Judge blocks release of Bob Saget’s autopsy records for now

Four areas eyed for lower speed limits

Four Winnipeg neighbourhoods have been recommended for a project to assess the effect of reduced speed limits on residential streets.

After an extensive debate, city staff pinpointed places where the standard 50 km/h residential speed limit should be reduced.

Pending approval by the public works committee, the limit would drop to 30 km/h in two neighbourhoods and 40 km/h in two others. A consultant would decide where each exact limit should apply.

The one-year trials are proposed for the Worthington, Richmond West, Tyndall Park South and Bourkevale neighbourhoods, though locations could change depending on feedback from city hall.

Five to Know: Hamelin golden once again

Olympic men’s hockey without NHLers is often a dour affair. Canada gathered this squad, worked really hard and they weren’t very good. But they tried.

Legislation needed on vacant buildings

There is something deeply backwards about a system that lets a property owner keep a building boarded up indefinitely while neighbours are left to live with the consequences.

In Winnipeg, as long as the owner pays the taxes, follows the city’s vacant-building rules and pays the required fees, there is no hard deadline for the building to be dealt with.

The building can remain a neighbourhood eyesore. It can attract drug use and crime. It can become a fire hazard. And the people living nearby can be left wondering how long they are expected to put up with it.

Yet when Premier Wab Kinew was asked Friday whether his government would change provincial legislation to give Winnipeg the power to impose a time limit on such properties, he declined to answer.

Pimicikamak FN locked down, police hunt for suspect after fatal shooting

Pimicikamak Cree First Nation, also known as Cross Lake, remains under lockdown as RCMP Major Crime Services investigate a shooting that left a 42-year-old man dead.

RCMP said officers were notified by local First Nation Safety Officers at about 9:30 p.m. Friday about a seriously injured person on Main Road in the community. Officers found two males at the scene, including one with a gunshot wound.

The 42-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene by EMS. The second male was not injured and did not require medical attention, police said.

Manitoba RCMP Major Crime Services, along with Cross Lake RCMP and Forensic Identification Services, are investigating. Police said the suspect is believed to be known to the person shot and may still be in the community.

Being in the black, doesn’t mean being out of the woods

The Pallister government may be planning to balance the books in two years. But it doesn’t mean the province will stop borrowing and racking up debt even after it’s in the black. That’s something Premier Brian Pallister alluded to in a year-end press conference Tuesday.

The idea that government still has to borrow money to pay the bills, even with a balanced budget, may sound counterintuitive. But if you look a little deeper into how the province reports its finances, it’s easy to see how the province will still have to borrow money years after it officially balances the books.

That may be disappointing to those who thought a balanced budget — now expected in 2022 — might allow the province to loosen the purse strings. But the way government accounting works, eliminating the deficit doesn’t necessarily mean the province no longer has borrowing requirements.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Pallister said Tuesday when talking about the province’s financial status. “We have the highest debt per capita in Canada.”

As political jockeying begins, don’t forget job No. 1

The goal, for all parties in a democracy, is to make the best legislation and bring in the strongest policy forward for voters and citizens.

And every party has a role to play in that effort.

Governments set policy and bring forward legislation. Official oppositions challenge that process with the goal of identifying weaknesses or flaws in proposed laws, bringing forward the positions of groups affected by proposed legislative change, and generally are supposed to bring a critical lens to the process in an effort to improve the final result.

Third parties bring forward still further viewpoints and analysis, often from a different political bent, but valuable insight and viewpoints nonetheless.