MPI cuts off public parking downtown to prioritize staff mandated to return to office

Some commuters who work in downtown Winnipeg are frustrated after finding out they’re losing access to monthly parking spots in lots owned by Manitoba Public Insurance.

The Crown corporation has acquired parking spaces, currently managed by Impark for its staff, and is adding desks and renovating some floors at its Cityplace headquarters to prepare for more employees to return to the office full time, sources told the Free Press.

MPI, which owns the Cityplace complex and parkades within the tower and at 266 Hargrave St., is eliminating daily parking and reducing the number of non-MPI monthly parkers to “prioritize” parking availability for employees who work at the headquarters, spokeswoman Kristy Rydz said.

The changes will come into effect Nov. 1 for the 266 Hargrave parkade and Dec. 1 for the Cityplace tower parkade. The lots will become card-access only.

Trump says he expects trade war with Canada to end ‘pretty soon’

OTTAWA - U.S. President Donald Trump says he expects his constantly evolving trade war with Canada to end "pretty soon" as Prime Minister Mark Carney suggests Washington could be moving closer to Ottawa's demands.

Trump told a rally in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday that Canada had been "ripping off" the U.S. on trade and he had no choice but to impose levies on Canadian goods.

He said the trade dispute would be settled "pretty soon" and that Canada was "willing to give us anything at this moment."

At a news conference Monday, Carney was asked if there had been any movement on the trade file in the past week.

Is the student or the system falling short?

One night at bedtime, a 10-year-old looked at her mother with tears in her eyes and said, “Mom, I think I’m stupid.”

Seniors’ program closures serve no one

It sounds like just the kind of respite struggling families dealing with seniors and their often complicated needs would cling to like a life preserver.

“Our adult day program consists of planned activities designed to promote well-being through social, mental and recreational services. The day program will focus on enriching the participants’ lives and building their skills, knowledge, and unique abilities and strengths, all in a fun, enjoyable way!”

That’s the web description of the Lions Adult Day Program, one piece of which includes the Charleswood Adult Day Program on Roblin Boulevard.

Or, at least, it used to be the web description of the program in Charleswood.

Algeria to send troops to Niger in first foreign deployment in over 50 years

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algeria’s parliament approved a resolution Sunday to send troops to Niger, making it the first time Algerian soldiers will be deployed abroad since 1973, when they were sent to support Egypt during the Arab-Israeli war.

Authorities have not released any information about when and where exactly the Algerian army detachment will be deployed, or how many soldiers will be involved.

Algerian Sen. Belkacem Boulghiti said troops would be sent “to protect Algeria’s economic and strategic interests, particularly its oil facilities in Niger.”

“We are not sending our soldiers to wage war in Niger, but for a mission to secure economic infrastructure," he told reporters as he left the chamber after the vote. "It is simply an adaptation of our doctrine to evolving circumstances so we can rise to the new challenges imposed by the situation in the Sahel region.”

Echoes of Idle No More as Carney set to meet with First Nations

The prime minister, premiers and First Nations leaders will meet in Ottawa Monday to discuss a host of issues, including Indigenous involvement in energy and resource development projects.

B.C. Conservative’s Lorne Doerkson sets out urgent priorities to govern

VANCOUVER - British Columbia's premier-designate Lorne Doerkson's long to-do list includes lowering taxes, while reviewing the provincial finances, working with Alberta and the federal government on the proposed Pacific Link pipeline and repealing Indigenous legislation.

Doerkson laid out his priorities at a news conference Sunday, just hours after his party was elected with about two-thirds of the province's 93 seats in the legislature.

He said he has spoken to the lieutenant-governor and named Kim Henderson, a former deputy to the premier to previous Liberal governments, to lead his transition team.

"We are going to do this properly, and we are going to do it with obviously some urgency," he said. "When this government is sworn in, it will be ready on Day 1, and it will hit the ground running."

Air force pays tribute to retiring CC-130H Hercules planes

Royal Canadian Air Force personnel in Winnipeg bid farewell Saturday to the military branch’s last remaining CC-130H Hercules planes — “workhorses” that crews flew in seemingly countless combat, rescue and transport operations.

The federal government is phasing out Canada’s fleet of CC-130H Hercules aircraft, which entered service in 1974, in favour of modern planes, including the CC-295 Kingfisher, which will be used for search-and-rescue operations out of 17 Wing Winnipeg as of November.

