Winnipeg Minute: Issue 118

Winnipeg Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Winnipeg politics

📅 This Week In Winnipeg: 📅

• Waverley West Councillor Janice Lukes announced Wednesday that she will not run for re-election this fall, ending a three-term tenure at Winnipeg's City Hall. First elected in 2014 in the St. Norbert-South Winnipeg ward, Lukes was acclaimed in 2018 after boundary changes created Waverley West and was re-elected in 2022 with 80% of the vote. She said she felt she had accomplished what she set out to do, pointing to a new $128-million recreation centre for her ward, which had an estimated population of more than 70,000 in 2024, larger than Brandon, Manitoba's second-largest city. Lukes, who chairs the Public Works Committee, also highlighted her advocacy for active transportation and encouraged more women to enter municipal politics, noting fewer than three dozen women have served on Winnipeg City Council in over 150 years. Mayor Scott Gillingham, who Lukes encouraged to run for Mayor in 2022, praised her as a "strong ally" and credited her with much of the city's expanded cycling network. She is the second incumbent to bow out, after River Heights-Fort Garry Councillor John Orlikow said last week he would not seek a sixth term.
  
  
• Winnipeg police have launched a 10-day enforcement blitz targeting open drug use and drug trafficking in parts of downtown and Point Douglas, adopting a zero-tolerance approach that includes detaining people found using drugs in public and seizing any remaining drugs or paraphernalia. Police say the initiative responds to a sharp increase in public drug use and sales, with officers already recording about 100 interactions, laying two drug-related charges, and transporting several people to hospital for their safety. While police and Mayor Scott Gillingham argue the crackdown is necessary to improve public safety, reduce the visibility of drug use, and connect people with treatment and social services, they also noted that addiction is a health issue requiring compassion. The initiative has received support from some community organizations that believe stronger enforcement is needed alongside treatment and recovery options. However, other advocates warn the strategy could drive drug use out of sight, increase the risk of overdoses and HIV transmission, and discourage vulnerable individuals from seeking help. Police plan to review the results of the operation with community stakeholders before deciding whether to extend or modify the approach.
  
  
• Winnipeg Transit is warning it will not fully comply with Manitoba's Accessible Transportation Standard Regulation by January 1st, telling the Public Works Committee that funding and operational constraints prevent the City from meeting all of the Province's requirements by the deadline. The biggest challenge is upgrading bus stops, with Transit estimating that as many as 1,100 stops may need concrete waiting pads, sidewalk connections, curb ramps and other features, at roughly $25,000 per stop. Staff are recommending a program that would improve about 50 stops a year, an annual cost of $1.25 million, a pace that the city acknowledges could take more than two decades to complete. David Kron, Executive Director of the Cerebral Palsy Association of Manitoba, called that 22-year timeline difficult to justify, noting the City has a legal obligation to make its transit system accessible. City officials are asking Council to consider millions of dollars in additional operating and capital funding in future budgets, and Public Works Chair Councillor Janice Lukes said she hopes the Manitoba government will help pay because the changes were mandated by the Province. The report also recommends modest service tweaks for now, alongside Transit Plus proposals to shift eligibility from a diagnosis-based model to a functional-abilities assessment, to be phased in between 2027 and 2029. Officials add that overall ridership remains down about 10% from levels seen before the redesigned network launched.
  
  
• Victims and witnesses giving statements to Winnipeg police, as well as officers affirming oaths, can now do so using an eagle feather rather than a Bible. Police Chief Gene Bowers unveiled the feathers at a news conference on Wednesday, describing the change as part of weaving reconciliation with Indigenous communities into the service and reflecting culturally appropriate practices. Staff Sgt. Brian Chrupalo, a member of Pine Creek First Nation, said many Indigenous cultures regard the eagle as having a special connection to the Creator, and that a person holding a feather is expected to speak with honesty and integrity. The feathers, which will be available at all four district police stations, were gifted by Elder Mike Calder, who has advised the service for more than three decades, and were beaded in the colours of the medicine wheel by women in a program at the Behavioural Health Foundation. Each feather is kept in a handcrafted wooden box made in collaboration with students in the woodworking program at R.B. Russell Vocational High School, accompanied by tobacco, sage, sweetgrass and cedar. Bowers said the idea came from an internal working group of Indigenous officers formed to reduce barriers within the service and improve communication.
  
  
• Pembina Trails School Division announced Wednesday that Winnipeg's Dalhousie School, a Kindergarten to Grade 5 school, will be renamed Aniibiminan School following a series of consultations that included Indigenous language and knowledge keepers. The Anishinaabemowin word, meaning "summer berries," was among about 55 names submitted by the public after the division asked for suggestions last month, and the division notes the word "Pembina" itself derives from "Aniibiminan." Assistant superintendent Tori Patzer said the process began after the school's leadership examined the history of the original name, which came from Dalhousie Drive, a street named after Nova Scotia's Dalhousie University. Patzer said more than 35 languages are spoken at the school, and that students took part in a community-wide inquiry into names, with classrooms working on projects from the spelling of their own names to evaluating why and when names are changed. The division said the transition, including updating signage, school materials and iconography, will take place over the coming months.

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