Your forecast
Cloudy with a 70 per cent chance of showers or thunderstorms this morning then a mix of sun and cloud. Risk of a severe thunderstorm this morning. Wind from the south at 20 km/h becoming northwest 30 this afternoon. High 27 C. Humidex 32. UV index 8 or very high.
Brandon is bracing for floods while Swan River is recovering from the aftermath of a recent deluge of rain.
The City of Brandon says it has declared a state of local emergency because its largest waterway, the Assiniboine River, is forecast to rise in the coming days, with peak flows expected later this month.
Mayor Jeff Fawcett said the declaration allows the city, located west of Winnipeg, to take proactive flood-protection measures.
Meanwhile, Swan River said it continues to recover from a massive flood Wednesday that forced the residents of roughly 200 households to flee. The Canadian Press has more here.
A van sits in a flooded street in Swan River on Thursday. (Mike Deal / Pool / The Canadian Press files)
What’s happening today
Prime Minister Mark Carney is jetting off Monday to the two-day NATO summit in Turkey’s capital city Ankara, where world leaders will seek to avoid diplomatic friction with U.S. President Donald Trump. The Canadian Press reports.
Prime Minister Mark Carney (right) and U.S. President Donald Trump (Christopher Katsarov / The Canadian Press files)
Today’s must-read
A Manitoba government deputy minister was paid by both the province and the city even though he left his civic position more than a year ago.
The city’s public disclosure compensation report revealed the extent to which two levels of taxpayers were on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary payments to Michael Jack, who is Manitoba’s deputy minister of business, mining, trade and job creation and formerly the city’s chief administrative officer.
Jack resigned as city CAO on July 15, 2024 and was paid $410,769 that year — 43 per cent more than his previous year’s salary, $286,782. Carol Sanders has the story.
Michael Jack (Mike Deal / Free Press files)
On the bright side
It’s a sunny summer’s day with barely a cloud in the sky but Winnipeg’s bitter winter is already on the minds of the folks gathered in the small library at Epiphany Lutheran Church (200 Dalhousie Dr.).
Every first and third Wednesday of the month, armed with needles and hooks, they knit and crochet for two hours, transforming “oodles of yarn” into scarves, tuques and headbands, to be distributed to the city’s most vulnerable residents.
The church’s volunteer craft ministry was resurrected in early 2023 by Lynnette Stamler, a retired nursing academic who returned to Manitoba after a 27-year career abroad. AV Kitching has more here.
Nancy Sperling (from left), Elaine Lochhead and Lynnette Stamler of the Hooks and Needles knitting group with some of the wares inside Epiphany Lutheran Church. (Ruth Bonneville / Free Press)
On this date
On July 6, 1921: The Manitoba Free Press reported that dry conditions that preceded the big Porcupine bush fire in northern Ontario in 1911 were being seen again throughout the area, raising concerns of similar large fires. A party of 150 U.S. senators and congressmen would come by ship to Quebec and Montreal in the coming week, and during their visit would be guests of the Canadian government.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
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