Think Shift appoints new chief executive on ‘AI plus AI’ approach

Rejecting return-to-office mandates, using artificial intelligence and working with more clients in the United States are top priorities for the new leader of a Winnipeg marketing agency that specializes in agriculture.

Infrastructure, military spending, economy dominate talk in federal finance minister’s visit

Federal Minister of Finance François-Philippe Champagne was in Winnipeg, but at a gathering of local business community members on Monday afternoon, he had another Manitoba locale on his mind.

“I love Churchill,” Champagne said when asked at a Manitoba Chambers of Commerce event what Canadian trade diversification opportunity he’s most optimistic about.

Ottawa has identified the Port of Churchill as central to its vision to build a stronger, more resilient Canadian economy that is better connected to global markets.

“I had no hesitation to mention Churchill — that came to mind immediately,” Champagne told a reporter after the event. “It is probably one of the most consequential infrastructure (projects) that we can imagine for the Prairies.”

An important step for provincial child care

In the recent provincial budget, Manitoba took an important step toward reducing child poverty and strengthening our early learning and child-care system.

RRC Polytech program cuts take bite out of hospitality, tourism sector

Manitoba’s tourism industry is bracing for the disappearance of hospitality training programs — once-popular courses among international students.

Citing budgetary challenges related to a shift in federal immigration policy, Red River College Polytechnic is scrapping 11 programs and scaling back three others in 2026-27. Its hospitality business management diploma is one of seven permanent casualties.

The announcement, while unsurprising, is but the latest blow to a sector trying to “build back the workforce” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Michael Juce, president of the Manitoba Hotel Association.

“Are people going to go outside of Manitoba for training? And if they leave, are they going to come back?” Juce said, adding that rural hotels in particular are already grappling with staffing shortages.

More time at work is not always more productive work

Canada’s productivity conversation has increasingly focused on a simple but important measure: output per hour worked. In other words, what are we actually producing for the time we are putting in?

RRC Polytech reduces program offerings, lays off 26 staff

RRC Polytech has announced it will let go 26 employees as it prepares to end some programs and suspend others.

The post-secondary institution blamed the reduction in international student enrolment and reduced English language-training funding as a result of federal changes to immigration policy.

“These changes, along with shifting domestic enrolment trends in some programs and increased program delivery costs, have had direct impacts on operations and financial stability at RRC Polytech,” said a news release issued Thursday.

“These impacts have both immediate and long-term financial implications that we must responsibly address.”

Winnipeg photographer captures striking stills that market major motion pictures

Eric Zachanowich is the most famous photographer you’ve probably never heard of.

He’s worked with Tinseltown heavyweights such as the late Robert Redford, Ralph Fiennes, Laura Linney, Woody Harrelson and Anya Taylor-Joy, and even appeared in Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson’s wrestling biopic The Smashing Machine, disguised as, you guessed it, a photographer.

“It was for one of the opening scenes so I could shoot Dwayne Johnson walking to the ring. I made the final cut of the movie — although it’s hard to place me — and also got a spectacular photo that was used heavily during marketing,” says Zachanowich, 32.

More often than not, he operates as a silent observer on the sets of cinema blockbusters and prestige television dramas alike, his lens capturing the world’s biggest A-listers at their most vulnerable and intense moments.

Funding to boost early childhood educators’ pay helps some, not others, longtime workers in field lament

Although the federal and provincial governments are boosting early childhood educator wages by more than $14 million this year, some who’ve been working in the field a long time are feeling somewhat overlooked.

Teacher spots in demand after certification changes

Universities are being flooded with applications from aspiring teachers now that it’s easier to become certified in Manitoba.

Following years of struggle to fill available seats, faculties of education are scaling up after-degree programs this fall to meet newfound demand.

The University of Manitoba is adding 105 undergraduate seats in September, with a specific focus on graduating more kindergarten-to-Grade 8 teachers.

“We need to get more fully trained teachers out in the field to address the provincial needs. We can’t have classrooms without teachers,” education dean Jan Stewart said.

Show your local independent bookstore some love

For avid readers and independent booksellers, Saturday might feel a bit like Christmas.

Meta slashes 8,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, as Microsoft offers buyouts

Meta is laying off about 8,000 workers, or about 10% of its workforce, the company said Thursday as it continues to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and highly paid AI-expert hires.

The company said it was making the cuts for the sake of efficiency and to allow new investments in parts of its business, as first reported by Bloomberg, which also said the company will leave about 6,000 jobs unfilled.

Also Thursday, Microsoft said it was offering voluntary buyouts to thousands of its U.S. employees.

The software giant plans to make the offers in early May to about 8,750 people, or 7% of its U.S. workforce, according to two people familiar with the plan who were not authorized to speak about it publicly.

Interest in respiratory therapy training surges as province seeks to fill demand

Nearly half of the first-year respiratory therapy training seats at the University of Manitoba went unfilled this year even though there’s huge demand amid a staffing shortage.

