Please complete our New Louise Bridge Survey.
Let’s Replace the Louise Bridge as Planned
We need a new three lane in each direction bridge as originally planned built while keeping the original bridge open.
The City of Winnipeg proposal to rehab the original 115 year-old Louise Bridge will require bridge closure for a year and a half minimum. It’s a waste of $40 million. All we’ll get is the same one lane in each direction old bridge, and force 27,000 drivers daily to alternate routes adding to traffic congestion on already congested routes like Disraeli and Provencher.
The City of Winnipeg’s Transit Plan and 2050 Eastern Corridor Project recommended a new three lane in each direction bridge to serve the future needs of northeast Winnipeg. This plan will keep the original bridge open to traffic during construction beginning in 2028, just like the Disraeli Bridge construction 15 years ago.
________________________________________________________
Jim’s Elmwood MLA Report published in the Winnipeg Free Press’ Community Review (Herald), Aug. 20, 2025
City’s Louise Bridge plan a dead-end
Why waste $40 million and turn northeast Winnipeg into a parking lot for a year and a half?
On July 28, the City announced an extended closure of the Louise Bridge for the third time since the May 23 annual inspection, prompting Elmwood residents to ask why the City of Winnipeg is wasting $40 million renovating the Louise Bridge, a ‘functionally obsolete’ 115-year-old one lane in each direction bridge, when we were promised a brand new three lane in each direction bridge for $179 million which will last another 100 years.
With the new bridge’s site being chosen just to the west of the old bridge, work could begin on the planned replacement project, and the old bridge would remain left open for traffic — no closure and no inconvenience to drivers. No bumper-to-bumper traffic.
It’s a waste of $40 million because it doesn’t directly address our future needs as outlined in the City’s Transit Plan, and importantly, the rehab proposal of the one lane in each direction bridge would mean a key route for northeast Winnipeg would be closed for a year and a half during construction, minimum. That’s 27,000 vehicles daily finding alternate routes on already congested routes like Disraeli and Provencher.
A three-lane in each direction bridge was recommended by City Planners in the Winnipeg Transit Plan and, if construction starts as initially planned, would be built while the old bridge was open to traffic just like the new Disraeli Bridge project 15 years ago. That’s crucial to doing this project properly.
The May 2025 annual inspection uncovered corrosion that had to be fixed before the bridge could be re-opened. Since then, more corrosion has been found, and additional repairs are required resulting in an extension to the closure to early September. That’s a 75-day closure during summer months. Imagine a year and a half closure.
Let’s replace the bridge as planned, with the promised three lanes in each direction, and do it properly. Keep the old bridge open, and minimize the traffic disruption, just like we did with the Disraeli 15 years ago.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Jim’s Elmwood MLA Report published in the Winnipeg Free Press’ Community Review (Herald), June 25th, 2025
We need a new Louise Bridge now.
On May 30th, the City of Winnipeg announced its annual inspection of the 114-year-old Louise Bridge had uncovered corrosion that had to be repaired before the bridge could re-open. The City hopes this work would be completed by the end of July 2025. That’s more than a two-month closure while key steel structural parts and repairs to the bridge must be tendered, designed, poured, and installed.
The City helpfully suggested drivers who use the bridge daily plan alternate routes, such as the Disraeli Freeway or Provencher Bridge, and allow for additional travel time. That’s 27,000 drivers daily added to these already congested routes for this two-month summer period.
The City engineers tell us there’s only a five-year window before the functionally obsolete Louise Bridge may be declared unsafe and left to stand as a monument to shifting City priorities.
Again, yesterday’s indecisions and shifting priorities are today’s problems. To be fair, this is not a situation caused by anything this administration did. You have to go back to 2014 to see where that City administration dropped the ball. The City recently took their first misstep, a big backward step, to defer replacement by opting for a $40 million Louise Bridge rehabilitation – a total waste of $40 million of your tax dollars and your inconvenience of a full bridge closure while the bridge is being ‘rehabbed’. Transcona Councillor Russ Wyatt acknowledged a full closure could be a ‘disaster.’
The second and best choice would be to build the recommended three lane in each direction bridge to serve the future needs of northeast Winnipeg as a key link of the 2050 Eastern Corridor Project at a cost of $179 million. The old bridge would remain left open for traffic – no closure and no inconvenience to drivers – and tax dollars would be better spent as recommended by City planners.
Band-aid solutions never work and it’s not too late to do the right thing budget-wise and traffic-wise.
City of Winnipeg’s lead testing and control programs information: https://legacy.winnipeg.ca/WaterAndWaste/water/lead.stm
City of Winnipeg’s Identifying Pipe Fixtures Information: https://legacy.winnipeg.ca/waterandwaste/water/identifyingPipesFixtures.stm
March 5, 2025 Winnipeg Free Press Community Review
Let’s support local businesses in Manitoba
By: Jim Maloway
2025 has started off as a year of uncertainty with our American neighbours. For years, we have enjoyed a mutually beneficial trade relationship that provides us with access to quality goods and resources that enrich both our economy and our lives. With the ongoing threat and imposition of tariffs, Canadians must come together to resist their impact on our economy and on our everyday lives.
That’s why Manitoba recently responded to those threats with a recommendation for all Manitobans to shop locally. Supporting local business has become more important than ever for our economy. How you choose to spend your money is a choice that holds power, and we want to empower every Manitoban to choose local whenever they can.
Manitoba has released an index that connects you to multiple resources that guide you to where you can find made-in-Canada and made-in-Manitoba items. From made in Canada cereal and vitamins to local Manitoban made goods, this list provides everything you need to know where and how to buy local.
