Julia-Simone Rutgers
Manitoba Reporter
@jsrutgers 
Julia-Simone Rutgers is The Narwhal’s Manitoba reporter. Her position is part of a partnership with the Winnipeg Free Press. She joined The Narwhal after writing daily news for the Winnipeg Free Press and the Star Metro Halifax. She was also the first writer in residence at The Walrus, and has a smattering of bylines in The Globe and Mail, the Coast and the Discourse. Though she has lived on both coasts, she grew up in Calgary and feels most at home lounging on riverbanks under the wide-open Prairie skies. In her spare time, she dabbles in music making, visual art curation, writing poetry and exploring the forests, fields, lakes and rivers the province has to offer. Her role is made possible thanks to funding from The Winnipeg Foundation.
Stories by Julia-Simone Rutgers
Billions of litres of sewage in the rivers — can it be fixed?
15 min. readWinnipeg says it could take until 2095 to fix its sewage woes. Other cities —...
5 things to know about Winnipeg’s big sewage problem
115 billion litres, 70 years to fix, $5.5 billion in lawsuits
‘Afraid of the water’? Life in a city that dumps billions of litres of raw sewage into lakes and rivers
10 billion litres of sewage are dumped into Winnipeg’s lakes and rivers each year. Some...
Canadian voters ranked climate change as a top issue — even during a pandemic. Has the U.S. trade war changed that?
Climate change has dropped in Canadians’ list of priorities this election — but that doesn’t...
Indigenous-led conservation plans in Manitoba have sparked backlash. There’s also a path forward
Locals in the small community of Arborg worry a new Indigenous-led protected area plan would...
‘Big changes’: huge new protected area moves one step closer to reality
The 50,000-square-kilometre Seal River watershed in Manitoba is more than 99 per cent intact. Government...
How is climate change affecting winter on the Prairies?
Shorter, warmer winters but also colder cold snaps — Canadian winters are getting a reset
One year the ice is slushy. This year on the Prairies? -35 C with the wind
As indoor hockey costs mount and rural populations dwindle, a changing and increasingly unpredictable winter...
The feds tried to hold the line in an invasive species battle — and lost. What’s next?
Riding Mountain National Park was the frontline of the westward invasion, but Parks Canada now...
