Chief says assembly will tackle effect of major projects push on First Nations rights

OTTAWA - Major projects and a coming meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney and the premiers will be the main focus of the Assembly of First Nations annual general assembly this week, National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said Monday.

The AFN gathering begins Tuesday and runs for three days.

Speaking alongside a handful of regional chiefs and First Nations representatives at a news conference, Woodhouse Nepinak blasted the federal government over its approach to major projects development and said it could threaten the rights of First Nations.

She said First Nations are not opposed to economic growth and are simply asking for a seat at the table as the federal government attempts to shore up the economy.

bet365 expands Canadian footprint with launch in Alberta’s gaming market

Trip Stoddard and bet365 are expanding their Canadian footprint.

Alberta officially opened its regulated sports betting and iGaming market Monday, becoming the second Canadian province to do so. Ontario became the first to offer a regulated, private market for online gaming April 4, 2022.

And like it did in Ontario, bet365 is among the operators that will set up shop in Alberta.

“Canada is a key market for bet365, and cementing our brand’s presence in Alberta marks another milestone in our long-term commitment to Canadian sports fans,” said Stoddard, head of development at bet365. "We're proud to work alongside Alberta's regulators to give fans a trusted platform to engage with the sports they love through a responsible, world-class experience."

If it works in Ontario, why not in Manitoba?

Grid-scale battery storage has fundamentally changed the global energy landscape — and Manitoba needs to get on board.

Battery systems store large amounts of excess electricity for when it’s most needed. While they can be charged from any generation source, they are especially beneficial for integrating wind and solar power, which vary with weather and time of day. Batteries allow electrical grids to meet the need for firm, dispatchable and affordable capacity using renewable energy, rather than relying on coal, nuclear and fossil gas. They also provide numerous other benefits, including reducing overloading of transmission infrastructure and helping to regulate the grid’s frequency and voltage.

Average costs for grid-scale batteries plummeted by more than half between 2023 and 2025 and installations have skyrocketed in China, the U.S., Australia and Europe. Texas now has 16,500 megawatts (MW) of battery storage, while California has 15,200 MW. Closer to home, Ontario recently awarded 640 MW of contracts to three battery storage projects in a competitive auction, with batteries beating out fossil gas-fired power plants on cost every time. One of these projects will be built near Dryden, only four hours east of Winnipeg.

Each battery system will provide eight hours of capacity but will cost considerably less than Ontario’s previous battery procurements, which provide only four hours of capacity. With this latest auction, Ontario has now secured 3,600 MW of battery storage capacity, including the operational Oneida (250 MW), Hagersville (300 MW) and Napanee (250 MW) projects. Almost all have significant Indigenous participation, with the latest procurements boasting 50 per cent First Nations ownership.

Quebec municipalities express interest in Samuel de Champlain statue from Ontario

Some Quebec municipalities and organizations are offering to take a controversial statue of Samuel de Champlain from an Ontario city in Simcoe County.

The nearly four-metre-tall bronze monument of the 17th century explorer and founder of Quebec City was removed from a park in Orillia, Ont., and placed in storage in 2017 following debate over its colonial imagery.

Orillia Mayor Don McIsaac said a wave of offers poured in after the city recently raised the possibility of melting the statue down.

“They say it's racist, it's not our history, it is an insult to Indigenous peoples,” McIsaac said in an interview about the controversy over the statue.

Canada’s Senate: A glimpse at the operations of the upper chamber

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney made his first appointments to the Senate on Tuesday, naming four new senators to the upper chamber. They include Carney's principal secretary Tom Pitfield and Conservative MP Richard Martel, who will both fill seats from Quebec.

He also announced he is dropping the non-partisan criteria for appointments to the upper chamber, and plans to rejig the independent appointments advisory committee established by former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Those were just some of the changes Trudeau made to the Senate, which had been dogged by accusations of cronyism and spending scandals.

Here's a look at the role the Senate plays, and how the Senate has changed in the last 10 years.

Pipeline could be Kinew’s legacy or a slick disappointment

Is Wab Kinew poised to become Manitoba’s Pipeline King?

Developments on several fronts are giving Manitoba’s premier the opportunity to make oil and gas pipelines not only the cornerstone of his current economic policy, but also the lasting legacy from his time governing the province.

On the one hand, Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised significant sums of federal money to develop the Port of Churchill into the major shipping hub it has always aspired to be. The catch is that Manitoba must come up with a firm plan to ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) through the port by 2030, a goal that almost certainly requires a pipeline.

At the same time, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and, most recently, Ontario Premier Doug Ford are signing deals to build LNG pipelines that connect western oil fields to major shipping hubs in eastern Canada.

