Picking up the sodden pieces and trying to save the past

RM of ROCKWOOD — When J’aime Killbery realized her family’s home in the village of Balmoral was under a tornado warning Tuesday night, she decided to sleep in their basement.

Kinew tours flood-devastated areas in western Manitoba, pledges government help

Premier Wab Kinew, who got an aerial view of the devastation from flooding in the Parkland region Wednesday, said the province is ready to help, any way it can.

Manitoba businesses cleanup after storm, prep for future

Businesses should plan long-term for a greater number of severe storms says expert.

Trump ‘not looking to renew’ CUSMA trade pact, says no need for Canadian imports

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is "not looking to renew" a critical continental trade pact, indicating the United States will blow past a July 1 deadline for renewal.

If the deadline passes, the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, known in Canada as CUSMA, stays in place subject to an annual rolling review for up to 10 years.

"We don't need anything that Canada has, we don't need anything that Mexico has, but they need everything that we have," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "And they should have to treat us better."

Trump complained about the trade deficit the U.S. has with Canada — which is caused by Canadian energy exports — and has claimed the U.S. doesn't need Canadian or Mexican cars, lumber or energy.

Alerts aplenty: probe underway after barrage of messages during storm

The federal agency responsible for emergency weather notifications says it’s looking into the deluge of tornado and thunderstorm alerts Manitobans received Tuesday night.

“Environment Canada understands that some people may have received what they felt was an excessive number of these alerts and we’re investigating with our partners to confirm the system worked as expected and explore potential improvements,” Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Brian Proctor said Wednesday.

After the storm, Winnipeggers — including Mayor Scott Gillingham — were left wondering why they received so many alerts on their devices about tornadoes in their “mobile coverage area.”

“I live in St. James and I had no less than 20 (Tuesday) night — just in the evening,” Gillingham told reporters Wednesday.

Video game giant Ubisoft closes Winnipeg office

Video game developer Ubisoft has closed its Winnipeg office, affecting about 65 employees.

Caroline Stelmach, spokeswoman for the company, confirmed the closure on Wednesday. She did not say when, exactly, the office closed.

“Ubisoft is continuing to take targeted actions to reduce costs and focus resources on its strategic priorities as part of its efforts to strengthen the business over the long term,” Stelmach said in an email.

The video game giant — headquartered in France and best known for its Assassin’s Creed franchise — opened its Winnipeg studio in the Exchange District to much fanfare in 2019.

Ottawa moves to bar kids under 16 from social media, regulate chatbots

OTTAWA - The Liberal government’s new online safety legislation would force social media to block access for kids under 16, though platforms will be able to obtain an exemption if they put sufficient safeguards in place.

Bill C-34, introduced Wednesday in the House of Commons, would also regulate the companies behind AI chatbots by imposing on them a duty to act responsibly. That includes measures to lower the risk of chatbots communicating harmful content and putting in place crisis intervention protocols for cases involving self-harm, suicide or violence.

"The measures in this bill represent, in my view, the basic expectation that parents and Canadians (have) for keeping their kids safe online. I believe all parties should agree on the importance of these minimum safeguards," Culture Minister Marc Miller said.

He made the comments at a press conference in Ottawa, alongside a Toronto pediatrician and a representative for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. Child advocates and medical professionals praised the bill Wednesday evening, while large tech companies said they were assessing the legislation.

Province orders RM to take out loan — from the province — to deal with fiscal shortfall

A rural Manitoba community once subject to an RCMP investigation into “financial irregularities” has been forced to take out a loan to shore up a fiscal shortfall of nearly $2.5 million.

The move from the Rural Municipality of Lakeshore comes after Municipal Minister Glen Simard took the unusual step of ordering the local government to borrow the funds from the province and replenish its accounts following years of deficits.

Residents from the community — located about 230 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, near Dauphin — were angered to learn of the plan, which was outlined by local council members and provincial officials during a public hearing Monday afternoon.

According to a repayment document provided during the hearing, the RM of Lakeshore intends to repay the loan by increasing taxes for the approximately 1,200 residents. The borrowed money is to be repaid over the next decade, at an estimated interest rate of five per cent per year.

Restaurant bridges Ethiopian-Eritrean divide at the dinner table

Riverine origins matter at Baro, an eatery just west of the Health Sciences Centre on Notre Dame Avenue, but don’t overlook the connective power of the hyphen on the street-facing sign at chef Tammy Fekadu’s Ethiopian-Eritrean cuisine.

A waterway that rolls for more than 300 kilometres in the Ethiopian highlands, serving as a major cultural and economic thoroughfare for the nearby Gambella region as well as the South Sudanese state to the west, the Baro River is a reminder of communal reliance on precious natural resources, says Fekadu’s eldest daughter, Samra Solomon.

The hyphen is a bridge spanning political divides for Winnipeggers whose homelands have been engaged in decades of ongoing territorial tensions and civil war.

“My mom almost hesitated to call it ‘Baro Ethiopian-Eritrean Cuisine,’ just because some people might not be happy with that politically and maybe even morally,” says the 26-year-old Solomon, who manages the restaurant on top of a full-time job in the insurance business.