Minister promises $14M more for corrections after union complains about overcrowding

Manitoba’s justice minister has promised more resources after the union for corrections officers said Friday inmate overcrowding and chronic short staffing is putting lives at risk.

“Help’s on the way, our government has focused on hiring up as many new corrections officers as we can and we want to continue to build on that work,” Matt Wiebe told reporters.

Wiebe revealed the province will spend an additional $14 million on corrections in the 2026-27 budget, which is to be unveiled next week.

On Friday, the union released the results of a survey of corrections officers and other jail staff that suggests there’s widespread discontent and concern about inmate overcrowding and short staffing.

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.

Records shattered as summer heat hits Southwest in March; ‘This is what climate change looks like’

WASHINGTON (AP) — The dangerous heat wave shattering March records all over the U.S. Southwest is more than just another extreme weather blip. It’s the latest next-level weather wildness that is occurring ever more frequently as Earth’s warming builds.

Experts said unprecedented and deadly weather extremes that sometimes strike at abnormal times and in unusual places are putting more people in danger. For example, the Southwest is used to coping with deadly heat, but not months ahead of schedule, including a 112 degrees Fahrenheit (44.4 degrees Celsius) reading in two Arizona communities on Friday that smashed the highest March temperature recorded in the U.S. Two places in Southern California also hit that same temperature. All four spots are clustered within about 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) of each other.

“This is what climate change looks like in real time: extremes pushing beyond the bounds we once thought possible,” said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver. “What used to be unprecedented events are now recurring features of a warming world.”

March's heat would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change, according to a report Friday by World Weather Attribution, an international group of scientists who study the causes of extreme weather events.

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.

PUB locks in Hydro rate increases, warns more on way

Manitoba Hydro customers can expect further upward pressure in rates as the Public Utilities Board has finalized a four per cent general rate increase — effective Jan. 1, 2026 — and approved general revenue increases of 3.5 per cent Jan. 1, 2027, and three per cent Jan. 1, 2028.

The board noted short-term financial pressure due to severe drought conditions, according to a news release late Thursday.

In 2025, water flows approached the second-lowest levels in 112 years, the release said.

Between filing the application in March 2025 and oral hearings in November, Hydro’s outloook worsened by more than $600 million — from a projected net income of $218 million to a projected loss of $409 million, the board’s release said.

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.

Councillors brace for impact when provincial education property tax hikes crash into Winnipeggers’ mailboxes

The despondency in the voices of Winnipeg city councillors Jeff Browaty and Evan Duncan was palpable.

The two suburban councillors took the opportunity this week to slam the provincial NDP government for increases in the education portion of property taxes that many Winnipeg property owners will see later this spring when they receive their tax bills.

According to Browaty (North Kildonan) and Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood), even though the tax increases are mostly due to provincial policies and school division decisions, the city will end up bearing the brunt of criticism.

“I’d like to see them take accountability and ownership of it,” said Duncan, pointing south from city hall to the Manitoba legislature.

Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes repeats as champion of the grueling Iditarod sled dog race

NOME, Alaska (AP) — Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes cruised to a repeat victory in the Iditarod, the roughly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) sled dog race in Alaska.

Holmes guided his dog team across the finish line Tuesday night in the old Gold Rush town of Nome, a Bering Sea coastal community, after traveling for nine days, 7 hours and 32 minutes. He pumped both fists in the air as the crowd cheered for him and his team of 12 dogs, who devoured some meat after finishing.

“I’ve been chasing greatness ever since the last time I was here,” Holmes said, noting that he had been thinking of others who followed up initial wins with a second, third or fourth. “So we’re just going to keep chasing those footsteps, trying to push ourselves every day to be better.”

Last year, Zeus, one of Holmes' lead dogs, was a 2-year-old finishing his first Iditarod after leading a couple of runs. But this year, Holmes said, Zeus led every run except one. Holmes had been keeping back older lead dog Polar, so he wouldn’t have to do so much work, but put him in after the last checkpoint before Nome.

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.

