Katz ‘violated public trust,’ Sheegl lacked ‘moral compass,’ police HQ inquiry commissioner concludes

The final report from the public inquiry into the scandal-plagued Winnipeg Police Service headquarters construction project concludes that former mayor Sam Katz and former city CAO Phil Sheegl broke public trust and engaged in unethical conduct.

And the report, released Monday by inquiry commissioner Garth Smorang, says the cost of the project — transforming a downtown Canada Post office tower and warehouse into the police HQ — soared, in part, because main contractor Caspian Projects overcharged the city by more than $40 million in expenses.

The project’s initial $135-million initial price tag rose to about $209 million in the end. The city purchased the complex in 2009; construction was completed in 2016.

Smorang’s report concludes Katz “violated the public trust” and council code of conduct, and Sheegl suffered from a “complete lack of a moral compass.”

Quebec’s strategic maple syrup reserve running dry amid high demand

MONTRÉAL - The head of Quebec's maple syrup producers' association says the province's strategic syrup reserve has run dry amid high demand for the product.

Québec Maple Syrup Producers President Luc Goulet says government support will be needed to ensure the industry doesn't miss out on opportunities to grow the sector.

Maple syrup yields depend on weather conditions.

As a result, the producers' association has established a strategic reserve to ensure prices and supply remain relatively stable.

Oseredok's centrepiece mosaic is a testament to Ukrainian heritage

With impressionism, things can look messy when you’re eyeing the brush strokes up close. Stand back, voila, the piece comes into focus.

But with photomosaics, an image made up of hundreds of smaller photos, it’s the opposite. The closer you stand, the more images you see.

In the era of AI art, it’s all too easy to fire off a kitschy digital photomosaic. The internet is littered with mindless renderings showing, say, an image of the Statue of Liberty made up of a thousand Big Macs.

It’s another and rare thing to build a photomosaic by hand, with a genuine artist’s grasp of the form’s strange double life. This is what, for the past eight years or so, a collaborative team — in particular Edmonton-based creator and curator Larisa Sembaliuk Cheladyn, sculptor Royden Mills, Theodora Harasymiw and a group of volunteers — did for Ukrainian Voice: A Legacy Mosaic, one of four new exhibitions at the Oseredok: Ukrainian Cultural and Education Centre.

Violence directed at Winnipeg School Division support staff surges, union reports

Kicking, biting and other types of student aggression toward educational assistants in Winnipeg has surged 118 per cent since 2022-23.

City’s drug, homelessness crises overlooked on campaign trail, front-line groups say

Those on the front lines of coping with the city’s deepening homelessness and drug crises express concern at civic election candidates’ lack of attention to the issues

Federal data on Winnipeg's number of homeless people inaccurate, advocates say

The head of End Homelessness Winnipeg says she has no confidence in data about the city’s homeless population due to problems with the federal system that tracks those numbers.

Reversing Manitoba’s moose decline

As Manitoba’s retired provincial moose manager, I have watched our moose population plummet from historic highs to a state of systemic vulnerability. Reversing this decline, which has seen numbers drop from 45,000 during the 1960s to fewer than 20,000 today, will require balancing the conservation needs of moose, Section 35 constitutional treaty rights, licensed hunter expectations and economic development.

To avert further attrition, all stakeholders, including Manitoba Natural Resources, must accept responsibility for their part in this decline, with industrial and recreational development acting as the primary drivers.

This long-overdue discussion must not devolve into a debate over competing hunting rights; instead, it must focus entirely on building long-term population resilience. Wildlife management must evolve alongside the changing landscapes and dynamics that development brings. We can no longer practise the same methods and hope for a better result. Immediate action is required.

As long as moose are legally managed as a “natural resource,” they will inevitably be viewed through the lens of a commodity rather than a vulnerable species in need of protection. For any population to remain stable or grow, total mortality cannot exceed recruitment — the survival of calves to breeding age. If mortality outpaces recruitment, decline is inevitable.

Manitoba Federation of Labour calls for independent review of Workers Compensation Board

A major labour association is calling for an independent Workers Compensation Board review as Manitoba leads the country in workplace injury rates.

Last year, 2.5 employees in every 100 reported a workplace injury serious enough to take time off, WCB tracking shows. The number is higher than any other province — just as it has been for the past three years, according to the Manitoba Federation of Labour.

(In 2025, the next highest time loss injury rate was in British Columbia: 2.04 people for every 100.)

“Our prevention work in Manitoba is failing Manitobans,” said Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour. “We need an independent review to help shine a light on, ‘What is happening on the prevention front of WCB?’”

Manitoba tourism reached new heights in 2025

Despite a devastating wildfire season, tourism in Manitoba hit record highs in 2025.

