Security cameras added to Beacon program will bolster business confidence

Snapshots of downtown Winnipeg cover a wall.

They aren’t pictures — they are screens of security footage down Portage Avenue, by True North Square, off Smith Street.

Nearby, a Downtown Community Safety Partnership staffer takes calls. They might change the view on the mounted screens, flipping between 49 security cameras.

Downtown organizations and private businesses are increasingly linking their exterior security camera feeds to a central hub in the DCSP office. It has been using the footage to track issues such as opioid poisonings, and keep an eye on people who may need a mental health check, over the past couple years.

Finance minister’s budget preview focuses on little feet

Manitoba’s finance minister — who had bags of children’s shoes in tow — announced Friday that families and affordability measures would feature prominently in Tuesday’s budget.

Adrien Sala went to Linwood Child Centre, his children’s former daycare, to announce that 2,000 childcare spaces would open within the province.

Tuesday’s budget will also include a 2.9 per cent increase to wages paid to early childhood educators as of September.

“We’re looking to make sure that we invest in you guys, our next generation,” Sala said, steps from children at Linwood.

Family says teen re-victimized by school’s lax response after reporting sexual assault

With its soft lighting and cosy couches, the classroom hangout at the River East-Transcona School Division high school is supposed to be a safe space for students to decompress.

But that changed one Monday in January.

That day, after the supervising teacher had left the room, a teenage girl says she was sitting on the floor with her back against a love seat when a much larger male student sat down on the cushion directly behind her, boxing her in between his knees.

She said he reached over and forced his hands beneath her shirt, grabbing her breasts for several minutes while she froze and did not speak or move.

For vintage sewing-machine aficionado, it’s all about seeing them stitch again

Dave Johnson, a semi-retired snowplow operator who also worked as a homebuilder, collects, repairs and uses vintage sewing machines.

Winnipeg and ground squirrels

In a move shocking to many local animal lovers, the City of Winnipeg has opted to go ahead with its plan to kill ground squirrels at nine city parks and fields via methods that animal advocates say will cause prolonged pain and suffering.

Shopping bill is a good pre-emptive strike

On the face of it, it looks like a solution desperately hunting for a problem.

But that’s sometimes the way proactive legislation looks.

As first salvos go, Manitoba’s Bill 49 should probably be viewed not an effort not to deal with an imaginary problem, but one being put in place to ensure that the problem doesn’t arrive.

What the bill does is to add individual pricing to the province’s collection of improper business practices.

Downtown mulls uncertain impact of Fairmont downtime

As the Fairmont Winnipeg hotel prepares to close its doors this summer for a months-long renovation project, surrounding businesses say they’re waiting to see what the impact will be on Winnipeg’s downtown.

Any time Palomino Club owner Christian Stringer books an act outside of the province, he’ll set them up at the Fairmont — most recently, DJ Pauly D of Jersey Shore fame — and a chunk of his customer base is out-of-towners staying at the nearby hotel looking for a bit of fun.

“(The Fairmont) has always been the five-star (hotel) for us,” Stringer said Thursday.

He said he’s not sure how much the hotel closing from July until spring of 2027 will affect business. He worries it might complicate bringing in performers from outside of Canada — a practice he’s already had to cut back on as the Canadian dollar has made it harder to meet the asking price of U.S. acts.

Residents pigeonhole hobbyist’s backyard aviary as health risk, nuisance

Some Winnipeg residents will flock to city hall next week, aiming to oppose a racing-pigeon aviary in their neighbourhood.

However, supporters of the practice say the birds should ruffle few feathers.

The city’s urban planning and design division approved the construction of a 3.9-square-metre (42-square-foot) structure to house racing pigeons in a Strathcona Street backyard.

“The relatively small structure is significantly smaller than a vehicle garage, and would not be out of character on the lot,” writes city planner Dylan Chyz-Lund, in a city report.

Friends’ infill complexes ensure designs fit, respect older neighbourhoods

A couple of childhood friends are taking a sensitive approach to infill housing, including a recently completed fourplex in Norwood they say fits the mature neighbourhood.

