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Winnipeg Free Press
3 days ago
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
Immediate support offered to evacuees: Kinew
As 17,000 Manitobans flee for their lives with little more than the shirts on their backs, some take shelter in hotels and motels, arenas or with family and friends. Where they end up depends on what they need, Premier Wab Kinew said Friday. 'The first principle is that this is one Manitoba,' Kinew said at a wildfire briefing Friday as the threat worsened. The province offered Emergency Social Services support for the mandatory evacuees right away rather than expecting municipalities or local authorities to support their residents for a minimum 72 hours, as guidelines dictate. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS 'It's important that people register as an evacuee if they have been told to leave their community,' Premier Wab Kinew said Friday. 'Given the scale of the situation here, the department of families has decided to waive 72-hour period, and we're going to help people immediately,' Kinew told the legislative assembly on Thursday. Emergency Social Services are provided on a short-term basis 'to preserve the emotional and physical well-being of evacuees and response workers in emergency situations.' The province's first priority is to ensure accommodations and food are provided to people fleeing a disaster. For those who don't stay with family and friends, staff are focused on accommodations in congregate facilities where food and shelter is provided, a spokesman for the provincial government said Friday. 'Many evacuees have already been receiving support, and as people register, the province is working with the Canadian Red Cross to ensure everyone receives supports,' he said without providing numbers or details. 'It's important that people register as an evacuee if they have been told to leave their community.' They can register online or at a reception centre. 'The reception centre I was at (Thursday) had folks who were coming from the city of Flin Flon but also Pukatawagan Cree Nation,' the premier said Friday. People from First Nations would get federal support and others, including Flin Flon residents, would get provincial support, Kinew said. Sent weekly from the heart of Turtle Island, an exploration of Indigenous voices, perspectives and experiences. 'There's just one desk where people are checking in, getting registered and getting assigned supports. When we get to who's staying with friends and family that's effectively self-selected.' He said a lot evacuees are going to head to congregate shelters. 'The hotel rooms in the province are very, very hard to come by right now and that's because of the previous evacuations, because of other folks just having their business conferences, vacations,' the premier said. 'Where we do have access to hotel rooms is being prioritized for medical patients and (those with) accessibility issues and for who staying in a cot in a congregate setting might be a challenge.' Carol SandersLegislature reporter Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol. Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Winnipeg Free Press
Generating goodwill at the parking meter
Opinion Recent reports from the City of Winnipeg about plans to remove all the downtown parking meters left our household upset. We're among the 20 per cent who use the meters. We dig out change or use a credit card. On nice days, we can walk downtown, but when transporting kids or in bad weather, we rely on the meters. Based on anecdotal evidence, the meters sometimes failed. Apparently, so did the phone app that replaces it. The city's efforts to boost downtown visitor numbers should target that 20 per cent — the occasional visitors who haven't downloaded an app but rely on meters instead. This news story made me remember a better parking experience. BROOK JONES/FREE PRESS There are better ways for the City of Winnipeg to handle getting rid of its parking pay stations, which will be removed between July 2 and Aug. 31. A pay station is pictured along Broadway Avenue on May 21. Our family was on summer vacation in Western New York. We took a highway exit to Jamestown. Parking on a hilltop, in the middle of downtown, we put our coins in the old-fashioned crank parking meter and walked, admiring the landscape, to a nice restaurant for lunch. The food was good. When we decided to have dessert, my husband sorted out more change for the meter. We had extra time to stroll downtown, see lake views, window shop and see a comedy centre, inspired by Lucille Ball, who was from Jamestown. We remembered this positive break from the road fondly. In comparison, we encountered numerous 'E-Z-Pass' incidents which left us frazzled. Many highways require tolls but no longer have a payment system without a physical device in the car. We tried to get around Chicago while I scrambled to figure out how to pay for our tolls online. I still don't know if we covered those tolls, though we honestly tried. If Winnipeg wants people to feel comfortable coming downtown, the city should provide alternatives to a reliance on a phone app. Ernie Nuytten suggests in a letter to the editor on May 24 that these parking booklets should be available wherever Winnipeg Transit tickets are sold. Ursula Delfing writes that parking near the downtown 'Parking Store' be free, to avoid getting tickets while trying to obtain a parking booklet. Like our troubles taking toll roads on vacation when we lacked the local 'passes,' Edwin Buettner suggests how difficult these systems would be for those who live outside the city but must come in on occasion for appointments downtown. City employees calculated the savings of removing the meters, but what are the costs of failing to provide access to downtown parking for those without cellphones, tourists, and out-of-town Manitobans who need medical care? The