The Wrap: Police chief search, retail theft summit, construction season, Forks food
Plus: See Winnipeg's urban environment through the eye of the goose

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

They’ve got their work cut out for them'

Transparency. A willingness to work on relationships with marginalized communities. Addressing growing mistrust. An understanding of Winnipeg’s acute social ills.

The 2024 job requirements for Winnipeg’s next police chief go well beyond law enforcement.

Chris Kitching looks at the wishlist of qualifications for the new top cop voiced by advocacy groups and others in the city.

Chris Kitching:

Great expectations, massive challenges

Winnipeg’s next police chief will need to focus on more than law enforcement Read More

'Good intentions and superficial slogans are not going to solve it'

Political leaders and Manitoba’s former chief judge stressed the need to address poverty and addiction in order to tackle theft at a first-of-its-kind retail summit Friday in Winnipeg.

The Retail Council of Canada hosted the Manitoba Retail Secure Summit where business and restaurant owners, politicians and community advocates gathered at the RBC Convention Centre to discuss the issue and its underlying causes.

Nicole Buffie reports on what attendees think is fuelling retail theft, and how to stop it.

Nicole Buffie:

Attack poverty, drugs to combat retail theft, summit hears

'We can’t police our way out of this crisis': former chief judge Read More

'We will continue working until... we no longer can'

Just a third of this season’s local construction projects are now complete, according to the latest City of Winnipeg data.

Another 10 per cent of projects need finishing touches such as landscape, while construction is ongoing for 46 per cent of projects.

Twelve per cent of projects have not yet started.

City hall reporter Joyanne Pursaga looks at the state of construction season.

Joyanne Pursaga:

Leaves falling, chill in the air…

And crews still working on more than half of year’s road projects Read More

'We’re excited to see what we can learn'

The Forks is dipping its toes into grocery territory ahead of accepting residents.

The Forks Trading Co., which has sold wares on the market’s second floor for 15 years, has opened a new shop selling food in part of the space formerly occupied by the The Original Pancake House.

Business reporter Gabrielle Piché takes in the new shop — and explores other pilot projects at The Forks as it looks forward to hundreds of people living on site within the next few years.

Gabrielle Piché:

Gourmet food store opens at The Forks

‘Dream come true’: Grocery steps in for one-year pilot at The Forks Market Read More

"What is a golf course to a wild animal? Just a strangely shaped forest."

The giant Canada goose: a noisy, rude urban nuisance, at least in some people’s minds.

Considered extinct less than a century ago, the subspecies has plotted a remarkable comeback.

With fall migration underway involving tens of thousands of birds in and around Winnipeg, environment reporter Julia-Simone Rutgers looks at the love-hate relationship we have with geese and how the city, unwittingly, has played a significant role in their revival.

Julia-Simone Rutgers:

Flocking to the city

With the giant Canada goose species no longer in danger of extinction, urban amenities offer the ideal habitat for the migrating birds Read More