B2K Builders, co-founded by Matt Vis and Brandon Bunkowsky, incorporated their company in 2024, but are already in the process of breaking ground on their third project.

“It takes so much time for neighbourhoods to really come alive. And so we really see the value in infill in these more centralized, mature neighbourhoods,” Bunkowsky said.

A fourplex on Des Meurons Street is a new build in the established Norwood area, but Bunkowsky believes infill housing is the best way to densify neighbourhoods, increase property values and address Winnipeg’s urban sprawl.

‘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.

A sanctuary for the city — and its future

On Saturday mornings during my Grade 12 year, I would head downtown to the Eaton’s department store on Portage Avenue.

I was part of the Eaton’s Junior Executive program, which brought together students from high schools across Winnipeg to host events and represent Eaton’s at community gatherings.

I also had a part-time job in the store’s sporting goods department.

Downtown Winnipeg in those days felt like the centre of my universe. Eaton’s — now the site of Canada Life Centre — was a bustling hub, and on my lunch breaks I would wander outside to explore the neighbourhood.

Squirrel skirmish: animal groups fight province’s pesticide approval

Animal rights groups are protesting a decision by the province to allow the city to use two chemicals to control its ground squirrel populations at some parks.

The city received permission from the province to use Rozol RTU field rodent bait and RoCon concentrate rodenticide for a year in an effort to control squirrels at nine parks.

“It’s disappointing,” said Danae Tonge of Manitoba Animal Save. “The city had a year to come up with something else but they didn’t. Why would the province have approved this?”

The group is set to hold a noon-hour rally outside city hall on Thursday followed by a protest at the Legislature starting at 1:15 p.m.

Alberta government moves to drastically reduce access to medically assisted dying

EDMONTON - Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's government took steps Wednesday to drastically restrict who's eligible for medical assistance in dying.

Smith’s United Conservative Party government introduced a bill that, if passed, would limit medical assistance in dying, better known as MAID, to those likely to die of natural causes within a year.

Those under 18 would still be prohibited regardless of condition, in line with current federal rules.

But Smith said Ottawa's framework is largely missing the mark.

David Suzuki is turning 90. Environmentalists may have ‘lost, big time,’ but he still has hope

David Suzuki admits defeat — at least in some respects.

The geneticist-turned-environmentalist, who is days away from his 90th birthday, reflected on his legacy as he prepared to release his latest book, "Lessons from a Lifetime," which compiles photos and stories from his life, as well as testimonials written by those he inspired.

"To me, the important legacy that I want to tell my grandchildren is, look, I tried. I love you. I did the best I could for you. And I tried," he said on a video call last month.

"The measure of a person is not whether they succeeded — because we've lost, environmentalists have lost, big time — but that we tried."

City councillors fear backlash over tax bills thanks to huge increases in education portion

Two councillors say Winnipeggers who experience sticker shock when they open their 2026 municipal tax bills should know who to blame — and it isn’t the city.

Rome’s Colosseum gets a fresh look that recreates the footprints of long-gone columns

ROME (AP) — The Colosseum has a bright new look following a restoration using the same travertine marble of ancient Rome to recreate parts of columns from 2,000 years ago.

Thousands of Romans once flocked to this arena to watch gladiators battle each other and wild animals. The structure still captures the public's imagination; it is Italy’s most popular tourist destination, with 9 million visitors in 2025 alone.

The project focused on a semicircular piazza outside the arena, where Roman spectators crowded under two arcades comprised of marble columns stretching up to 50 meters (164 feet) high. People stood in these arcades as they waited to pass through the entrances and take their seats.

Those arches are long gone, collapsing over the centuries from earthquakes and unstable ground. But now, tourists will be able to sit on large travertine marble slabs where the columns once stood and read reproductions of the Roman numerals that indicated seat sections.

Fledgling clothing, jewelry pop-up retailer Anziety opens in-person store on Academy Road

A splash of pink highlights the northeastern corner of Academy Road and Lanark Street in Winnipeg.

