A few tidbits that might be of interest to those who follow matters down at City Hall in Winnipeg:

1) Who Has Billed for Police HQ?: While we were told it would cost $3,090 to see the actual bills for the new police headquarters, today we received a list of the firms who have billed the city for the project. To view the list - click here

2) $600 For Surety Association Docs: A Winnipeg Free Press article showed a 'discrepancy' between what the City of Winnipeg said about the bonding requirement for the new police headquarters project and what the Surety Association of Canada said. In short, the city said they lowered the requirement at the urging of the Surety Association of Canada yet the Winnipeg Free Press asked the Surety Association of Canada and they said that was "Bulls**t. That's absolute hooey." I filed an information request with the city and was told it would cost $600 for documentation related to the matter - click here to view the city's response.

3) Draft Police HQ Overrun Reports: I asked the city for copies of all draft documents on their report to council on the latest rounds of cost overruns for the new police headquarters. The city's response? It's confidential. Click here to view.

4) Typical Firefighter Shift: Thinking about becoming a firefighter in Winnipeg? Did you know you'll spend more time doing medical work than fighting fires? Looks like city bean crunchers have calculated only 4.4% of the typical firefighter's shift is actually spent fighting fires. 5.2% of their time is spent on medical emergencies and 65.4% is "capacity"...which seems to be mean time not allocated to specific work responsibilities; leeway in case something comes up. Take a look at this document that shows what a typical firefighter's shift looks like - click here.

Photo Source: Winnipeg Sun