Nuts and nostalgia mingle in not-too-sweet nuggets

Close to 5,000 net new health-care workers added since 2023 election, province says

More doctors and nurses are working in Manitoba than ever before but health-care challenges remain, Premier Wab Kinew says.

The province has added 4,725 net new health-care workers to the provincial system since the NDP won the October 2023 election, Kinew told reporters Tuesday.

The government’s total includes 370 doctors, 1,464 nurses, 2,152 health-care aides and 607 allied health professionals, a group that includes physiotherapists, dietitians, paramedics, medical lab technologists and others.

Kinew said more doctors and nurses are working in Manitoba than ever before.

Public washroom is better way to go

Back in 2018, Winnipeg architect Wins Bridgman of Bridgman Collaborative Architecture saw his idea, a decade in the making, come to life: a pop-up public washroom in Winnipeg’s downtown.

It was a canny campaign, executed in partnership with Downtown BIZ and Siloam Mission, that illustrated a dire human-rights need by actually providing a solution.

Now, the idea has gone from pop-up to permanent. As of May 30, a public washroom at 715 Main St., next to Circle of Life Thunderbird House, will open for daily public use from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Bridgman designed this structure, known as Amoowigamig. Like the bright-orange pop-up before it, it’s a highly visible building with highlighter-yellow accents, and has a host of safety features, such as alarms that can be triggered from stalls, security cameras outside, and a pair of urinals outside the building, which is also a safety consideration: “The reason people go through the indignity of going (to the bathroom) outside is sometimes because there’s no washroom but also because it might (seem) safer,” Bridgman told the Free Press.

Man pleads guilty to shotgun slaying

A WINNIPEG drug dealer has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a March 2025 killing that saw the body of a 30-year-old man dumped in a garbage bin and dragged to a West End alleyway.

Frederick Francis Mathias Baker, who was 28 upon his arrest early last year, shot Bronson Emery Dale Kequahtooway once in the thigh with a sawed-off shotgun and left him with a fatal wound, Crown prosecutor Matt Armstrong told Court of King’s Bench Justice Brian Bowman on Wednesday.

A split second after Baker shot Kequahtooway in the thigh, the victim was shot in the head with a sawed-off .22 rifle. The man accused of being armed with the rifle, Eric Matthew Morrissette, remains before the court on a second-degree murder charge.

“Either wound would have been fatal on its own,” said Armstrong.

Jeff Browaty to remain councillor in North Kildonan

Long-standing incumbent Jeff Browaty will remain councillor of the North Kildonan ward, earning 73 per cent support.

Andrew Podolecki, Browaty’s lone challenger, was running against the councillor for the third time in the north Winnipeg ward. He finished the race a distant second with 27 per cent support, a five per cent increase from 2018's election.

Browaty has already served 16 years on council, filling roles on numerous committees, including sitting in the mayor's inner circle as a member of the executive policy committee. He is currently council’s finance chairman.

Browaty counts road maintenance as a top priority and has spoken out against imposing large tax increases. He suggests the city refocus its priorities on key municipal responsibilities; ideas he’s floated include not expanding recreational services and not spending city money on items that fall primarily under provincial jurisdiction, such as housing.

Beijing behind the scenes: On women’s hockey’s biggest stage, it’s not just the players under pressure

Alex Clarke of Weyburn, Sask., is a Canadian linesperson who isn’t part of Team Canada at the Olympics.

Graham Avenue street art gets a refresh

After a year of weather, wear and foot traffic, the colourful murals that brightened Graham Avenue have been given a refresh — but the artists behind them say the fading was not necessarily a failure.

The Graham Avenue murals were installed as part of the city’s pedestrian plaza pilot project, funded through Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Asphalt Art Initiative. The city said the murals created a temporary pedestrian plaza to test how people would use the downtown space.

Shortly after the street art was completed in July 2025, paint began chipping away from the designs between Carlton and Garry streets.

At the time, Cool Streets Winnipeg organizer Stéphane Dorge told the Free Press that the wear appeared sooner than expected, and cited challenges including the condition of the street, oil embedded in the pavement from decades of bus traffic and the quick timeline for completing the project.