Emergency-vehicle traffic technology pilot a success and city should expand it, WFPS says

Winnipeg ambulances and fire trucks could soon automatically trigger green lights through most of the city, allowing faster emergency responses.

An emergency vehicle pre-emption pilot project was a success, so the city should pay to expand it next year, according to a new Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service report.

“It makes travelling through intersections safer and decreases the time it takes first responders to arrive at an emergency scene,” the report says.

WFPS will seek $1.8 million in 2026 capital funding and $200,000 to cover operating costs to expand the program. That would extend its reach to 437 “higher-risk” intersections, including the 17 included in the pilot, out of Winnipeg’s total 693.

Black-led non-profit developer gets federal funds for affordable housing units in north part of city

A Black-led real estate developer has become the first in Canada to secure federal funding, paving the way for 30 affordable housing units within a new 72-unit development in north Winnipeg.

Non-profit Inuka Community Inc. received $23.3 million through the Affordable Housing Fund, administered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. The CMHC set aside $50 million specifically for Black-led organizations to help create more than 500 units.

The new rental complex at 1510 Main St., will include 30 one-bedroom, 30 two-bedroom and 12 three-bedroom units. Thirty of those units, in a mix of sizes, will be designated affordable and aimed at newcomers to the city, with available supports such as debt management, credit building and driver training.

“Lots of sleepless nights to get here,” said Naomi Gichungu, Inuka’s chief executive officer.

Ottawa orders unprecedented posthumous appeal of fourth Indigenous man’s conviction in 1973 slaying

Canada’s justice minister ordered a new appeal Monday of a Manitoba First Nations man’s 1974 manslaughter conviction — a decision that was unprecedented because it came 14 years after his death.

New truths emerge among sea of orange

No matter where you are, the path towards reconciliation between Indigenous Peoples and Canadians has been very turbulent over the past decade.

In the 10 years since the end of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the 94 calls to action, much attention has been placed on the progress — and lack thereof — towards changing the policies, practices and beliefs that embody principles of Indigenous inferiority and Canadian superiority.

The fact is: the Indian Act, the most racist law in Canadian history, is still here.

Virtually all of the Indigenous land stolen during the last 150 years remains stolen.

Custom metal fabrication firm NJ Industries Inc. builds reputation on customer loyalty

Dirk Hollar and his colleagues don’t give out awards to the businesses they work with, but if they did, the “No. 1 Vendor” award would go to NJ Industries Inc.

Hollar is the operations manager at Freedom Concepts Inc., a Winnipeg company that creates bicycles for individuals with limited mobility. When Hollar needed a small order of sprockets made a few years ago, someone suggested he check out NJ Industries, a custom metal fabrication facility headquartered in the CentrePort Canada development on the northwest edge of Winnipeg.

Hollar drove to the company and introduced himself to owner Nagarajah Jayaranjan — better known to his customers and friends as Jay. Jayaranjan took Hollar’s order and showed him around the facility. By the time the tour was over, the sprockets were ready. Jayaranjan handed them to Hollar, free of charge.

That gesture led to ongoing business between the two companies.

Most refused to listen then, more understand now

An open letter, to the children:

It’s late September in Manitoba and the leaves are turning golden. Autumns are beautiful on this land. I hope that, wherever you were, you were able to enjoy it. I hope that there were moments, and maybe more than moments, where you were able to leap face-down in the fallen leaves, to gather them to your nose, to breathe their earthy perfume of red and orange.

There is more orange in Winnipeg now. I wish you could see it. The signs and flags, dotted around the city, staked into lawns and hung over doors and posted as stickers in shop windows. That orange means people care about you and they remember. Even those who didn’t know you, because you lived your whole lives before we were born.

Some of those lives were long, some far too short, and most were somewhere in the middle. Some found joy, whether in spite or because of everything that happened. Some were imprisoned by the pain, haunted by the memories and the grief for what was taken away. There, too, perhaps most were somewhere in the middle.

‘It’s our mission’: Inner-city church driven to help refugees

From its start in 2008, City Church set out to be intercultural. So, it was only natural the Maryland Street congregation would become involved in sponsoring refugees to come to Canada.

“It’s our mission,” said Tim Nielson, minister at the church that serves about 350 people from around the world and conducts services in the Chin, Karen, Punjab and Dari languages.

“Right from the beginning, we have been interested in helping refugees.”

The church started Naomi House in 2017 to help refugees immigrate. Along with providing various services when they arrive, the ministry provides housing while newcomers get settled.

Walk across Manitoba raises funds for first responders dealing with mental health issues

Andrew Cherkas deals with his mental health struggles one step at a time.

The 43-year-old firefighter lives with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the tragedies he’s witnessed on the job and contemplated suicide in 2021.

Since then, medication and therapy have helped him get to a better place. The daily walks he takes with his dog, Charlie, along the trails near his home south of Portage la Prairie, are also healing. No headphones, no music — just Cherkas, Charlie and the outdoors.

