Winnipeg Minute: Issue 134

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

📅 This Week In Winnipeg: 📅

• The Winnipeg Police Service made 123 arrests during its fall retail theft enforcement blitz. Officers carried out enforcement and crime suppression at more than 30 businesses across the city, laying more than 243 criminal charges and recovering almost $22,000 in stolen property. Police say 15 of those arrested were repeat offenders known to the property crime unit. Outside the initiative, officers responding to other retail thefts made another 81 arrests, laid 134 charges, and recovered more than $13,000 in stolen items. The blitz was aimed at reducing retail crime at businesses and shopping centres in the city.
  
  
• The Province's new rules for e-scooters and other personal electric vehicles come into effect in 2027, requiring riders to be at least 16, wear a helmet, and stay under a maximum speed of 25 km/h. The vehicles will not be allowed on sidewalks or on roads with speed limits above 50 km/h, though e-bikes are exempt from these restrictions. Councillor Janice Lukes, Chair of the City's Public Works Committee, says the rules are long overdue but that enforcing speed and age limits will be the real challenge for police, who have five officers on e-bikes patrolling multi-use pathways. Inspector Helen Peters of the Winnipeg Police Service says officers will start with education, with enforcement in 2027 focused on repeat behaviour, serious incidents, and community complaints. Peters says police have seen modified e-scooters travelling at 60 to 70 km/h.
  
  
• Mayor Scott Gillingham, along with Mayoral canidates Kevin Klein and Don Woodstock, each unveiled service pledges. Klein promised a $2 bus fare for seniors. He says the lost revenue would be covered by shifting existing funds and tightening City spending rather than raising taxes and fees. Gillingham promised a "Homework Libraries" pilot that would keep the upcoming Mike O'Shaughnessy Library in Garden City Shopping Centre, expected to open in early 2027, open until 9:00 pm on weekdays, at an estimated cost of less than $1 million, expanding to four other branches if successful. Woodstock, who claims more than 100,000 stray and feral cats roam the city, would double funding for the Winnipeg Humane Society's spay and neuter assistance program, upgrade the Animal Services facility on Logan Avenue, and build new animal care centres in Transcona and south Winnipeg. He says he would pay for it with tri-level government infrastructure grants, corporate naming rights for the new facilities, and a telethon.
  
  
• Councillor Russ Wyatt is seeking a sixth term in Transcona while facing five criminal charges, including sexual assault, over incidents alleged to have occurred in 2023 and 2025. He is up against former Councillor Shawn Nason, who held the seat from 2018 to 2022, and three newcomers - Lora Meseman, Chris Giesbrecht, and Nathine Dagdick. Wyatt pointed to his votes against the new transit system and rising water rates, and called Meseman a "hand-picked puppet" of the Mayor. Meseman dismissed the comments as mud-slinging, while Nason called the situation a distraction for the community. A common promise among the candidates is faster funding for the East of the Red RecPlex, a long-awaited aquatic centre that Meseman says is intended to break ground in 2028 but still needs provincial and federal funding. Nason warns that inflation could push the project's bill to a quarter of a billion dollars.
  
  
• Mayoral candidate Don Woodstock is promising to electrify 30% of the City's bus fleet of more than 600 buses, or more than 180 buses, within four years. Woodstock, a former Winnipeg Transit operator making his third consecutive run for mayor, won just over 2% of the vote in 2018 and just under 1% in 2022. He would also review the city's major transit corridors, restore direct routes and bus stops where practical, let riders pay by tapping debit or credit cards on the bus, and reopen Graham Avenue to buses. Buses were removed from Graham Avenue in June 2025 as part of the City's transit overhaul, ending three decades of use as a downtown transit mall. A City spokesperson said Winnipeg Transit has received 40 zero-emission buses since 2025, with 40 more battery-electric buses arriving from November and 10 more from summer 2027, bringing the fleet to 90 by the end of 2027. Woodstock also wants to retrofit vacant buildings into housing with mental health and addictions services, pointing to the Marlborough Hotel, which the City has already approved up to $5 million to convert.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

Winnipeg residents head to the municipal polls on October 28th.

The ballot includes 12 mayoral candidates, 54 council candidates, and more than 90 school trustee candidates.

Advance voting is available too. All of the details are at the link below.

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