Think you can beat the game? Don’t bet on it

Trying to watch sports on television these days means accepting a basic and deeply annoying reality: the game itself is no longer the main event.

No, the main event is the endless parade of ads for gambling apps marching across every commercial break, crammed into every spare inch of space not occupied by actual hockey players.

And man, are these ads terrible. Not morally — well, yes, morally too — but we’ll come back to that. I mean esthetically. These things are obnoxious.

If you’ve watched any amount of hockey lately, you know the drill: betting on games can turn you into a legend, a hero, the life of the party.

Investors can roll dice on emerging technologies that may or may not shape future, portfolios’ net worth

We live in hyperstitious times.

A philosopher named Nick Land coined the word hyperstition in the 1990s, describing the sense of living today in science fiction of the past.

Investors may have that same sensation, given the dominance of artificial intelligence in their portfolios.

Yet AI is arguably more than an advanced chat-bot/search engine. It is “the fabric that’s binding” together a lot of other science fiction-like technologies, moving them closer to viable commercialization, says Mickey Ganguly, associate portfolio manager for the CIBC Technology Innovation Fund.

Gamification and memes lure young people to sports wagering apps, prediction markets

When Rory McIlroy won the Masters for the second year in a row, Kalshi shared a photo of him on Instagram with the words, “Wait he’s goated.” When a video of NBA player Damian Lillard recovering from an injury circulated online, Kalshi’s main competitor Polymarket posted, “The league is cooked.”

If you don’t know what either of those phrases mean, it's because you may not be the target audience.

The posts and hundreds of others like it are exposing younger people to prediction market platforms, where users can put money on the line for the outcomes of real-world events — or absurd ones like when the U.S. will confirm that aliens exist or whether Jesus Christ will return before 2027.

Once on the platforms, companies keep users hooked with what they market as low-stakes, casual opportunities to make an easy buck, creating an environment that some say feels more like a game and less like a risky financial transaction with potentially harmful consequences. Indeed, recent academic research looking at 588 million trades on Polymarket found that profits were concentrated to just a very small group of top traders while the majority of users — 69% — lost money.

Funding transit is Manitoba’s future

When it comes to making decisions about how to spend our tax dollars, Manitobans want governments to spend on programs and services that tackle as many priorities as possible.

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.”

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.

Canada well positioned to face food inflation risks from fertilizer shortages: report

TORONTO - As shipping constraints in the Middle East disrupt global fertilizer supply and drive up prices, a new TD report says Canada is better positioned to face any inflationary pressures on its food production — at least in the short run.

Canada's fertilizer imports from the Gulf region are less than five per cent, limiting its exposure to the ongoing war in Iran. That's lower than Mexico and the United States, which import roughly 30-to-40 per cent of their nitrogen-rich urea from that region.

While high global oil prices have been in the spotlight since the effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the war in Iran has choked more than just oil supply.

Other essential commodities, such as fertilizers and aluminum, are also facing shortages and higher prices as tanker traffic remains halted. Roughly one-third of global seaborne fertilizer shipments of nitrogen and phosphate products pass through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the TD report. Demand for replacement fertilizer from alternative providers has gone up, raising prices globally.

Discount stores drive Loblaw’s Q1 profit and sales, raises quarterly dividend

An emphasis on discount stores continues to pay off for Loblaw Cos. Ltd. as shoppers search for affordable groceries amid intensifying economic headwinds.

"The ongoing outperformance of our hard-discount banners — Maxi and No Frills — was a key driver of (the) success, reinforcing their vital role in helping Canadians manage affordability," chief executive Per Bank told financial analysts on Wednesday after the retailer reported its first-quarter results.

The earnings report noted that the discount grocery banners outperformed for the owner of Loblaws and Shoppers Drug Mart, while its drugstore business saw growth in prescription drugs, particularly in sales of GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic.

Loblaw also raised its quarterly dividend by 10 per cent to 15.5 cents per common share.

Winnipeg, U.K. economic experts team up to better understand poverty trap

Money know-how is essential to survival no matter where you live in the world. Without adequate financial literacy, it’s difficult to achieve what many experts in the field call “financial well-being.”

A growing field of research suggests one reason financial literacy initiatives have failed to make in-roads, especially for low-income individuals, is because they do not address the many facets of financial well-being, says one of the leading experts in the field.

“Financial well-being for most people is about a balance, and what you see quite strongly is that it really has a social component,” says Adele Atkinson, a professor at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

Atkinson, who will be in Winnipeg this week, is a member of the university’s well-respected Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management (CHASM). She says financial well- being goes beyond long-term financial security.

Census data does much more than determine population

The children of families who live in public housing in Tuxedo are more likely to graduate from high school, go to college or university, and less likely to need income assistance when they become adults than their counterparts who live just off Main Street in the North End.

How do we know this? The national census.

Officially known as the Census of Population, in the next few weeks, an estimated 41 million Canadians will receive this year’s census to fill in the boxes that reflect their lives. Most will receive the short form, which census officials say should take only five to 10 minutes to fill out. But 25 per cent of Canadians will receive the lengthier long-form census, which includes more demographic questions, and takes about a half-hour or so to complete, depending on the size of the household.