city must calculate costs to provide parking booklet sales elsewhere in the city, especially at hotels and convenience stores. When we discussed these parking issues, other solutions came up. Our household lives in a city neighbourhood. We must have parking permits for street parking. Yearly, we take photos of our driver's licences, car registration, and submit a form. Eventually someone calls us back and takes payment over the phone. What if, after the first registration, we received a 'renewal' email that said, 'According to city records, you live at the same address and have the same two cars as last year. Care to renew your permit? If so, click here. Pay online.' This would reduce costs and save time for the city and those who need street parking. A bigger revenue generator could follow. When tradespeople visit a city neighbourhood like ours with permit parking, they risk tickets if they park for too long. High school students parking on streets near private schools also risk tickets daily. Those who go downtown but fail to make the app or the meter work also hazard parking tickets. Imagine a 'super pass.' The city could set a flat fee, payable once a year, so that electricians, plumbers, realtors, students and theatre-goers could park legally in metered or permit areas without using an app or risking a ticket. The super pass would be available online, or at convenience stores and other locations where people might get parking booklets. Winnipeggers and tourists could choose options: download the app, buy single tickets for one trip to a downtown doctor's office or buy a whole year's pass and stop worrying about parking. Tuesdays A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world. Of course, the yearly fee concept must be worked out, but $500 or more might result in more visitor traffic downtown and many fewer parking tickets. Reducing system inefficiencies, like creating an easy online renewal system that links up with our addresses and car registrations, would also reduce costs. This might boost interest in coming downtown to the Exchange, to theatre venues or festivals. Offering multiple options for parking payment might boost the city's coffers. Better yet, it could reduce citizens' anger over the difficulties in downtown parking and the parking tickets that follow. Jamestown, N.Y. is a long way away. Even so, I'd go right back to crank my change in the old-fashioned meters, check out the scenery, eat a good lunch, and wander its historic downtown. City officials should think about how coming downtown can generate goodwill as well as income. Ripping out the current parking meters may be necessary, but it's what follows that matters. Obstacles to parking will build or destroy Winnipeggers' interest in visiting downtown. Offering multiple approaches to future downtown parking creates a better, more inclusive outcome for all of us. Joanne Seiff, a Winnipeg author, has been contributing opinions and analysis to the Free Press since 2009.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
‘You can't force people into housing'
Tents, tarps, and makeshift shelters line the beaten path along the Assiniboine River near Balmoral Street in West Broadway — a community hidden in plain sight. At first glance, the scene could be mistaken for a Manitoba summer festival: there are colourful tents, birds chirping overhead, and geese with their goslings feeding nearby. The natural beauty of the river view masks the harsh truth. The mattresses, shopping carts, broken glass, empty naloxone kits and food wrappers break the illusion. This isn't a weekend retreat. This is home. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS A large encampment along the banks of the Assiniboine River at the end of Spence Street at Balmoral Street. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS A large encampment along the embankment of the Assiniboine River at the end of Spence Street off of Balmoral Street. Reporter: Scott Billeck 250528 - Wednesday, May 28, 2025. Curtis, a 44-year-old who is originally from Saskatchewan, wears a black Red River College nursing program zip-up hoodie. He has been without a home for the past six or seven years. He says he'd move into permanent housing 'today, if I could.' But walking away from his camp family — and the freedom of life outside of society — isn't easy. 'It's abandonment,' he said. 'I'd feel like I'm leaving them behind.' That feeling runs deep for Curtis, who says he knows the pain of separation. The father of four hasn't seen his children since his own father died four or five years ago. 'Living in the white society is really tough being a native — an Indian, a savage, a scrub,' he says. 'That's what we've been called for hundreds of years, and for hundreds of years more, it will be the same.' He questions why there's homelessness in a country such as Canada, and how people can go about their business. 'The most richest city in Canada — Vancouver — they have a whole street full of homeless people. How is that possible?' he said. 'How does the richest city allow a whole street to be homeless?' He also offers insight into why many people stay outside, pointing to friends evicted from government-supported housing for breaking strict rules — including having visitors. 'It's hard to abide by the rules of a situated house,' Curtis said. 'We're free. There's freedom (living unsheltered) right here.' For many in Winnipeg's encampments, the path to housing is far from straightforward. Trauma, addiction and complex life circumstances often stand in the way of simply finding a bed. Curtis says he was supposed to start a job on Monday, but he didn't show up. 'I hadn't really slept for two to three weeks… because of my drug of choice,' he said, holding a cloudy glass pipe in his hand. 