Tesla leader believes Shanghai factory operations will play a role in robot mass production

SHANGHAI (AP) — A Tesla Inc. leader said Tuesday he believes its Shanghai factory operations will help resolve the challenges in achieving mass production of the company's humanoid robots as the U.S. electric vehicle giant pivots to robotics.

Wang Hao, Tesla's vice president, said the Shanghai facilities, like other Tesla factories, will contribute after the company enters an era of robots.

Wang, who also serves as president of Tesla China, told reporters on a government-organized tour of one of its Shanghai factories that CEO Elon Musk once noted having production at scale is a critical challenge in manufacturing humanoid robots.

Wang said he believes the Shanghai manufacturing arm “is a golden key to solving this challenge," but did not specify how the operation will support the company's robotic business.

Crop-enhancement firm eyes potato prosperity

Of all the research labs in all the cities in all the world, Kinneret Shefer walks into St. Boniface Hospital’s.

The researcher and entrepreneur is the co-founder of GeneNeer Ltd., an agricultural biotechnology company from Israel. Earlier this year, the company established its North American operations at the Albrechtsen Research Centre in the central Winnipeg hospital.

“We moved to Canada because our technology developed, we are moving to implementation and we have some business agreements in negotiation,” said Shefer, who holds a PhD in genetic counselling from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

GeneNeer launched its Canadian operations in January. The company converted laboratory facilities at the research centre and had them operating within two weeks, allowing research activities to begin almost immediately.

Northern trade corridor top of mind as Manitoba premier plans meeting with PM

WINNIPEG - Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is planning to go to Ottawa next week for a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Kinew says it's part of a plan the two men have to meet roughly every three months, primarily to discuss the possibility of a northern trade corridor through the Port of Churchill on Hudson Bay.

The project recently made a list of projects being considered as “transformative” by the federal government.

Studies are underway to gauge private-sector interest and examine the use of icebreakers to extend the port's short shipping season.

Energy-hungry Nova Scotia companies nearly doubled their solar power capacity in 2025

HALIFAX - Energy-hungry companies in Nova Scotia are heading toward the light.

New statistics from the province's private power utility show that commercial-scale players — which includes municipalities and First Nations — grew their capacity to generate solar energy by 82 per cent last year.

Energy consultant David Brushett says that’s partly because legislative changes a few years ago have allowed companies to install solar systems 10 times larger than before. The “net-metering” system gives firms a credit on their power bills for the electricity they generate, offsetting their own usage. Even with the new rules, they are not allowed to generate more power than their operations consume.

The program allows solar projects of up to one megawatt for commercial customers. Brushett says that size makes more financial sense. “So that allowed much larger installations,” Brushett said in an interview.

‘Long overdue’: Prairie farmers welcome renewal of poison to target pesky gophers

Prairie farmers say a move by Ottawa to temporarily lift a ban on a rodent poison is a good start to address rampant gopher populations that have decimated crops and injured livestock.

"I suspect maybe if the Bible had been written in Saskatchewan, it wouldn't have been locusts. It would have been gophers," Jeremy Welter, a farmer near Kerrobert, Sask., said Tuesday.

"I think (lifting the ban) is one of those things that is long overdue."

On Monday, federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel and Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald announced producers can again start using two per cent liquid strychnine until November 2027 to control gophers, also known as Richardson's ground squirrels.

Manitoba Hydro reduces remote work; decision raises fears among employees at other Crown corporations

Manitoba Hydro’s decision to cut remote workdays from two to one per week for eligible employees is causing concern for other public-sector workers who worry hybrid arrangements will be eroded.

Canada not worried U.S.-Mexico trade talks will upend trilateral deal, LeBlanc says

OTTAWA - Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said on Monday he isn't worried Mexico will sign a trade agreement with the Americans that excludes Canada.

LeBlanc told reporters at a news conference that the Mexicans are also committed to a trilateral deal as the countries work to renew the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, better known as CUSMA.

"We've also said all along that there will be a bilateral element to these discussions and there will also be a trilateral element," he said.

"The American administration and our government and the Mexicans have also been clear that there are bilateral issues that properly will be worked on together by two countries and it will necessarily form part of the discussion around the trilateral review of CUSMA as well."

‘Massive operation’: Canadian driller, shipper enlisted to help tap Greenland oil

CALGARY -

The promotional video shows a small creek trickling through a mossy patch in an otherwise brown, barren landscape, icebergs looming just offshore.

A petroleum engineer dips a hand into the stream, then takes a sniff.

"It smells like crude oil," he says, grinning at the camera.

Procurement ombud slams Indigenous procurement strategy outcomes in ‘shocking’ report

OTTAWA - Indigenous Services Canada and other departments are failing to uphold their own Indigenous procurement strategy and may be allowing contractors to use shell companies to access contracts reserved for Indigenous businesses, the federal procurement ombudsman said Thursday in a new report.

In a scathing analysis, Alexander Jeglic said Indigenous Services Canada failed to provide timely answers to procurement officers' questions in some cases and allowed some contracts to go out to companies not listed in the Indigenous Business Directory.

The report also cites a lack of oversight on contracts to ensure 33 per cent of the value of the work is done by an Indigenous contractor.

"Non-Indigenous businesses may use Indigenous businesses as shell companies — entities that meet the minimum ownership requirement on paper but do not actually perform the work — allowing them to unfairly access contracts intended to be set aside for Indigenous businesses," the report reads.

After 15 years of building North American brand, Winnipeg-based XiteBio Technologies Inc. eyes overseas markets

Out of the laboratory and into farmers’ fields.