Anziety is opening its first brick-and-mortar store at 545 Academy Rd. this weekend. Natalie Riccardo started the clothing and jewelry retailer as an online business, and then began appearing at markets and pop-up events in a rosy booth. Now, the 22-year-old entrepreneur has a brightly painted flagship store to call her own.

It’s meant to be a place where beauty meets women’s wellness, Riccardo said. “I want this space to make you feel empowered, confident and just at home. (I want to tie) confidence and inner beauty together into a magical experience.”

Selling intimate apparel at a pop-up event can be tricky, Riccardo added. While she believes she’s mastered the art of making customers feel comfortable as they look for lingerie in public, she’s thankful they’ll now have access to onsite change rooms.

Ducks Unlimited provides $1-M pasture for farming research

A Manitoba farming research non-profit will have more space to let cattle roam and graze on prairie grasslands — and study how that foraging affects biodiversity — through a partnership with Ducks Unlimited Canada.

Muslim community reflects on decades worth of growth

As Manitoba Muslims enter the last days of the holy month of Ramadan, they are counting their blessings, including the growth of their community since the establishment of the first mosque in the province 50 years ago.

“That was a great accomplishment,” said Abdo el-Tassi, who was among the 10 or so families who started the Pioneer Mosque in St. Vital in 1976.

El-Tassi — a prominent Winnipeg business leader and philanthropist — said he feels “very proud” of what the Muslim community has accomplished since that time.

Today there are as many as 20 mosques or prayer centres in the province, including in Thompson, Brandon, Niverville, Steinbach and Winkler. The most recent one to open was the Al-Haqq Masjid in Winnipeg, which serves the Nigerian Muslim community.

Government data shows extent of truancy issue

You start to deal with a problem by admitting that you actually have one, not by burying it because you’re concerned about how it might look.

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.

Former volleyball star recalls struggles for gay rights during 1980s

In 1981, tennis star Martina Navratilova made international headlines off the court for coming out as a lesbian. Around the same time, a less prominent Canadian athlete named Betty Baxter was beginning a public battle for equality.

Baxter was well-known in the queer community, having played on the national Canadian women’s volleyball team at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. She caused a media frenzy a few years later when she became the first female and youngest ever coach of the same team.

Less well-known was that after only 18 months as coach she was fired, behind closed doors, as rumours swirled that she was a lesbian. Baxter had not come out publicly; she lost her job for not denying she was a lesbian.

She was told by a human rights lawyer that she had no recourse. This was common practice before sexual orientation was enshrined in the Human Rights Act in 1996; contemporary readers may have a difficult time imagining how brave it was to come out publicly in the ‘80s.

Proposed quarry threatens Manitoba’s bear cub rescue, operator says

Manitoba’s only black bear rescue says a proposed limestone quarry less than a kilometre away from their sanctuary would have devastating effects on the cubs in their care.

Judy Stearns says the sound of constant rock blasting and gravel trucks driving in and out of the site near Stonewall would stress out the orphan cubs, who tend to be anxious anyway.

“There’s not a tree or hill between us,” said Stearns, who runs the rescue with her husband, Roger. “The project is just not conducive to being beside a wildlife sanctuary with noise-sensitive, timid animals.”

The rescue and rehabilitation centre has been in the RM of Rockwood, located northwest of Winnipeg, since 2018, but the Stearns family has lived in the municipality for more than 20 years.

Senior squeeze: Many older Manitobans are in an increasingly precarious financial situation

Terisa Taylor is deemed a low-income senior, based on the federal tax bracket classification, but the numbers don’t take a full measure of the person.

At age 73, the St. Boniface resident relies on the three acronyms synonymous with aging — CPP, GIS and OAS — to make ends meet.

Manitoba Rental Assistance helps cover about half her apartment costs, but she gave up her car when it became clear it was no longer affordable.

Despite that, Taylor considers herself one of Manitoba’s more fortunate seniors since she’s able to continue to pursue a meaningful life.