Winnipeg Minute: Issue 123

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

📅 This Week In Winnipeg: 📅

• Mayor Scott Gillingham has released an independent report recommending Winnipeg create a fourth crisis response service for mental health and addictions calls, operating alongside police, fire and paramedic services. The report, written by a consultant, identifies approximately 3,855 Winnipeg Police Service calls and 6,356 Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service calls each year, more than 10,000 in total, that could be handled by community-based responders instead, with the police calls alone taking up nearly 8,000 hours of officer time. Under the proposed model, eligible non-emergency 911 calls would be referred to a centralized dispatch and coordination hub, which would send designated mobile community teams to provide on-site de-escalation, stabilization and short-term follow-up care. The report does not detail costs, but sets planning ranges of up to $1.5 million a year for the coordination hub and $3 million for crisis response capacity. Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union President Kyle Ross argued the City should focus on the services it already has, pointing to 107 vacancies in the paramedic group. Gillingham will ask City Council to endorse the proposal in September, with a formal request for provincial funding to follow.
  
  
• A 10-storey, 131-unit apartment tower planned for a vacant City-owned lot at 425 Osborne Street will move forward, after City Council's Appeal Committee unanimously denied residents' appeals against the project last Wednesday. The former gas station site next to the Winnipeg Transit garage will include 39 affordable units, office space for Transit, and a two-level parkade shared by tenants and Transit employees. Residents told the Committee they supported more housing in the Lord Roberts neighbourhood but raised concerns about traffic and parking, with the chair of the tenant council at a nearby 55-plus building saying parking is "already at a premium" in the area. The project received variances allowing the building to reach 126 feet, well above the 75-foot height limit that would otherwise apply. Principal architect Damien Fenez said the tower will offer 64 parking spots where 59 are required, and that its size is needed to keep the project financially viable, since 30% of the units will be classified as affordable and generate less rent revenue. In denying the appeals, the Committee cited the need for affordable housing in the area, and area Councillor Sherri Rollins backed the project, pointing to its location near a Winnipeg Transit blue line station.
  
  
• The 12-storey Granite Riverside Commons housing project planned for the Granite Curling Club's parking lot has cleared its final Council hurdle, with the Standing Policy Committee on Property and Development voting unanimously last Thursday to deny appeals against the project's variances. The variances allow the 110-unit building at 30 Granite Way to reach 126 feet, above the 100-foot maximum that would otherwise apply, and permit smaller parking stalls. The development originally meant the loss of 45 of the club's 80 parking spots, which the club said would ruin its financial viability, and board secretary Christian Pierce told the Committee the City has failed to address the club's concerns for over two years while applying "double standards" to get the project built. Jeremy Reed, CEO of developer University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corp. 2.0, said a revised parking plan would restore 70 of the 80 spots, and that half of the building's suites will have affordable rents for 99 years. Area Councillor Sherri Rollins spoke against the appeal, saying the board's concerns are not shared by the club's whole membership and that many members support the housing project. Meanwhile, the club has asked Manitoba's Court of King's Bench for a judicial review of Council's approval of the project, with the judge's decision reserved until the fall.
  
  
• Manitoba's only supervised drug consumption site will fully open on August 11th at 366 Henry Avenue in Winnipeg, following months of delays from its original March opening date. The facility will be run by Aboriginal Health and Wellness, an Indigenous community health agency, and will operate from 11:00 am to 6:45 pm, Tuesday to Saturday. The province claims the site will not supply drugs, but will let people use drugs under the supervision of trained staff who can respond to overdoses. The site is initially operating in collaboration with members of the Mobile Overdose Prevention Site, a van that has provided safe-injection and drug-testing services since 2022. The facility, located in a provincially owned industrial building west of Main Street, has operated for only one day so far, in June, as part of its gradual opening.
  
  
• Meanwhile, the City of Winnipeg began a targeted mosquito fogging program on Friday night, after the Province of Manitoba issued a fogging order in response to high numbers of Culex tarsalis mosquitoes, the type that can transmit West Nile virus. The order was issued under the Environment Act, which requires municipalities to fog when the risk of West Nile virus transmission is high. Under the provincial order, buffer zones are not in effect within city limits during the program. The fogging targets seven insect management areas, covering neighbourhoods including Waverley West, Whyte Ridge, Linden Ridge, Tyndall Park, The Maples and Amber Trails, and is being carried out using DeltaGard 20EW. The City says it will release each day's schedule at least eight hours in advance, and residents can register online for notifications.

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