Northern First Nation calls for voluntary ban of moose hunting as numbers dwindle

A northern Manitoba First Nation is calling for a voluntary closure of moose hunting in its traditional territory to protect the declining population and respond to what it sees is a lack of provincial intervention.

On Friday, Misipawistik Cree Nation issued a plea urging hunters to abstain from harvesting moose in provincial Game Hunting Area 10 — a 10,000-square-kilometre region of boreal forest north of Grand Rapids. The request applies to this year’s moose-hunting seasons, which open Monday.

According to the province’s 2025 aerial big-game survey, an estimated 281 moose reside in the area, roughly 60 of which are bull moose. That’s down from an estimated 346 moose in 2013, which the survey describes as a “relatively stable population” over the past decade.

This year, 124 licences and 62 bull moose tags were made available in the region during Manitoba’s annual hunting draw.

AFN invites premiers, Carney to ceremony ahead of October meeting

OTTAWA - The Assembly of First Nations has invited premiers and Prime Minister Mark Carney to a daylong ceremony ahead of their October meeting.

The premiers, Carney and First Nations representatives are set to meet in Ottawa on Oct. 26 — the first such gathering in decades — just as tensions are rising over the federal and provincial governments' major projects agenda.

National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said First Nations leaders want to bring their own cultural practices to that meeting and she hopes all premiers accept the invitation.

"We're taught as First Nations people that ceremony and prayers change things," Woodhouse Nepinak told The Canadian Press.

Odds of an interest rate hike from Bank of Canada this year have jumped

OTTAWA - Traders are increasingly betting that the Bank of Canada could end its string of interest rate holds and deliver a hike as early as next month.

While many economists remain unconvinced that the central bank will raise the cost of borrowing this year, concerns that inflation could become a more persistent thorn than first thought have some pencilling in a tightening cycle to start in early 2027.

The U.S. Federal Reserve broke its own stand-pat stance and delivered the United States' first rate hike in more than three years on Wednesday in an effort to rein in inflationary pressures bubbling up south of the border.

The Bank of Canada has sat comfortably on the sidelines for nearly a year now, content to leave its policy rate unchanged at 2.25 per cent as it waits to see how the economy and inflation will adjust to a series of shocks.

Kinew delivered what most of us wanted; now we’ll have to deal with the consequences

Premier Wab Kinew has decided to adopt permanent daylight savings time, which means a permanent end to the spring forward, fall back tradition of adjusting our clocks. And absolutely no one is surprised.

Manitoba abandoning spring, fall clock changes

Manitobans won’t be setting their clocks back an hour in November. The province has decided to permanently stay on daylight time after surveying residents on the twice annual clock adjustment.

‘Parental rights’ issue resurfaces

Trustee campaign material that condemns rainbow flags is being met with outrage of all kinds, written complaints and, in one case, a cease-and-desist order.

“Parental rights,” including questions about classroom diversity, equity and inclusion policies, are resurfacing heading into school board elections across Manitoba.

“People are trying to advance their politics and their issues while simultaneously calling teachers ideologues and brainwashers,” said Shannon Moore, an associate professor at the University of Manitoba who studies sexual health education. “And I find that rich.”

Moore said parents have a right to choose independent school or homeschool, but they do not have a right to dictate curriculum that is currently developed using research and mainstream morals.

Opaskwayak Cree Nation tabs up to $20 million to get into aerospace, defence manufacturing

Darryl Bauer arrived with open ears and a business plan: aims for Opaskwayak Cree Nation to enter aerospace and defence manufacturing, either through acquisition or partnership.

Paskwayak Business Development Corp.’s economic development director carried the physical plan through an aerospace procurement event Wednesday in Winnipeg. The day-long conference drew all levels of government and industry executives.

“There could be significant long-term benefits,” Bauer said of breaking into the sector. “The government’s committing a lot of financial resources.”

Ottawa released a $6.6-billion defence industrial strategy in February.

