Winnipeg Minute: Issue 126

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

📅 This Week In Winnipeg: 📅

• No meetings of City Council, the Executive Policy Committee, or the City's standing policy committees are scheduled this week. Standing Policy Committees resume beginning September 8th, the Executive Policy Committee meets on September 15th, and Council holds its next meeting on September 24th. 
  
  
• The East Kildonan-Transcona Community Committee voted to reject the South Transcona secondary plan, a proposal backed by City planners that would have guided development of roughly 1,300 acres in the city's northeast. At full build-out over decades, the plan anticipated about 7,500 new residential units housing around 20,000 people, and called for twinning Plessis and Dugald roads and building a new fire station estimated at more than $12 million. Elmwood-East Kildonan Councillor Emma Durand-Wood moved against the public service's recommendation, saying the plan requires at minimum nearly $200 million of capital investment - "money we don't have" - would be entirely funded by debt, and would require subsidization for a generation. The City's own financial analysis found existing taxpayers would subsidize upfront infrastructure and servicing costs for up to 25 years. Dozens of residents attended the public hearing to oppose the plan, with some fearing they would be forced to pay for water and sewer services they neither want nor need. The rejection is not final - the plan goes to City Council for a final decision on September 24th, and the developer's representative says construction could begin as early as 2028 if it is approved.
  
  
• Mayor Scott Gillingham will ask City Council to formally request changes to the City of Winnipeg Charter to give Council more tools when an elected official faces serious criminal charges or convictions. Under the current Charter, a Councillor automatically forfeits their seat only after conviction for certain offences, leaving Council with almost no options while charges are still before the courts. The proposal follows new charges against Transcona Councillor Russ Wyatt. The measures Gillingham wants reviewed include temporary removal from committees and boards, mandatory remote participation in meetings, and administrative leave in the most serious circumstances, with safeguards such as requiring approval by at least two-thirds of Council members. Premier Wab Kinew has said Wyatt should step away from his duties and that the Province is open to reviewing the legislation after October's election. Gillingham plans to introduce a Notice of Motion at September's Council meeting, leaving the final decision to the new Council that takes office in November.
  
  
• The City of Winnipeg has rescinded an order that required a West Broadway landlord to clear a large homeless encampment from the riverbank behind his apartment building at 35 Balmoral Street or be billed for the work. Marvin Sharp, CEO of Astroid Management, which operates the Pen-Eve Apartments, says he received a call last Tuesday letting him know the order had been cancelled. The City says the order was shelved because of an existing and active easement on the property, a five-metre-wide strip running from nearby Mostyn Park that carries the public bike path, which the City agreed to keep in good condition and repair. Sharp had received the compliance order in July after a bylaw officer observed an accumulation of garbage on the property, including tents and shopping carts, and his initial appeal was denied because the response deadline fell on a Saturday, when City offices are closed. He argued throughout that the City was forcing private property owners to deal with a problem they did not create. While pleased with the reversal, Sharp notes the encampment itself, which stretches behind several Balmoral addresses in violation of the City's encampment ban policy, is still there.
  
  
• The City of Winnipeg has also released a tender for major repairs and upgrades to Pan Am Pool, moving ahead with the long-planned renewal of the nearly 60-year-old facility. Construction is expected to run from January 2027 to summer 2028, and will include concrete repairs to the main pool tank, deck and dive towers, replacement of the waterproof membrane in the main tank, and retiling. The roughly $7-million project will be funded by the Province of Manitoba under its Recreation and Library Facility Investment Strategy. The pool, originally built for the 1967 Pan American Games, will be closed to the general public during construction, though the City says it will accommodate as much access as possible for Swim Manitoba and Dive Manitoba athletes. The City adds that renovations across its aquatic facilities are being staged to limit disruption, with Piscine Dan Vandal Bonivital Pool recently reopened and work underway at St. James Civic Centre and Seven Oaks Pool, both expected to resume normal programming in early 2027.

🚨 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!