It’s only when the numbers are tallied that we will know exactly how many people there are in the country.

The blunt — and massive — cost of forest fires

It’s a total that’s bound to go up — because all of the costs aren’t clear yet, and even when they are, not every cost can be quantified.

Healthy food subsidy might be on table over gas tax cut: Kinew

Premier Wab Kinew says he is still considering relief for Manitobans struggling with the high price of fuel but it may not be in the form of a gas tax holiday.

City offers real cost-of-living help while Ottawa, province pander for popularity

There’s no shortage of political enthusiasm these days for “cost-of-living relief.” Governments at every level are tripping over themselves to prove they feel your pain at the checkout counter and the gas pump. The problem isn’t the intent, it’s the execution.

Toy company Spin Master bracing for rising production, shipping costs from war

TORONTO - The war in the Middle East will soon make your kid's favourite toys more expensive to produce and deliver to store shelves.

Spin Master Corp., the Toronto-based firm behind Paw Patrol, Gabby's Dollhouse and Ms. Rachel toys, said Thursday that a blockage of one of the region's key shipping routes is pushing up its freight, resin and packaging costs.

The impact has so far been minimal because the company had several contracts with suppliers that locked in commodity prices before the conflict began on Feb. 28.

But chief financial officer Jonathan Roiter said that will soon change.

Ottawa outlines plans to tackle financial crime, ban crypto ATMs

OTTAWA - The federal government plans to ban cryptocurrency ATMs as part of a suite of measures in its spring economic statement targeting financial crimes.

The government says scammers use the ATMs to defraud victims, while criminals use them to convert the proceeds of crime.

There are currently just under 4,000 cryptocurrency ATMs in Canada — the most per capita in the world, finance officials speaking on background said. The document says Canadians will still be able to buy cryptocurrencies from "brick-and-mortar" businesses.

The financial update outlined other measures to tackle criminal use of businesses that provide services like currency exchanges and digital payments. They include new powers around ministerial directives, stricter rules on registration and more criminal record checks for those businesses.

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.

Canada is getting a sovereign wealth fund. What does that mean and how do they work?

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the creation of the country's first-ever sovereign wealth fund on Monday, called the Canada Strong Fund.

Carney pitched the new fund as a way for Canadians to invest in nation-building projects in areas that include energy, infrastructure, mining, agriculture and technology.

Here's what you need to know about sovereign wealth funds and how they operate.

What is a sovereign wealth fund?

Prime Minister Mark Carney announces Canada’s 1st sovereign wealth fund

OTTAWA -

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the country's first national sovereign wealth fund on Monday, pitching it as a way for Canadians to invest in nation-building projects.

Carney said the Canada Strong Fund will invest in major Canadian industrial projects in areas such as energy, infrastructure, mining, agriculture and technology.

The prime minister said the federal government will put up funds starting at $25 billion to invest alongside private investors. He said individual Canadians can also put money into the fund and suggested it would be similar to purchasing a government bond, where the initial investment is protected.

Jury finds that Ticketmaster and Live Nation had an anticompetitive monopoly over big concert venues

NEW YORK (AP) — A jury found Wednesday that entertainment giant Live Nation, which hosts tens of thousands of concerts a year, and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had a harmful monopoly over big venues.

The ruling, in a lawsuit brought by dozens of states, won’t immediately bring relief for concertgoers who have long complained about high ticket prices. But it could cost Live Nation hundreds of millions of dollars and perhaps force the company to sell some of its concert venues when the judge hands out penalties later.

Among other things, the jury found Ticketmaster's anticompetitive practices led to people in 22 states paying an extra $1.72 per ticket, which the judge could order the companies to pay back.

A jury in New York deliberated for four days before reaching its decision. State attorneys general who sued Live Nation said the verdict could potentially lead to lower ticket prices for music fans.

NDP pushing for ban on AI surveillance pricing as Lewis makes Parliament Hill debut

OTTAWA - The NDP is expected to introduce a motion on Wednesday calling on the government to ban a practice known as surveillance pricing that New Democrats say is unfair to consumers.

The text of the motion describes the practice as companies using a customer's personal data, like search history or how long they stay on a web page, to increase prices both in store and online.

NDP Leader Avi Lewis said Monday examples of this can include a parent with a sick baby being charged a higher price for a thermometer or medicine based on internet search history.

"This means that two different people could pay two different prices for the exact same product in the same store or on the same website on the day. It's unfair, it's a ripoff, and it's downright creepy. And it's time to put a stop to it," Lewis said.

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.

Carman man tied to swindle says he’s ‘the original’ victim

Roy Scott’s name may be on the cheques that helped leave a Winnipeg woman penniless, but the man says he’s not a scammer — he’s a victim of the same fraud.

Scott, who lives in Carman, said he lost thousands of dollars after fraudsters accessed his TD bank account and credit cards in October.

It didn’t stop there. In the months since, Scott said RCMP told him somebody got hold of a legitimate cheque Scott had deposited into his account. It was then used to open two bank accounts and a credit union account in Ontario — all while leaving his name on it.

Through Scott’s account, the scammers were also able to access money from the account of his daughter, who lives with special needs.

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.