'Choices and consequences,' he says, repeating those three words often. Mentioning the NDP government's two-year, $20-million Your Way Home strategy earns mixed reviews among the unsheltered. Some seem eager for the province to accelerate its pace, while others remain skeptical it will change anything. 'There's a huge trust issue,' says another woman. 'Trust is a big thing. Technically, I think everybody wants housing, but there's peace of mind. It boils down to rules and regulations.' 'Domestication,' says another man, who refuses to elaborate out of anger. Main Street Project declined to comment, instead pointing the Free Press to its public educational material that explains why some people avoid shelters. 'People may experience barriers to accessing shelters or choose not to go,' the 18-page document says. 'Barriers may include shelters being at capacity; having restrictions on pets, belongings or alcohol; separating couples; or requiring detailed intake criteria or processes. It also notes that people avoid shelters due to past experiences of violence, crowding, stigma, and safety concerns. Al Wiebe, who was homeless for 29 months and later became an advocate, says the reasons are many. 'They have to feel respected, and they don't right now,' he says. 'There needed to be more consultation. And the rhetoric about shutting down encampments, people's homes… there's never going to not be encampments,' says the man who recently received the King's Coronation Medal for community service. Wiebe says encampment communities keep people alive. 'You can't force people into housing; they will leave housing,' Wiebe says, adding that soon the province will likely learn the approach is flawed. A few blocks west of the riverside, a small encampment is tucked into a park, partially hidden by bushes. A woman says she's been on a housing waiting list for years, struggled with obtaining proper ID and related delays forced her to survive outside. 'I hate living like this,' she says, adding she's been on the streets for the past three years. Premier Wab Kinew said during question period Wednesday, not far from where the woman lives, that it could take six to seven years to repair the damage he accused the former PC government of causing. Kinew added that MSP has housed 37 of the 40 people who have left encampments to date. The province has said it wants to move about 700 people from encampments into housing. The woman says she's grateful for organizations such as MSP and people in West Broadway who bring food, water, and supplies — even tarps to keep out the elements. MSP's outreach services, as outlined in its material, include essential items and relationship-building efforts. 'Each element is crucial in building meaningful relationships with people who have been repeatedly disappointed, and who have experienced so much systemic harm and oppression,' the document reads. 'Something as simple as offering food and coffee to someone experiencing homelessness lays the groundwork for building critical trust.' Last week, MSP came under fire when its outreach staff were recorded dragging tents and belongings to the riverbank in Point Douglas, another of the city's encampment hot spots. MSP declined to comment, referring only to a letter it sent in response to the Point Douglas residents committee, which was outraged by staff behaviour. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. On Monday, Housing Minister Bernadette Smith directed MSP — one of the key players in the province's Your Way Home strategy — and other service organizations not to move people into encampments. 'Going forward, it's from encampment to housing. The Your Way Home strategy outlines that pretty clearly,' she said. Back at the riverbank, some residents acknowledged they had received tents from shelters — though they didn't name them. 'I'm grateful,' one person says. Scott BilleckReporter Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade's worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024. Read more about Scott. Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Advocate calls for strategy to address sexual exploitation of youth
Four out of 10 serious injuries reported to Manitoba's youth advocate involve the sexual assault of a young person who is in the care of government services. 'Kids can't keep waiting,' Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth Sherry Gott said after releasing a first-of-its-kind report on Thursday. 'Throwing money here and there every once in a while is not the solution. (Government officials) need to develop a strategy to address mental health and to address sexual exploitation.' MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth, Sherry Gott: 'Throwing money here and there every once in a while is not the solution.' Gott's office has published a 78-page review of serious incidents that are, by the province's definition, life-threatening, require admission to a health-care facility or the result of sexual assault. The advocate has done a deep-dive into 140 cases referred to her office from July 1, 2023 to Dec. 31, 2024. The deep-dive is part of new investigative program to raise awareness about incidents, hold service-providers accountable, and inform government funding and programs. Child and family service agencies, hospitals and the department of justice, among others, are required by legislation to refer incidents to her office. In total, 233 serious injuries were referred for review during the inaugural 18-month reporting period. To date, Gott has reviewed 140 of them — 94 per cent of which involve children involved in child and family services. Her early findings show 91 per cent of individuals who sustained serious injuries were Indigenous — what she called 'a terrible inequity' that reflects historical and ongoing injustices that are linked to colonialism. Girls and young women accounted for 60 per cent of all cases during that 18-month period. The injured individual was between the ages of 15 and 17 in more than half of the reports. The most common injury was sexual assault, followed by weapon-inflicted assault and suicide attempts, accounting for 41 per cent, 18 per cent and 14 per cent of respective cases. The advocate called the initial data 'the tip of the iceberg,' owing to underreporting that she hopes will improve in response to her report. Ten per cent of the 140 serious injuries were caused by a physical assault by another person. Overdoses and accidental incidents each represented six per cent of them. Three per cent were self-harm incidents. Severe neglect made up two per cent of cases. 