City mulls grant to give life to vacant buildings

The city is looking at a vacant building grant that could entice developers to convert empty buildings into new homes.

Encampment numbers down since ban

The City of Winnipeg has identified 120 people living in 62 encampments — a far cry from the 700 people in roughly 100 camps last August, before the municipal government’s clampdown on such sites began in late 2025.

The figures were discussed during Tuesday’s community services committee meeting in which city officials provided a ward-by-ward breakdown of encampments.

Data collected by Main Street Project through outreach work and point-in-time counts shows Point Douglas has the highest number at 19 sites, followed by Fort Rouge–Fort Garry with 15 camps.

Chris Brens, the city’s community development manager, said the 62 encampments do not include people who stay in bus shelters, vehicles or other spaces. He told the committee MSP had identified 128 people in encampments, including 63 in Point Douglas and 30 in Fort Rouge–Fort Garry, as of May 31.

Bike-to-school day initiative features fun pit stops across city, encourages families to ride

Bike Week Winnipeg is piloting new student-friendly pit stops Tuesday as part of its signature event.

This year, for the first time, bike-to-work day is also being branded as bike-to-school day.

“When students ride, their families ride,” said Andraea Sartison, event producer for the volunteer-run organization promoting cycling with activities scheduled through Sunday.

“(This initiative) is a really good way for us to reach more people, I think. School communities are much larger than the student population, so this is a really nice way to get into neighbourhoods.”

Transit revenue drop projected to be worse than predicted in 2026 budget

Winnipeg Transit warns it may earn $18.4 million less from rider fares this year than its budget calls for.

When the city’s 2026 budget was released, Transit estimated it would earn $97 million in fare revenue throughout this year. However, it also listed an “outstanding risk” that fares could fall $11.1 million lower due to a drop in ridership.

A finance update, based on figures up to the end of March, notes that risk has since increased.

“As of the first quarter, Transit is forecasting a reduction in revenues of $18.4 million,” the report notes.

Efforts underway to determine ecological, economic benefits of Winnipeg’s trees

How a municipality cares for its trees — especially under increasing climate pressures — is just as critical to forest health as planting.

The logic of saving for a rainy day

We get it. It’s hard to be responsible, and it’s hard to pinch pennies when there’s so much pressure on your wallet.

Paramedic team to focus on overdoses in city’s core

With opioid-related emergencies overtaking alcohol-related calls for service in Winnipeg, the province is investing more than $1 million to ease pressure on front-line responders and improve overdose care.

The funding includes $802,000 for a three-month pilot project that will see a 24-7, two-person paramedic team respond to overdose calls in high-demand areas, including the downtown core, where many of the city’s shelters and support agencies are located. The pilot will start this month, the province said.

The province will also spend $150,000 on approximately 20 oxygen delivery devices to be managed by Main Street Project, which help when overdoses don’t respond to naloxone. Another $100,000 will be given to provide first aid and overdose response training for workers through St. John’s Ambulance and Manitoba Harm Reduction Network.

“We’ve been meeting quite regularly with the front-line organizations and this really came from them, and what they wanted and they need,” Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith told the Free Press Tuesday. “This was something that we could immediately respond to.”

Police-to-population ratio increases for first time since 2013

The ratio of Winnipeg Police Service officers to the city’s population has increased for the first time in more than a decade.

In 2025, the so-called “cop-to-pop” ratio reached 166.8 officers per 100,000 people, up from 164.8 the previous year.

While that falls behind a national average of 180.3 per 100,000, it was the first local increase since 2013.

Overall, the service added 35 more officers since 2024, to reach a complement of 1,425.

Doors Open to Winnipeg’s mystery, history

It’s easy to travel past the Manitoba Buddhist Temple and not even notice it.

City taking steps to reduce speeding in 30 km/h school zones

A pair of 30-kilometre-per-hour school zones known as speeding hot spots are getting safety upgrades this summer amid a citywide probe into posted speed limits.

Winnipeg school officials were recently briefed on hot spots for collisions and photo-radar tickets issued near elementary buildings between the months of September and June, when the maximum limit drops.

“There’s no cookie-cutter kind of solution, unfortunately,” said Denae Dorge, the city’s road safety outreach co-ordinator.

“You need to have lots of different tools in your toolbox and also, work with the families that attend your school.”

North End puts its best foot forward with Culture Fest

Fostering friendship is one of the most important parts of Melanie McKay’s day.

At the Winnipeg Indigenous Friendship Centre, she serves as a program co-ordinator, where she organizes bingo nights, drop-ins for elders and craft sessions. She spent Saturday afternoon at the third annual North End Neighbours Culture Fest, where a dozen organizations serving the neighbourhood gathered at the Ukrainian Labour Temple to share food, watch performances and celebrate each other.