However, application numbers have jumped since Manitoba’s largest post-secondary institution launched an awareness campaign about openings in the profession.

“I hope this year we are going to fill that gap,” said Dr. Jithin Sreedharan, who heads the university’s respiratory therapy department.

Respiratory therapists, who assist people suffering from breathing difficulties, often work in acute and critical-care hospital units.

Military hits 30-year recruitment high but still falls short on key trades

OTTAWA - The Canadian military just had a banner year for recruitment — but not enough for the defence minister to declare an end to what his predecessor called a personnel "death spiral."

Military recruitment hit a three-decade high when the Canadian Armed Forces brought in 7,310 new members over the past year, Defence Minister David McGuinty said Monday.

That's 600 more than the previous year, when the military brought in 6,710 recruits.

McGuinty touted a surge in enlistment applications Monday morning — just hours before a House of Commons committee heard testimony about how the Canadian Armed Forces has struggled to keep applicants from dropping out of the recruitment process.

Rural communities team up to court doctors

A close call that would have seen the Russell emergency department temporarily close has leaders in the area joining forces to entice more doctors to practise in the town.

“At this point in time, it’s becoming a crisis,” said Louise Perreault, who manages both the Lions Manor and Park Manor, home to approximately 40 seniors.

The ER at the Russell Health Centre was set to close for a weekend earlier this month, but the shutdown was avoided at the last minute when a doctor was found.

Currently, only two doctors work in the community, one at the medical centre and another at a local clinic, but the low numbers are creating concern for many in the area, located roughly 350 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

Phasing out of door-to-door mail delivery sinks in for Winnipeggers

Canada Post said Thursday it plans to convert about four million addresses to community mailboxes over the next five years, beginning with 136,000 in late 2026 and early 2027.

Boeing commits $36M for Winnipeg projects

Canada’s next Air Force planes will be built with the help of a burgeoning workforce: robots.

Dozens protest outside legislature over expiring federal work permits

For three days, Harpreet Singh Sandhu has stood outside the Manitoba Legislative Building, calling for an extension of soon-to-expire federal work permits.

Crop-enhancement firm eyes potato prosperity

Of all the research labs in all the cities in all the world, Kinneret Shefer walks into St. Boniface Hospital’s.

The researcher and entrepreneur is the co-founder of GeneNeer Ltd., an agricultural biotechnology company from Israel. Earlier this year, the company established its North American operations at the Albrechtsen Research Centre in the central Winnipeg hospital.

“We moved to Canada because our technology developed, we are moving to implementation and we have some business agreements in negotiation,” said Shefer, who holds a PhD in genetic counselling from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

GeneNeer launched its Canadian operations in January. The company converted laboratory facilities at the research centre and had them operating within two weeks, allowing research activities to begin almost immediately.

AP says it will offer buyouts as part of pivot away from newspaper-focused history

The Associated Press, one of the world's oldest and most influential news organizations, said Monday it is offering buyouts to an unspecified number of its U.S.-based journalists as part of an acceleration away from the focus on newspapers and their print journalism that sustained the company since the mid-1800s.

The News Media Guild, the union that represents AP journalists, said more than 120 of the staff members it represents received buyout offers on Monday.

The news organization is becoming more focused on visual journalism and developing new revenue sources, particularly through companies investing in artificial intelligence, to cope with the economic collapse of many legacy news outlets. Once the lion’s share of AP’s revenue, big newspaper companies now account for 10% of its income.

“We’re not a newspaper company and we haven’t been for quite some time,” Julie Pace, executive editor and senior vice president of the AP, said in an interview.

Tailors age out of the workforce even as demand for their skills grows

NEW YORK (AP) — Hunched over a sewing machine, Kil Bae is hemming a dress inside his Manhattan tailor shop when a new customer stops by with a vintage Tommy Hilfiger jacket he wants taken in.

The modeling agent paid $20 at a thrift store for his reversible bomber style that's plaid on one side and red on the other. He's willing to spend $280 to have it slimmed down. Alteration requests with such a price disparity would have seemed odd a few years ago, the tailor says, but are helping to keep the bobbins bobbing at his one-man shop, 85 Custom Tailor.

Bae carefully examines the cotton jacket before moving in to pin it, circling the customer like a sculptor with a chisel. He started training as a tailor at age 17, in his native South Korea. Now 63, he's part of a shrinking breed in the U.S., where professional sewers, dressmakers and tailors are aging out of the workforce as their services find fresh demand.

Shoppers who grew up on disposable fast fashion are enlisting tailors and seamstresses to give off-the-rack purchases a custom fit or personal flair, to revive secondhand finds or to extend the lives of their wardrobes, according to fashion industry experts. Weight-loss drugs like Zepbound and Wegovy mean more Americans are seeking adjusted waistbands, tapered sleeves and other types of resizing, Bae said.