Free fix is in: repair café aims to keep items out of landfills

Stephen Kirk wants to give people a chance to fix items they’re not ready to let go of.

The Spence Neighbourhood Association staffer took notice when repair cafés started popping up around the world, and he decided to bring the idea to Winnipeg.

The café invites people to bring broken items like bikes, clothes and small kitchen appliances to the association’s headquarters to get free repairs by a team of skilled volunteers.

“Certainly in our neighbourhood, a lot of people’s motivation is economic, they would rather fix it than have to buy a new one,” said Kirk, the environmental and open spaces coordinator for the Spence Neighbourhood Association.

‘You vote with your bike’: cyclists celebrate freedoms, call for increased safety

Patty Wiens got dressed up in her sparkly, hot pink cowboy boots to pedal and talk politics with more than 100 other people on Sunday.

The founder of Winnipeg’s Fancy Women Bike Ride called on attendees of the 2026 event to ask candidates in the upcoming civic election — a half-dozen of whom were in attendance — about their active transportation platforms.

“We’re here today, in an election year, to remind you that you vote with your bike,” Wiens told a crowd of nearly 120 cyclists gathered on the legislature grounds for the group ride.

“When (city council) candidates come to your door and ask what’s important to you, you’re going to say, ‘I want to ride my bike safely in the city. What are you going to do about it?’”

Proposed Transcona development — which could add 20,000 people — gets thumbs down from residents

Dozens of Winnipeggers fear plans to make way for up to 20,000 more people to live in south Transcona would dramatically alter their neighbourhood and tie hefty fees for new services to their property titles.

If city council adopts the proposed South Transcona secondary plan, all future development applications would need to conform to its goals. The affected area is located south of Dugald Road, north of St. Boniface Road, east of Plessis Road and west of Murdock Road.

Homeowner Virginia Page Jähne fears the plan could add a massive tab to the title of her 4.3-acre property to cover services required for the development.

“My main concern is that they are wanting to put $1.4 million onto my title to pay for this. Now, they say that I will not have to pay it unless I subdivide. But if a person comes by and wants to buy from me … and they see that $1.4 million … what’s the first thing (they’re) going to do?” said Page Jähne, in an interview.

Revered Broadway rail anchors Winnipeg’s resilient skateboarding scene

The Woodsworth Building at the corner of Broadway and Kennedy Street is an accidental, unofficial mecca of Winnipeg skateboarding.

Fusion pop-up coming to street food festival

After surviving breast cancer and watching her husband live through a brain tumour, Marilyn Magtoto decided it was time to take a chance.

Ridesharing platform lets people connect with local drivers with trucks, cargo vans

Want to transport something big but you don’t have a buddy with a truck? Log on to Truckbud.

Winnipeg entrepreneur Praise Odutayo launched the ridesharing platform in November. People who need to move large items can connect with vetted local drivers who have trucks or cargo vans for same-day delivery. Requesting a driver takes about 60 seconds, and users get real-time updates from pickup to drop-off.

Odutayo says he built Truckbud to solve a simple but common challenge: many people don’t own a truck or van, yet regularly need to move items that won’t fit in a car.

“Truckbud is making large-item transportation more accessible, affordable and convenient, while creating flexible earning opportunities within the community,” said Odutayo, 24.

Federal government announces $34M to help communities cope with climate change

OTTAWA - The federal government is spending $34 million on projects to make Canadian communities more resilient to the effects of climate change.

The funds come as cities and towns across the country spend another summer battling extreme heat, wildfires, flooding and tornadoes.

Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin made the announcement in Halifax Wednesday morning. The city is receiving nearly $800,000 to install cooling measures in its parks to help residents cope with extreme heat.

"Canada’s climate is changing. Our government is investing to make these communities more resilient, so that people are protected from flooding, extreme heat and other risks," Dabrusin said in a news release.

Quiet opening fitting for controversial site

One of this city’s most loudly debated facilities — after all the angst, all the opposition and all the vocal support — began operations in the most low-key way possible.

Fun drop-in last chance to mentor grads of inner-city school with excellent track record

Summer break may be in full swing, but Gonzaga Middle School invited graduates back to the building for water balloon fights and academic, employment and support services this week.

Roughly 30 alumni, including teenagers and twentysomethings, stopped by the grades 6-8 school in North Point Douglas on Tuesday afternoon. They were greeted with slime-making kits, ice cream sundaes and staff ready to answer questions.

The initiative — the final grad drop-in organized this summer — is a new extension of the mentorship and holistic programming baked into the funded independent school’s mandate.

“We have 22- and 23-year-olds coming back and checking in and asking for help on their university papers,” principal Rex Ferguson-Baird said.

Governments pledge ‘storefront success’ with downtown grants

The city and province will provide $1.4 million to help spruce up downtown storefronts along and around Graham Avenue, a proposal met with mixed reviews by some businesses.

The “Storefront Success” program, launched Tuesday, aims to boost the appeal of one downtown area, with the two governments each covering half the cost.

“This undoubtedly helps businesses in this region. Having the ability to access some funding to help with the storefronts makes their businesses more attractive and more welcoming,” said Manitoba Business Minister Jamie Moses.

Eligible small- and medium-sized businesses located in the area bordered by Portage Avenue to the north, Hargrave and Donald streets to the east (excluding Canada Life Centre), St. Mary Avenue to the south and Vaughan Street to the west can now apply for grants of up to $200,000 each.

Long-awaited supervised drug consumption site opens quietly after months of loud opposition

After three years of planning, delays and constant controversy, Manitoba’s first supervised drug consumption site quietly opened its doors Tuesday morning.

Manitoba opens province’s first supervised consumption site

WINNIPEG - Manitoba's addictions minister says it's a special but bittersweet day as the province opens its first supervised consumption site.