“These are the people that we represent, and these are the people that we want to help out,” McKay said Saturday. “I think being here shows that we’re out there in the community, and we’re willing to help any way we can.”

The Indigenous Friendship Centre began operating out of 410 McGregor St., May 1, while they renovate their former home at 45 Robinson St. They’re holding an open house June 5 in hopes of letting more people know their resources are available to the North End, regardless of their cultural background.

After years of living in encampments, Lawrence is slowly adjusting to life with a roof, instead of a tarp, over his head

Just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic upended daily life in early 2020, Lawrence had a steady job, reliable income and a roof over his head. Within months, it was all gone.

After burning through his savings to keep paying rent, the 58-year-old from Sagkeeng First Nation spent the next 4 1/2 years homeless, living in an encampment along Waterfront Drive.

“At first, I couldn’t believe it,” he said while sitting in an office chair inside a low-barrier apartment complex in the city’s West End. “I was sitting at a drop-in centre trying to figure out ‘how did I end up here?’ It was too quick for me to absorb at the time.”

Lawrence, who didn’t want his last name used, has now been housed for three months through the province’s Your Way Home strategy, which aims to move roughly 700 Manitobans from encampments into stable housing.

Fairmont Hotel in Winnipeg to donate beds, chairs, tables, lamps ahead of renovations

Homeless people set to move into transitional housing will get a suite treatment later this year thanks to a donation from a Winnipeg hotel making its own transition.

The Fairmont Winnipeg will donate its room furnishings, including more than 760 beds and box springs, before it undergoes a multimillion-dollar renovation this summer.

Anything that isn’t nailed down in the 340 guest rooms will be donated to Linking Hope, a non-profit that will dole the items out to its 120 partner agencies across Manitoba.

“We had always had the donation intent top of mind, we did not want all of this to just find its way into a landfill,” said Ian Taylor, general manager of Fairmont Winnipeg. “There are needs within the community and the province abroad that we needed to look at.”

Unintended consequences of bike-safety policy

Remember the law of unintended consequences in the future, when we discover that cyclist deaths rise despite investments in bike safety.

Vacant property owners overwhelmingly ignoring city fines imposed after fires

The city’s effort to crack down on vacant property fires by charging owners has fallen short, with new data showing it has recovered just a fraction of the more than $3.5 million imposed in fines since 2023.

Two more 7-Eleven locations bite the dust

Outside of one of two 7-Eleven locations to abruptly close in the last three days, a small gathering forms Monday morning.

The store at Notre Dame Avenue and Arlington Street shut its doors a day early, despite signs on the windows listing its last day as Tuesday. Its lights had been turned off and shelves were stripped bare.

Customers who were turned away begin to discuss the closure amongst themselves outside of the building; when a manager walks out and is asked why the store is being closed, he says “no comment” before walking back inside.

Shoppers told the Free Press the location was a frequent spot for petty robbery and several said they had tried to intervene in incidents where staff were not able to stop thieves.

Linking Hope creates nonprofit connections to build a better future

Standing atop a plastic chair in a bustling warehouse on the edge of downtown Winnipeg, Breena Courchaine projects her voice to coordinate dozens of volunteers and thank them for the day’s work.

The morning has been a frenzy of piling clothes atop tables, moving donations around the room and finding permanent homes for things at Linking Hope’s new, permanent home.

By 12:30 p.m. Saturday, more than 100 volunteers had moved Linking Hope’s inventory into its new home at 323 Edwin St., across the road from its former space at 190 Disraeli Fwy., and the team was well ahead of schedule — a testament to the organization's support, staff say.

“We literally could not do this without our volunteers,” Courchaine said. “Every idea that has made this place better is mostly coming from the volunteers.”

Firewood, the emerald ash borer and you

Turning Winnipeg into a quarantine zone in 2018 with the first EAB discovery may well have helped protect the province’s ash trees from the spread of the borer.

Retail crime claims another 7-Eleven in city; shoplifters target stretch of St. Anne’s Road ‘almost daily’

It may be a different location, but it’s a similar story playing out at a St. Vital 7-Eleven store that’s closing its doors at the end of the month.

Coming up roses: City gardeners put ‘petal’ to the metal every spring to help Winnipeg blossom

They get little recognition, but the work they do every summer is admired by thousands across Winnipeg.

As the overnight frost clears for the season, flower beds and pots across the city will be filled and refreshed. Behind the effort is a team of 40 gardeners, injecting splashes of purple, gold, yellow and red into the cityscape.

David Domke, the city’s manager of parks and open space, said like the gardens they tend to, the team of green thumbs is diverse.

“It’s really a mixture of experienced and inexperienced people. A lot of the time, we’ve got some pretty serious gardeners,” he said. “We get them all over the place really, but they all have one thing in common; and that’s a real love of plants.”