Manitoba delinquency rate rises amid cost of living strain: Equifax

Manitobans are increasingly missing credit card payments as the cost of living rises.

Non-mortgage debt in Manitoba jumped 1.84 per cent, when comparing January through March to the same time last year. Manitobans’ average non-mortgage debt hung around $18,568.

Meanwhile, the measure tracking when Manitobans pass payment deadlines by at least 90 days — called a delinquency rate — hiked 2.32 per cent year-over-year, according to new data from credit reporting agency Equifax Canada.

“It’s not the worst province, by a long way,” said Rebecca Oakes, Equifax vice-president of advanced analytics. “But … (there’s) also a little bit more financial stress than some of the other provinces.”

Youth unemployment more than just an economic statistic

For many young Canadians, getting a first job is no longer a simple rite of passage. It has become a source of stress, frustration and uncertainty about the future.

Across Canada, teenagers and young adults are sending out resumés, applying online for hours at a time and following up with employers, only to hear nothing back. For students trying to save for tuition, get experience or simply gain independence, the struggle to find work is becoming increasingly discouraging.

Statistics Canada reported the national unemployment rate for youth ages 15 to 24 reached 14.3 per cent in April, far above the overall unemployment rate of 6.9 per cent. The youth unemployment rate remains significantly higher than the pre-COVID-19 pandemic average of 10.8 per cent.

Behind those numbers are young people who are eager to work but unable to gain a foothold in the labour market. Many employers continue to ask for experience even for entry-level positions, leaving students and recent grads trapped in a cycle where they cannot gain experience because nobody will hire them.

Investor strange love

Risk and reward seem like polar opposites. Yet when it comes to investing, greater risk yields greater potential reward. The other side of that coin, however, is the greater the reward you seek, the greater the risk of losing money.

Small businesses’ capacity to hire youth being constrained: CFIB survey

TORONTO - A weaker economy and rising costs are leaving little room for small businesses to hire and train inexperienced youth, a new report suggests.

While small businesses remain the "training ground" for many young people entering the workforce, a survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says small businesses are facing challenges from weak demand and rising payroll costs.

That's leaving many business owners with fewer resources to hire and train young workers.

"For many small businesses, taking a chance on someone with no experience, especially when training requires considerable time and effort, is simply not feasible in the current climate," the report said.

Study probes experiences of Indigenous grads

Brandon Murdock recalled thinking in 2020 that, despite his struggling academic performance, he had “a solid case” to remain enrolled at the University of Winnipeg.

Murdock was mistaken — it didn’t matter that he’d missed a voluntary course withdrawal date because he’d been overwhelmed with grief amid a wave of COVID-19-related deaths in Fisher River Cree Nation, the 31-year-old said.

There was little slack for a student who had already been suspended once before. His arts degree program, which he began in 2012, was initially put on hold in 2015 because his attendance, grades and motivation suffered during a family health crisis.

Murdock shared those challenges, among others he’s faced as a first-generation university student who grew up in foster care, as part of a recent study about the experiences of Indigenous and racialized Grade 12 graduates in Winnipeg.

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.”

Brainstorming session proposes solutions to alarming rate of student absenteeism

Dante Taylor spent much of his early high school career ditching class — a routine occurrence outside of football season — to hang out at trap houses in Winnipeg.

“For so long, I just didn’t care,” the 16-year-old told an auditorium packed with 200 people, many of them principals and superintendents, at a summit on student absenteeism.

“It wasn’t something that seemed to be important to me because it didn’t seem to be important to anybody that I was around.”

Dante said his perspective changed recently, after meeting with a guidance counsellor, doing extensive self-reflection and enrolling in a physics course that he finds equally fascinating and challenging.

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.

Statistics Canada reports wealth and income gaps grew in 2025

The gap between Canada's richest and poorest grew last year as financial markets gained while interest payouts declined and the job market softened, said Statistics Canada on Monday.

The agency says the income gap, measuring the difference in the share of disposable income between households in the top 40 per cent and those in the bottom 40 per cent, reached 46.7 percentage points in 2025.

The result compared with a gap of 46.4 percentage points a year earlier.

The wider gap came as the lowest-income households saw wages rise slower than the overall average, and saw their investment income fall because of lower interest payments on savings, the agency said.

Rent control killing jobs: landlords

Companies are laying off staff and pausing major investments ahead of changes to Manitoba’s rental market.

One Manitoba company that works primarily on apartment buildings has had four projects put on hold and had to lay off roughly a dozen staff.

“That’s been a common theme with my peers… They’re all having to do the same,” said Con-Restor Technologies owner Stephane Phaneuf.

The Manitoba government plans to change how rental property managers can apply for above-guideline increases this spring. If implemented, landlords won’t recoup renovation costs through rent as quickly.

Latest smartphone app launch for young do-it-yourself investors points to industry trending toward no commissions on trades

A battle for young investors is being waged among Canada’s big banks and upstart fintechs, with RBC firing among the more recent salvos.

It recently launched a smartphone app called GoSmart, offering self-directed investors — or do-it-yourselfers (DIY) —access to online trading with the ability to choose from 53 exchanged-traded funds (ETFs) that can be bought and sold without commissions.

As well, GoSmart investors can trade up to 50 times per year commission-free on any U.S. or Canadian stock. This is notable, given users of RBC’s existing discount brokerage platform Direct Investing, who have been able to trade these select ETFs for free since last year, do not receive those additional 50 free trades.

