Time to replace your car? How to tell when repair bills are no longer worth it

TORONTO - Deciding whether to fix your aging car again or trade it in for a new one can be a tough calculation at the best of times, let alone when financing costs have significantly jumped and car prices have soared.

Whether to repair or replace your car comes down to balancing the cost and utility of the vehicle, according to Ben Mayhew, a financial planner and founder of Aergo Financial Planning in Halifax.

"But when you're in an environment where used car prices and new car prices are significantly higher, we need to go deeper on looking at that balance," he said.

He suggested finding a trustworthy mechanic who can help determine if an expensive repair could help defer acar purchase.

Esports competitions motivating force for First Nations students, educators say

Esports clubs are allowing First Nations students to play against peers from other on-reserve schools without the costly and time-intensive trips required for basketball, hockey and other traditional extracurriculars.

For teacher Karl Hildebrandt, one of the many motivators to grow Manitoba’s online gaming community is giving youth in rural and remote areas more competitive opportunities to represent their schools.

“When you tell kids they can play video games at school, their eyes open and when you tell them you can compete against another school in the province, their mouths drop,” said Hildebrandt, director of rural and northern esports for the Manitoba School Esports Association.

A handful of members of the Manitoba First Nations School System, including Lake Manitoba, Brokenhead, Fox Lake, Roseau River and York Landing, have started developing cybersport programs. Some teachers have also started integrating online games into their everyday lessons.

Study shows ‘striking’ number who believe news misinforms

NEW YORK (AP) — Half of Americans in a recent survey indicated they believe national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting.

The survey, released Wednesday by Gallup and the Knight Foundation, goes beyond others that have shown a low level of trust in the media to the startling point where many believe there is an intent to deceive.

Asked whether they agreed with the statement that national news organizations do not intend to mislead, 50% said they disagreed. Only 25% agreed, the study found.

Similarly, 52% disagreed with a statement that disseminators of national news “care about the best interests of their readers, viewers and listeners,” the study found. It said 23% of respondents believed the journalists were acting in the public's best interests.

The joke’s on us as social media capitalizes on our base impulses in race to the bottom

The most important thing we can teach ourselves, and our children, about how to navigate social media is this: the algorithms want you to be angry. They want you to be angry, because it is good for business.

Leaving auto repair life in the rear-view

For decades, Cadillacs, Mustangs and Audis have overnighted in the Exchange District for repairs and transformations.

Now, a Winnipeg mechanic envisions a new use for his shop — one that sees it filled with milk and produce instead of wrenches and tires.

“There’s no groceries down here,” said Andy Baranowski, owner of J.W. McDonald Auto Service. “Where are you going to get your milk?”

The 189 Bannatyne Ave. building has been an auto repair garage for almost a century — since 1923, according to the Manitoba Historical Society.

Riel, le lien entre les francos d’Amérique

Pour Jocelyn Jalette, bédéiste de Joliette, au Québec, pas besoin d’être métis, ou manitobain, ou encore francophone en milieu minoritaire pour apprécier le combat, le triomphe et la tragédie de Louis Riel. Et voici pourquoi.

Dans La République assassinée des Métis, la bande dessinée de Jocelyn Jalette qui vient tout juste d’être publiée aux Éditions du Phoenix (www.editionsduphoenix.com), des personnages fictifs côtoient Louis Riel et Gabriel Dumont, mais aussi les politiciens Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, Louis-Joseph Papineau et Honoré Mercier.

Une palette de personnages pour mieux placer la résistance des Métis dans un contexte francophone plus large, comme le souligne l’auteur de 47 ans :

“Les liens sont étroits entre la résistance des Métis, Louis Riel et les francophones du Québec. Surtout quand on se rappelle que la lutte pour assurer un statut d’égalité entre le français, l’anglais, et les cultures francophone et anglophone, c’est l’affaire de tous les francophones.”

