Social Studies: Contemporary Geographic Issues

Kindness crops up in harvest for hungry

John Longhurst 4 minute read Preview

Kindness crops up in harvest for hungry

John Longhurst 4 minute read Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024

NEAR LANDMARK — Grain dust billowing in their wake, eight combines drove back and forth across a 100-acre field near Landmark on Tuesday to bring in a harvest for hungry people around the world. The combines were there to take off a crop of wheat for the Landmark Canadian Foodgrains Bank growing project — the first fall harvest for 41 such projects across Manitoba communities. “The field looks good,” said growing project organizer Randy Plett, who farms oilseeds and grains near Landmark. NIC ADAM / FREE PRESS Foodgrains regional representative Gordon Janzen (centre right) and Landmark growing project coordinator Randy […]

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Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024

NIC ADAM / FREE PRESS

Farmer Larry Goossen’s combine fills a bin with grain at the growing project’s field outside Landmark, MB., Tuesday.

NIC ADAM / FREE PRESS
                                Farmer Larry Goossen’s combine fills a bin with grain at the growing project’s field outside Landmark, MB., Tuesday.

The economic opportunity beneath our feet

MaryAnn Mihychuk 5 minute read Monday, May. 13, 2024

Beneath Manitobans’ feet lies a treasure trove, ripe and ready for exploration.

Fossil fuel fouls clean-grid future

Julia-Simone Rutgers 12 minute read Preview

Fossil fuel fouls clean-grid future

Julia-Simone Rutgers 12 minute read Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024

Despite its reputation as one of Canada’s cleanest electric grids, Manitoba Hydro used more natural gas-fuelled electricity in the last 12 months than it has in a decade.

A perfect storm of drought conditions and high electricity import costs resulted in the province firing up its backup natural gas power earlier and significantly more often to keep up with demand.

From 2013 to 2023, the utility has run its natural gas generators for an average 54 gigawatt-hours of power; this year, the province has used 122 GWh, according to data provided by Manitoba Hydro.

The drought conditions took a toll on the province’s hydroelectric reserves this year, prompting the utility to import electricity as well as running its backup thermal generators.

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Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024

MANITOBA HYDRO

Keeyask Generating Station, seen in 2018.

MANITOBA HYDRO
                                Keeyask Generating Station, seen in 2018.

Fuel pipeline to Winnipeg shut down

Free Press staff 1 minute read Sunday, Mar. 17, 2024

A pipeline that supplies fuel to Winnipeg has been temporarily shut down, the Manitoba government announced Sunday night.

In a news release, the province said it is working with other suppliers to bring fuel into Manitoba after Imperial Oil temporarily shut down its pipeline between Gretna and Winnipeg.

“Industry partners are leveraging extensive supply networks and actively working to minimize customer and end-user impacts by maintaining Manitoba’s fuel supply through other means including rail and truck,” the release said.

There was no indication how the shutdown would impact fuel supply in Winnipeg or across the province.

The path to end park logging

Eric Reder 5 minute read Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023

LOGGING in Duck Mountain Provincial Park is a thorny embarrassment new Premier Wab Kinew inherited from successive governments. But he must finish what the previous NDP governments started and permanently end commercial logging in Manitoba parks.

There’s only one proper pathway to solve this shameful chapter in our province and it involves reconciliation, decolonizing parks and acting on our global commitment to end the biodiversity crisis. Solving several issues at once is the leadership we need.

The current Louisiana-Pacific licence to log Duck Mountain Provincial Park expires on Dec. 31, 2023. The new government will absolutely renew it given it’s been mere weeks since the election. While this may not have been enough time to resolve this colossally contentious catastrophe, the clock is now ticking and we demand a solution.

The Progressive Conservatives caused this problem in the 1990s by using an overestimate of wood in the Duck Mountain region as justification to give Louisiana-Pacific reign over Duck Mountain Provincial Park. Manitoba’s Clean Environment Commission had just recommended that “commercial forestry activity in all provincial parks should be phased out,” but this was ignored. The NDP fixed most of the problems in 2009 when they banned logging in 12 of 13 parks, yet left Duck Mountain to the logging companies.

