West End food pantry gives needy ‘little extra help’

Every day or two, a bookshelf along St. Matthews Avenue is restocked with food and toiletries. By the next day, much is gone.

The small food pantry, which Erin Leslie set up in September, was inspired by another one two kilometres away — a set of shelves beneath a community notice board in Denson/Riddle Park, installed over the summer by the South Valour Residents Association.

That pantry didn’t last. It was shut down after someone smeared dog feces on it in August, following weeks of backlash by some neighbours who feared it would encourage people from nearby encampments to stay.

Leslie said she didn’t know the South Valour pantry was vandalized when she started hers, which by contrast, has received a positive reception.

MLA walks back ‘let them steal’ comments

A Manitoba MLA has apologized for “confusion” caused by comments she made suggesting retail workers are told to let thieves steal, after those comments went viral on social media.

While debating Bill 210, which would amend the laws that determine civil claims for damages made by anyone 12 or older who trespasses for the purpose of committing a crime, Seine River MLA Billie Cross said the amendments introduced by the Opposition could “give people carte blanche to make justice decisions in a split second when they’re in fear.”

“I don’t think anyone’s property is more valuable than a human life. That’s why we have insurance, that’s why we buy insurance for our property, that’s why it’s so important that we not put ourselves in the line of fire when something’s being stolen,” she said Oct. 29 in the Manitoba Legislature.

“You know, we tell people who work in retail, ‘someone comes in, they want to steal, let them steal.’ It’s not worth your life, we’ve seen what happens when people don’t do that.”

Another embarrassing loss: Arniel

RALEIGH — No sticks were smashed. No walls punched. And nary a naughty word was uttered.

Instead, the Winnipeg Jets filed off the ice here at Lenovo Center on Sunday afternoon much like they’d just played the preceding game against the Carolina Hurricanes — with no emotion, no passion, no urgency.

You’d have thought yet another loss, this one in truly humiliating fashion and a ninth consecutive overall, might have triggered something.

Anything.

Third fire hits troubled Manitoba Housing apartment block

Residents of a North End Manitoba Housing apartment block with a long history of trouble say they’re shaken after the building was hit with its third fire in eight months Friday night.

An apartment complex at 145 Powers St. was evacuated by firefighters after a fire broke out at around 7:45 p.m.

When longtime resident Sharon Markwell heard the fire alarm go off, she chalked it up to a false alarm — kids will get into the building and pull the fire alarm around once or twice a month, she said — until smoke began billowing into the hallway of her fifth-floor apartment.

“Once I realized that I could smell smoke very, very strongly, and the smoke was seeping into my room, into my apartment, I said to myself, ‘This is no false alarm. This is the real thing,’” Markwell, 64, told the Free Press Sunday.

Walkout creates chaos at St. James Smitty’s

Gordon Sharpe wanted to eat a meal at the St. James Smitty’s Wednesday, but he got a helping of bad news instead.

He saw several workers walk out of the restaurant, at 1017 St. James St.

“(The waiter) came back about 10 minutes later and stood over the table, looking a little distraught and said, ‘I’m quitting right now and so is everybody else,’” Sharpe said. “He said, ‘This is my last time serving you,’ and he was quite choked up.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said, adding that the managers scrambled to serve patrons.

Incoming councillor calls for safety improvements on Main Street

A newly elected city councillor has called for improvements to Main Street after a man in his 60s was hit and killed while in a crosswalk at Main and Jarvis Avenue.

Natalie Smith, who was elected Wednesday to represent the Mynarski ward, attended a small vigil at the site Friday afternoon.

“I walk through here, I bike through here and I have to drive through here. I know at this intersection, I have seen so many close calls,” she said, calling the area, which is north of an underpass, “poorly designed.”

She promised to ask city administration to look into ways to slow down traffic flow on Main Street.

Judge halts any construction on housing project across from curling club until he rules on city’s approval

A judge has ordered that preliminary construction activities at a hotly contested housing development next door to the Granite Curling Club be “paused” until after he delivers a court ruling that could decide its future.

At a hearing last June, lawyers for the curling club urged King’s Bench Justice Ami Kotler to quash a city bylaw approving the project, set to be built on a parking lot owned by the city but used for decades by the curling club, arguing the decision was rushed and significantly flawed.

Kotler has not yet delivered his decision.

On Friday, curling club lawyer James Mercury told court project developer Granite Project Holding Inc. had secured permits to begin “early works” including excavating and shoring of the site and the installation of piles, starting as early as Monday.

Ottawa announces $500 million for North End sewage plant upgrade

The federal government will provide $500 million to help complete the major upgrade to Winnipeg’s North End sewage treatment plant.

Winnipeg South MP Terry Duguid confirmed the total funding at a news conference at the plant Friday, calling the work critical to Winnipeg’s future.

“The stakes could not be higher. Without expanded wastewater treatment, Winnipeg would run out of capacity to build new homes and accommodate new industries within six years,” said Duguid.

The commitment offers the final funding needed to cover the $1.57-billion third and final phase of the upgrade. The city and province will also pay $500 million each for the work.

Regulator urged to force MPI to lower rates, tackle claims costs

A citizen-led coalition has urged the Public Utilities Board to order Manitoba Public Insurance to lower its rates, which it says would force the Crown corporation to tackle rising claims costs.

The Consumers Coalition described MPI as “risk-averse,” at a hearing this week to discuss its application for a rate increase.

“The last three (general rate applications) have demonstrated that the corporation is running out of ideas and tools to mitigate rate increases and are executing a strategic plan grounded in their legacy business model,” said Katrine Dilay, a lawyer for the Public Interest Law Centre who spoke on behalf of the coalition.

Dilay said the coalition believes MPI is riding out the cost pressures and passing them on to ratepayers rather than preparing for the future.

Word test

TESTING

Premier Wab Kinew is an imported Manitoban, born in Kenora and raised on Onigaming First Nation in Treaty Three (in northwestern Ontario) before his family moved to Winnipeg. He’s the son of well-known Anishinaabe leader and traditional knowledge keeper Tobasonakwut Kinew and Kathi Kinew.

These are the words we provided feedback on: Boniface, Cockburn, Dauphin, Dene, Hellebuyck, Iafallo, Íslendingadagurinn, Kinew, Kildonan, Malak Abas, Métis, Newfoundland, Orlikow, Pembina, Portage la Prairie, Premier, Regina, St. Vital, Samyn, Schiefele, vínarterta, Wiebe, Generation Z.

RCMP to bolster traffic enforcement after ‘concerning’ spike in deadly collisions

Manitoba RCMP are boosting traffic enforcement after a spike in fatal collisions.

So far this year, 73 people have been killed in 65 collisions — a 28 per cent increase from the 57 deaths in the same January to October period last year, the Mounties said Friday.

The increase in fatalities is 28 per cent higher than the province’s five-year average.

“It’s concerning to me personally, but it’s also concerning to us, the RCMP, to see this many crashes occurring and this many people losing their lives,” RCMP traffic services enforcement commander Staff Sgt. Jon Greer said.