Ramping up home construction goal of city proposal

City council will consider an annual program that would review, approve and catalogue homebuilding plans to speed up new construction.

The program would apply to house and detached garage plans that are reviewed for building code compliance by city staff. After the plans are approved, the same set of plans could be used on multiple sites around the city, and multiple permits could be issued.

Builders would be given permits within five working days of a successful application, as opposed to the 10 working days mandated by the province.

Council’s property and development committee will discuss a report on the program next week. It proposes an initial fee for the city to review the plans, a reduced annual fee to renew the plans, and a 25 per cent discount on permit fees for builders who use plans from the program.

Manitoba Hydro’s strategy: Deny, deny, deny

Here’s a good story… A man walks into your office and says, “Have I got a deal for you! I want $3 billion (plus perhaps a bit more) to build you something that you might use three or even four times a year, for maybe 30-60 hours each time. Sign here.”

Tundra Inn renovations highlight Churchill’s ‘growth potential’

Frontiers North Adventures has completed a major renovation and expansion of the Tundra Inn in Churchill, modernizing one of the northern Manitoba community’s best-known hotels.

The project added 21 new guest rooms and expanded common areas, bringing the total room count to 44. (The net increase was 13 guest rooms, after an aging section of the building containing eight rooms was demolished.)

Lisa-Joy Gunter, president and co-owner of Frontiers North Adventures, said the project was driven by a desire to improve the guest experience and invest in the community.

“It really just needed an update,” Gunter said on Tuesday.

A bigger grid, and a tougher one

The Free Press editorial of Aug. 21, Time for a stronger Canadian grid, makes a case that should unsettle anyone who read it. A co-ordinated attack on nine substations could bring down the American electrical grid.

Winnipeg team behind national LGBT monument spent six years bringing it to fruition

The Winnipeg team behind a national monument recognizing the LGBT Purge were in Ottawa to celebrate its official unveiling Friday.

Thunderhead is the work of local artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, Liz Wreford and Peter Sampson of Public City Architecture, and knowledge keeper Albert McLeod, who served as cultural adviser for the project.

The team beat out 31 international submissions for the project, which is permanently located at 201 Wellington St. in Ottawa along the Ottawa River, in view of Parliament.

“We are a beacon internationally around the world of what democracies can do about inclusion, about human rights,” McLeod said.

Wooed by wood, Cedarella founder takes pride in handcrafted designs

Marina Bulan is the founder of Cedarella, a two-year-old venture that turns out eye-catching wood products such as jewelry, kitchen decor, children’s toys and, most recently, metre-high outdoor planters that double as home street-number indicators.

Ahead of immigrating to Winnipeg a decade ago from their native Russia, Bulan and her partner thought it would be prudent to conduct some research on their soon-to-be new home, a city they knew next to nothing about.

Imagine their surprise as they were viewing the 2007 surrealist film My Winnipeg, which comically blends historical facts about our burg with what Winnipeg-born writer/director Guy Maddin has termed “mystical hypothesizing.”

(For instance, there is no proof that, as reported in the award-winning flick, Winnipeg is the sleepwalking capital of the world, and that residents keep keys to their former abodes on their person in the event they turn up there during a bout of somnambulism.)

Préserver à bout de bras

La Maison Gabrielle-Roy s’apprête à abattre trois ormes plantés devant le musée depuis 1905. Une décision prise à contrecœur pour assurer la sécurité du bâtiment et du voisinage, mais qui illustre surtout les défis financiers auxquels sont confrontés les petits organismes patrimoniaux, contraints de jongler entre entretien, programmation culturelle et ressources limitées.

Avec beaucoup de peine, la Maison Gabrielle-Roy va de l’avant pour faire abattre les trois ormes qui trônent devant le musée depuis plus d’un siècle.

Du fait de leur grand âge et de la météo difficile de ces derniers mois, c’est un peu dos au mur que le conseil d’administration a pris la décision de couper ces arbres.

Une décision jugée “très importante” par la présidente du CA Louise Plamondon.

Winnipeg’s postwar architecture well-documented by online archive

We live in a city rich with Chicago School high rises, mid-century modernism and much more. And, for the past three decades, Paul Clerkin has amassed arguably the most comprehensive archive of this architecture.

Time for a stronger all-Canadian grid

The New York Times published a quite terrifying story on the U.S. electrical grid this week, one that points out that, with a few simple directed attacks on nine of 10 major U.S. substations, the entire U.S. power grid could be disabled.

