Science centre staff to host activities at Toronto Zoo and the CNE this week

More immigrants and fewer regulatory burdens have been on Bram Strain’s advocacy agenda this week.

The Business Council of Manitoba president joined peers from the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce and the Business Councils of British Columbia and Alberta in Ottawa. The group formed the Western Business Coalition last year. They returned to Parliament Hill on Monday and Tuesday.

“If we’re going to do major projects — whether it be Churchill, whether it be mining, ag, et cetera — we’re going to need extra workers on top of continuing to work with our domestic folks,” Strain said Tuesday.

He and colleagues have been pushing for increases to provincial nominee program numbers in “every single meeting,” he added.

Two pilots from a Manitoba flight school who died in a Regina plane crash Friday have been identified as students from India.

The Consulate General of India in Vancouver said the Harv’s Air Flight Training students were Manoj Sivakumar and Srisaran Thirugnanasambantham.

“Our heartfelt sympathies are with their bereaved families and loved ones during this difficult time,” the consulate said a statement on social media.

Adam Penner, president of Harv’s Air, later also confirmed their identities.

Manitoba Hydro customers in some communities may be temporarily without power while eight giant storage tanks are transported across Manitoba by truck between Tuesday and Thursday.

Outages may affect areas primarily along highways 23 and 59, Hydro said.

Crews will either lift or temporarily disconnect power lines at about 220 locations along the roughly 430-kilometre route from the Manitoba-Saskatchewan boundary and the Tolstoi border crossing into Minnesota. Each outage is expected to last about 1 ½ hours.

Hydro said the empty storage tanks, manufactured in Alberta, are being moved so they can be shipped overseas. Each tank is about the height of a two-storey building.