To visit the index for the full list of resources, stores, and markets that can connect you with the local goods you love, you can find the link here: gov.mb.ca/buylocal/index.html
As we continue to build partnerships with other trading partners to protect our province from the impact of tariffs, know that we will continue to fight for every Manitoban. Over the coming months, let’s all stand together as a united Manitoba and a united Canada.
If you have any questions or concerns, please call my office at 204-415-1122 or email me at jim.maloway@yourmanitoba.ca. Please also visit my website, YourElmwood.com, to see my previous Elmwood MLA community news reports.
As we continue to build partnerships with other trading partners to protect our province from the impact of tariffs, know that we will continue to fight for every Manitoban. Over the coming months, let’s all stand together as a united Manitoba and a united Canada.
If you have any questions or concerns, please call my office at 204-415-1122 or email me at jim.maloway@yourmanitoba.ca. Please also visit my website, YourElmwood.com, to see my previous Elmwood MLA community news reports.
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF MANITOBA
Friday, March 21, 2025
Members’ Statements
MAHCP Collective Agreement Settlement
MLA Jim Maloway (Elmwood): The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, MAHCP, led by its president, Jason Linklater, and his team, has reached an agreement with Shared Health and the Winnipeg-Churchill and northern health regional employers organizations, averting a strike scheduled for March 7, 2025, earlier this month.
MAHCP represents more than 7,000 allied health professionals in more than 20 regulated health professions, including audiologists, cardiology technologists, diagnostic medical sonographers, medical laboratory assistants and technologists, radiation technologists, occupational therapists, paramedics, physiotherapists, respiratory therapists and speech language pathologists. These professionals are indispensable to our health‑care system and work around the clock in a variety of settings.
The negotiated settlement between the MAHCP and Shared Health and Winnipeg-Churchill and Northern Health Region Employers Organizations is another meaningful step in resetting and restoring our health‑care system and more properly aligning wages within our system.
Elmwood residents recognize that restoring our health‑care system is very much a work in progress. We have much more work to do. The cracks in our health‑care system did not appear overnight and they will not disappear overnight.
A major step forward with our government’s recruitment of 873 net‑new health‑care workers into Manitoba’s public health system. After all, our health-care system depends on the workers.
This important settlement reflects everyone’s commitment to the collective bargaining process and more fairness in the system for our workers.
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF MANITOBA
Monday, October 28, 2024
Members’ Statements
January 8, 2025 Winnipeg Free Press Community Review
Advocating for full disclosure of lead pipes
Winnipeg Free Press Community Review – January 3, 2024
Excerpt from article “East Winnipeg MLAs plan for the year ahead”. By: Sheldon Birnie, Simon Fuller staff reporters.
Jim Maloway (Elmwood) — The City of Winnipeg needs to press forward on the Louise Bridge replacement issue. While the 112-year-old bridge is in the queue, and the site chosen as part of its Eastern Corridor (Rapid Transit) project, our aging infrastructure is catching up with us. The 25,000 daily users of the old Louise Bridge don’t want to be the next victims of a future closure.
Elmwood residents are also served by an aging sewer system, which places them at high risk for sewer backup, not to mention the sewage overflows pouring into the Red River and beyond. The city needs to move faster on separating our combined sewer systems, which they do in tandem with street renewal. Where can you find an issue that solves so many problems? We can prevent basement flooding and overflow sewage into the river, while paving your pothole-filled street. And while we are doing this, we can help 2,500 families in Elmwood replace their lead pipes connecting from their basement to the city-owned main lines and reduce the clear and present danger of lead levels to their health, as warned by Health Canada.
Thirdly, I’ll continue to advocate for approved home and business security protection system rebates so residents get some financial help to feel safe in their own homes.
Private Member’s Statement, May 17, 2023 – GlenElm Neighbourhood Association’s Town Hall on Climate Change.
On May 12th, the GlenElm Neighbourhood Association held a Town Hall on Climate Change. Congratulations to this vibrant and creative neighbourhood association for bringing into focus the things we can do on a local level to build a sustainable future.
Please complete our other surveys if you haven’t already done so. Below you’ll find my Louise Bridge Site Survey 2022, Diagnostic Lab Testing Closures Survey and Cancercare Outpatient Services at Concordia Hospital Closure Survey.
With Spring around the corner, we are planning another Garden Seed drop-off in your mailbox once the
weather permits! Last year we distributed over 20,000 seed packets to Elmwood residents. We plan on another drop-off as soon as weather permits in Spring 2023! We’d love to see a picture of your results, too!
Thursday, Nov. 4th & Wednesday, Nov 9th at University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA) picket lines: Fighting for a Fair Deal.
Visiting the picket lines at the University of Manitoba campuses. Top right: U of M – Bannatyne Campus, Nov 4th, with striking members of the University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA). Bottom Picture: At U of M – Main Campus, Nov. 9th, with Councillor Jason Schreyer (3rd from left) and UMFA members at the University of Manitoba.
We need a government that strengthens our universities, not interferes with them. The PCs need to end Pallister’s wage freeze mandates and allow free and fair negotiations so students can finish their education and we can recruit and retrain staff.
News Stories:
https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/advocates-promote-need-for-new-louise-bridge-1.5635856
Jim Maloway Elmwood MLA Reports on the Louise Bridge Replacement Issue:
Friday, October 22, 2021 : https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/herald/correspondent/New-Louise-Bridge-update–so-far-so-good-575585251.html
Monday, September 27, 2021: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/herald/correspondent/The-Louise—a-troubled-bridge-over-waters-575388001.html
Elmwood residents’ comments added.
Elmwood residents’ comments added.