Going underground, large-scale

Ed Lohrenz 4 minute read Thursday, Jul. 13, 2023

It is never easy to change. Natural gas has been connected to most homes in Winnipeg since the 1950’s and ‘60s and produces almost 3.7 million tonnes of CO2 annually. Some gas lines have been in the ground for more than 60 years. Their life expectancy is about 75-85 years. Gas companies in Canada spend close to $3 billion annually to renew and expand the pipelines.

This is the problem. The cost of building gas lines is amortized over the expected life of the pipeline. Basically, the infrastructure is paid with a very long-term mortgage. That has kept the price of delivering gas to our buildings low. If gas lines are being renewed and extended, the term of the mortgage is 80 years. If we want to move away from gas to heat our homes, how is the utility going to pay the mortgage when no one is buying gas?

The alternative? Electricity. We can use electricity directly (think toaster elements), use it to extract heat from the air outside, or use it to extract heat from the earth.

Electric heat is more efficient than gas, but at today’s electric and gas rates, it’s about three times as expensive to heat your home with electric heat.

Cloud seeding catching on amid Rocky Mountain drought

Mead Gruver And Brittany Peterson, The Associated Press 8 minute read Preview

Cloud seeding catching on amid Rocky Mountain drought

Mead Gruver And Brittany Peterson, The Associated Press 8 minute read Monday, Oct. 6, 2025

LYONS, Colo. (AP) — Garrett Cammans and his brothers sometimes don't talk about their toughest moments on the job in the cloud seeding business, like the time when one of them got stuck in deep mountain snow and had to hike out alone in the dark.

“They're going out into some pretty remote and rural areas," Cammans said. "And there have been a few close encounters with wildlife we don’t like to discuss at the family dinner table.”

But snow — as much as possible — is at the heart of the Cammans family business, Utah-based North American Weather Consultants, which holds cloud seeding contracts throughout the U.S. West, centered in the Rocky Mountains.

Lately, business is up. Amid two decades of drought, cloud seeding — using airplanes or ground equipment to waft rain-and-snow-making particles into clouds — is on the rise in the Rockies.

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Monday, Oct. 6, 2025

Brothers Parker, left, and Carver Cammans install cloud seeding equipment Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022, in Lyons, Colo. The technique to get clouds to produce more snow is being used more as the Rocky Mountain region struggles with a two-decade drought. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson)

Brothers Parker, left, and Carver Cammans install cloud seeding equipment Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022, in Lyons, Colo. The technique to get clouds to produce more snow is being used more as the Rocky Mountain region struggles with a two-decade drought. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson)

Manitoba hog industry continues to grow

Martin Cash 4 minute read Preview

Manitoba hog industry continues to grow

Martin Cash 4 minute read Friday, Apr. 14, 2023

Manitoba hog producers face global trade uncertainties, disease prevention issues, increasing environmental concerns and sky-high input costs — all of which are affecting producers’ margins — but the Manitoba hog industry continues to grow.

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Friday, Apr. 14, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Cam Dahl, general manager of Manitoba Pork said the industry is paying much more attention to bio-security and health and sustainability issues than was the case 15 years ago.

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
                                Cam Dahl, general manager of Manitoba Pork said the industry is paying much more attention to bio-security and health and sustainability issues than was the case 15 years ago.

Leaving the vulnerable to struggle in the cold shames this city

Melissa Martin 6 minute read Preview

Leaving the vulnerable to struggle in the cold shames this city

Melissa Martin 6 minute read Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022

An open letter, to the man I saw on Selkirk Avenue, on a recent Thursday afternoon just before 2 p.m.

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Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES A man pushes his wheelchair as he makes his way down McGee Street after a day of heavy snowfall in Winnipeg in December 2021.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A man pushes his wheelchair as he makes his way down McGee St after a day of heavy snowfall in Winnipeg Monday, December 27, 2021. Twenty centimetres were expected to fall before the end of day.

Broader perception of downtown seems mired in time

Melissa Martin 7 minute read Preview

Broader perception of downtown seems mired in time

Melissa Martin 7 minute read Friday, Oct. 14, 2022

One of the most jarring signs that you’re getting older, perhaps, is when youth of the next generations start asking what you remember about the past. It’s been happening more to me, lately. It’s a strange feeling, to realize your memories are making the transition from a living description of your time, to an artifact of history; at least, it puts time into perspective.