‘Cette terre n’a fait aucun mal’

Le 3 mai, une caravane d’étudiants en architecture paysagiste de l’Université du Manitoba a été accueillie devant le bâtiment d’autogouvernement de la Nation Dakota de Sioux Valley. Ils ont présenté à un comité du conseil de bande leurs plans pour l’aménagement d’un centre de guérison sur les lieux de l’École industrielle indienne de Brandon.

L’École industrielle indienne de Brandon était un pensionnat autochtone où, de 1895 à 1972, des enfants autochtones étaient éduqués par divers ordres religieux selon la politique d’assimilation du gouvernement canadien. Le chef de la Nation Dakota de Sioux Valley, Vincent Tacan, indique qu’il y a grand nombre de survivants de l’ancien pensionnat dans sa Nation.

“Nous avons besoin de guérir. Nous sentons les effets intergénérationnels des pensionnats autochtones. Essayer d’aller de l’avant avant de guérir serait inutile.”

Le Sud-ouest du Manitoba n’a aucun centre de guérison avec un environnement approprié aux cultures autochtones. Le chef Tacan note que les membres de sa Nation en besoin de traitement doivent se rendre à Regina, ou encore en Alberta.

Attention-grabbing screens demean us, bit by bit

The first time I read Oryx and Crake, Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s haunting dystopic novel, I couldn’t put it down. I devoured it in just days, engrossed by the fictional world Atwood wove from the most discomfiting new threads of our own.

Over the years, I returned to the book many times, always finding new depth in its pages. Each time, I finished it at the same brisk pace. I was a fast reader as a child, and for most of my life, that didn’t change.

Until now. In November, as part of an effort to calm my restless mind, I put Oryx and Crake on my nightstand, and made a pledge to myself to read a little bit every night. This time, it’s been over two months, and I’ve made it through only 92 pages.

It would be easy to say I’ve been too busy, but that would be a lie. I’ve had time to read. The problem is now, unlike when the book came out in 2003, I struggle to read more than a page without checking my phone quickly; and checking it once means falling into the chasm of raw content the internet has become.

Chirp heard around Manitoba: RM sells building for $1 to cricket farm entrepreneur

One dollar doesn’t stretch very far these days, but apparently it’s enough to buy a business in Benito.

Scams, threats and fake opportunities: stay sharp

Hopefully, this editorial is not coming to you as a posthumous publication.

And yes, we’re backing into this editorial a bit. (In newspaper terms, burying the lede. Hopefully, not burying its author.

But here goes: this is your regular reminder that e-mail scams abound, and come in all shapes, sizes, and threats of danger, most often imaginary. They put the pressure on with the severity of dangers you face, and urge you to act quickly.

Don’t.

Artificial intelligence no replacement for real learning

Students in one Winnipeg school division will likely be pleased to hear they will be receiving less homework — though by the sound of things, they were not doing it anyway.

The Division scolaire franco-manitobaine shared new guidelines with teachers on Nov. 10 regarding obligatory after-school assignments.

In short, the focus will be on promoting nightly reading routines rather than assigning homework, with students from Grade 7 to 12 only moderately receiving assignments.

The reason? Student usage of artificial intelligence to complete homework assignments has become so common it is not proving to be a productive use of anyone’s time.

City councillor found to have harassed city CAO fears ‘chilling effect’ on politicians if court won’t overturn judgment

Coun. Russ Wyatt’s requests that a court overturn a finding he harassed the city’s top bureaucrat, and order city council to apologize for a reprimand that followed, could affect politicians far beyond Winnipeg, his lawyer argued Friday.

“Your decision has the prospect of having an impact on municipal councils right across the country,” Kevin Toyne said during a hearing in the matter.

In January, city council formally reprimanded Wyatt (Transcona) after an integrity commissioner found he violated the city’s code of conduct by harassing former chief administrative officer Michael Jack.

