Trade minister leading 300-member mission to India this week

Hockey teams scramble after two city arenas put on ice

Instead of ice, Barry Bonni walks onto a dull concrete surface at the Terry Sawchuk Memorial Arena on Thursday.

The arena, as well as the West Kildonan Memorial Arena, have had to close after failing inspections. Predictably, the city’s hockey community is in a tailspin because ice time is so precious.

“We’re now in panic mode,” said Bonni, president of the River East Royal Knights on Thursday. The Sawchuk arena is the team’s home rink.

Bonni, who is a living legend in Manitoba’s hockey community, said the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League club is scrambling to find ice time.

Proposed design for Carberry-area intersection includes overpass, roundabouts

The province has released a proposed design for an intersection near Carberry where a crash killed 17 seniors in 2023.

The project proposes an overpass and two roundabouts at the intersection of Highway 5 and the Trans-Canada Highway. Details and renderings of the design were released on the province’s website.

The overpass was announced in November’s throne speech and pegged at $100 million to construct. The province initially floated the idea of a restricted crossing U-turn, or RCUT, but the design was met with intense scrutiny from the public.

Residents said at the time the RCUT would be confusing for drivers and difficult to navigate.

A decision with potential for ‘distraction’ and ‘disrespect’ in Transcona

Transcona voters acknowledge they have a tough decision to make at the ballot box on election day.

The east Winnipeg working-class ward is replete with lawn signs and posters, but most of the people the Free Press spoke with said they were still undecided.

While Winnipeg is, historically, more likely to elect an incumbent, longtime councillor Russ Wyatt is seeking a sixth term while facing five criminal charges, including sexual assault and administering a noxious substance, after incidents alleged to have occurred in 2023 and 2025.

Residents are not without options. In addition to Wyatt, former councillor Shawn Nason — who occupied the city council seat from 2018-22 — is running for council (Wyatt chose not to run in the 2018 election after taking several months off to undergo addictions treatment), and there are three new faces on the ballot: Lora Meseman, Chris Giesbrecht and Nathine Dagdick.

Mayoral candidates share faves, test knowledge in Free Press culture quiz

It’s been said that politics is downwind of culture. However true that is, where politicians stand on hot-button cultural debates such as artificial intelligence, whether they prefer sports over arts and what local restaurants they patronize can offer a window into their sensibilities and outlooks.

The Free Press invited the four leading mayoral candidates among decided voters — according to a recent Abacus poll — to take part in a cultural quiz. (Kevin Klein, who was polling second, did not respond.) While most of the questions are lighthearted, they speak to some of the personalities behind the heated rivalries over budgets, buses, business taxation and beyond.

What was the last book you finished?

● Scott Gillingham: I’m almost done Winnipeg author Paul Vincent Jacuzzi’s book Blind Eyes. It’s a Dalton Drake novel.

Trade minister leading 300-member mission to India this week

OTTAWA - International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu is in India this week as the two countries look to reach a free-trade agreement by the end of the year. 

Sidhu is set to make stops in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru during his visit. He is being joined by almost 300 delegates representing businesses and exporters from across Canada.

A Global Affairs Canada news release said the trade mission will include businesses from multiple sectors, including aerospace, clean technologies and energy transition, information and communication tech, life sciences and agri-food.

The Liberals have set out to double non-U.S. exports over the next decade and have boasted of signing 20 strategic trade and defence agreements around the world in the last year. They also have set a goal of doubling two-way trade with India to $70 billion annually by 2030.

MPI still lacking brain injury expert

Manitoba Public Insurance has failed to hire an independent brain injury expert to probe how personal injury claims are handled, nearly two years after it was recommended.