Pets of the week

Manitoba Hydro’s $3 billion fossil fuel bet

Manitoba Hydro plans to spend $3 billion to build three new fossil fuel power generation turbines in 2030. This big bet on fossil fuel generation would be a big mistake for both the planet and Manitoban’s pocketbooks.

Asian supermarket T&T to open at Polo Park

T&T Supermarket — the largest Asian grocery chain in Canada — will open in CF Polo Park.

It’s inked a deal for 48,000 sq. ft. in the mall’s lower level. The shop will open in spring of 2028, T&T announced Thursday.

It’s touting a full T&T experience with a self-serve hot food bar featuring Peking duck and a sushi counter and rows of fresh Asian produce, including durian, and live seafood.

Shoppers will be able to buy more than 150 varieties of baked bread and at least 50 styles of desserts and pastries.

Once hailed as sign of strong bond, U.S. consulate in Winnipeg to close

There was much fanfare when the U.S. government re-established a permanent presence in Winnipeg in April 2001 as it unveiled its consulate and hailed it as a major achievement between two friendly nations.

“It is testimony not only to the importance the U.S. government attaches to our bilateral relationship with Canada but also to the increasing prominence of Winnipeg, Manitoba and the western region of the country in bilateral and multilateral affairs,” said U.S. Ambassador to Canada Gordon Giffin at a ceremony with then-premier Gary Doer.

Fast-forward to this week when it was learned the office at Portage and Main is set to close, meaning the U.S. will lose its primary advocate for American business and trade interests in Manitoba.

Dwight MacAulay was chief of protocol for the Manitoba government in 2001, calling it a time of celebration and strength between the countries.

Where is Mark Carney going with Senate changes?

As an unelected body the Senate will always attract criticism.

Drunk driver who killed cycling couple, orphaned their infant daughter, sentenced to eight years

A Winnipeg man responsible for a drunk-driving crash that killed two cyclists last summer and left their infant child an orphan has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Kuldeep Singh Gill was arrested Sept. 13 after fleeing from a high-speed collision on Kenaston Boulevard that killed 31-year-old Egor Popov and his 25-year-old common-law partner Kerry Ashley Bonner.

Gill, 46, pleaded guilty earlier this year to two counts of impaired driving causing death and two counts of failing to stop at the scene of a collision.

Gill, who has a prior conviction for impaired driving, made a conscious decision to drive drunk, knowing it made him a danger on the road, provincial court Judge David Ireland said at a sentencing hearing Tuesday.

Clearing the deck and filling the seats

The winds of change are always blowing at Winnipeg’s city hall, but with a civic election looming this fall, the gusts through the council chamber at 510 Main St. seem particularly strong.

With slightly less than three months until voters head to the polls, no less than five incumbent councillors have declared they will not stand for re-election. Combine that with the possibility that one or more other members of the 15-member body could lose their bids for re-election, and what becomes apparent is that the makeup of Winnipeg’s municipal decision-making assembly will have changed dramatically when the new council is sworn in.

The five veteran councillors who have opted not to seek another term are Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry), Markus Chambers (St. Norbert–Seine River), John Orlikow (River Heights-Fort Garry), Janice Lukes (Waverley West) and Brian Mayes (St. Vital).

All the departing councillors are experienced representatives, with Rollins and Chambers having served two terms, Lukes having been on council for a dozen years, and Mayes and Orlikow having served 15 and 17 years respectively. Had any or all of them chosen to run again, they would almost certainly have been re-elected, as incumbency remains a most formidable force in municipal politics.