Lemonade stand brings in hundreds for West Broadway Youth Outreach

Like most 12-year-olds, there’s nothing Ruby Barkley enjoys more than a tall glass of lemonade. So when she decided to set up a lemonade stand, Ruby’s Sips + Sweets, in her neighbourhood last month, her mom was only too happy to say yes.

Especially since Ruby had decided she was going to donate proceeds of the sales to West Broadway Youth Outreach (WBYO), a non-profit organization providing recreational and life-skills programming for children aged four and up.

Ruby had set up lemonade stands in the past and was accustomed to serving up glasses from a pitchers of drink she’d already pre-made, but this time round she chose to do something different.

“We got a muddler press and I hand-pressed the lemons and then added flavours. It’s a whole process. It’s hand squeezed right before your eyes and anybody can watch it. I loved doing it,” she says.

The election of our discontent: City at a crumbling crossroads, grumbling residents say in poll

There’s an undercurrent of unhappiness running through the Winnipeg electorate as the municipal election day approaches.

One-half of Winnipeggers believe the city is heading in the wrong direction, according to a new Abacus Data poll, with nearly one-third unsure if Winnipeg is regressing or progressing.

Only 21 per cent of residents believe the city is on the right track, the Free Press-commissioned poll found.

That discontentment extends to how the city spends its tax dollars, with four in 10 Winnipeggers believing they receive poor value for what they pay in property taxes.

Slugs gone, bugs gone, strawberries thriving as invasive lizards boom in B.C.

Tracy Menzies had been at war with slugs in her backyard garden as they've always managed to beat her to the harvest, but not this year.

The strawberries in her garden this season turned out to be "absolutely beautiful."

It turns out the slugs are facing a formidable foe — the invasive European wall lizard, which experts say are spreading fast and eating everything in their path, from insects and spiders to slugs.

Menzies, who lives near the Gorge Waterway in Saanich, said she started noticing the lizards in her yard in growing numbers a few months ago, darting through her garden and scurrying under foot.

Wet weather heats up feed grain availability

Other than those in another rain cloud, it’s hard to find the silver linings attached to this year’s soggy harvest.

A showery September continued to cause delays and more deterioration in both quality and yield. Plus, the costs of mitigating post-harvest losses to spoilage are rising as the delays push further into fall. It takes more heat and time to artificially dry down grain as temperatures cool.

Crops harvested in August before the weather turned warm and damp came off with good quality and average yields. But farmers in some areas, such as southwest Manitoba, had only started when the rains came. Now they are plagued with standing water and sprouting swaths of grain that might not even make feed quality.

Suffice to say crop insurance adjusters are going to be busy this fall.

Critical mineral development: Grid Metals promotes southeast Manitoba cesium deposit

An exploration company says it’s found the second-largest cesium deposit to be developed in the Western world — and it’s looking to mine in southeastern Manitoba.

Cesium is used in the defence sector, solar panels, internet and phone networks and GPS satellites, among other things. Canadian and United States governments have both deemed it a critical mineral.

It’s rare: just six cesium deposits have been found globally, according to the company behind the Manitoba site.

Grid Metals, a Toronto-based firm, spent October 2025 through March drilling holes in land 130 kilometres east of Winnipeg, at its Falcon West property.

Positive anticipation is growing about major housing developments underway in Winnipeg’s downtown

If traffic is light and the wind is down, Somia Sadiq is able to hear the roar of Winnipeg Jets fans twice: first through her window, then on TV.

From her apartment view high above downtown, she can look out at Graham Avenue’s painted pedestrian landscape, see construction cranes and hear the heavy equipment at work as massive housing projects take shape at The Forks, at what used to be Portage Place shopping centre and at the former Hudson’s Bay building.

Sadiq has lived at 300 Main for 2 1/2 years, a few steps from the city’s famous, windy and reopened-to-pedestrians Portage Avenue intersection. At 42 storeys, it’s the tallest building in Winnipeg.

She is among 18,000 downtown residents who will soon be joined by thousands of others attracted to the city’s core by the new wave of major construction projects.

Fire up the grills! Thousands of South Africans try to set a record for the biggest cookout

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Armed with their tongs and sausages, thousands of determined — and hungry — South Africans gathered on a national holiday Thursday to attempt to break the world record for the biggest cookout.

The record to beat for most people grilling simultaneously was 2,220, set in Japan's Ishigaki City in 2023.

The South African hopefuls, who were denied in a failed attempt last year, poured into a sports stadium in the capital, Pretoria, to take up their positions around 500 grilling stations. Organizers said they expected around 3,000 participants.

The strict rules, according to a Guinness World Records adjudicator who watched over the attempt, were: Everyone needs to be barbecuing simultaneously for a minimum of five minutes to be counted.

Manitoba budget reveals province underspent on crucial departments related to justice, public safety

While concerns about homelessness and public safety continue to make headlines in Manitoba, the two government departments mainly responsible for addressing them came in under budget last year.

