Canadian, U.S. stock markets notch new record highs amid continued AI boom

TORONTO - Stock markets in Canada and the U.S. reached new highs, powered by gains in energy and AI, respectively.

Theresa Shutt, chief investment officer at Harbourfront Wealth Management, said themes around higher risk appetite driven by “AI fervour” helped lift the U.S. market. She said this was somewhat counterbalanced by lingering tensions between the U.S. and Iran and concerns that the market has risen too high.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 434.57 points at 35,169.46.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 228.91 points at 51,307.79. The S&P 500 index was up 9.82 points at 7,609.78, while the Nasdaq composite was up 7.09 points at 27,093.90. The S&P 500 rose 0.1 per cent after drifting between small gains and losses through the day.

Canada sends letter to U.S., Mexico calling for renewal of trade agreement

WASHINGTON - Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said he had a positive meeting with his American counterpart in Washington a day after sending a letter to the United States and Mexico recommending that the three countries renew the continental trade pact.

LeBlanc said he presented specific proposals to United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and talked about long-standing issues Americans have raised about Canada.

"We discussed how we can work together on a number of issues that strengthen the competitiveness of the North American economy," LeBlanc said at the Canadian Embassy on Tuesday following the meeting with Greer.

The letter from LeBlanc to Greer and Mexico's secretary of economy, Marcelo Ebrard, is a requirement of the mandatory review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, known in Canada as CUSMA.

Manitoba makes strides on poverty, but EIA rates must increase: report

When Jayline Bursey gets her monthly Employment and Income Assistance cheque, it’s gone almost immediately.

After years of living in encampments, Lawrence is slowly adjusting to life with a roof, instead of a tarp, over his head

Just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic upended daily life in early 2020, Lawrence had a steady job, reliable income and a roof over his head. Within months, it was all gone.

After burning through his savings to keep paying rent, the 58-year-old from Sagkeeng First Nation spent the next 4 1/2 years homeless, living in an encampment along Waterfront Drive.

“At first, I couldn’t believe it,” he said while sitting in an office chair inside a low-barrier apartment complex in the city’s West End. “I was sitting at a drop-in centre trying to figure out ‘how did I end up here?’ It was too quick for me to absorb at the time.”

Lawrence, who didn’t want his last name used, has now been housed for three months through the province’s Your Way Home strategy, which aims to move roughly 700 Manitobans from encampments into stable housing.

Fairmont Hotel in Winnipeg to donate beds, chairs, tables, lamps ahead of renovations

Homeless people set to move into transitional housing will get a suite treatment later this year thanks to a donation from a Winnipeg hotel making its own transition.

The Fairmont Winnipeg will donate its room furnishings, including more than 760 beds and box springs, before it undergoes a multimillion-dollar renovation this summer.

Anything that isn’t nailed down in the 340 guest rooms will be donated to Linking Hope, a non-profit that will dole the items out to its 120 partner agencies across Manitoba.

“We had always had the donation intent top of mind, we did not want all of this to just find its way into a landfill,” said Ian Taylor, general manager of Fairmont Winnipeg. “There are needs within the community and the province abroad that we needed to look at.”

Mushroom producers face ‘worrying’ duties

Prices may mushroom for American fungi lovers — and the company behind a Manitoba grower is contesting new duties disrupting the industry.

Loveday Mushroom Farms ships roughly 10 million pounds of mushrooms annually from its Oakbank plant to the United States. It accounts for one-fifth of the mushrooms parent company South Mill Champs grows in Canada and sells south of the border.

“We’ve got a good customer base in the U.S. and Canada,” said Lewis Macleod, South Mill Champs chief executive.

But the American base will likely be hit with higher mushroom prices: South Mill Champs plans to pass a new duty to customers, upping the cost of its portabellas and shiitakes.

Some brands say their jeans are eco-friendly. Here’s how to find a pair that’s actually sustainable

NEW YORK (AP) — Your favorite pair of jeans may have traveled around the world through cotton farms, dye houses, wash facilities and factories before ending up in your closet. The denim may have never been worn but it is stonewashed, sanded, chemically faded or laser-treated to look like it.

Those processes can require significant amounts of water, energy and chemicals — part of the reason denim has become a growing target for sustainability efforts across the fashion industry, which is among the world’s biggest producers of greenhouse gas emissions.

Brands are responding to wider awareness by marketing their jeans as “sustainable,” touting regenerative cotton, recycled fibers and low-water manufacturing techniques. But figuring out if that's true is far more complicated. For one, sustainability is difficult to define — and there isn't a universal set of standards.

Last week, Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein acquired Everlane, a brand known for transparency and sustainability efforts, highlighting broader tensions over scale and affordability. Improvements in sustainable processes typically cost more, making it difficult for companies with fast production cycles and low prices to adopt them widely. Consumers are left to navigate a complicated web of tradeoffs involving farming practices, chemical processes, labor ethics and a wide range of prices.

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.”

Reported Germany-Canada LNG deal would bolster investment case for Ksi Lisims: Eby

A deal to supply Canadian liquefied natural gas to Germany would be a key step toward the partners behind the Ksi Lisims project deciding to go ahead with their $10-billion West Coast plant and export terminal, British Columbia Premier David Eby said Tuesday.

Eby made his remarks after multiple outlets reported German firm SEFE is poised to buy gas shipped from Ksi Lisims and a day before federal Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson is scheduled to make an announcement about international energy exports in Vancouver.