“It’s really part of our family and one of us. This was the backbone of a lot of things that we do here out of Winnipeg,” Col. Curtis Wright, commander of 17 Wing Winnipeg, said of the “mighty Herc” after a retirement ceremony and a flypast.

The 435 Transport Search and Rescue Squadron, based at 17 Wing Winnipeg, is the final RCAF unit to fly the CC-130H Hercules. Two Winnipeg-based planes are still being flown. They will be taken out of service Nov. 1 and Nov. 18, Wright said.

First Nations prepare for historic meeting with Carney and the premiers

OTTAWA - Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak is feeling the weight of the moment as she approaches something her predecessors sought for years: a sit-down meeting with the prime minister and premiers.

"I look at some of our former leaders that had to really push and pull just to open these doors, and I wish they could see that today," Woodhouse Nepinak said recently between last-minute meetings with chiefs to prepare for the First Nations-First Ministers meeting in Ottawa on Monday.

"It is historic, but at the same time we don't want it to be one-and-done. We don't want it to fall flat and not offer hope again."

The meeting comes as Prime Minister Mark Carney works to speed up major project approvals and development — efforts some First Nations chiefs say threaten their rights.

Processing potential long way from reality

There are times in life when you want to be wrong — like when you walk into the doctor’s office believing your ailment will be the death of you.

It’s the same sort of feeling I get wading through the pile of newly released reports extolling the unrealized “potential” for more value-added processing in Canadian agriculture. There’s this little voice inside my head saying: “I’m from Manitoba. Show me.”

There are jaw-dropping numbers bandied about in various reports from Food and Beverage Canada, the Canadian Chambers of Commerce/PwC and the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. For example, more processing could add $75 billion on top of the $188 billion the sector already generates, create hundreds of thousands more jobs and a bigger domestic market for farmers. The list goes on.

Not to discount the solid analysis behind these efforts. Overall, it all sounds great, although notably missing is any mention of the growing concerns over ultra-processed foods and how that might affect future market growth.

Alberta: More federalist than you thought

Avert your eyes if you don’t like hard-core. This is a hard-core column about the hard-core Alberta separatists who hijacked a party, corrupted a process and failed in their fevered fervour to break up Canada.

First, be of good cheer. Canada won Monday night’s referendum in Alberta. Decisively. Three-quarters of the votes cast were for Option 1: “Alberta should remain a province of Canada.” Only one in four Alberta voters opted for a referendum on separation.

Alberta won, too. That strong vote against separation means the province can look ahead, confident the independence fever dream is boxed. A true win-win and a sad rarity in politics these days.

Be warned, though. Those hard-core separatists are hard dogs to keep on the porch, as the expression goes. They are already agitating to be taken more seriously than the votes warrant. They intend to flex whatever muscle memory remains to depose Premier Danielle Smith from her leadership of the United Conservative Party. Dis-united Conservative Party, anyone?

Down-to-earth diner fuses Filipino flavours, family and fortitude

There is a photomontage on one wall of Charlee’s Restaurant & Lounge devoted entirely to enduring Elmwood businesses such as the Thirsty Duck Café, Kool Deelites, Bath Fitter and Video Cellar.

Little did Charlee’s owner Charlie Villapando know as he was stringing the black-and-white shots together that his no-nonsense, homestyle diner at 185 Stadacona St. would grow to be a pillar of the working-class community, as well.

It was definitely a struggle for the first year and a half, Villapando admits, seated inside the 160-seat establishment that will toast its 20th anniversary in December. Besides relying largely on friends and family members who were willing to wait on tables for free, he was alone in the kitchen for 15 hours a day, seven days a week.

“I can’t tell you how many times I slept here on four chairs pushed together, simply because it would be 2 a.m. by the time I was done cleaning and whatnot, leaving just a few hours before I had to be back for breakfast,” he continues, casually dressed in jeans, sneakers and a dark cotton hoodie. “Thinking about it now, I probably should have put a cot in my office, except I never wanted to make it too comfortable. Thankfully, more people started to find us, I was finally able to afford staff and here we are, almost 20 years later, with me sleeping much better.”

Churchill expansion debated at University of Manitoba forum

A group of about 50 students, residents and environmental advocates gathered in Winnipeg on Friday to discuss Indigenous sovereignty and the future of northern Manitoba.

The event at the University of Manitoba was the final stop on the Arctic Crossroads Tour, an Indigenous-led public engagement campaign highlighting the potential impacts of proposed major infrastructure projects on northern First Nation communities. The tour also stopped in Churchill, Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and Brandon this week.

