Plan for 24 Sussex Drive makes sense

It has, for more than a decade, been this country’s highest-profile vacant dwelling.

Prior to 2015, however, 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa had been the official residence of Canada’s prime ministers for more than 60 years, an address whose mention conjured notions of prestige and distinction akin to those associated with 10 Downing Street in London or the White House in Washington, D.C.

After years of deferred maintenance and, one might argue, outright neglect, the 35-room mansion that was home to every prime minister from Louis St-Laurent to Stephen Harper is no longer fit for human habitation. Among the concerns that led Justin Trudeau to opt not to live at 24 Sussex — choosing instead to dwell at nearby Rideau Cottage — were a leaky roof, cracked windows, failing plumbing, faulty wiring and the presence of asbestos in the structure’s 160-year-old construction materials.

Current Prime Minister (and non-Sussex resident) Mark Carney thinks it’s time for 24 Sussex to reclaim its status as the PM’s official residence. Last Friday he unveiled plans for a massive redesign and renovation plan and a fundraising campaign that will invite Canadians to contribute to the project.

New Kevin Walters Plaza graced by art with heart

Tears fill the eyes of an Ojibwa sculptor from Peguis First Nation as he talks about the spiritual journey and deep friendships that came out of creating his first public art piece.

A California farmer is giving away tons of nectarines that he’s not allowed to sell

Thousands of visitors have flocked to Cesar Mora's farm in central California this week to gather free nectarines.

He's giving his harvest away rather than watching it rot as he's locked in a legal battle with a company that claims exclusive rights over the variety of white nectarine he grows. He's shared more than 100,000 pounds (45,359 kilograms) since Monday.

“It was really just a thought of not wasting a perfectly good product,” Mora said. “It does make a grower feel good, being able to share my fruit with people and see their immediate reaction that they love it. It’s a little bit of good in this tough situation that I’ve been dealing with.”

The legal dispute highlights the tension that can emerge between farmers and the plant breeders and large industrial food marketers that create new varieties of plants and obtain the exclusive rights to sell them.

WFPS responded to record number of medical calls in 2025, annual report shows

Firefighters and paramedics in Winnipeg responded to a record number of medical calls in 2025 as the city’s struggle with addictions-related calls persisted, according to a first-of-its-kind annual report published Thursday.

There were 136,198 total incidents and 114,700 medical-related incidents attended to by the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service in 2025, the highest number on record, said the WFPS report.

Out of those medical incidents, 61,356 resulted in response from both fire and emergency medical services, another 26,732 were handled by ambulance-based paramedics and 22,586 by firefighter-paramedics without assistance from an ambulance.

“We’ve got rising demand. It’s recognized, we’re working on plans for the future here, in terms of future budgets and what is needed to protect our city,” WFPS Chief Christian Schmidt said Thursday.

Harm-reduction efforts may often seem imperceptible — but it’s the only way to lasting change

To live in Winnipeg now is to become entirely too skilled at looking away from what we cannot bear to see: the tents, the tarps, the man lying face-down on the street.

Author George Toles on daily writing and keeping his eyes open

Since 2008, George Toles has not missed a single day of prying original prose from his mental file cabinet.

Philippines President Marcos says ‘we share the same aspirations’ as Canada

VANCOUVER - The leaders of Canada and the Philippines signed agreements Thursday on energy, natural resources, labour and tourism, as the countries reinforced their shared priorities and hope for a trade deal.

"We share the same aspirations, in terms of what we would want to achieve in the world," Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told reporters in Vancouver, during the first visit to Canada by the Philippines' head of government in more than a decade.

Prime Minister Mark Carney had invited Marcos to visit Canada as the two countries aim to have a bilateral trade agreement concluded by the time Carney heads to Manila for a November summit.

Marcos will be chairing the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a bloc with whom Canada is also undergoing trade negotiations.

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.

Mosquito surge expected after heavy rainfall

Winnipeggers may want to keep the bug spray close at hand.

