Your forecast
Periods of drizzle, changing to snow this afternoon, with risk of freezing drizzle late this afternoon. Wind becoming north at 30 km/h gusting to 50 near noon. Temperature falling to -1 C this afternoon. A weather alert is in effect regarding precipitation today and Friday.
Beacuse of accumulation of snow, ice-covered routes and some secondary roads being difficult to drive on, some schools in Division scolaire franco-manitobaine are closed today. For information on closures in a particular school division, visit this map and click on the relevant area.
What’s happening today
A new work by poet Duncan Mercredi will make its debut at DreamPlay’s Small Concerts. The one-hour “modern-day mini opera” is broken into four acts, combining Mercredi’s poems, songs and wolfman stories. Winnipeg Art Gallery, 300 Memorial Blvd., 7.30 p.m.
A new work by Métis/Cree writer Duncan Mercredi, combining poems, songs and wolfman stories, has its premiè;re at the WAG tonight. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files)
Today’s must-read
Winnipeg’s preliminary four-year budget proposes to hike many fees, impose a new garbage-diversion charge for apartments and condominiums, and add a 911 upgrade fee, while also raising bus fares and some taxes, to help balance the books.
Mayor Scott Gillingham had warned cost pressures would force difficult spending decisions.
The city’s $1.363-billion tax-supported operating budget is poised to keep Gillingham’s campaign promises to cap annual property tax hikes at 3.5 per cent per year. Frontage fees are also frozen, following a 2023 hike. Joyanne Pursaga has the story.
The City of Winnipeg’s preliminary 2024-2027 multi-year budget (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press)
On the bright side
Emily Potter was in Australia last month when she received the most important invitation of her career. On the other end of an emotional phone call was Victor Lapeña, head coach of the Canadian senior women’s national basketball team, who told the Winnipeg-born centre she’d been selected to help the program attempt to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Potter immediately took a leave from her pro team, the Perth Lynx of the Women’s National Basketball League, flew to Vienna to train with the national team then headed to Sopron, Hungary, for the FIBA women’s basketball Olympic qualifier tournament.
The Canadian women open against the host country today at noon CT. Joshua Frey-Sam has the story.
Emily Potter is the only Manitoban on the Canadian Women’s Basketball team competing in the FIBA Olympic qualifier tournament. (Maud Issa / Canada Basketball)
On this date
On Feb. 8, 1968: The Winnipeg Free Press reported in Ottawa, prime minister Lester Pearson said Canada had embarked on a sweeping revision of the British North America Act that he hoped would result in a new Constitution in three years. In Vancouver, the wreckage of a jetliner buried to its wings in a building after cutting a mile-long arc of destruction had been pulled free for an intensive investigation. Read the rest of this day’s paper here. Search our archives for more here.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
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