Westman residents fear power project’s wind turbines will sully their idyllic landscape

POLONIA — Leonard Kaspick can list just about every household in the valley.

“There’s someone living right across the northeast, someone living behind here, about a quarter mile there’s a house there, then a half mile there’s another house there, I’m here, and then on top of the hill there’s someone else there,” he says, standing in the heart of the hamlet — a community hall just off the main drag.

Besides the hall and the smattering of homes, there’s a historic (though out-of-commission) church next door and a single general store further down the road.

“There’s less people here now than there was in 1885,” Kaspick, 83, jokes as he wraps up a condensed history of the western-Manitoba community.

FIFA World Cup, youth job gains gave the labour market a lift in June

OTTAWA - The FIFA World Cup and a better summer jobs market for young workers appeared to drive steady gains in Canada's labour market last month.

Employers added 18,000 jobs in June, Statistics Canada said Friday, mostly in part-time and private sector work.

That pushed the unemployment rate down a tenth of a point to 6.5 per cent, back to where it stood in January.

Employment gains narrowly topped economists’ expectations heading into the release but mark a slowdown from the 88,000 jobs added in May.

Keeping cool: How Meta plans to cut down on water use at its Alberta data centre

CALGARY - A Meta Platforms Inc. executive garnered applause at a news conference this week after he boasted that a gargantuan data centre planned for north of Edmonton would use less water annually than a typical Alberta golf course.

The tech behemoth was announcing a $13-billion-plus investment in a complex the size of 33 Canadian Football League fields. It will be powered by a new natural gas plant that could eventually produce more electricity than what the City of Edmonton uses.

The data centre in Sturgeon County, like other hyperscale proposals in Canada, is to use what's known as a closed-loop cooling system to keep servers from overheating. That differs from an evaporative cooling system, which requires enormous amounts of cool water that is not reused.

Gary Demasi, vice-president of data centre strategy and development at Meta, told a news conference Wednesday that no water will be needed for regular cooling operations.

Canada objects to Olympics loosening restrictions on Russia athletes amid Ukraine war

OTTAWA - Canada objected on Thursday to the International Olympic Committee loosening its suspension on Russian athletes.

The move, announced Tuesday, would apply to the 2028 games in Los Angeles, opening the door for Russian athletes to compete, but the IOC says it will decide later if they could do it with the Russian flag and anthem.

"I am appalled by the IOC’s decision," wrote Secretary of State for sport Adam van Koeverden, a former Olympian.

"The countries of Russia and Belarus should not be represented in international sports competitions while Russia's illegal and unjustifiable full-scale invasion against Ukraine continues," he wrote.

Meta to build $13B data centre north of Edmonton, its first in Canada

CALGARY - The tech behemoth behind Facebook and Instagram says it plans to make Alberta home to its first artificial intelligence data centre in Canada and its largest outside the United States.

Meta announced Wednesday that the $13-billion-plus project is to be built in Sturgeon County, in the Industrial Heartland region north of Edmonton.

The one-gigawatt, nearly 270,000-square-metre data centre would be powered by a natural gas-fired plant to be built by a consortium that includes Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Ltd.

It takes about 1.4 gigawatts to power Edmonton, and the proposed data centre campus could fit 33 Canadian Football League fields.

Data centre capacity could soar to 20 GW in planned projects: government document

OTTAWA - A document prepared for the federal artificial intelligence minister to use when pitching international investors on Canada’s AI ecosystem identifies a massive proposed increase in Canada’s data centre capacity.

But spokespeople for the government pushed back strongly on the figure, saying it is not a projection of the capacity Canada expects to build, and the total capacity will be much less.

It says Canada currently has about 337 megawatts of AI data centre capacity, and there are more than 20 gigawatts — or 20,000 megawatts — in projects that are "under planning or development."

The number was included in a presentation prepared by a government department for Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon to use with international investors. It was obtained by The Canadian Press through access-to-information.

Ottawa tabs $10.2M for AI development, use in Manitoba

Drones will replace books in Manitoba’s newest government-funded library. Ottawa has slated $1.14 million for the Manitoba Construction Sector Council, who will oversee the project.

Ottawa to invest up to $400 million in Teck critical minerals smelter in B.C.

The federal government says it will invest up to $400 million into Teck Resources Ltd.'s critical minerals processing operations in southern B.C. as Ottawa looks to shore up supplies of metals used in the defence and green energy sectors.

"We are facing a trade war we did not ask for. We're facing the most volatile geopolitics since the end of World War II, which has led to the biggest energy crisis in modern history. We face technological change at a pace not seen in decades, mainly due to the advent of AI. And we face an accelerating clean energy transition that needs critical minerals," Tim Hodgson, the federal natural resources minister, said in Trail, B.C., on Tuesday.