Planned Elmwood Hub project combines 115 mixed-income housing units, social supports, programs

A long-awaited project will aim to add 115 new homes in Elmwood, with on-site social programs to support some of its more vulnerable residents.

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.

Trailblazing Western Scrap Metals heavy-equipment operator relishes role at massive crane’s control

Less than five per cent of heavy-equipment operators in the country are women but that number is trending upward, according to a study conducted by trade magazine Crane & Hoist Canada.

It was reported that in Ontario roughly eight per cent of jobs in the transport and heavy-equipment field are currently held by women. Furthermore, in 2024 almost 20 per cent of graduates at an Edmonton-based heavy-equipment operator training school were female, the article stated.

That brings us to Harmony Guspodarchuk, the first female crane operator in the 70-year history of Western Scrap Metals, a family-owned business at 18 Sutherland Ave.

Three years ago, Guspodarchuk literally stepped into the driver’s seat of a 27,500-kilogram, Liebherr C 924 Heavy Lift Litronic crane. The 29-year-old hasn’t looked back much since.

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.

Manitoba-made technology earns faith of investors across Canada

Blue light flashed as a robotic arm welded the metal in front of it.

Unlike other robots of its kind, this one uses artificial intelligence. It’s supposed to see and adjust its movements if a part it’s working on doesn’t match the standard piece.

It’s Manitoba-made technology that investors across Canada are betting on. TetraGen Robotics, the technology’s creator, announced it had raised $1.8 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round.

It announced the funding Monday afternoon. Jim Richardson, from the family behind Richardson International, is among the investors listed online.

The right plan for reliable energy

Manitoba Hydro’s long-term energy plan is before the Public Utilities Board for public hearings. Debate is healthy, but not when critics ignore the facts.

An updated Wolseley classic

For unknown reasons, many older homes — in addition to being dated — were never fully developed or updated by their previous owners.

That was the scenario when a renovator went in to update a dishevelled two-and-a-half storey home in Wolseley in February 2026, says Darryl Walsh of Royal LePage Prime Real Estate.

“This was ... badly in need of updating,” he says of the 1,612 sq. ft. residence, which was built in 1910. “Not only that, but the top floor had never been fully developed.”

Today, the home’s top floor is now fully functional — and then some.

Manitoba Hydro’s $3 billion fossil fuel bet

Manitoba Hydro plans to spend $3 billion to build three new fossil fuel power generation turbines in 2030. This big bet on fossil fuel generation would be a big mistake for both the planet and Manitoban’s pocketbooks.

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.

Ottawa moves to list Alberta-backed West Coast pipeline as national interest project

OTTAWA - The federal government is advancing the process to designate a proposed oil pipeline to the West Coast as a "national interest" project.

Naming a project in the national interest under the Building Canada Act allows the government to fast-track approvals and skirt some environmental laws.

A notice published in the Canada Gazette on Aug. 1 sets a Sept. 18 deadline to submit comments on the national interest designation.

The proposed pipeline project has been referred already to the government's major projects office, with the Alberta government listed as the proponent. The pipeline would be owned by Trans Mountain, the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission and Pembina Pipeline Corporation.

Long journey to home ownership for Eritrean couple

Solomon Ghebru and his family have been building a life together in Winnipeg for the past three years after years of living apart in various countries. Now, they are working toward a new goal: owning a home.

Their story is the focus of this year’s Habitat for Humanity Manitoba Cycle of Hope fundraising ride, a seven-day cycling event through southern Manitoba that begins Monday. The ride aims to raise $150,000 to support Ghebru, his wife, Mehret Awate, and their two daughters as they work toward affordable homeownership.

The couple’s journey to Canada started in Eritrea, where they grew up and attended the same church together. They left Eritrea separately, hoping to build a better life together out of the country. Ghebru travelled through Sudan and Libya before reaching Malta, while Awate travelled to Sudan and then Uganda.

After he found work in Malta, he tried to have his family join him, but government policies prevented them from reuniting. The couple married in Uganda in 2016, and their first daughter, Peniel, was born there the following year.

Insurance costs have been surging due to extreme weather brought on by climate change — and it’s likely to get more expensive

Floods, hail and wildfires are increasingly common features of North American summers.

Adding to collective dismay, these natural disasters are the common denominator behind sticker price shock for homeowners seeing insurance premiums jump higher annually.

“Home insurance has steadily been rising since 2019,” says Matt Hands, vice-president of insurance at Ratehub.ca.

A recent report from Statistics Canada shows home and mortgage insurance premiums have risen 45 per cent on average over the last six years. That is more than double overall inflation over that span.