Red Light, Green Light, No Oversight A Free Press investigation into the City of Winnipeg's transportation division By: Ryan Thorpe Posted:

Christian Sweryda has spent hundreds of hours cataloguing and tracking the changes to intersections in Winnipeg. His findings point to financial mismanagement in the public works department.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/02/2022 (1649 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Christian Sweryda has spent hundreds of hours cataloguing and tracking the changes to intersections in Winnipeg. His findings point to financial mismanagement in the public works department.

That research is the basis of a Free Press investigative series by Ryan Thorpe: Red Light, Green Light, No Oversight.

 

 

 

Winnipeg’s public works dept. wastes millions of tax dollars on unnecessary projects, independent research reveals

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeg’s public works department wastes millions of tax dollars on unnecessary streets and transportation projects, independent research reveals.

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How many times can city crews change a traffic light?A Free Press investigation by Ryan Thorpe sought to answer that question, resulting in the discovery of wasteful spending and frivolous infrastructure projects carried out by the public works department for more than a decade.

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Winnipeggers deserve an explanation for waste of taxpayer dollars: expert

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Independent researcher Chris Sweryda poses for a portrait at Henderson and Peguis (where a single left turn lane has two signal lights) in Winnipeg on Monday, Feb. 21, 2022. For Ryan Thorpe story. Winnipeg Free Press 2022.

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The anti-corruption expert grew increasingly concerned with each passing example of costly and confusing construction projects ordered by Winnipeg’s public works department — year after year, intersection after intersection.

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Yellow caution flashes again 12 years after audit condemns city department

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

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Allegations of financial mismanagement in the transportation division of the public works department should not come as a surprise at city hall.

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A decade of deadly delay

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Eye-level lights at the pedestrian crossing at Roblin Boulevard and Hunterspoint Road, where a boy was seriously injured in 2018, in Winnipeg on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022. For Ryan story. Winnipeg Free Press 2022.

Posted:

For the past 11 years, independent researcher and traffic-safety activist Christian Sweryda has been urging the City of Winnipeg to install eye-level safety lights at pedestrian corridors.

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Winnipegger’s effort to replace missing school area traffic signs thwarted by city department’s couldn’t-care-less attitude

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS 30km/h school zone speed limit sign on Grosvernor Avenue near Wilton Street, Thursday, October 18, 2018.

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It was sometime in 2011 when independent researcher and traffic-safety activist Christian Sweryda started to notice locations where school-zone signs were missing in Winnipeg.

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Ryan Thorpe

Ryan Thorpe
Reporter

Ryan Thorpe likes the pace of daily news, the feeling of a broadsheet in his hands and the stress of never-ending deadlines hanging over his head.

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The only problem with slashing the size of the deficit as much as the province did last year is it’s going be tough for government officials to explain why the shortfall will likely be higher this year — and maybe next year, too.

Last year’s deficit came in at a surprising $163 million, according to the province’s public accounts released Thursday. That’s well below the budgeted shortfall of $521 million. It’s great news. The sooner the province stops borrowing money to finance its daily operating costs, the closer it will be to paying down debt and freeing up more money for front-line services (and cutting taxes). It’s a major accomplishment for a government that, just three years earlier, inherited a deficit of $932 million and a debt that was growing at about $2 billion a year.

Considering government is so close to balance, it’s tempting to assume they could be back in the black as early as next year. After all, what’s $163 million in a $17.4-billion budget? It’s less than one per cent.

But there were some unique reasons why the deficit fell so dramatically last year, many of which were due to one-time events. The stars probably won’t align like that anytime soon. Which means this year's deficit, and maybe next year's, could be higher.

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JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESSDerek Lints wipes away tears as he speaks about his son Daniel, 17, at his home in Pilot Mound, Man., on Wednesday. Daniel Lints was sexually exploited online in February and committed suicide as a result.

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PILOT MOUND, Man. - Daniel Lints was kind and responsible with a witty sense of humour. The rural Manitoba teenager had a bright future and loving family. He played hockey and was a constant visitor to the nearby community pool.

He was a normal and happy 17-year-old until one chilly February day, he accepted a message request from what appeared to be an attractive young woman on Snapchat.

She coerced him into sending an explicit image. In minutes he was being blackmailed and within three hours he took his own life.

"I feel like he was murdered,” says Derek Lints, Daniel’s father, as tears stream down his cheeks.

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A Winnipeg man on a pilgrimage in Nepal is among nearly 2,000 people missing after a deadly flash flood devastated a popular tourist region along the Himalayan border earlier this week.

Mohit Kaushik, 49, was travelling with a tour group taking part in the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra, a sacred, days-long pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar in neighbouring Tibet, according to social media posts.

“Our friend and neighbour, Mohit Kaushik, a resident of Winnipeg, Canada, has been out of contact since yesterday while travelling from Timure during his pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar,” Swikriti Pokhrel wrote in a social media post. “If you have seen him or find his name on any hospital list, please let us know. Thank you.”

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Former Eskimo calls for team to change name

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EDMONTON - A former Edmonton Eskimo who once visited Nunavut with the Grey Cup says it's time to respect that the team's name is considered offensive to aboriginals.

"We have to honour the aboriginal communities of our great country and respect the fact that the name is deemed offensive and oppressive to these communities," Andre Talbot said from Toronto, where the retired 2004 Grey Cup champion played for the Argonauts but spent his final season in 2010 with Edmonton.

"Sports organizations need to be community building organizations. And if we're isolating and offending part of that community, then our particular organization or league is not doing its job."

In 2012, Talbot was part of a 100th anniversary tour of the Grey Cup that stopped in Iqaluit, and the trip involved more than just posing for pictures with the trophy. For two days, Talbot visited community centres and spoke with youth, answering their questions and even playing touch football with them.

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A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, as the saying goes. Basically, if you change something’s name, you don’t actually change the nature of the thing.

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A trio of city councillors is proposing to gut the pedestrian and cycling strategy.

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