The Wrap: MLAs return to Broadway, downtown recovery, Jets playoff preview and the WAG on Gardner

Good evening. Here’s a look at what our newsroom has been working on today:

'We think Manitoba jobs should go to Manitobans'

The Manitoba government is planning to lift a ban on project labour agreements — deals that require non-unionized workers on large projects to be governed by the same rules and benefits as their unionized counterparts.

Labour Minister Maya Marcelino introduced a bill Wednesday that would, if passed, repeal a ban enacted by the former Progressive Conservative government.

Bill 7 will give public sector entities the option to require contractors bidding on infrastructure projects to employ a unionized workforce, she said.

Danielle Da Silva:

NDP taking ‘step backwards’ by ending Tory ban on big-project labour deals, contractors association says

The Kinew government opened the spring sitting of the Manitoba legislature Wednesday with a bill to repeal a ban on project labour agreements championed by the Progressive Conservatives. Labour Min... Read More

Dan Lett:

Pre-season practice over; it’s governing time for Kinew, NDP

The training wheels officially came off Manitoba’s NDP government at 1:30 Wednesday afternoon. It marked the start of what is really the first full session of the 43rd sitting of the Manitoba legis... Read More

Iced drink with lime on a wooden surface beside the Savour Manitoba magazine cover.

'Definitely a lot of ups and downs'

The number of people visiting downtown Winnipeg is changing. Though there are still more businesses closing than opening in the city’s core, the gap is narrowing, according to a new Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone report.

General visitation to the city core jumped 9.4 per cent year-over-year in 2023. Hotel bookings more than doubled, and paid on-street parking hours increased 25 per cent, the BIZ said.

Still, there are plenty of challenges. The report clocked a net loss of 10 businesses — 27 opened, 37 closed or moved — in 2023.

Gabrielle Piché:

Downtown Winnipeg on recovery path: BIZ report

Core logged net loss of 10 businesses in 2023; future tied to residential growth, advocate says Read More

Five potential partners for the big dance

Hockey writer Mike McIntyre takes a look at some possible opponents for the Winnipeg Jets in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

He examines how the Jets have fared against those teams so far this season and in past playoff series and tells us if there’s a preferred matchup for the home squad.

Mike McIntyre:

Sizing up the Jets’ potential first-round playoff opponents

The Winnipeg Jets are going to the NHL playoffs. Of that, there is no longer any doubt. Sure, it’ll be some time before the hockey club officially punches its post-season ticket. But a sizzling 39-17-5 record, with 21 regular-season games remaining, has them home and cooled on that front. Read More

'It’s a Winnipeg thing'

Stephen Borys, director and CEO of the WAG-Qaumajuq, has been focused on being a curator and writer on top of his usual WAG job description, working on the exhibition catalogue for Tim Gardner: The Full Story.

Ariel Gordon talked to Borys about what goes into making an exhibition catalogue.

And Free Press contributor Alison Gillmor looks at Gardner’s Roy with Red Cup in our new monthly series, A Closer Look, which examines what a work of individual art can tell us about our lives and our world.

Tim Gardner: The Full Story is the first retrospective and the largest exhibition of the work of Gardner, a former Winnipegger. The exhibit will be up at the WAG until April 21.

Ariel Gordon:

In Conversation: Stephen Borys

This year, dozens of Winnipeggers will publish books in every genre you can think of, but only a couple of writers will release exhibition catalogues. Stephen Borys is one of them. He’s been the di... Read More

Alison Gillmor:

Gardner’s prosaic red cup runneth over

When this image is reproduced, it could easily be mistaken for a photograph. Gardner’s work intrigues us partly because we want to see how it is different from its photographic source. We search for evidence that this is a surface drawn and coloured by pastel. We look for traces of the artist’s hand. Read More