Brandon Minute: Issue 116

Brandon Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Brandon politics

📅 This Week In Brandon: 📅

• City Council will hold its regular meeting this evening at 7:00 pm. The General Business portion of the agenda covers a Water and Wastewater Utility Rate Study, a 1st Street water main replacement, an application to the FCM Green Municipal Fund for a flood-mitigation study, a 4th Street subdivision, and airport pavement maintenance. Council will also hold public hearings on two lane and road closures. The by-law slate includes a first reading to establish new water and wastewater utility rates, a service-sharing amendment with the Rural Municipality of Cornwallis to add wastewater services, a rezoning at 34th Street, and a by-law to prevent additional dwelling units at the rear of sites. 
  
  
• City Council has decided to explore creating an Indigenous naming policy, following a motion by Ward 2 Councillor Kris Desjarlais brought as Council agreed to give Dakota-language names to two City-owned parcels south of the Assiniboine River. The two areas were named Oeti, meaning "a place for camping," and Shunkawakan Onazin, meaning "horse pasture," after consultation with the Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples' Council and elders from Brandon and Sioux Valley Dakota Nation. Desjarlais said the City should create a protocol for engaging First Nation and Métis communities on the naming of spaces, which could include speaking with elders and leaders of the region's First Nations along with Métis and Michif elders. The policy would determine what places should carry Indigenous names and in what situations the protocol should apply. The City already has an Indigenous naming policy for street names, which directs owners and developers to give special consideration to Indigenous names on the approved street name list.
  
  
• The provincial government is making changes to the intersection of Highway 110 and Richmond Avenue East in Brandon, where a May 27th collision killed a 49-year-old woman. Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor said four-way stop signs with flashing red lights will be installed, along with rumble strips and digital message signs to warn drivers of the stop ahead. At present, only northbound and southbound Highway 110 traffic is required to stop. The measures are an interim step until traffic lights erected in 2025 can be activated this summer, as the lights remain covered with tarps pending at least one needed part and signalling upgrades by Canadian Pacific Kansas City and the province for a nearby rail line. The May 27th crash happened when a northbound semi failed to stop and struck an SUV, pushing it into a southbound semi that had stopped at a stop sign. 
  
  
• Brandon emergency services are now called to more than 100 overdoses a year, up from what was very rare a decade ago, according to Gage Wood, union president for Brandon Firefighter Paramedics Local 803. Brandon Fire Emergency Services has responded to nearly 50 overdoses so far this year and administered Narcan more than 30 times. In 2025, crews responded to around 135 overdoses and used Narcan in 60 cases, and in 2024 they responded to more than 140. Brandon police, who serve in an assisting role, responded to 13 overdoses as of May this year, one of them fatal, compared with 51 overdoses and five deaths in 2025 and 52 overdoses and 11 deaths in 2024. Wood said the supply has grown more potent and now includes carfentanil and tranquilizers that do not respond to standard Narcan doses, with crews administering as much as 14 milligrams where 0.4 milligrams once reversed a fentanyl overdose. He said the City's five-ambulance system, two of which are dedicated to inter-facility transfers, continues to be taxed to the limit. Across Manitoba there were a preliminary 388 substance-related deaths in 2025, down from 570 in 2024.
  
  
• The City of Brandon and the Province of Manitoba have added five municipal parks and City-owned lands along the Assiniboine River to Manitoba's Network of Protected and Conserved Areas, formally recognizing the ecological importance of the river corridor. The designation safeguards the lands from future development while keeping them open for public recreation, and it covers wetlands, grasslands, and native plants that filter water, reduce erosion, manage flooding, and store carbon. Mayor Jeff Fawcett said working with the Province makes sure the areas are there for the long run and recognizes the stewardship already taking place, while provincial Minister Moyes said protected areas provide habitat, clean air and water, carbon storage, and protection during extreme weather.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

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