'Serious injuries impacting young people are regrettably not new phenomena,' Gott wrote in her report, 'Natawihisowin Oci Maskikiya (Healing with Medicines): Findings from the First 18-Months of the Serious Injury Reviews and Investigations Program.' 'However, the legislated responsibility to aggregate and disseminate findings related to these horrific incidents is.' She told the Free Press her office wants to see 'a responsible mechanism' put in place for children who are being seriously injured. Tuesdays A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world. The report indicates many of the injured children had a range of challenges, such as substance abuse, school absenteeism and poor mental health. Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said the report contains 'important data' and thanked the advocate for her work. 'We take these issues very, very seriously… We're engaging in a revisioning of Tracia's Trust,' Fontaine told reporters on Thursday, noting it is the 20th anniversary of that provincial initiative to combat sexual exploitation. The strategy was rolled out in 2002. It was renamed in memory of Tracia Owen, a teenager who was sexually exploited and died by suicide in 2005. Maggie MacintoshEducation reporter Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie. Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative. Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Cannibal chronicle
Dauphin-raised playwright Sophie Guillas's appetite for small-town folk drama and queer fables emerges in How They'll Tell It, a gossipy dish set in a fictionalized resort community in her home province. Premièring tonight at the West End's Gargoyle Theatre, the first full-fledged production by the What If Theatre Company brings the audience to the shores of Waska, where a once-bustling tourism industry has withered away and died. What killed it was the type of trauma that envelops a community's total history — think Waco, Texas or Aurora, Colo. — and to a certain extent dictates its future reputation and atmosphere. In Waska, a cannibalistic spree in 1985 still reverberates decades later, with the wounds still open and painfully fresh, even for the generations born long after the police tape disappeared. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Maia Woods plays Celia and Jade Janzen is Ivy in How They'll Tell It, a local production premièring at the Gargoyle Theatre this week. After meeting the entire cast — Jade Janzen, Josh Pinette, Maia Woods, David Lange, Angela Robbie and Laurie Monk — on the first page, the story then shifts to one of Waska's abandoned, derelict cabins, where Ivy (Janzen) polishes off her own version of the property's backstory to interested buyers: whether its accurate, and whether accuracy in storytelling is even possible, defines the narrative that afterward unfolds. 'So much of the play has to do with community reception and who owns storytelling,' says What If's Cali Sproule, who directs, designed the set and serves as dramaturge. In a small community, says Oakbank's Sproule, information travels at lightning speeds, often without verification or sufficient interrogation — the printed legend maintains a lasting dominion as it spreads across the regional map. Guillas, who holds a master's degree in English from the University of Western Ontario, is a devotee of British playwright Caryl Churchill, and in her scholarship has focused on the intersections of queer history, horror stories and 'lady cannibalism.' Her thesis, which fed directly into the script, began as a slasher novel entitled What's Eating the Victorians? JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Laurie Monk as Jenny and Angela Robbie as Doreen. She and Sproule — who served as assistant director to Herbie Barnes on David McLeod's Elevate: Manaaji'idiwin at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre — have been working to bring the story to stage for the better part of two years. Last year, the company held a staged reading as part of the Village Conservatory for Music Theatre's Festival of New Works. With additional support from the Canada Council for the Arts and from the Gargoyle, a theatre dedicated to the development of new work, the production runs until June 8. At last year's Fringe Festival, Guillas and Sproule, who met through the University of Manitoba's Black Hole Theatre Company, collaborated on 40 Below, earning a three-fish review from Rory Runnells, who called the production 'sufficiently sturdy.' As a poet, Guillas has been published in The Fiddlehead, and her short fiction has appeared in FreeFall Magazine. Next up for the duo is the creation of a medieval murder mystery called The Garden Hermit, which recently received funding from the Manitoba Arts Council. photos by JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS From left: David Lange, Angela Robbie and Jade Janzen star in How They'll Tell It, a local production about a small town with a cannibalistic history. If you value coverage of Manitoba's arts scene, help us do more. Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism. BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project. Ben WaldmanReporter Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University's (now Toronto Metropolitan University's) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben. Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