The B.C. premier said his government has long been supportive of the project being pursued by the Nisga'a Nation alongside Houston-based Western LNG and Rockies LNG, a group of Canadian natural gas producers. The companies and the First Nation declined to comment on Tuesday.

"We look forward to celebrating the formal announcement of this with the Nisga'a, with the federal government. It's an example of the work we're doing together and we're super proud of it," Eby told reporters after a meeting with western premiers in Kananaskis, Alta.

Two more 7-Eleven locations bite the dust

Outside of one of two 7-Eleven locations to abruptly close in the last three days, a small gathering forms Monday morning.

The store at Notre Dame Avenue and Arlington Street shut its doors a day early, despite signs on the windows listing its last day as Tuesday. Its lights had been turned off and shelves were stripped bare.

Customers who were turned away begin to discuss the closure amongst themselves outside of the building; when a manager walks out and is asked why the store is being closed, he says “no comment” before walking back inside.

Shoppers told the Free Press the location was a frequent spot for petty robbery and several said they had tried to intervene in incidents where staff were not able to stop thieves.

Linking Hope creates nonprofit connections to build a better future

Standing atop a plastic chair in a bustling warehouse on the edge of downtown Winnipeg, Breena Courchaine projects her voice to coordinate dozens of volunteers and thank them for the day’s work.

The morning has been a frenzy of piling clothes atop tables, moving donations around the room and finding permanent homes for things at Linking Hope’s new, permanent home.

By 12:30 p.m. Saturday, more than 100 volunteers had moved Linking Hope’s inventory into its new home at 323 Edwin St., across the road from its former space at 190 Disraeli Fwy., and the team was well ahead of schedule — a testament to the organization's support, staff say.

“We literally could not do this without our volunteers,” Courchaine said. “Every idea that has made this place better is mostly coming from the volunteers.”

Proponents of solar power push for provincial infrastructure investment to boost grid resilience

In the early 1970s, licence plates were stamped with the slogan “Sunny Manitoba” — a nod to long summer days, crisp blue winter skies and frequent sun dogs reflecting off of blinding white snow. While the slogan later changed, Manitoba’s ranking as Canada’s second-sunniest province has not.

Despite that sunlit reputation, solar power — one of the most-developed renewable energy sources — makes up just a small fraction of the province’s electricity grid.

“It’s extremely marginal, especially when you compare to other jurisdictions like Alberta and Saskatchewan,” said James Wilt, policy development manager at Climate Action Team Manitoba.

Manitoba boasts a predominantly emissions-free grid, with 97 per cent of its power generated by a network of hydroelectric dams. But the provincial utility, Manitoba Hydro, has forecasted that its once-abundant renewable energy source will soon fall short. There is growing demand for power amid the electrification of sectors like transportation and heating, and the rapidly growing interest in developing electricity-hungry data centres. Combined with more unpredictable water levels owing to climate factors like extreme drought, it’s all prompted the utility to warn that capacity could run out as soon as 2030.

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.

Vast marine conservation reserve, bigger than P.E.I., to protect B.C. central coast

An enormous national marine conservation reserve is being established on British Columbia's central coast, spanning an area larger than Prince Edward Island.

The protected area, named Mia-yaltwa Ha’lidzogm hoon, is the result of an agreement between six coastal First Nations and the provincial and federal governments.

An official says the area is around 6700 sq. km and will be operated by Parks Canada along with its Indigenous and federal partners.

The reserve is within the Great Bear Sea, a diverse marine ecosystem that covers more than half of B.C.'s coast and includes glass sponge reefs, salmon, killer whales and migrating humpbacks.

CRTC triples streamers’ financial contributions to Canadian content

OTTAWA - Large TV streaming services like Netflix must contribute 15 per cent of their Canadian revenues to Canadian content, the federal broadcast regulator said Thursday.

That’s three times the five-per-cent initial contribution requirement the CRTC set out in 2024, which is being challenged in court by major streamers, including Apple and Amazon.

Contribution requirements for traditional broadcasters, which currently pay between 30 and 45 per cent, will be lowered to 25 per cent.

"The total contributions are expected to stabilize the funding at more than $2 billion in support of Canadian and Indigenous content, such as French-language content and news," the regulator said in a press release.

Small businesses’ capacity to hire youth being constrained: CFIB survey

TORONTO - A weaker economy and rising costs are leaving little room for small businesses to hire and train inexperienced youth, a new report suggests.

While small businesses remain the "training ground" for many young people entering the workforce, a survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says small businesses are facing challenges from weak demand and rising payroll costs.

That's leaving many business owners with fewer resources to hire and train young workers.

"For many small businesses, taking a chance on someone with no experience, especially when training requires considerable time and effort, is simply not feasible in the current climate," the report said.

Hydro advisory circle brings ‘wealth of Indigenous perspectives’

The board of Manitoba Hydro has appointed an Indigenous advisory circle as part of the Crown corporation’s reconciliation efforts.

Former Fox Lake Cree Nation chief and Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership board chair Robert Wavey will co-chair the group with Manitoba Hydro board chairman Jamie Wilson. The provincial government ordered the creation of the advisory circle in its 2023 mandate letter to Hydro’s board.

“I think we wanted to get everything right on this one,” Wilson said when asked why it has taken more than two years to appoint Indigenous advisers.

“This is a pretty fantastic group of people from a diverse background, including communities that are directly impacted by Hydro development in the past,” the first Indigenous chairman of the Manitoba Hydro board said in an interview Tuesday.