Turning an office into a home: The city's new idea to get people living downtown
Turning an office into a home: The city's new idea to get people living downtown
The City of Winnipeg could be eyeing a new way to get more people living downtown – by filling the spaces left vacant by office workers working at home.
Two Kelly's Cafe in the city’s downtown relies on nine-to-five office workers. Owner Kelly Oxelgren says the last two-and-a-half years have been up and down.
"Office workers come back, then they go back home for working from home, come back – it's like a yo-yo," she said.
With many now working from home permanently, or part of the week, Oxelgren says she's had to shift her business model.
"I'm now relying on people looking for me, finding me who want to support small businesses."
The flex-work week, which is here to stay for many companies and governments, has left empty offices in downtown.
The city's property and development committee chair wants to change that.
"I have a lot of downtown residents and, you know what, I'd like to be welcoming more," Said Coun. Sherri Rollins.
She has put forward a motion asking the city's administration to explore how Winnipeg could encourage and make it easier for developers and not-for-profits to convert some of those empty office spaces to residential units.
Rollins says the city could be proactive by rezoning commercial corridors in advance to attract mixed-use development through conversions or new builds.
"What we have now is some commercial buildings that are underutilized and what we could have in the future is more residential so it's supporting that commercial, supporting that office space," Rollins said.
Other cities are looking at this, too. Calgary is offering millions of dollars worth of grants for conversions.
The Downtown BIZ says the office vacancy rate in downtown Winnipeg is around 16 per cent and Winnipeg can't rely on office workers alone to make that come back.
"Our downtown is different post-pandemic so we need to do things different, it really is about how we make that shift from a central business district to a social gathering district," said Kate Fenske, CEO of the Downtown BIZ.
Oxelgren says more people living near her cafe would help, but adds they need a reason to move here. She wants to see more grocery stores and amenities including more local food and coffee shops.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
Residents digging through a collapsed building in a northwest Syrian town discovered a crying infant whose mother appears to have given birth to her while buried underneath the rubble from this week's devastating earthquake, relatives and a doctor said Tuesday.
The British Columbia government has introduced legislation to make Sept. 30 a paid statutory holiday marking the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Canadians now believe they need $1.7 million in savings in order to retire, a 20 per cent increase from 2020, according to a new BMO survey. The eye-watering figure is the largest sum since BMO first started surveying Canadians about their retirement expectations 13 years ago.
Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands announced Tuesday that they plan to provide Ukraine with at least 100 refurbished Leopard 1 battle tanks, a pledge that comes as Kyiv anticipates a new Russian offensive around the anniversary of its invasion.
Zoom is cutting about 1,300 jobs, or approximately 15% of its workforce. CEO Eric Yuan said in a blog post Tuesday that the company ramped up staffing during the COVID-19 pandemic, when businesses became increasingly reliant on its service as people worked from home. Yuan said Zoom grew three times in size within 24 months to manage demand.
Search teams and emergency aid from around the world poured into Turkiye and Syria on Tuesday as rescuers working in freezing temperatures dug, sometimes with their bare hands, through the remains of buildings flattened by a powerful earthquake. The death toll soared above 6,200 and was still expected to rise.
A forensic pathologist offered her expert opinion on how Catlin Goodwill’s three-month-old son died suddenly in October 2017, during testimony on the second day of trial.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
A 6-year-old Virginia boy who shot and wounded his first-grade teacher constantly cursed at staff and teachers, chased students around and tried to whip them with his belt and once choked another teacher 'until she couldn't breathe,' according to a legal notice filed by an attorney for the wounded teacher.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
Nearly five years after Matthew Staikos was gunned down in Toronto, the family of the tech CEO has renewed a $250,000 reward in the unsolved murder case.
Surveillance video of the moments before a former child actor was run down by a vehicle on the Danforth has been obtained by CTV News Toronto as police search for the driver.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
The Tsuut'ina Police Service, which serves a community west of Calgary, is expected to share more details about the case against former Dances With Wolves actor Nathan Chasing Horse, CTV News has learned.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
There is a new sign of financial issues with an Ottawa construction company that suddenly closed, leaving customers with unfinished projects unable to recoup their losses.
One of Canada's largest unions representing public servants has filed a bad-faith bargaining complaint against the Canada Revenue Agency over what it's calling an "about-face" on the issue of working from home.
A former medical student who claims he fatally shot a fellow student in self-defence during a drug deal in Halifax denied Tuesday he planned to kill the man and steal the marijuana he was carrying.
Region of Waterloo staff are hoping to double the number of automated speed enforcement sites in the region to 32 this year, but councillors want to see even more cameras added at a faster pace.
A passenger plane packed with donations and emergency supplies is set to travel from Vancouver, B.C., to Istanbul on Tuesday, as the death toll from Monday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkiye and Syria surpasses 6,200.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
Another British Columbia university has taken back the honorary degree it bestowed on retired judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond after an investigation raised doubts about her claims of Indigenous heritage.
A mangled bicycle and a smashed windshield point to the severity of the crash that sent a Victoria cyclist to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries on Monday.