Last spring, Cherkas came up with an idea to raise awareness and funds for first responders struggling with mental health issues. He launched Steppin’ in Support for 1977 earlier this month with the goal of walking across Manitoba while inviting people to donate to the Preston Heinbigner Memorial Fund.

2025: a summer of interesting urban changes

Over the last few months, the city has been busy implementing several new progressive city-building initiatives to enhance livability in our communities.

This is what I want you to know

I sometimes stand on the third floor of the former Portage la Prairie Residential School, where hundreds of children stood before me, and look out over the grounds and the lake beyond.

Trump’s trade battle with China puts US soybean farmers in peril

MAGNOLIA, Ky. (AP) — The leafy soybean plants reach Caleb Ragland's thighs and are ripe for harvest, but the Kentucky farmer is deeply worried. He doesn't know where he and others like him will sell their crop because China has stopped buying.

Beijing, which traditionally has snapped up at least a quarter of all soybeans grown in the U.S., is in effect boycotting them in retaliation for the high tariffs President Donald Trump has imposed on Chinese goods and to strengthen its hand in negotiations over a new overall trade deal.

It has left American soybean farmers fretting over not only this year's crop but the long-term viability of their businesses, built in part on China's once-insatiable appetite for U.S. beans.

“This is a five-alarm fire for our industry,” said Ragland, who leads the American Soybean Association trade group.

Misguided dramedy not great

Making her directorial debut, actor Scarlett Johansson (whose movies range from Lost in Translation to The Avengers) has chosen a small human story that is enormously well-intentioned.

But as the central character in this awkward, uneven dramedy proves, good intentions can have disastrous consequences. Attempting to make a much-needed statement about our contemporary culture’s difficulty in dealing with age, grief and loneliness, Eleanor the Great misfires, sometimes badly.

There are things that work. As we often see in projects by actors-turned-directors, the film’s core strength comes from its performances, especially that of 95-year-old June Squibb, a veteran actress who has a long list of supporting work in such movies as Nebraska and About Schmidt and recently received star billing in 2024’s Thelma. Here she takes the title role of Eleanor Morgenstein, a cranky, critical but compassionate senior.

As the story opens, Eleanor is living in Florida with Bessie (Rita Zohar). After the deaths of their husbands, the two old friends have been looking after each other. When Bessie wakes from nightmares rising out of her experiences during the Holocaust — a story she has never related, even to her own family — she and Eleanor sit at the kitchen table and talk it through.

Deepening and complex homelessness crisis pushing city neighbourhoods to tipping point

On a calm summer day, the Red River serves as a mirror, its glass-like surface masking the muddy bottom below.

Look closer and you’ll see a reflection of the city along its banks. Towering cottonwoods and elms, riverside homes, iconic postcard backdrops.

Look closer still, and the city’s scars — from the physical and psychological of individuals to the enabling and failings of institutions — are laid bare.

What begins as a trickle near Kildonan Park grows into a flood the further south you travel along the river.

In praise of messy, unruly free speech

There’s a lot of obnoxious and hypocritical talk about free speech circulating online, in editorial pages and at the family dinner table.

The devilish details that make no sense

We all knew that kid when we were in school. You know the one — he would tell you he could throw a rock further than anyone in school, he just couldn’t do it today, because he’d hurt his arm winning an arm-wrestling championship against the biggest weightlifter the world had ever seen. The kid who told you his father was a secret agent who could kill anyone he wanted to, any time.

Local chefs heat up culinary competition

Seven local chefs have thrown their hats in the ring for a chance to represent Winnipeg at the 2026 Canadian Culinary Championship in Ottawa January next year.

Also known as Canada’s Great Kitchen Party, the regional qualifier takes place on Wednesday, Oct. 1, at the RBC Convention Centre, and features entertainment from Spirit of the West’s Geoff Kelly, as well as Canadian musicians Barney Bentall, Kevin Fox, Matthew Harder and Rebecca Harder.

Chefs Emily Butcher (Bar Accanto), Darnell Banman (Thermea Spa Village), Michael de Groot (Gather Craft Kitchen & Bar), Ken Hoang (Le Colonial Restaurant and Bar), Norman Pastorin, (Basta! Filipino Kitchen), Chinnie Ramos (Wow! Catering) and Lauren Wiebe-Dembowski (Niakwa Country Club) will be judged on skill, creativity and technique as they vie to impress the panel of local culinary experts, led by head national judge Chris Johns, 2025 regional winner Austin Granados (formerly of Cake-ology) and Winnipeg senior judge Mike Green.

“We’re honoured to have such a strong field of chefs representing Winnipeg this year,” said Green.

Winnipeg firefighters can’t keep doing more with less

Fifty years ago, Winnipeg had fewer people, fewer challenges, and more firefighters. Today, our city has grown by roughly 53 per cent, but the Winnipeg Fire Department (WFD) has fewer frontline firefighters on duty than it did in 1975. This is not just a historical footnote. It is a red flag.