Event host Clayton Thomas-Müller — a climate activist, author and member of Pukatawagan Cree Nation — said concerns raised by attendees run counter to Premier Wab Kinew’s assertion earlier this year that there is no Indigenous opposition to a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline to Churchill.

“There is a ton of Indigenous concern, as well as fear to speak out,” Thomas-Müller, the Arctic and Hudson Bay campaigner for Climate Reality Project Canada, said in an interview.

Manitobans once rallied to save elected school boards. Now, voter apathy often wins at the polls

Front lawns were littered with “Local Voices, Local Choices” signs five years ago, protesting the imminent extinction of elected school boards.

Candidates are on the campaign trail today because public outcry forced the then-Progressive Conservative government to abandon its plans to replace trustees with political appointees in 2021.

The backlash to Bill 64 resulted in a new record of registrants, more than 500, for a legislative committee hearing. It became the backdrop for Premier Brian Pallister’s 2021 resignation. And it all but silenced discussion about whether the status quo in Manitoba — home to more school boards per capita than anywhere else in the country — needs even the most minor of redesigns.

Kelvin Goertzen immediately killed the bill when he became interim premier, but the longtime MLA said many of the problems that motivated his predecessor remain unsolved.

Final legal judgment rendered in Canadian Wheat Board saga

A judge has thrown out a class-action lawsuit that sought damages for certain grain farmers in relation to the end of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly by the federal government.

It’s the last of extensive litigation over the dissolution of the board.

Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin, in a decision this month, dismissed farmer Edward Andrew Dennis’s 2017 civil claim against the federal attorney general and G3 Global Grain Group, the successor to the wheat board.

The wheat board was created in 1935 as a voluntary marketing program and transformed into a compulsory marketing agency in which farmers were required to sell their wheat and barley to it.

Addressing poverty best way to reduce crime, majority of city residents say in survey

A majority of Winnipeggers believe tackling poverty is the best way to reduce crime, according to a new poll that also suggests support for addressing the root causes of crime has slipped over the past four years.

The survey, conducted by Abacus Data for the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, found 56 per cent of residents favour increased spending on poverty reduction, compared with 22 per cent who believe spending more on police is the best solution.

Support for poverty reduction has fallen six percentage points since 2022, while the proportion favouring increased police spending has edged up three points.

“It’s encouraging… because I thought it would be much lower,” Kate Kehler, executive director of the council, said Friday at a safety and well-being seminar at St. John’s High School.

Province orders ban on private teacher-student messaging

Manitoba teachers are no longer allowed to text or use social media to contact a student – regardless of whether they coach a school sports team or supervise other activities outside typical instruction times.

AI usage is prominent in Winnipeg’s municipal race, and it’s likely here to stay

Winnipeg voters may have noticed an uncanny sheen to aspects of certain mayoral campaigns this year.

Social media images and text a little too synthetically smooth — or, in some cases, downright surreal.

“This is the new normal. Everyone needs to accept that there is going to be rampant AI use by political parties … it’s the speed of adoption that’s been so disorienting,” says Aengus Bridgman, a former Winnipegger and assistant professor at McGill University whose research addresses the intersection of artificial intelligence and democracy.

“(Generative-AI use in elections) ranges from innocent fun to augmenting an under-resourced campaign to pretty clear examples of misleading.”

Manitoba to focus on children — and adults — in revamped autism plan

The Manitoba government has announced a U-turn that will ensure its autism strategy covers children and adults alike in response to community backlash.

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine announced Friday that recent amendments to Bill 232 — which would have bolstered disability-related support only for anyone aged 17 and under — will be reversed.

“I want families to know that we listened to every word that they said,” she said at a news conference inside her third-floor office at the Manitoba legislature.

The Autism Strategy Act will require the government to create a policy to improve the screening and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and support research.

Ottawa must parlay sports gambling boom into addiction supports

I watch a lot of sports on television, mostly hockey, baseball and football. And it’s getting harder to watch a game without being bombarded with gambling advertisements.

The betting industry hasn’t just bought commercial time. It has woven itself into the broadcasts, becoming part of the game itself.

Gambling logos plaster the boards around hockey rinks, appear on players’ jerseys and helmets, and pop up during commercial breaks. Broadcasters talk about betting odds, promote wagers and remind viewers how they can put money on the action unfolding in front of them.

It doesn’t affect me personally. I don’t gamble. But I think it’s ruining sports broadcasts. What was once about enjoying a game has increasingly become an opportunity to sell viewers another way to lose their money.