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Friday, Oct. 14, 2022

Pedestrians and traffic don't mix at Winnipeg's major and historic intersection of Portage and Main, and pedestrians cross the street by using an underground concourse.
JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES

Pedestrians and traffic don't mix at Winnipeg's major and historic intersection of Portage and Main, and pedestrians cross the street by using an underground concourse. 
JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES

Save our Seine ensures long-neglected river preserved for generations to come

​Janine LeGal 6 minute read Preview

Save our Seine ensures long-neglected river preserved for generations to come

​Janine LeGal 6 minute read Saturday, Jul. 16, 2022

Have you ever stopped to notice how you feel while gazing at a river’s waves and ripples, or while looking up at majestic trees as they seem to touch the sky? Increasing data shows a direct correlation between spending time in nature and overall better health, with benefits to both physical and mental well-being. One good thing resulting from the pandemic was a resurgence of an appreciation of nature — especially for urban dwellers.

For over 30 years, Save Our Seine River Environment Inc. (SOS) has been working to increase access to green space by preserving, protecting, restoring, repairing and caring for the entire length of the Seine River within Winnipeg and the land around it.

Believed to be originally named Tchimâhâgânisipi in Cree (Tchimâhâgâni meaning “seine net” and sipi meaning “river”), the Seine River’s historical significance underwent a major transformation over time.

Over the years it had become a foul-smelling place to dump everything from lumber, concrete and chemicals to appliances, machinery and vehicles. Some years the river, reeking of chemicals, was impassable by canoe.

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Saturday, Jul. 16, 2022

ETHAN CAIRNS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
The mission of Save Our Seine, mostly in the hands of volunteers like Rishtia Rajib, Brittany Guarino, Abby Rodrigue and Barbara Farpelha, to monitor and clean up the river to keep it accessible to kayakers and other nature enthusiasts.

ETHAN CAIRNS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS 
The mission of Save Our Seine, mostly in the hands of volunteers like Rishtia Rajib, Brittany Guarino, Abby Rodrigue and Barbara Farpelha, to monitor and clean up the river to keep it accessible to kayakers and other nature enthusiasts.

Reserve files suit over logging in western Manitoba

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Reserve files suit over logging in western Manitoba

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022

A second Manitoba First Nation is taking the province and lumber giant Louisiana-Pacific Canada Ltd. to court over commercial logging activity in western Manitoba.

Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation filed a lawsuit Wednesday that seeks a moratorium on all logging and forestry development activities in Porcupine Mountain Provincial Forest and Kettle Hills, and an order that the province complete “a process of meaningful consultation” with the First Nation before it can resume.

Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation’s two reserves are located north of Birch River and along the western shore of Swan Lake.

The province extended its licence agreement with Louisiana-Pacific in December, allowing it to build more roads, harvest more timber “and further erode the rights” of its members,” the first nation said in a news release Wednesday.

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Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022

Louisiana-Pacific Canada Ltd. also has a contract to log in Duck Mountain Provincial Park (above). (Wilderness Committee photo)

Louisiana-Pacific Canada Ltd. also has a contract to log in Duck Mountain Provincial Park (above). (Wilderness Committee photo)

First Nation seeking review into logging practices

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Preview

First Nation seeking review into logging practices

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Monday, Oct. 6, 2025

WINNIPEG - A First Nation in Manitoba says it has not been properly included in sustainable forest management practices and is asking for a judicial review into commercial logging in a provincial park.

Minegoziibe Anishinabe, also known as Pine Creek First Nation, is asking Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench to quash the government's decision to extend a timber-cutting licence to Louisiana-Pacific Canada.

"Manitoba did not consult with Pine Creek before authorizing Louisiana-Pacific to continue logging in the Duck Mountain Park forest and surrounding areas," said Jeremy McKay, a policy analyst for the community.

The U.S.-based building company submitted a 20-year forest management plan in 2006 to obtain logging rights for an area in Duck Mountain Provincial Park near the Saskatchewan boundary.

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Monday, Oct. 6, 2025

Grand Chief Derek Nepinak, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, speaks at a Special Chiefs assembly/conference on climate change and the environment in Winnipeg, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

Grand Chief Derek Nepinak, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, speaks at a Special Chiefs assembly/conference on climate change and the environment in Winnipeg, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

Move over canola, here come soybeans

4 minute read Sunday, May. 25, 2003

CARMAN -- Which of these sights doesn't belong along Manitoba highways?

a) golden wheat

b) shimmering blue flax

c) canary yellow canola