Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 10, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba homebuilders.mb.ca Also available at and participating showhomes. Read online at: winnipegfreepress.com/fp-features winnipegfreepress.com/paradeofhomes years C E L E B R A T I N G C A N A D A ' S Biggest and Best Parade of Homes PARADE of HOMES | SEPTEMBER 20 – OCTOBER 12, 2025 #PARADEOFHOMESMB fall WINNIPEG & SURROUNDING AREAS: Monday to Thursday: 4 to 8 p.m. | Saturday & Sunday: 12 to 5 p.m. BRANDON ONLY: Tuesday & Thursday: 5 to 8 p.m. | Saturday & Sunday: 12 to 5 p.m. Show homes are available for private viewing by appointment outside of Parade hours. Hours and show home availability are subject to change. For more information please visit www.homebuilders.mb.ca TOUR 135 NEW HOMES Watch for it in your Free Press (home subscribers) AND in additional select areas. FALL 2025 ISSUE C O M I N G S E P T E M B E R 2 0 B2 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM T HE City of Winnipeg expects to end the year with a $17.7-million operating deficit despite an ag- gressive campaign to find savings. A finance update released Tuesday predicts that year-end shortfall in the tax-supported operating budget, based on data up to June 30. The deficit projection is $1.2 million less than expected in the first quarter of this year. City departments currently expect to find $44.9 million of $51.8 million in targeted savings city council directed them to achieve before the end of the year. “The savings targets were aggres- sive and we seem to be on track to meet (many) of them,” said Coun. Jeff Bro- waty, chairman of finance. Browaty (North Kildonan) noted a lower-than-expected snow-clearing bill is helping to offset other losses. “We have had a lot of things coming in on target. It’s the first time in (recent) memory where we have come in under budget on snow (clearing),” he said. Public works predicts a $3.3-million year-end surplus due to lower snow clearing and ice control costs, while the city’s corporate finance department ex- pects a $2.7-million surplus due to high- er interest rates on short-term invest- ments, the report notes. The corporate accounts department expects to end the year with a $9.1-million surplus due to lower debt and finance charges. By contrast, multiple departments ex- pect deficits. Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service ex- pects to fall $3.1 million short primarily due to overtime and workers compensa- tion costs. Planning, property and de- velopment expects a $4.3-million short- fall, mainly due to lower-than-expected revenues, while the Winnipeg Police Service expects to fall $2 million short by failing to meet its in-year savings target, along with other various losses. The finance update also predicts a $3.9-million overall deficit for Win- nipeg’s special operating agencies, which include the Animal Services Agency, Golf Services Agency, Fleet Management Agency, and Winnipeg Parking Authority. The latest report features more detail on those agencies than past quarterly finance updates, a change the city says is meant to increase transparency. The Parking Authority expects a $2.4-million shortfall. Browaty said the agencies’ overall shortfall is relatively small but he’s concerned it is largely blamed on low- er-than-expected parking ticket and fee revenue. “Are people avoiding our downtown (where most paid parking is)? Are they afraid to park on the street because of vandalism to vehicles? … I’m curious to see… if this is an ongoing (problem),” said Browaty. The city expects a $61.3-million sur- plus for its utilities, which includes Winnipeg Transit, as well as the water- works system, sewage disposal system, solid waste disposal, land drainage and municipal accommodations. That sur- plus is $5.1 million lower than expected, though utility earnings are largely ear- marked to pay for capital projects, such as multibillion-dollar sewage plant up- grades. “Our big utility, water and waste, it has its own challenges in particular, (including) the massive capital spend- ing we need to do over there… It is a major financial piece of our whole pic- ture,” said Browaty. A separate finance report notes the permanent fix for a major pipe failure is expected to cost $31 million, exceed- ing its original $20-million budget. The repair was required after a mas- sive pipe failure dumped 228 million litres of raw sewage into the Red River at 3100 Abinojii Mikanah in February 2024. The increased budget includes $4.5 million for an emergency bypass sys- tem that will transport wastewater until the permanent fix is completed around July 2026. joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca X: @joyanne_pursaga NEWS I CITY WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2025 TREES ● FROM B1 Council to ponder heat share plan for Graham GRAHAM Avenue could become the site of a geothermal system that lets multiple buildings share green heating options. A new proposal calls for the city to accept grants for a $400,000 feasibility study on a geothermal district energy system for Graham Avenue. The study will explore how best to tap into the shared energy and how much it would cost, as well as who would own it, if city council accepts $200,000 each from the Federation of Canadian Muni- cipalities and Efficiency Manitoba to fund the work. Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge- East Fort Garry) said the project would help the city cut greenhouse-gas emis- sions just as it seeks more residents and development downtown. “As we were talking to the downtown stakeholders about (the city’s downtown vision), CentrePlan 2050, they were very interested in greening the down- town, including building on aspects of their own corporate plans,” said Rollins. Key stakeholders along Graham Avenue, including Manitoba Hydro, Manitoba Public Insurance, the South- ern Chiefs’ Organization (owner of The Bay building redevelopment), the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, True North Sports and Entertainment (operator of Canada Life Centre), and the Women’s Health Clin- ic, have expressed interest as “potential users/suppliers of energy” to the sys- tem, a city report states. “There’s energy to capture and then there’s also the district (to use it),” said Rollins. District geothermal systems distrib- ute renewable thermal heat to several buildings, typically in densely built areas, Manitoba Environment and Cli- mate Change states on its website. For Graham Avenue, a city report suggests heat recovery systems and ground source energy could be ex- plored, with battery storage for excess power. Ground-source or geothermal heat pumps circulate fluid through a loop of pipes buried underground. The fluid can absorb heat from the earth in win- ter or return it to the earth in summer, which can reduce electric heating bills by up to 60 per cent, while also cutting greenhouse-gas emissions, according to Efficiency Manitoba. Some geothermal systems capture “waste” heat from arenas and use it to warm other buildings. Coun. Brian Mayes (St. Vital), the head of the city’s climate action and re- silience committee, said such a system would make sense on Graham Avenue. “You’ve got a lot of buildings there and you could do (the energy system) efficiently… (It’s) pretty dense develop- ment,” said Mayes. He said about 44 per cent of the city’s carbon emissions come from natur- al gas heating, so this type of project offers a much more environmentally friendly option, which he deemed long overdue. “Year after year, we have these am- bitious climate plans and climate goals and then the hard part is actually doing something and putting some money to- ward it. People seem to forget that build- ing heating is a big part of this whole climate change puzzle,” said Mayes. Mayor Scott Gillingham said he sup- ports studying the idea. “Where there’s opportunity for innov- ation and to reduce the city’s environ- mental footprint… to heat buildings and recapture some of the energy, then we should be looking at (it),” said Gilling- ham. During his 2022 mayoral campaign, Gillingham set a goal for Winnipeg to build “at least” one megawatt of re- newable energy generation capacity by 2026. The mayor said work to combat crime, heighten public safety and im- prove transit, among other priorities, has delayed progress on that goal. A green energy district on Graham would offer a step forward, he said. “My hope is that Graham becomes even more dense, that there’s more development along Graham Avenue. I think there’s opportunities in the fu- ture to enhance the initiative… when it comes to capturing energy (wasted by) buildings,” said Gillingham. The feasibility study will explore how a district energy system could be expanded, potentially to the University of Winnipeg, YMCA, and/or Portage Place, a city report notes. City council’s property and develop- ment committee will consider the feas- ibility study on Friday. joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca X: @joyanne_pursaga JOYANNE PURSAGA MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Coun. Jeff Browaty, chairman of finance, says there are a lot of things coming in on target, and snow clearing will be under budget. City on track for $17.7-M deficit JOYANNE PURSAGA But could yet meet saving targets, says Browaty Coun. Evan Duncan, the com- mittee’s chairman, said he under- stands why people get upset when a residential lot with trees becomes an infill development where trees are lost. “How do we continue building our city while preserving the tree canopy? That’s the $1,000 ques- tion,” Duncan said. “It is how do we preserve, strengthen and replace the exist- ing tree canopy? I don’t think it would help putting bylaws on pri- vate land owners… we need to look at, not the stick approach, we need to look at the carrot.” Duncan said examples of that may be by giving property owners a break on their property taxes. kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca Cops bag convenience store robbery suspect, who faces 21 charges ADAM TREUSCH A “prolific shoplifter” allegedly threatened store workers and security guards during several incidents — including one where he wielded a hypodermic needle and a knife — before he was arrested Monday. Police arrested a 23-year-old man they said was holding a knife near the intersection of Henderson Highway and Trent Avenue shortly before 11:30 p.m. Monday. Officers were sent to the area after a convenience store on the 300 block of Henderson was robbed shortly after 9:30 p.m. A man stole merchandise and threatened employees with a knife, the Winnipeg Police Service said in a news release Tuesday. The WPS major crimes unit later linked the man to 21 other shoplifting and robbery incidents involving sever- al convenience stores, the release said. On July 22, a man stole merchandise and threatened a security guard with scissors at a store on the 500 block of Sargent Avenue at 8:30 a.m. The next day, a man fled with merchandise stolen from the same store at 5 p.m. On Aug. 13, a man stole merchandise from a store on the 800 block of Arlington Street while armed with a knife and a crowbar at 9 a.m. The next day, a man stole merchandise and threatened a security guard with a knife at a store on the 200 block of Portage Avenue at 7:50 p.m. On Aug. 21, a man stole merchandise from the same Portage Avenue store and threatened a security guard with “a sharp-edged weapon” shortly before 11 a.m. On Aug. 31, a man tried to steal an item or items and threatened to stab a security guard with a knife and a hypodermic needle from the same Sargent Avenue store shortly before 11 p.m. On Saturday, a man stole a pair of scissors, threatened employees with the scissors, and stole more merchan- dise from behind the counter of a store on the 1800 block of Henderson Highway shortly after 7:45 p.m. A man has been charged with seven counts of rob- bery, nine counts of possession of a weapon, four counts of failing to comply with a probation order and single counts of uttering threats and theft under $5,000. He was detained in custody. Court records show the man was sentenced on unrelat- ed charges to one year in custody and one year of super- vised probation on March 13. He had pleaded guilty to four counts of robbery, two counts of uttering threats and one count of failing to comply with a release order prohibiting him from possessing a weapon. It appears he received credit for time spent in custody before he was sentenced. — with files from Dean Pritchard fpcity@freepress.mb.ca ;