Winnipeg Minute: Issue 120

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

📅 This Week In Winnipeg: 📅

• The City Centre Community Committee will meet tomorrow at 10:30 am, and one of the items on its agenda is a request to approve plans for a 108-unit apartment building at 15 Walker Court, in the Lord Roberts neighbourhood. The four-storey building is the first phase of the larger Yards at Fort Rouge redevelopment on the former rail lands near the Jubilee and Fort Rouge rapid transit stations. The applicant, Pre-Con Builders, revised the proposal up from 100 units to 108 to add affordable housing, offsetting the change by reducing a later phase on Argue Street from 163 units to 155 so the overall project stays within its approved density cap. The plans show 116 parking stalls and 92 bicycle stalls. Administration is recommending approval, saying the design fits the area's secondary plan and the City's transit-oriented development goals.
  
  
• Mayor Scott Gillingham has reversed course on a proposed cut to Winnipeg's tree-planting budget after public criticism, and will ask Council on Thursday to keep the funding in place. The cut surfaced at the Executive Policy Committee's meeting on July 7th, when the City proposed trimming its urban forest renewal program by about $1.2 million, from $11 million to $9.8 million, to offset a provincial directive requiring the City to put $1.2 million toward repairs at the Assiniboine Park Conservancy's Journey to Churchill exhibit. Gillingham said he wished the Province had funded the exhibit work itself rather than forcing Council to reduce another program. After what the Mayor described as clear public feedback, he announced he would bring a plan to Council's July 16th meeting to maintain full tree-planting funding. The City notes it has raised total urban forestry spending from $21 million in 2022 to $33.6 million in 2026.
  
  
• Also heading to Council is a proposal to help fund a feasibility study for a new arena at Naawi-Oodena, the largest urban reserve in Canada. The City Centre Community Committee voted last week to spend $95,000 from the Land Dedication Reserve Fund on the study, which would examine costs, servicing, traffic, and site access for a proposed 6,000-seat facility with multiple ice sheets on the former Kapyong Barracks lands. City planners had recommended denying the request because the reserve fund is meant for parks and recreation facilities on city-owned land, and the arena would sit on the Treaty One reserve, but River Heights-Fort Garry Councillor John Orlikow argued Winnipeggers would still benefit from more ice time and supported waiving the rules. The funding still needs approval from both the Executive Policy Committee and Council. One complication is a 2001 agreement giving True North exclusive rights to develop major government-funded sports and entertainment venues in Winnipeg until 2029, which Orlikow said limits the study to a community arena rather than a larger event venue.
  
  
• St. Norbert-Seine River Councillor Markus Chambers will not seek re-election in Winnipeg's civic election this fall, becoming the fourth incumbent to step aside. Chambers said City Hall the decision was an easy one, citing a growing family and his wife's ongoing cancer treatment as reasons to step back from politics. First elected in 2018, Chambers chaired the Winnipeg Police Board for five years, pointing to community recreation projects and the hiring of Police Chief Gene Bowers among his proudest accomplishments. He did not rule out returning to politics in the future and did not endorse a successor. His departure follows earlier announcements from River Heights-Fort Garry Councillor John Orlikow, Waverley West Councillor Janice Lukes, and St. Vital Councillor Brian Mayes that they will not run again in October.
  
  
• A Winnipeg non-profit that has supported older victims of crime for more than 20 years is appealing a City decision to deny it funding, warning the program has already been forced to shut down. A&O: Support Services for Older Adults ran the older victims services program on roughly $95,000 a year in City funding, providing counselling, help with victim impact statements, and safety education for adults 60 and older who had experienced crime or elder abuse. Chief Executive Amanda Macrae said the funding stopped after Council changed its community grant framework in 2024 to require that money be tied to a specific project rather than ongoing operations, a model she said did not fit a long-standing legacy program. In a letter, the City said A&O's application received a competitive score but that funding limitations required difficult decisions among 167 applicants. An administrative body of senior City finance and community services officials was set to hear the appeal on July 9th. Macrae said that until then, the Winnipeg Police Service can no longer connect victims with the program's social workers.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

🪙 This Week’s Sponsor: 🪙

This week's sponsor is you! We don't have big corporate backers, so if you like what you're reading, please consider making a donation or signing up as a monthly member.

But, if you are a local business and are interested in being a sponsor, send us an email and we'll talk!