Your forecast
Increasing cloudiness early this morning, with a 30 per cent chance of flurries. Wind becoming northwest 20 km/h near noon. High -19 C, wind chill -36 this morning and -29 this afternoon. Risk of frostbite.
What’s happening today
🏦 The Bank of Canada is expected to make an interest rate announcement and release updated economic forecasts in its monetary policy report today. The Canadian Press reports.
The Bank of Canada building in Ottawa (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press files)
Today’s must-read
Four vacant, historic buildings are slated to be transformed to offer housing in downtown Winnipeg, including the long empty St. Charles Hotel.
The hotel at 235 Notre Dame Ave., which has been vacant since 2008, is among the buildings set to provide a combined 297 new housing units in the city centre. That total will include 106 affordable homes. Joyanne Pursaga has the story.
As city and industry leaders prepare for a massive revitalization effort in downtown Winnipeg, the Free Press looked back on the histories of four vacant and underutilized historical properties now slated for residential development. Tyler Seale has more here.
The St. Charles Hotel, at 235 Notre Dame Ave., landed on the National Trust for Canada’s endangered buildings list in 2024. (Mike Deal / Free Press files)
On the bright side
Lendrum Keast smashes ice out of his bucket before heading next door to grab some additional supplies.
“The neighbours never complain about me stealing their snow,” Keast says with a laugh.
The 61-year-old has been making ice sculptures for 14 years, attracting thousands of people to his homes — first on Leila Avenue and now on Aberdeen Avenue — and gaining attention on social media.
His sculpting started as a way to get him outside during the winter. “You don’t want to sit in, you can get really depressed in the winter,” says Keast. “Getting out there helps and talking to people.” Tiago Resko has more here.
Lendrum Keast, 61, makes ice sculptures in front of his house at 1035 Aberdeen Avenue. (Mike Deal / Free Press files)
On this date
On Jan. 28, 1947: The Winnipeg Free Press reported two Winnipeg men had been charged and a local woman was being held as an accessory after the fact in the killing of a veteran from Kenora, Ont., who was found beaten in his home. Two men were dead and three others injured as a result of a blizzard that swept most of Manitoba and the cold weather that followed. The crash of a B-29 superfortress near New Albuquerque, N.M., in which 11 died, brought the death toll to 90 from a worldwide wave of seven major plane crashes over the previous five days. Search our archives for more here.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
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