Councillors want city to revamp homeless camp approach

Three Winnipeg councillors say the city uses lack of housing as an excuse to drop the ball on managing public spaces affected by the homeless crisis.

Sherri Rollins, Cindy Gilroy and John Orlikow want bureaucrats to develop a co-ordinated, proportionate and measured approach to maintaining safe, accessible and usable public spaces.

On Friday, they put forward a motion at the final city centre committee meeting before the Oct. 28 election. Gilroy is the only one seeking re-election, in the Daniel McIntyre ward.

“Right now, we have de facto designated encampments. We have increasing social disorder that much of the sector is pointing toward our own policy and blaming it for causing the disruption to the whole entirety of the city and spreading the problem,” said Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry).

No more playing around, make 30 km/h school zones permanent

Winnipeg has already decided that 30 kilometres per hour is the right speed around schools.

It’s time to stop pretending that decision should expire every summer.

The city’s reduced school-zone speed limits returned Tuesday, a full week before the 2026-27 school year begins. They apply on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., from Sept. 1 until July 1.

Then, for two months, they disappear.

‘Part of the neighbourhood’s history’: Minto staple B.C. Grocery shutters

Gary Achtemichuk stopped at his favourite Winnipeg corner store for relish.

Unlike similar trips over the last four decades, he left with a surprise: B.C. Grocery, a Minto neighbourhood staple, was closing its doors.

Owner Lechman Parboji officially shuttered the shop Monday after 42 years at its helm. On Wednesday, movers hauled equipment out, making room for a new three-bedroom apartment suite — one the Parboji family intends to use, at least initially.

“The whole neighbourhood is going to miss him,” Achtemichuk said. “He was the friendliest gentleman you’d ever want to talk to.”

Province announces free daycare for low-income families

Eligible parents will have their child-care fees waived come Sept. 13.

Long-term care best when public

Long-term care remains in crisis in Manitoba. As a result, too many Manitobans fear what will happen to them and their relatives as they age and develop more complex health needs.

Love of the rink blossomed differently for mother-daughter figure skaters

It’s said that home is where the heart is, and for Dana and Marrin McKee that has always been the rink.

The mother-daughter duo of figure skating coaches always find comfort lacing up in chilly arenas.

Dana McKee’s origin story was very similar to her daughter’s, having a strong motherly push onto the ice. Much like learning to swim or drive a car, Dana’s mother believed that skating was an important life skill that needed to be honed.

Growing up in Morris, McKee spent the majority of her youth in the CanSkate program — a developmental learn-to-skate stage teaching the basics of standing upright.

Renewed spirit and life: Indigenous treatment centre expands with $21-M revamp

Don Robinson knows first-hand that many people don’t get sober by themselves.

In late June 1984, Robinson downed his last drink. His recovery began at Pritchard House in Winnipeg’s North End, a 22-bed treatment facility run by the Native Addictions Council of Manitoba.

“I didn’t get sober by myself,” said Robinson, a member of Bunibonibee Cree Nation who now works in grief and trauma counselling and traditional knowledge as an elder at Ka Ni Kanichihk Inc.

More than four decades later, Robinson was back at the council on Monday, crowded into a room at its newly renovated treatment centre at 160 Salter St. — a place he once turned to for help and where he helps others now.

Local demand surges for Canadian-made food and household goods, but retailers lag

Food and household goods companies in Canada say they're seeing a surge in demand as Canadians prioritize shopping local amid the ongoing trade war, but they say some retailers are slow to give more shelf space to products from this country.

Despite the strain of higher prices at the grocery store, many shoppers are going out of their way to buy Canadian-made products, food and household goods, companies told The Canadian Press.

However, they say some retailers are slow to react to the shift in demand, leading to a rise in selling directly to consumers.

"We aren't really built for direct-to-customer sales but we're doing it because of the demand we're seeing," said Kathleen Chapman, president of aVenco Ltd., a Bowmanville, Ont.-based parchment paper company.

Recognizing the value of phys-ed for kids

The message from Premier Wab Kinew and Education Minister Tracy Schmidt last week about the importance of exercise for young people was timely and important — but it is not new.

Former abuser of alcohol, drugs who graduated from recovery program now helping others

The second time Ray Ducharme overdosed, he was in a Winnipeg hotel room, waiting for a spot in Adult and Teen Challenge Central Canada’s live-in recovery program.

It was Oct. 30, 2024 — not long after his first overdose had landed him in a Red Deer, Alta., hospital for eight days. Ducharme had gone west, trying to outrun the baggage he carried in Winnipeg, before eventually returning home at the behest of an ATCCC employee who assured him there would be a bed available in seven to 10 days.

Then came the second OD.

