it for you guys more, not as much (for) me,” said Scheifele. “It’s really cool to bring in the old Jets records, and especially Dale. Chasing him down was always on my mind. So, it’s cool to do it actually in the record books.”

Scheifele remains the franchise leader in games played (961) and he’s likely to eclipse Hawerchuk in goals (Scheifele has 372 to Hawerchuk’s 379) and points (Scheifele has 907 to Hawerchuk’s 929) this season. He now has Thomas Steen’s 553 assists in his sights after amassing 535 heading into 2026-27.

Manitoba’s small oil, gas sector lists 31 ownerless sites — far cry from thousands in Alberta, Saskatchewan

As other western provinces struggle to address the environmental and economic fallout from an accumulation of thousands of orphan oil and gas wells, only a tiny portion of Manitoba’s petroleum infrastructure is sitting idle and unclaimed.

But it’s unclear if the province’s small roster of orphan wells is the byproduct of effective regulation — or an historic lack of departmental oversight.

Manitoba’s oil and gas industry is relatively small and generally opaque. None of the experts contacted for this story had direct knowledge of the province’s orphan well landscape.

“My lab has probably measured the most non-producing wells in the country. I don’t think anybody I know is working on it (in Manitoba) who are in the academic realm,” says Mary Kang, an associate professor in civil engineering at McGill University in Montreal.

Husband of rival sex club owner accused in attempted bathhouse bombing

A Winnipeg bathhouse owner says he was shocked to learn the man accused of planting a pipe bomb outside his business is married to the owner of a competing sex and lifestyle club.

Christopher Gregoire, who recently took ownership of AQ Sauna, said a live pipe bomb was found by a “heroic patron” outside the club, formerly known as Aquarius Bath House, in the early morning hours of Sept. 11.

On Thursday, the Winnipeg Police Service announced Erik Lymen Olson, 59, was facing multiple charges in the incident. Olson is the husband of Adonis Men’s Spa owner Doug Pomanski.

“This is wild,” Gregoire said after learning of the charges.