Gillingham pledges police, firefighter staffing increases to serve growing population

Scott Gillingham is promising to set long-term staffing targets to raise the ratio of firefighters and police officers to Winnipeg’s population, if re-elected as mayor next month.

If Alberta leaves Canada, it will need up to $170B and 70,000 civil servants: report

EDMONTON - A report released Wednesday by the Alberta government says if the province wants to separate from Canada, it would need to shell out up to $170 billion and hire at least 70,000 civil servants to do it.

The report, which the province commissioned from the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy, says the minimum cost over the first five years would be $50 billion and could top out at $170 billion.

The figure covers money to acquire infrastructure, supplies and property currently paid for by the federal government. It also covers the staff needed for the transition and debt payments made higher by Alberta taking on a portion of the federal debt.

There are other costs. About $69 billion would be needed to replicate programs currently run by Ottawa. The annual expenses to run an independent Alberta government would cost up to $67 billion. New tax revenue could cover the increases, but there’s also a risk of staggering annual deficits of at least $25 billion.

Anglophones hail Quebec ruling ordering elections agency to send bilingual documents

MONTREAL - Members of Quebec's anglophone community are hailing a Quebec Superior Court ruling that ordered Élections Québec to mail voting reminder cards in both French and English.

The ruling provides a temporary resolution to a controversy triggered by the adoption of legislation in 2022 that required public institutions to communicate with citizens in French, with few exceptions.

The ruling suspends provisions of Quebec's Charter of the French language for 10 days so that the provincial agency overseeing the elections can send out the reminder cards for voters in both languages.

"This is an important victory for English-speaking Quebecers and for democratic participation in Quebec," said Eva Ludvig, president of anglophone advocacy group TALQ.

From investment buzz to building: Canada’s major projects face hurdles, experts say

OTTAWA - Canada’s inaugural investment summit created a buzz that the country is open for business, but experts say the real test will be whether that momentum can translate into major projects that overcome labour shortages, community concerns, environmental hurdles and lengthy approvals.

The two-day summit in Toronto hosted by Prime Minister Mark Carney and two of Canada’s largest pension investors aims to create a sustained pipeline of private investment for major Canadian projects.

It included a flurry of multi-billion dollar funding announcements that Ottawa says are part of its broader goal of attracting $1 trillion in total investment to Canada over five years.

At the summit, Carney said the world’s largest investors, who manage more than $120 trillion in assets, would come to "peer into our shop window" as global interest in Canada grows.

Winnipeg, police and downtown crime

A safer downtown is not much use if people are still afraid to walk there.

That is the uncomfortable message from Winnipeg’s latest police citizen survey, and one city council should take seriously.

Downtown crime has fallen this year, according to the most recent police statistics. Violent crime is down even more. But for most Winnipeggers, the downtown still feels like a place to avoid, particularly after dark.

Only 44 per cent of survey respondents said they feel very or reasonably safe walking alone downtown during the day. At night, that number plunges to just eight per cent. Among women, it is an appalling three per cent, compared with 14 per cent of men.

MPI looks into motorcycle safety

Manitoba Public Insurance is probing how to make regional roads safer for motorcyclists.

The public insurer is seeking feedback about restrictions on powerful bikes for new riders, mandatory training for older motorcyclists and limiting registrations to drivers who have a motorcycle licence (Class 6).

The Coalition of Manitoba Motorcycle Groups, which is set to gather at its regular meeting in Winnipeg Wednesday, will weigh in.

President Mary Johnson said some of the questions — such as those that relate to restricting new riders to bikes with engines under 500 cubic centimetres — are non-starters.

Federal Court awards OCN $27M, 62 years after construction of hydro dam

The Federal Court has ordered Ottawa pay Opaskwayak Cree Nation $27 million over damages suffered due to the construction of the Grand Rapids hydro dam in the 1960s.

In a decision dated Sept. 3, Federal Court Justice Sébastien Grammond says the federal government had a fiduciary duty to protect the community from the impacts of the dam.