Three days later, in early November, Ducharme woke up in a Winnipeg hospital with his family around him. Doctors weren’t sure he’d survive.

Making mentoring magic one child at a time

When Bree-Ann Jubinville first met the eight-year-old she was going to mentor, she had no idea how much the child would go on to alter the course of her life.

Advocate assembles gift bundles for Trans Day of Remembrance

In a world rife with chaos and division, there’s never been a better time for kindness, joy… and a cookie.

Kalyn Falk is on a mission to provide all three.

Falk founded the Trans Day of Remembrance Care Package Project in 2020 as a way to mourn those lost and to ensure that trans and non-binary people in the community feel valued, seen and cared for.

Trans Day of Remembrance is observed every year on Nov. 20 to honour the memory of transgender, two-spirit and non-binary people who lost their lives to acts of anti-transgender violence and systemic oppression.

Summer Reading Challenge concludes with more musings from young readers

Another Free Press Summer Reading Challenge for Kids is in the books, but before we turn the page completely, there are a few more reviews written by our young readers to share.

Participating readers were tasked to write down their thoughts about any of the books on the Summer Reading Challenge’s three reading lists; with a range of formats (novels, graphic novels, books with pictures), themes and reading levels to choose from, budding reviewers of all ages were eager to share their opinion.

Those registered for the challenge received reading resources and activities throughout the summer, from word searches or puzzles based on the content of the books to a set of discussion questions and, in one instance, a special video from an author.

There were also more creative activities meant to engage readers’ critical thinking skills, all of which were free to access for anyone who signed up for the challenge.

The silent stalker overtaking our sidewalks

I used to joke that I’d probably die in a McPhillips slip lane, run over by a car with a driver looking left for other traffic while turning right. Odds are pretty high on it being by an e-bike or e-scooter now.

Money struggle is real

You likely don’t need a survey to know Canada is a nation of stressed-out citizens.

We have plenty to worry about, and money is often among the leading stressors.

And yes, there are always surveys measuring our collective money-driven concerns, including the recent, inaugural Global Retirement Savers Study by T. Rowe Price.

The U.S.-based asset manager of more than $2 trillion globally found that more than four in 10 surveyed Canadians are financially stressed.

City advised 275 people in 72 camps as of July

A tally by the City of Winnipeg shows the number of people in encampments has fallen by a few hundred since last September.

A Friday presentation to city council members shows 245 people lived in 72 encampments across the city in July, compared with about 100 encampments with 700 people in September 2025.

“There’s some good progress that’s being made … The number of people in encampments is less than half of what it was last year,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham.

The city did not provide numbers for July 2025. It has previously noted the number of encampments tends to increase in warmer months, which has happened each month since February 2026.

New Brunswick banning student phone use in public schools

FREDERICTON - New Brunswick is banning elementary students from using their phone or other mobile devices during the school day starting in September.

The province's Liberal government says the same restriction will apply to high school students starting in February.

A news release says social media sites will also be blocked on school devices and internet networks.

But officials say students will be allowed to use their personal laptops and tablets at school for educational purposes.

NDP trying to solve health-care problems from every angle — except the one likely to have the biggest impact

Winnipeg’s emergency-room wait times hit a record high in July, according to the latest data released Thursday by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

The 90th-percentile wait for all emergency rooms and urgent-care sites hit a staggering 13.02 hours last month, the longest wait ever recorded since the WRHA began publishing monthly data.

Thirteen hours is not a wait, it’s an endurance test. And it’s getting worse.

The 90th percentile is the point at which nine out of 10 patients experienced a shorter wait and one in 10 waited even longer.

Canada’s economy was surging in Q2. Now, it braces for new tariff headwinds

OTTAWA - Fresh data from Statistics Canada on Friday suggests the economy was growing at a healthy clip in the second quarter and rumblings of a recession earlier in the year might have been overblown.

But economists warned that any momentum the economy had last quarter will be tested by a new wave of tariffs and trade uncertainty.

Real gross domestic product rose 3.3 per cent on an annualized basis in the second quarter, StatCan said. That was the fastest quarterly pace of growth since early 2023 and topped the Bank of Canada's call for 2.5 per cent growth in the quarter.

BMO chief economist Doug Porter said in an interview that 3.3 per cent is a "solid result." A typical quarterly figure over the past 20 years would see the economy growing at around two per cent annualized, he noted.

Meta settlement should be first of many

Who knew? A massive company knew its products were harmful to children and teens, and not only kept its products on the market, but worked to make them more addictive, to build their own profits.

Doctor pays $500K to revamp courtyard at care home where he works

Fifty years after Dr. Pravinsagar Mehta began caring for residents at Actionmarguerite, a courtyard he had long watched deteriorate is getting a new life after he and his wife committed $500,000 to its redevelopment and long-term maintenance.