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.”

Environmental groups wanted to see clear decarbonization commitment in pipeline plan

OTTAWA - Environmental groups say they wanted to see a more concrete commitment to decarbonization in the proposal put forward for a pipeline to the B.C. coast backed by the Alberta and federal governments.

Representatives from both the Pembina Institute and Clean Prosperity said Friday the proposal should have included a solid commitment to finalizing the Pathways carbon capture project.

"I think it's time to completely discount the notion that the Pathways project is an actual real project that's going to contribute to emission reductions," Chris Severson-Baker, the Pembina Institute's executive director, said in an interview from Calgary.

"I actually think that the prime minister putting as much stock in it without putting any conditions on proponents to actually do it will finally expose it for what it is."

Green light for Greenlight: Pembina, partners go ahead with gas plant for data centre

CALGARY - Pembina Pipeline Corp. and two partners have given the go-ahead to the Greenlight Electricity Centre, a natural gas plant serving a data centre customer.

Pembina, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Kineticor Asset Management expect the cost of the project to come in at $4.6 billion. The 932-megawatt plant would be built in Sturgeon County, part of Alberta's Industrial Heartland region north of Edmonton, with startup targeted for the second half of 2030. The companies have permits that would allow them to double capacity down the line.

Data centres house the computer hardware required to power various tech applications, and their scale has ballooned with the boom in artificial intelligence and cloud computing. The province and companies did not identify the data centre customer they're serving.

Alberta has been actively trying to court so-called hyperscale developers, like Meta and Google, to set up shop in the province, but its electricity grid currently does not have enough capacity to accommodate several such projects. So Alberta is prioritizing projects that build or contract their own power generation.

Citizenship ceremony at The Forks welcomes 23 new Canadians on Canada Day

The sun peaked out of the clouds just before noon, shining down on The Forks just as the site’s Canada Day festivities were getting underway. The timing could not have been better: the sunbeams arrived just as Citizenship Court Judge Suzanne Carrière spoke from the CN Stage, and uttered the words that 23 people from 12 countries had waited years to hear.

“You are Canadian.”

In the seats facing the stage, Nathan Poole beamed. Originally from Saint Paul, Minn., he came to Winnipeg in 2000 to study music at the University of Manitoba. Manitoba soon became home, and he eventually met his husband, Brandon, here.

“I had to become Canadian, obviously,” he laughed. “You get married to a Canadian, you have to become a Canadian.”

U.S. not renewing trade agreement with Canada and Mexico in ‘current form’

WASHINGTON - The United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says the U.S. is not renewing the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement "in its current form" — but the trade agreement will remain in place as negotiations continue.

"The United States will continue to engage with Mexico and Canada to address the Agreement’s shortcomings and our trade deficits with these countries," Greer said in a statement Wednesday.

"However, the Agreement remains in force pending resolution of these issues or until the Agreement’s termination."

This decision triggers a rolling annual review for up to a decade, at which point it will expire if an extension isn't agreed upon.

MTS petition on residential school denialism garners 2,500 signatures

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society is petitioning Ottawa to make it illegal to deny, downplay or justify the harms of residential schools.

Its e-petition — formally known as “e-7191” on the House of Commons website — will close mid-morning Thursday, after a 120-day campaign to collect signatures in support of updating the Criminal Code.

“We won’t tolerate the denialism or the distortion of history,” said Lillian Klausen, who represents 17,000 public school teachers across the province.

The union leader said listening to the voices that have long been excluded from history textbooks “is part of trying to reconcile.”