Soft serve

Louis Riel’s life reimagined as a genre-hopping production

One thing everyone can agree on: Louis Riel contained multitudes.

Hot topic: mayor considers max temp for rental properties

Mayor Scott Gillingham says he’s open to exploring a call to set a maximum temperature for indoor rental units.

“I think we should be looking at that, as far as what the specifics would be … (In) our overall body of work, recently, we have been addressing the heat and making sure people have places to get out from under the heat,” said Gillingham.

Tenant and environmental groups have called for a maximum indoor rental unit heat limit that doesn’t exceed 26 C. A city bylaw does require landlords to maintain a minimum daytime temperature of 21 C during cold weather.

Gillingham noted the city has added 24-7 safe spaces, extended spray pad hours, opened libraries as cooling spaces and added drinking water stations to provide relief on very hot days.

If it works in Ontario, why not in Manitoba?

Grid-scale battery storage has fundamentally changed the global energy landscape — and Manitoba needs to get on board.

Battery systems store large amounts of excess electricity for when it’s most needed. While they can be charged from any generation source, they are especially beneficial for integrating wind and solar power, which vary with weather and time of day. Batteries allow electrical grids to meet the need for firm, dispatchable and affordable capacity using renewable energy, rather than relying on coal, nuclear and fossil gas. They also provide numerous other benefits, including reducing overloading of transmission infrastructure and helping to regulate the grid’s frequency and voltage.

Average costs for grid-scale batteries plummeted by more than half between 2023 and 2025 and installations have skyrocketed in China, the U.S., Australia and Europe. Texas now has 16,500 megawatts (MW) of battery storage, while California has 15,200 MW. Closer to home, Ontario recently awarded 640 MW of contracts to three battery storage projects in a competitive auction, with batteries beating out fossil gas-fired power plants on cost every time. One of these projects will be built near Dryden, only four hours east of Winnipeg.

Each battery system will provide eight hours of capacity but will cost considerably less than Ontario’s previous battery procurements, which provide only four hours of capacity. With this latest auction, Ontario has now secured 3,600 MW of battery storage capacity, including the operational Oneida (250 MW), Hagersville (300 MW) and Napanee (250 MW) projects. Almost all have significant Indigenous participation, with the latest procurements boasting 50 per cent First Nations ownership.

Winnipeg’s first pro women’s team will be in the Northern Super League

Desiree Scott made a name for herself on the pitch as The Destroyer. Now, she’s continuing her legacy as a builder.

On Tuesday, the Olympic gold medalist helped announce the Northern Super League’s expansion to Winnipeg, the seventh franchise in Canada’s rapidly growing professional women’s soccer league.

It’s also the first pro women’s sports team in the city.

Scott, a Winnipeg native, had been vocal about her desire for a pro women’s team in her hometown during her playing days, and has spearheaded the movement for it to come to fruition in the last year.

Bisons’ Neill carries lead into final round of men’s amateur

RORY Neill woke up Tuesday with a share of the lead in the 115th edition of the Golf Manitoba men’s amateur championship.

He went to bed with the solo lead.

The Glendale member rests at 2-under for the 54-hole event and will take a one-stroke advantage into Wednesday’s final round at St. Boniface Golf Club after firing a one-over 73 on Tuesday.

The University of Manitoba Bisons’ golfer got out of the gates much slower than he did in Monday’s opening round, bogeying four of his first six holes, but stuck with it, finding birdies on four of the last 10 holes to salvage his round.

Steamy days and hot nights sizzle city

Hot, humid temperatures continued to grip Winnipeg Sunday with “dangerous” heat — feeling like low to mid-40s — anticipated to last into Monday.

The nighttime temperature Sunday was expected to be close to record setting. The anticipated overnight low of 27 C would mark the second warmest on record in Winnipeg since a 28 C low was recorded during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, said a Winnipeg-based meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“A hot day is one thing, but a hot night is a totally other thing. If you don’t have air conditioning, (Sunday’s) going to be the really hard night,” said Brad Vrolijk.

Vrolijk also said it’s unusual is for such high temperatures to be combined with high humidity, calling the mix a “dangerous heat.”