Since most municipal governments now have similar codes of conduct and/or integrity commissioners, the decision could have wide-reaching implications on how elected officials communicate, Toyne said.

Not everyone sees the new Cancon rules as a win. Five takeaways from CRTC’s decision

An overhaul by the federal regulator of how Canadian content is defined has been met with mixed reaction from some of the country's biggest film and TV players this week.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued its long-awaited expansion of the range of creative roles that qualify a film or TV show as Canadian, setting new rules for foreign streaming companies that operate in the country.

However, not everyone sees the changes as a win.

MORE ROLES, MORE POINTS — AND MORE WORRIES FROM DIRECTORS

Ophthalmologists urge provinces not to allow optometrists to perform minor surgeries

TORONTO - Ophthalmologists are urging provincial governments not to move ahead with plans that would allow optometrists to perform some surgeries and laser eye treatments, which are currently outside their scope of practice. 

Dr. Nina Ahuja, president-elect of the Canadian Ophthalmological Society, says surgery must remain in the hands of physicians and handing over even seemingly minor procedures to optometrists is unsafe for patients. 

Ahuja is responding to news that the Ontario and Alberta governments are working with optometrists to implement proposed changes to their practice, which they say would improve access to eye care.

Both professions specialize in the eye, but optometrists are primary eye care providers with a four-year professional degree after an undergraduate education, and ophthalmologists are surgeons and eye disease doctors with at least nine years of medical training, also after undergrad. 

Two midwives hired in Selkirk, province announces

The province has delivered midwifery services to Manitoba’s Interlake-Eastern Health region.

On Monday, Premier Wab Kinew and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced two full-time midwives will be based in Selkirk.

“For far too long, families in this region have not had access to midwifery care,” Asagwara said at a news conference in Selkirk, noting it’s been 25 years since services were available.

“Expectant parents have all too often had to travel elsewhere for the kind of personalized, expert care that they really need,” the minister said.

Trustee suspended for third time in three years

TRANSCONA’S school board has given a veteran member his third strike in as many years, but he’s not out of a job.

Rod Giesbrecht, a longtime trustee in the River East Transcona School Division, has been suspended for three months for breaching the board’s code of conduct.

Giesbrecht was disciplined twice during the 2023-24 school year for admitting he spoke out of turn about confidential board matters.

His colleagues voted to suspend him without pay — the most severe consequence available — on Sept. 9.

Unique Bunny jumps to 10 stores, with eye on future expansion

Ekam Verma’s shopping trip might be sparked by an email: we’ve restocked. Her destination? Unique Bunny. Verma scanned the aisles of Unique Bunny’s McPhillips Street location on Monday — her go-to Japanese eyeliner was across the store; South Korean cleansing foams and pore repair serums stood nearby.

Travelling sign painter finds his groove on the move

For someone whose writing appears all over the city, Joseph Pilapil’s penmanship isn’t the best.

You’ve probably seen his meticulously formed letters above store entrances, on shop windows and decorating sandwich boards all across the city.

But when it comes to writing on paper, well, the less said the better.

“My handwriting is terrible. When I am writing out my day-to-day stuff, it’s absolutely really bad,” he says, with a laugh.

Investment regulator funds program to help Indigenous youth manage settlement money

Sudden wealth isn’t a topic that would typically be part of a basic financial literacy course. It seems like even more of an odd fit for a new program for low-income Manitobans.

“We’ve been picking up on what people we worked with in the community have been asking about,” says Lisa Forbes, manager of social enterprise and fund development at SEED Winnipeg Inc.

Called “Sudden Wealth and Investing Basics,” the pilot is a response to what SEED has been hearing from Indigenous youth who may soon be recipients of legal settlements, she says.

These notably include a $530-million settlement to compensate children in care from 2005 to 2019 in Manitoba who had grant money unfairly clawed back and a $23-billion federal settlement over discriminatory child welfare practices and chronic underfunding.