Intense rainfall in recent weeks has created ideal conditions for mosquitoes to breed across Winnipeg, including in backyards where standing water can quickly become a source of larvae.

“With all the rain we’ve received, I fully expect to see an increase,” entomologist Taz Stuart said.

Just over two weeks ago, Winnipeg was pummelled with more than 122 millimetres of rain.

Shipping rates soar as retailers race to beat looming Trump tariffs

MONTREAL - Christmas is coming early this year. And it’s pushing up shipping rates.

A glut of early wholesale orders for everything from holiday decorations to home furniture has propelled maritime shipping costs to four-year highs as a result of tariff uncertainty and the Iran war, with potential repercussions for consumers.

Industry specialists say retailers and importers — especially in the United States — are rushing to book shipments to get ahead of a potential fresh round of U.S. tariffs on scores of countries that's expected near the end of July.

The surge in demand is boosting seaborne transport prices across the globe.

Fear of retaliation in care homes is a very real thing

Here’s something we don’t talk about enough: the fear people have that if they complain about how their loved one in a nursing home is treated, the treatment will only get worse.

My mother lives in a retirement home. Many of my friends also have parents who rely on strangers for some aspect of their care. And in conversations we’ve had, it is quite common to hear someone say, “Of course we don’t want to complain, because it might backfire.”

Human nature is what it is. No one likes criticism. So, if you complain that your father’s meals are never hot or that your aunt’s clothes are always soiled, you are never sure what the reaction will be. One person might take a complaint in stride and try to do better, while another person might feel affronted and lash out in some way — perhaps by deliberately treating your loved one poorly.

It’s a crap shoot for seniors in care and their families, and it’s a troubling one.

Downtown crackdown necessary

It has stirred controversy and been met with loudly voiced objections from some interested parties, but this much can be said about the recent police crackdown on open drug use and trafficking in Winnipeg’s downtown core: Doing nothing was not an acceptable option.

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.”

Homeless adapt to city’s ban by packing up tent each morning, committee told

A new trend has emerged on Winnipeg’s homeless front.

Outreach workers say they’ve noticed an increase in the number of temporary structures set up overnight and taken down by morning.

The city’s community services committee was told Tuesday that’s likely a way to circumvent the city’s clampdown on tents near parks and school properties, among other sites, that was instituted in November 2025.

Chris Brens, the city’s manager of community development, updated the committee about the homeless status.

Harvard professor with polarizing alien theories is picked to lead Trump administration UFO council

WASHINGTON (AP) — A polarizing Harvard astronomer known for splashy theories about alien visits has been tapped by the Trump administration to lead a team of outside scientists to study the national security risks posed by UFOs.

Avi Loeb, a cosmologist who studied black holes and served as head of Harvard’s astronomy department until 2020, was recently appointed to helm a new scientific advisory council tasked with investigating the origins of mysterious orbs and other objects reported by military personnel in recent years.

Loeb’s team will report to a new panel focused on UFOs, now often referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP. The panel was established by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It’s part of the push announced by President Donald Trump in February to declassify more information about the issue.

“It’s like a detective story,” Loeb said in an interview. “It’s a lot of fun, as long as you don’t pay too much attention to the critics.”

Do online influencer posts count as news? Younger Canadians more likely to say yes

OTTAWA - Younger Canadians are more likely to say posts from influencers and online memes count as news, while the amount of news content on social media has dropped, a new report says.

"News organizations have long acted as information gatekeepers, determining which information reaches the public," says the report from McGill University’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, released Tuesday.

"However, Canadians are now exposed to a wide variety of content producers, from influencers to citizen journalists, memes, and AI-generated posts, blurring the boundaries of what counts as ‘news’ and making perceptions of newsworthiness increasingly subjective."

Respondents were asked to rate different types of content that described a major political event on a scale from "definitely not news" (zero points) to "definitely news" (10 points).