“When the Crown exercises a discretionary power over an Indigenous interest, it has a fiduciary duty and it must exercise the discretion in the best interests of the Indigenous group,” the ruling said. “Canada breached its fiduciary duty to OCN because it approved the (project) without ensuring that the impacts of the Grand Rapids dam on OCN’s traditional way of life were mitigated or compensated.”

The First Nation took the federal government to court in February over impacts on the community after the dam, located about 145 kilometres southeast of Opaskwayak Cree Nation, was installed on the Saskatchewan River in 1964. The case was heard over 14 days in a judge-alone trial in Winnipeg.

Manitoba mineral production set to triple, premier says

Premier Wab Kinew said Tuesday Manitoba plans to triple mineral production in the next five years “to unlock a new era of wealth creation and growth.”

“We’re going to make sure that opportunity is spread throughout the province,” he told a news conference at the Canada investment summit in Toronto.

The province is working with industry and Indigenous governments to send a message to investors that “we’re going to do mining right in Manitoba,” the premier said.

For too long, Manitoba has lagged behind neighbouring provinces, Kinew said.

Trade war fuelling spike in city costs

A trade war between the U.S. and Canada could cost the City of Winnipeg millions of dollars more than was anticipated during the budget process for this year’s expenditures and beyond.

Online etiquette, dangers part of new Manitoba health curriculum

Students will learn about everything from emoji etiquette to internet scam artists, as well as the difference between sexting and sextortion, as part of a provincewide overhaul of health class.

Manitoba’s new phys-ed and health curriculum pilot puts an emphasis on a child’s online habits and experiences.

“It is really good to see online privacy being recognized as a health and wellness skill,” said Matthew Johnson, director of education at MediaSmarts, a national charity that designs resources for teachers to build digital literacy.

“It has an effect on so much of our lives. At the bare minimum, the content that we see online is determined by data that companies have on us… the algorithmic shadow we cast.”

Politicians, CEOs pitch Canada’s fundamentals in bid to attract investment

TORONTO - Business leaders and politicians say an investment supercycle is taking hold in Canada as investors from around the world flock to Toronto this week for a summit pitching the country as an attractive investment for foreign money.

Speaking at Global Dialogues Toronto, hosted by the Milken Institute think tank, TD chief executive Raymond Chun said he is seeing a more streamlined approval process for strategic projects and is encouraged by the progress thus far.

"The investment supercycle is beginning to take shape," he said.

Chun's comments come as TD Bank announced it's committing $150 billion over five years to accelerate investment in the country. The other major banks have made similar announcements in recent days outlining their own lending plans for Canadian projects.

Menstruation, consent move up in sex-ed lesson plan

Manitoba’s newest curriculum introduces the menstrual cycle earlier and repeatedly calls for explicit lessons on how students can give, seek, and decline to provide their consent.

The education department has released its sweeping proposal to overhaul how exercise, nutrition and sexuality are taught between kindergarten and Grade 12.

Grade 5 has long served as a key turning point for “the talk,” said J Fiedler, a sexual and reproductive health educator who provided input on the new curriculum.

“There’s no ‘the talk’ anymore. Now, there’s continuations of multiple ‘talks,’ which can hopefully reduce stress for students and stigma that people experience talking about sexuality.”

Quebec prayer restrictions reshape rules at transit agency, universities

MONTREAL - Quebec’s new restrictions on prayer are changing the rules at public workplaces and university campuses, with employees and students facing new limits on where they can pray.

New rules under Quebec’s secularism law took effect Sept. 1, including a ban on prayer rooms in public institutions such as universities, colleges and transit agencies.

The law, adopted by the Quebec legislature in April, also prohibits collective religious practices on public roads and in public parks unless a municipality grants an exception on a case-by-case basis.

The measures have drawn opposition from religious and civil-liberties groups, which have raised concerns about freedom of religion and assembly.