Advocates promote need for new Louise Bridge

An awareness campaign on the need to replace an aging Winnipeg bridge continues eight years after local two politicians came together to promote the issue.
Jason Schreyer, the city councillor for Elmwood-East Kildonan, and Jim Maloway, the NDP MLA for Elmwood, first put together an information pamphlet on the Louise Bridge and advocated for its replacement in 2014.
On Saturday, Schreyer was back at it, with a new pamphlet but an old message: the need for provincial and federal funding for a Louise Bridge replacement.
He was joined by other concerned citizens near the bridge, handing out information and relaying the importance of one of Winnipeg’s oldest river crossings.
“We’re just reminding all levels of government that this is important,” said Schreyer. “It’s so important that they built this bridge first. That’s how important it is.”
Schreyer said the Louise Bridge, as it stands today, rests on crumbling footings in the Red River and is in need of replacement.
“Despite all the projects enhancing our infrastructure maintaining your infrastructure is the best you can do,” said Schreyer.
The Louise Bridge replacement has now been tethered to two other city development projects, according to Schreyer, the first being an eastern transit corridor into Transcona with the other being a reconfiguration of local traffic in the area.
“The engineers at city hall knew that we had to deal with the bridge sooner or later but politics can get in the way of engineering and this was deprioritized for a while,” said Schreyer.
“This is not about political priorities, this is about engineering priorities and important infrastructure.”
Now that the bridge project is linked to other city development plans, Schreyer said getting a new bridge is inevitable, but government funding is still needed.
“Regardless of what they do first, whether it’s the transit corridor to Transcona or changing the transportation and street routing here,” sad Schreyer. “First things first you still need a new Louise Bridge and then all can spring from there.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
200 bodies found in Mariupol as war rages in Ukraine's east
Workers digging through rubble found 200 bodies in Mariupol, Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday, another grim discovery in the ruined port city that has seen some of the worst suffering of the 3-month-old war.

EXCLUSIVE | Supreme Court Justice Mahmud Jamal on his journey to Canada’s highest court
Justice Mahmud Jamal sat down with CTV National News' Omar Sachedina for an exclusive interview ahead of the one-year anniversary of his appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada. Jamal is the first person of colour to sit on the highest court in the country, bringing it closer to reflecting the diversity of Canada.
Death toll from Saturday's storm hits 10 across Ontario and Quebec
As the death toll related to the powerful storm that swept Ontario and Quebec on Saturday reached 10 on Monday, some of the hardest-hit communities were still working to take stock of the damage.
Trudeau faces chants, pounding drums as he walks through crowd at Kamloops memorial
The prime minister made comments following a memorial gathering in Kamloops to mark one year since the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc Nation announced the remains of up to 215 children were detected at a former school site.
Conservative party ends its investigation into complaint about a racist email
The Conservative Party of Canada says its ended its investigation into a racist email sent to leadership contender Patrick Brown's campaign team after the party member purportedly behind it resigned their membership.
Walk out at trade meeting when Russia spoke 'not one-off,' says trade minister
The United States and four other nations that walked out of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group meeting in Bangkok over the weekend underlined their support Monday for host nation Thailand, saying their protest was aimed solely at Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine.
Canadian study finds link between air pollution and severity of COVID-19 infection
An extensive study of thousands of COVID-19 patients in Ontario hospitals found links between the severity of their infections and the levels of common air pollutants they experience.
After 3 months of war, life in Russia has profoundly changed
Three months after the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, many ordinary Russians are reeling from those blows to their livelihoods and emotions. Moscow's vast shopping malls have turned into eerie expanses of shuttered storefronts once occupied by Western retailers.
China's bet on homegrown mRNA vaccines holds back nation
China is trying to navigate its biggest coronavirus outbreak without a tool it could have adopted many months ago, the kind of vaccines that have proven to offer the best protection against the worst outcomes from COVID-19.