This year, more returns expected before the gifts are opened

Pimicikamak FN locked down, police hunt for suspect after fatal shooting

Pimicikamak Cree First Nation, also known as Cross Lake, remains under lockdown as RCMP Major Crime Services investigate a shooting that left a 42-year-old man dead.

RCMP said officers were notified by local First Nation Safety Officers at about 9:30 p.m. Friday about a seriously injured person on Main Road in the community. Officers found two males at the scene, including one with a gunshot wound.

The 42-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene by EMS. The second male was not injured and did not require medical attention, police said.

Manitoba RCMP Major Crime Services, along with Cross Lake RCMP and Forensic Identification Services, are investigating. Police said the suspect is believed to be known to the person shot and may still be in the community.

The bountiful harvest: Thousands of visitors flock to St. Norbert Farmers’ Market every Saturday

While most of Winnipeg is still sleeping, or perhaps just starting to think about making the morning coffee, a patch of shade and sun just south of the Perimeter Highway is already humming with life.

Downtown Keg closes… to reopen nearby

Downtown Winnipeg is without a Keg restaurant — for a couple of months, anyways.

The Keg Steakhouse and Bar vacated 115 Garry St. on Wednesday, after more than five decades at the location. It will open in a new Donald Street apartment tower this fall.

Its move comes after years of waiting. The DSM, at 185 Donald St., sat as a partially started apartment block after its developer stopped operating and sought creditor protection in April 2023. The developer began the project in 2019.

Carrington Real Estate took over in 2024. Part of the 14-storey site’s initial plans — pre-Carrington — was for the Keg to occupy the main floor.

IG Wealth Management to sell longtime Portage Avenue HQ

The downtown IG Wealth Management building will soon be up for sale.

The Winnipeg-based financial services company is moving its headquarters after nearly 40 years at 447 Portage Ave., across from the former Hudson’s Bay flagship store.

By current timelines, staff will move into a newer downtown tower — 360 Main St. — in 2028.

Roughly 1,100 employees will make the transition, according to Nancy McCuaig, executive vice-president of IGM Financial, IG Wealth Management’s parent company.

Crop storage headaches loom on horizon

A sense of calm descends over Prairie fields this time of year — at least on the surface.

Activities become more limited in the weeks leading up to harvest. There’s not much farmers can do now to support this year’s crop, other than monitor and protect it from diseases such as sclerotinia in canola and leaf stripe and fusarium head blight in wheat and barley.

July is when you might see farmers wading into a thick stand of canola, conducting a so-called “wet pants test” to get a low-tech read on how much disease-inducing moisture is lurking in the canopy.

Disease pressure is high in a humid, hot summer like this one and it’s kept aerial applicators busy applying fungicides. Sclerotinia spores live on plant residues in the soil and blossom into a mould that destroys the canola stem, starving the maturing pods.