City receives affordable housing funding

As part of the federal government’s Rapid Housing Initiative, the City of Winnipeg is receiving $12.5 million to deliver affordable housing units. The City is asking interested parties to help identify projects that may be suitable for funding through an online survey on the city website.

Mourning the victims of austerity

On Oct. 31, a group of concerned Manitobans built a cardboard graveyard outside Premier Brian Pallister’s home. The makeshift monuments highlighted the people and services the provincial government has refused to prioritize during the COVID-19 pandemic, including residents in long-term care facilities and healthcare funding.

Taking care of future students online

The University of Winnipeg Undergraduate Student Ambassador Program has developed an online chat program called Unibuddy, which allows prospective students to ask questions of current students at the university. The program includes students from different programs and stages in their studies and currently has 11 student ambassadors, but will eventually have 20.

Take your ball and go home (for now)

As part of the response to reaching the critical (Red) level in Manitoba’s pandemic response system, the City of Winnipeg is cancelling its leisure programming and closing City-owned and -operated leisure facilities. Community centres and private leisure facilities are at this time still responsible for their own decisions on whether to remain open. The council building will also be closed to the public, and City Hall wedding ceremonies have been suspended.

Addressing housing issues in Northern Manitoba

On Nov. 5 at 1:30 p.m., the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is hosting Displacement, Housing and Homelessness in Northern Manitoba Communities, a virtual event and report release. The event will feature report authors Lee Ann Deegan and Marleny Bonnycastle, as well as Elder Agnes Spence, chair of the housing board in Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation Lou Moodie and senior scholar in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba Lawrie Deane.

Pallister to prioritize policing as pandemic procedure

After being absent from the public eye on Oct. 30, when the daily case number, five-day test positivity rate and COVID-19 hospitalization records were all broken, and Winnipeg entered the Code Red phase of pandemic response, Premier Brian Pallister appeared at press conferences on Nov. 2 and 3. He has suggested that investing in police, instituting a curfew and bringing on volunteer healthcare workers will be sufficient measures to stop the spread of the virus. In a press conference, Mayor Brian Bowman did not know whether or not the City of Winnipeg would be able to enforce a curfew.

Published in Volume 75, Number 08 of The Uniter (November 5, 2020)