The 2025-26 public accounts, released Monday, show Housing, Addictions and Homelessness underspent its budget of $869 million by $18 million. Manitoba Justice underspent its budget of $994 million by $34 million.

The 247-page public accounts report attributes the underspending in justice mainly to “reduced impacts of contingency liabilities,” such as a court ruling or legal settlement.

The report did not explain how and why Housing, Addictions and Homelessness underspent its budget last year as the province addresses those critical issues.

Thief steals almost $70K in Pokémon cards from flea-market owner

The owner of a local flea market was left feeling disrespected and in disbelief after roughly $70,000 worth of Pokémon products were stolen over the weekend, but is vowing to rebuild.

Kenan Hyseni, who has owned and operated the popular Mulvey Market in South Osborne since 2022, said high-end sealed products and valuable individual cards from the massively popular collectible card game were stolen sometime between the market’s closing Friday night and midnight.

Hyseni believes someone hid inside the market until employees had left for the night, loaded up the merchandise and fled.

“The night finished, we locked up, did the usual thing, and then we went home and just before midnight, I got a call from the landlord and they said the alarm had been tripped, and that someone was seen leaving the market with bags,” Hyseni said.

Oil, grain exports fuel record cargo at Port of Vancouver as trade shifts beyond U.S.

The head of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority says surging oil and grain exports drove a record amount of cargo through its gates in the first half of the year as part of a push away from U.S. markets, with Alberta crude fuelling the pivot.

Freight volumes at the Port of Vancouver rode a rising tide of crude oil and canola seed to a three per cent year-over-year increase for the six months ended June 30, the federal agency said Monday.

Port authority chief executive Peter Xotta described "a degree of focus and urgency" to hauling loads — fossil fuels included — to and from countries that lie beyond North American shores.

"The U.S. percentage of crude oil shipments is declining ... as those global destinations for Alberta crude increase," he said in a phone interview from Canada Place, which overlooks Vancouver Harbour.

Northern First Nation calls for voluntary ban of moose hunting as numbers dwindle

A northern Manitoba First Nation is calling for a voluntary closure of moose hunting in its traditional territory to protect the declining population and respond to what it sees is a lack of provincial intervention.

On Friday, Misipawistik Cree Nation issued a plea urging hunters to abstain from harvesting moose in provincial Game Hunting Area 10 — a 10,000-square-kilometre region of boreal forest north of Grand Rapids. The request applies to this year’s moose-hunting seasons, which open Monday.

According to the province’s 2025 aerial big-game survey, an estimated 281 moose reside in the area, roughly 60 of which are bull moose. That’s down from an estimated 346 moose in 2013, which the survey describes as a “relatively stable population” over the past decade.

This year, 124 licences and 62 bull moose tags were made available in the region during Manitoba’s annual hunting draw.

Opaskwayak Cree Nation tabs up to $20 million to get into aerospace, defence manufacturing

Darryl Bauer arrived with open ears and a business plan: aims for Opaskwayak Cree Nation to enter aerospace and defence manufacturing, either through acquisition or partnership.

Paskwayak Business Development Corp.’s economic development director carried the physical plan through an aerospace procurement event Wednesday in Winnipeg. The day-long conference drew all levels of government and industry executives.

“There could be significant long-term benefits,” Bauer said of breaking into the sector. “The government’s committing a lot of financial resources.”

Ottawa released a $6.6-billion defence industrial strategy in February.

Diverting intoxicated people from ER to recovery program ‘transformative’: study

TORONTO - A new study suggests diverting intoxicated people from emergency rooms to a safe recovery space can help free up valuable health care resources and offer more suitable care.

The study, published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health this week, evaluated the first two years of a non-medical Stabilization and Connection Centre in Toronto launched in 2022.

The centre was created to redirect people who are intoxicated by alcohol or opioids and don't require medical attention from the ER to a 10-bed facility with support workers.

The University Health Network program partners with The Neighbourhood Group Community Services and Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, who staff the site.

If Alberta leaves Canada, it will need up to $170B and 70,000 civil servants: report

EDMONTON - A report released Wednesday by the Alberta government says if the province wants to separate from Canada, it would need to shell out up to $170 billion and hire at least 70,000 civil servants to do it.

The report, which the province commissioned from the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy, says the minimum cost over the first five years would be $50 billion and could top out at $170 billion.

The figure covers money to acquire infrastructure, supplies and property currently paid for by the federal government. It also covers the staff needed for the transition and debt payments made higher by Alberta taking on a portion of the federal debt.

There are other costs. About $69 billion would be needed to replicate programs currently run by Ottawa. The annual expenses to run an independent Alberta government would cost up to $67 billion. New tax revenue could cover the increases, but there’s also a risk of staggering annual deficits of at least $25 billion.