“It’s a pretty substantial change,” says Dimitri Busevs, president and chief executive officer of RBC Direct Investing.

On schedule: provincial minimum wage to rise to $16.40/hr in October

Manitoba’s minimum wage is set to rise 40 cents in October, leaving labour and business advocates split on the benefit of continuing to tie the baseline to the rate of inflation as the cost of living grows.

The minimum wage will rise to $16.40 per hour from $16/hr on Oct. 1. (The provincial government is required to announce the incoming minimum wage by April 1 each year.)

Provincial legislation ties the mark to inflation — the 40-cent increase is in line with Manitoba’s 2.7 per cent inflation rate in 2025 — and in 2022, the former Progressive Conservative government amended the rules to allow minimum wage be boosted beyond inflation, but only if inflation exceeds five per cent.

However, that same legislation prevents the province from closing the gap between the minimum wage and the cost of living, said Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck.

PWHLPA president Stacey says salary leak ‘a shock’ but may help players push for more

MONTREAL - Laura Stacey was caught off guard when PWHL player salaries leaked last week.

Now she hopes the added transparency helps players seek better contracts moving forward.

Stacey, the president of the Professional Women’s Hockey League Players’ Association, addressed the situation Tuesday after The Hockey News published salaries from the 2024-25 season, despite the union voting last summer to make that information available only to players and agents.

“It is amazing for the players that our salaries are public so that one another can help each other, especially in terms of expansion and signing new contracts and free agency,” the Montreal Victoire forward said after practice at Verdun Auditorium. “With that being said, we voted on it to be public for our eyes and for our agent's eyes only, so I think that was a bit of a shock for us and not something that we necessarily wanted, or the way we wanted it to come out.

U of M tuition poised to climb four per cent

University of Manitoba students are facing the highest tuition hike in years.

Prabhnoor Singh, president of the University of Manitoba Students’ Union, said the province’s decision to allow post-secondary institutions to increase tuition by as much as four per cent will put a huge burden on students who already struggle to make ends meet.

“Why is this being allowed?” Singh said on Friday.

“It’s crazy for an NDP government to do something like this. Students are already having to make sacrifices. They are deciding between putting food on their table or buying textbooks, paying for tuition.”

Provincial budget includes free transit passes for youths in Winnipeg, three other cities

Manitoba’s NDP government will make it more affordable for youths as young as 12 to get to school, jobs and activities with free transit passes.

‘A life-or-death program’: non-profit’s successful at-risk youth training awaits Ottawa funding decision

An inner-city non-profit that helps at-risk youth in Winnipeg has warned it will be forced to end an employment and training program March 31 unless government funding comes through.

A year of federal funding is set to run out for Resource Assistance for Youth’s Level Up! program, which has educated and secured work experience for more than 350 young people since 2020.

“We’re in that moment where no level of government has said, ‘We want to continue to support this going forward,’” said Kate Sjoberg, RaY’s executive director.

The paid training program involves six weeks of in-class learning and 12 weeks of work experience with a local employer. Participants also receive housing and mental-health and other supports.

Construction groups miffed by new fee on public-sector projects

Three large construction associations in Manitoba say the cost of huge public projects will soar thanks to a new fee implemented by the province, and they want the auditor general to investigate it.

The fee is applied to projects covered by Manitoba Jobs Agreements, which launched last year to try to ensure more local workers and contractors benefit from big public-sector projects. Builders must pay 85 cents per hour, per worker.

The Winnipeg Construction Association, Manitoba Heavy Construction Association and the Construction Association of Rural Manitoba attacked the fee in a joint letter Thursday.

“The 85 cents per hour has nothing to do with wages of workers on site,” said Darryl Harrison, director of the Winnipeg association. “Every cent… (could) be spent in other ways that help the Manitoba taxpayer.

‘Microshifting’ puts a new spin on 9-to-5 schedules

NEW YORK (AP) — Before the house is humming and her teenagers ask her to whip up breakfast or chauffeur them to school, Jen Meegan reads her company emails and revisits ideas she drafted the night before.

She works for an hour or so, then after the school run shops for groceries or gets gas before returning to focus deeply on her job as head writer and cofounder of Sheer Havoc, a creative services agency.

And so goes the rhythm of her day: working in targeted chunks for a few hours, breaking for an hour or two to tend to family and personal needs, and repeating the pattern until she finishes her work late at night.

Meegan is among the wage earners engaging in “microshifting,” a flexible scheduling approach that involves tackling job duties in short, productive bursts instead of a single nine-to-five stretch. The paid labor fits around and between non-work responsibilities and priorities. Performance is judged primarily by output, with less emphasis on the number of hours logged behind a screen.

More Canadians delivering unpaid care potentially able to access multiple tax credits

The federal and provincial governments are recognizing the service of unpaid caregivers. For all the hours, days and nights of assistance (particularly involving aging family members), a host of tax credits potentially await when filing a return this spring.

“The purpose of these is really a realization that people providing this (unpaid work) have costs others don’t,” says Ryan Minor, Sudbury, Ont.-based tax director for CPA (Chartered Professional Accountants) Canada.

Many could use the tax break.

Statistics Canada points to about one in four individuals ages 15 and older providing care for family members or friends with long-term health conditions.