Bernadette Smith said Tuesday that the site in central Winnipeg is long overdue and will help get people the care they need.

"We can't treat people who aren't alive," said Smith.

"So this is a place for folks to go to get supervised with their substances, but also more importantly, to get connected with supports and services so they can get on to a path of recovery."

‘Exciting news’ on rail relocation coming

Premier Wab Kinew is expected to make an announcement concerning long-awaited Winnipeg rail relocation later this week.

Former federal transport minister and Manitoba MP Lloyd Axworthy, who Kinew tasked in October 2024 with leading a two-year rail relocation feasibility study, confirmed there would be an announcement Wednesday.

“We’ve had this rail study group which I’ve chaired and we’ve been responsible for developing recommendations,” Axworthy said Monday.

The longtime champion for Winnipeg rail relocation, who is vacationing at his cottage on Lake Winnipeg, deferred to the premier’s office for information, but confirmed he will attend Wednesday’s news conference.

City emergency crews to administer drug that stops opioid withdrawal symptoms

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews will soon give out a medication that stops withdrawal symptoms after someone is treated for an opioid overdose.

Emergency workers will be administering a drug called buprenorphine, after Health Canada granted WFPS permission to use the controlled substance.

“Buprenorphine is a medication that offers people who are in active addiction — so those people who have received naloxone as a result of an overdose and those that are experiencing significant and, at times, dangerous withdrawal symptoms — just a bit of a reprieve … (It) reduces cravings and prevents those immediate withdrawal symptoms, which allows more time to connect those patients to further care,” said Michelle Long, WFPS assistant chief of paramedic operations.

The treatment option is in response to a persistently high number of WFPS opioid calls.

Take a hike... or a bike ride on these Winnipeg trail options

We’re halfway through the 10-week summer holiday and if your family is anything like mine, it’s very likely you’ll be in full-blown survival mode at this point.

You’ve already visited all the popular ice-cream spots in the city (and if you haven’t then you’ll find a list of our faves here) , you’ve ticked every box in our Road Trip Bingo Card and answered every single question in the our How Well Do You Know Your Province Quiz (Part 1 and Part 2) … and there are still 29 days to go before school starts on Sept. 8.

If you’re running low on ideas, don’t worry — we’ve got you covered, with not one, not two, but three cycling/walking routes to help you squeeze a bit more fun from what’s left of the holidays. Grab your helmets, lace up your sneakers, pack water bottles and get outside to explore different neighbourhoods in the city.

NOTE: Check the Winnipeg Trails website before you leaving to make sure paths are open and in working order, especially if we’ve had a bout of nasty weather.

Vibrant Norwood apartment garden a labour of love to honour green thumb’s late partner

St. Vital resident Rob Duncan can’t pinpoint when he first noticed an award-winning garden blanketing the grounds of a two-storey St. Mary’s Road apartment block, near Coniston Street.

Perhaps he was on his way home from work and caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye. Or maybe he was running errands in the Norwood Flats area and paused to admire the array of annuals, perennials and potted plants that extends from the block’s doorway to the front curb.

What Duncan does know for certain is that after spying the urban oasis, twice fêted in Take Pride Winnipeg’s annual Winnipeg in Bloom competition, he couldn’t unsee it.

“First of all, the pink building really stands out,” Duncan says, referring to the brightly painted California Apartments complex at 268 St. Mary’s Rd. “But then you have the pergola, the rock garden, the flowers and trees… a sea of colour on a very busy street.”

Water-bus service relaunches with bigger boat

After staying docked last summer, the water-bus service stationed at The Forks is once again ferrying people up and down the Red and Assiniboine rivers.

Razed tree canopy leaves Selkirk Avenue stretch noisier, dirtier: resident

Selkirk Avenue resident Gail Allard sits on her front steps, looking at a row of tree stumps.

Until last fall, Allard would have opened her front door to a lush canopy of mature trees. Now, she has an unobstructed view of a freight terminal — the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. intermodal yard.

Although the residential street is quiet on this August afternoon, the steady beeping of machinery moving shipping containers carries throughout the neighbourhood.

It’s the first summer since Manitoba Hydro cut down 262 mature trees — most of them Siberian elms — along Selkirk Avenue between Keewatin and Railway streets.

City seeking proposals to lease, manage, program St. Boniface heritage buildings

The future of three key St. Boniface heritage buildings should soon become clearer, following years of debate over what to do with them.

The city is seeking proposals to lease, program and manage the Carré Civique de Saint-Boniface (St. Boniface Civic Square), which includes the former St. Boniface city hall (219 Provencher Blvd.), former St. Boniface fire hall (212 Dumoulin St.) and the former St. Boniface health unit building (233 Provencher Blvd.)

The city would continue to own the buildings.

“Promotion of francophone art, language, culture and history are all things that I’d like to see continue and thrive and prosper (through this lease),” said St. Boniface Coun. Matt Allard.

Embarking on backyard photo expedition benefits science, conservancy says

Manitobans can contribute to a global scientific database that helps scientists further understand local wildlife by simply going outside and snapping some photos.

The Big Backyard BioBlitz, which began earlier this week and ends Monday, is an annual national event organized by the Nature Conservancy of Canada that encourages people to record wildlife observations and submit them to researchers.

People can take photos of animals, insects or plants at any outdoor space and submit them virtually through the NCC website. The program is a great way for people to take part in protecting the environment, said Christine Chilton, the conservancy’s Manitoba region community development manager.

“It becomes really easy to say, ‘The climate is in trouble and things are not going the way we want them to, I wish somebody would do something about it.’ This is a really neat way for people to be a part of the story and help make a difference.”