How Canadian box-office hit ‘Undertone’ got to the screen without public funding

TORONTO - Personal grief, a potentially haunted house and a sound-driven sense of dread helped turn “Undertone” into one of the year’s most unexpected horror hits.

But the biggest twist? The director says he made the film with no government money after his previous work was rejected by Canada’s public film funders.

The Toronto-shot film opened to $9.3 million at the North American box office over the weekend — a scary good debut for a movie made on a $500,000 budget.

For director Ian Tuason, his debut feature’s unlikely path to the big screen is also a quiet critique of how Canadian films get financed.

Twitter shareholder case accusing Musk of driving down stock goes to jury

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Closing arguments concluded Tuesday in a trial pitting Elon Musk against Twitter shareholders who say the world's richest man engaged in a pattern of deceptive behavior that misled investors as he attempted to back out of his $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform in 2022.

The case is now in the hands of eight jurors, who will decide whether Musk is liable for defrauding investors with tweets and statements he made in the months leading up to his purchase of Twitter.

The civil trial in San Francisco centers on a class-action lawsuit filed just before Musk took control of Twitter, which he later renamed X, in October 2022, six months after agreeing to buy the embattled company for $44 billion, or $54.20 per share. The price represents a sliver of the Tesla CEO's fortune, now estimated at $837 billion.

Much of the trial focused on Musk's claims about the number of bots on Twitter. Musk testified, as he long contended, that Twitter had a much higher number of fake and spam accounts than the 5% it disclosed in regulatory filings. He used what he called Twitter's misrepresentation of the number of fake accounts on its service as a reason to retreat from the purchase.

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.

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.

Tired of theft, local businesses consider IDing customers, making diners pre-pay

Fed up with shoplifting or dine and dashes, the owners of two Winnipeg businesses are considering asking customers to show identification when they enter, among other extra security measures.

No time for stolen hours

I’m a time zone and time change veteran.

I spent almost two years living in Saskatchewan, where the clocks never change from Central Standard Time, and you just learn to live with it.

I also spent many years living in a province knocked askew from the top of the clock, where, when everyone else was celebrating New Year’s at midnight, we were already at 12:30 a.m.

I’ve lived in the Newfoundland time zone, along with Atlantic, Eastern, Central and Mountain zones, along with every one of their spring-forward, fall-back time changes.

Lower colorectal cancer screening age to 45 from 50, Canadian Cancer Society urges

TORONTO - Michael Groves thought he had appendicitis.

In January 2021, he went to the emergency department with abdominal pains, but after testing, medical staff ruled it out and he went home.

A couple of days later, Groves, who lives in Ottawa, saw blood in his stool, so he told his family doctor.

Both the pain and bleeding stopped, but his doctor decided to schedule the 49-year-old for a colonoscopy for that April to be on the safe side.

How the Iran war and surging oil prices are affecting consumers at the gas pump and beyond

NEW YORK (AP) — As the war in Iran ratchets up, the price of crude oil has been swinging sharply. Consumers are already feeling the effects of the war and its destabilizing effect on worldwide energy production.

Gasoline prices are climbing, and many people will find some of the most immediate economic pain at the pump.

But you don't have to drive a car to be affected. Nearly all goods — including food — that are bought and sold must travel from where they’re produced. Those costs will climb with higher gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices.

And the spike in oil prices — surpassing $110 a barrel, then retreating — will likely be a big factor for U.S. inflation. As the war continues, some experts say the price of, well, everything could be affected.

Stars hit Paris runways, but fall’s real trend was dressing for hard times – and real life

PARIS (AP) — The celebrities came first, as they always do at the Paris runways.

After Oprah Winfrey stole the show in the opening stretch of the nine-day week, Naomi Watts and Kai Schreiber were at Balenciaga. Rooney Mara, Diane Kruger, Alexa Chung, Elizabeth Olsen and Yseult turned up at Givenchy.

Sarah Paulson and Tracee Ellis Ross watched Celine. Chappell Roan was at Vivienne Westwood and then at McQueen, where Myha’la and Sophie Thatcher were also there. Chanel was still to come Monday, and Louis Vuitton capping the season Tuesday.

But this week was about more than the front row.