Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 27, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba MONDAY OCTOBER 27, 2025 ● ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM SECTION B CONNECT WITH WINNIPEG’S NO. 1 NEWS SOURCE ▼ CITY ● BUSINESS Community activist plans to focus on poverty reduction, public services, transit Durand-Wood wins council seat in Elmwood-East Kildonan vote A COMMUNITY activist and volun- teer will be the next city council- lor for Elmwood-East Kildonan. Emma Durand-Wood soundly won a byelection to claim the seat on Satur- day, with 1,567 votes, or 31.48 per cent of those cast, according to results post- ed on the City of Winnipeg’s website. The runner up, construction project manager Abel Gutierrez, received 887 votes. “This has just been the absolute craz- iest experience of my life. I want to thank all the over 100 people who volun- teered for our campaign, including the 50 people who helped out today,” Dur- and-Wood told a crowd of several dozen cheering supporters at the Elmwood Curling Club Saturday night. The council seat was left vacant af- ter the death of Coun. Jason Schreyer in April. Durand-Wood, 44, entered her first political race after volunteering with the Glenelm Neighbourhood Associ- ation, Chalmers Neighbourhood Re- newal Corp., Elmwood Business Co- alition and the Trees Please Winnipeg Coalition. She is also a freelance writer and editor. Durand-Wood recently listed her top priorities for the ward as: tackling poverty to prevent crime, especially by improved access to affordable housing and groceries; increasing frequency on Winnipeg Transit routes; and boosting spending on community and public ser- vices, such as recreation programs. “To the people of Elmwood-East Kil- donan, for joining us, joining our cam- paign for a vision of a stronger, happier, more connected community, I’m really excited to get to work and it’s an honour to have been chosen,” she said. Durand-Wood said she would support cancelling some spending on megapro- jects to help pay for her priorities, such as the expansions of Kenaston Boule- vard/Route 90 and the Chief Peguis Trail. Those projects are each expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The first candidate to enter the race, Durand-Wood said she and her vol- unteers managed to knock on nearly every door in the ward. “There were a very small stretch of houses and some apartment blocks that we couldn’t get into. But (we reached) well over 17,000 (homes)… I had an amazing team of doorknockers and we started in July and we were going up until Thursday,” Durand-Wood told re- porters following her speech. She was endorsed by former mayor- al candidate Shaun Loney, writer Erna Buffie and Vivienne Ho, CUPE Local 2348 president and advocacy chair for the Institute for International Women’s Rights Manitoba. Six other candidates competed in the byelection, including Gutierrez, road safety researcher Chris Swery- da, automotive finance broker Braydon Mazurkiewich, child-care assistant Zekaria Selahadin, city planning prop- erty and development clerk Kyle Roche and city safety, health and wellness ad- ministrative assistant Carmen Prefon- taine. Durand-Wood thanked her competi- tors for running honest campaigns, and said she was “overwhelmed and hum- bled” by her win. “Our platform and our ideas resonat- ed with people, (with) a message of posi- tivity and working towards solutions and optimism,” said Durand-Wood. Byelections were also held to elect two new school trustees on Saturday. Samantha Pope won 32 per cent of the vote to become a Ward 1 trustee in the Pembina Trails School Division. Former Manitoba education minister Peter Bjornson was elected to become a Ward 3 trustee in the Louis Riel School Division. joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca X: @joyanne_pursaga JOYANNE PURSAGA MIKE SUDOMA / FREE PRESS Emma Durand-Wood celebrates her Elmwood-East Kildonan byelection victory at the Elmwood Curling Club on Saturday. Report touts impact of alternative schools for mature students A NEW report touts the economic im- pact — and untapped potential — of al- ternative schools that register mature students, adult newcomers and others who did not finish Grade 12. “We ought to be radically re-imagin- ing what education is,” said Jim Sil- ver, professor emeritus of urban and inner-city studies at the University of Winnipeg. “If you ask anybody, ‘What’s educa- tion?’ They’ll say, ‘K to 12 — elemen- tary school and high school — and I guess, it’s also post-secondary, colleges and university.’” As far as Silver is concerned, “basic adult education” should always be in- cluded in that definition. The career researcher has appealed to multiple provincial governments to top up funding for these programs as part of their respective poverty-reduc- tion plans. Last week, in partnership with the Manitoba Research Alliance and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alterna- tives, he published a cost-benefit analy- sis. Following approval from the U of W ethics committee, Silver’s latest sur- vey was circulated to adults who had obtained a mature high-school diploma within the last five years. Probe Research polled recent gradu- ates of centres in Winnipeg, The Pas, Altona, Killarney and Boissevain be- tween Jan. 20 and April 28. Five out of six graduates reported they are either currently employed, continuing their education or both. “It’s simply remarkable,” Silver said, noting that amounts to 83 per cent of them. More than 60 per cent of the 63 indi- viduals who were on employment and income assistance when they first en- rolled said they no longer need it. Silver found the related reduction in social assistance and all working graduates’ new taxes are the equivalent of $700,000 per year. His conservative calculations do not reflect that some or all of the 42 re- spondents currently pursuing post-sec- ondary training will also pay taxes upon entering the labour force. Norma Zacharias, a 30-year-old high school student, heard these statistics at a report launch at the Canadian Mu- seum for Human Rights. “I feel very excited, but nervous at the same time,” Zacharias said about entering her final year of classes at Regional Connections Immigrant Ser- vices in Winkler. A new mother, she is juggling child- care, evening shifts and completing her remaining credits to graduate. Zacharias and her husband moved to Manitoba from Tamaulipas, Mexico, in 2022. Upon arrival, she was bilingual, but not in either of Canada’s official languages. She now speaks fluent German and Spanish, and has a solid foundation in oral and written English. “I think it (a high school education) will give me a better opportunity at my work… and see if I can do a little ca- reer,” she said about her rationale for enrolling in school while simultaneous- ly working at a warehouse in southeast- ern Manitoba. Given she grew up in a traditional Mennonite colony in Mexico, her early education was limited to reading, writ- ing and basic arithmetic. She’s now in her final year of high school in her new hometown, where she plans to raise a family — and possibly, homeschool her children. There were roughly 100 people in at- tendance at the Adult Secondary Edu- cation Council’s 2025 conference. Silver called on the crowd, made up of students and certified teachers, to help him rebrand their programs so the public sees adult learning centres as critical to grow the Manitoba economy. MAGGIE MACINTOSH LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER ● REPORT, CONTINUED ON B2 Funding to help newcomers find their feet IF Funmilayo Adewusi were to write the story of her life, she says New Jour- ney Housing would be an essential part of it. “They helped me and my two daugh- ters with everything,” said the 40-year- old Nigerian immigrant, who arrived in Winnipeg in early 2024. New Journey is one of five organiz- ations that support low-income Mani- tobans at risk of being homeless as well as those who have just arrived in the province. The groups received nearly $900,000 in one-time grants last week from a $20-million endowment fund creat- ed by the province with the Winnipeg Foundation last year. New Journey helps newcomers tran- sition from temporary shelters into permanent homes by assisting with searches, rental applications, landlord disputes, tax filing, and applications for federal benefits. When Adewusi arrived in Winni- peg, the organization helped her and her daughters — ages 13 and nine — find emergency shelter first at Naomi House, a church-based ministry that works with faith groups and the wider community to support refugees, and later at the Salvation Army. By May 2024, the family had moved into Mani- toba Housing. “They helped me gain my ground, they helped me get connected,” she said. “I’ve met a lot people here (in Win- nipeg) where it’s been very difficult to get settled. New Journey made it very easy, especially with my children.” She said the organization helped her furnish her new home with a micro- wave, a bed and a TV, and also helped her find employment and schools for her daughters. “I am extremely thankful,” she said. “They do so much for me, it’s hard to remember.” Stories such as Adewusi’s highlight the impact of funding grants, said New Journey executive director Codi Guen- ther. “It allows us to expand our team and meet the growing needs newcomers have coming to Winnipeg,” she said. “As part of the program, our staff helps them look for work, and our staff refers them to employment agencies to help them find work so they can eventually get off (employment income assistance) and into the workforce.” Guenther said the agency assists about 100 new households each month; the process typically takes three to five months. Other organizations to receive fund- ing are the Canadian Muslim Women’s Institute, the Manitoba Interfaith Im- migration Council (Welcome Place), and Healthy Muslim Families. SCOTT BILLECK BROOK JONES / FREE PRESS Funmilayo Adewusi (centre) says New Journey Housing helped make getting settled in Can- ada easier for her and her daughters Awesome, 9, (left) and Racheal, 13. Groups get nearly $900,000 in one-time grants ● FUNDING, CONTINUED ON B2 ;