If you had to describe Manas Banerjee’s career trajectory in fewer than 10 words, you could do a lot worse than that.

Banerjee is the CEO and founder of XiteBio Technologies Inc., an agricultural biotechnology company based in south Winnipeg, but before that, he was a researcher, scientist and professor at a number of institutions.

After earning a PhD in soil microbiology from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Banerjee moved to Canada. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan, a research associate at the University of Manitoba and an adjunct professor at Western University (Ontario), publishing numerous papers and book chapters related to soil science.

Canada should ‘absolutely’ match Poland’s Chinese EV ban at military bases: expert

OTTAWA - Intelligence and cybersecurity experts are warning the Liberal government about national security risks posed by allowing Chinese electric vehicles onto Canadian military bases.

Critics and some experts are even calling on Ottawa to ban the cars from Canadian Armed Forces bases and other sensitive sites due to onboard sensors they say could collect and transmit sensitive information to the Chinese government.

Their warning comes after Poland and Israel instituted similar bans  on EVs built by Chinese companies like BYD Auto over the past year — and as Conservative politicians in Canada raise the alarm over the threat of so-called "spy cars."

Dennis Molinaro, a counter-intelligence expert at Ontario Tech University and a former national security analyst, said the federal government should follow the example of Poland and Israel.

Gas pains: soaring prices due to Mideast conflict could lead to energy turning point in Canada

Veteran actor Billy Bob Thornton may seem like an unlikely source of wisdom about the world’s relentless dependence on oil. Then again, it would be hard to find a better, more poignant description of the global addiction than a diatribe he delivered in a recent episode of Landman, a melodrama set in the Texas oil industry.

Thornton’s character, Tommy Norris, a crisis manager for a large oil company, is walking through a wind turbine farm that generates electricity to power remote oil rigs. Norris notes that over a wind turbine’s 20-year lifespan, the “clean” energy it produces won’t offset the carbon emitted in the manufacturing of its components or its installation. The same economics, Norris says, can be applied to solar panels and batteries for electric vehicles.

Then, the punchline.

“Our whole lives depend on (oil). And hell, it’s in everything — that road we came in on, the wheels on every car ever made, including yours. It’s in tennis rackets and lipstick and refrigerators and antihistamines. Pretty much anything plastic: your cellphone case, artificial heart valves, any kind of clothing that’s not made with animal or plant fibers. Soap, f—king hand lotion, garbage bags, fishing boats. You name it, every f—king thing. And you know what the kicker is?

U.S. congressman introduces bill targeting Online Streaming Act

OTTAWA - A Republican congressman in Washington has introduced a new bill taking aim at Canada’s Online Streaming Act.

The bill would trigger an investigation of the streaming legislation by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Rep. Lloyd Smucker's office said in a news release.

The statement said if the trade representative finds the implementation of the streaming bill discriminates against or burdens American commerce, the USTR would be directed to take “necessary retaliatory action.”

Under the Online Streaming Act, the federal broadcast regulator has ordered large foreign platforms to make a five per cent contribution toward Canadian content.

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.

Construction groups miffed by new fee on public-sector projects

Three large construction associations in Manitoba say the cost of huge public projects will soar thanks to a new fee implemented by the province, and they want the auditor general to investigate it.

The fee is applied to projects covered by Manitoba Jobs Agreements, which launched last year to try to ensure more local workers and contractors benefit from big public-sector projects. Builders must pay 85 cents per hour, per worker.

The Winnipeg Construction Association, Manitoba Heavy Construction Association and the Construction Association of Rural Manitoba attacked the fee in a joint letter Thursday.

“The 85 cents per hour has nothing to do with wages of workers on site,” said Darryl Harrison, director of the Winnipeg association. “Every cent… (could) be spent in other ways that help the Manitoba taxpayer.

Local TV stations ask regulator to force Meta to pay for posting some news content

OTTAWA - Some local and independent TV stations are asking the federal broadcast regulator to start a process to force Meta to pay for allowing some news content on Facebook and Instagram.

They say that despite Meta’s move in 2023 to pull news from its platforms in response to the Online News Act, some content remains available.

The Online News Act requires Meta and Google to compensate media outlets for displaying their content. While Meta pulled news from its platforms in response and has not been required to pay news outlets, Google has been making payments under the act.

In a submission to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the stations cite examples of online posts that included news content, such as text and screenshots of stories and video clips.

Province intends to create registry of Manitoba-certified Red Seal tradespeople

The Manitoba government plans to create an online public registry of certified tradespeople.

Proposed legislation targets predatory grocery pricing

The Manitoba government is taking action to ensure grocery pricing based on customer data doesn’t rear its predatory head in the province.

Churchill port could further stunt polar bear growth: U of M researcher

Manitoba’s bold plan to transform the Port of Churchill into a shipping powerhouse could have a negative effect on the area’s treasured polar bear population, which fuels its tourism trade, new research shows.

Maple 2.0: Quebec syrup-makers turn to automation and expansion as demand grows

ROXTON POND -

Visitors to the main building of the Côté et fils maple farm in Quebec's Eastern Townships region will be greeted by a wall of screens with the views from dozens of security cameras, showing an array of tubes and troughs filling up with clear, foamy sap.

Through a door, inside the production area, noise-cancelling headphones are needed for the deafening hum of the gleaming machines transforming thousands of litres of maple sap into syrup each day.

Mikael Ruest acknowledges that the process is far removed from the folksy images of buckets and horse-drawn sleighs that still grace the company's syrup cans.