"Anyone who tells you facing these challenges as a government, or as a nation, is not daunting is not telling the truth."

But Hodgson said the crises are creating an opportunity for Canada.

German aerospace company signs 10-year deal to use Nova Scotia rocket launch pad

HALIFAX - The company vying to build Canada’s first commercial rocket launch pad in Nova Scotia has signed a deal with a German aerospace firm that could see orbital launches by 2028.

Halifax-based Maritime Launch Services Ltd. says Germany’s Isar Aerospace plans to build a dedicated complex for its Spectrum rocket at the Nova Scotia company's site near Canso, N.S., on the eastern shore.

The two-stage rocket is designed to carry small- and medium-sized satellites into space. The German company, which has already established its first launch site in Norway, has created a new Canadian subsidiary, Isar Aerospace Canada Inc.

"While every nation needs data from space, almost no nation has the end-to-end capability to access it independently,” Alexandre Dalloneau, Isar’s vice-president of mission and launch operations, said in a statement.

Manitoba Tories can learn from Poilievre’s mistake

Among the many errors made by Pierre Poilievre since becoming leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, his decision to attempt to persuade supporters of Max Bernier’s People’s Party and other right-wing groups to return to the Tory party ­— as opposed to adopting policies that would make the CPC more attractive to moderate Canadians — may be his greatest mistake.

Work permits extended to 2027 for international grads

The federal government is offering a reprieve for international graduates who found work and settled in Manitoba, giving the province more time to process a backlog of provincial nominee applications.

Five things you should know about Canada’s new fleet of submarines

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal government on Monday named Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems as the preferred bidder to build the navy's next fleet of submarines.

That means Canada will now enter into months of closed-door negotiations with TKMS.

The firm competed with South Korean defence firm Hanwha Ocean for the lucrative contract.

Here's a quick look at what is behind this major military purchase.

Carney names TKMS preferred sub bidder, hopes to join sub club with Germany, Norway

HALIFAX - Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday named German defence manufacturer TKMS as the preferred bidder to supply the Royal Canadian Navy's next fleet of submarines, and he said several are expected to be delivered by 2034.

Carney made the announcement at a Canadian Armed Forces base in Halifax, a stop along his way to this year's annual NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, where he can talk up the massive purchase.

"The sovereignty of our country, bounded by the three oceans and the world's longest coastline, depends on our maritime capabilities," he said.

The prime minister said it was a close race and the government had a difficult decision to make between offers from TKMS and its South Korean rival Hanwha.

Teen urges premier to reject data centre, ‘put people and the environment first’

A 17-year-old who started a petition against the construction of an AI data centre northwest of Winnipeg has made a personal appeal to the premier to stop it.

Leona Gollub emailed Premier Wab Kinew to voice her concern about the environmental impact of a 5.5-megawatt AI data centre that’s being built on Brookside Boulevard in the Centreport industrial area in the Rural Municipality of Rosser, northwest of Winnipeg.

She said she worries about the noise and light pollution that would be emitted by the facility, and the massive amount of electricity it will require that could instead power people’s homes.

The premier, who recently rejected a data centre in Île dês Chênes, southeast of Winnipeg, thanked her for her concern in an email but did not go beyond that.

Premiers Smith, Ford unveil proposed west-east oil pipeline route

CALGARY - Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled Monday a route for a proposed west-east oil pipeline.

The two premiers say it would stretch 3,300 kilometres from Hardisty, Alta., to refineries in Sarnia, Ont., without crossing the U.S. border.

They made the announcement at the Calgary Stampede after the two leaders were up bright and early flipping pancakes at Smith's annual premier's breakfast.

An Ontario government brochure says the line, referred to as the Northern Shield Energy Corridor, would move 500,000 barrels of crude per day and help reduce Canada's need to import refined oil. It could be expanded to handle 800,000 barrels per day, the brochure says.

‘Forward guidance’ on Canadian climate targets

At last, some honesty in Canadian climate policy

Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke the truth last week about where greenhouse gas emissions were going in Canada: up, not down. This is the first time any prime minister has stated the reality of the country’s emissions trajectory. Until now, it’s all been about putting a positive gloss on far-off reduction goals and unrealistic ambitions.

The prime minister’s second instalment of “forward guidance”, as he calls it, focused on what’s ahead on energy and climate. It was a refreshing and overdue pivot in crafting a more realistic and durable climate policy for the country.

Here’s what he said: “I want to be clear on this point. The changes we have made will mean that our emissions will be higher in the next few years than they were projected to be under the previous government’s plan. But in my judgment, that plan was not sustainable over the long term.”