Cheveldayoff open to Hellebuyck trade

Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has confirmed the organization is open to trading superstar goaltender Connor Hellebuyck and currently listening to offers.

There’s just one problem.

“Obviously what I’ve been hearing hasn’t made me act,” Cheveldayoff said Friday morning in a Zoom call with media. “I guess the best answer is: I’m still listening.”

How, exactly, did we get here? Cheveldayoff, who normally holds his cards tight to the vest, was slightly more revealing than usual — perhaps in an attempt to juice the offers rival GMs might ultimately present to him.

Rural resident wins court battle against ban from council meetings

A Manitoba judge has told a rural municipal council it can’t issue a blanket ban on people attending council meetings.

Justice Sadie Bond, of the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench, said the Rural Municipality of Alexander has to allow resident Aaron Wiebe to attend council meetings.

“The banning resolutions are neither an exercise of the RM’s authority under the (Municipal) Act, nor under the RM’s procedures bylaw,” Bond said in her 14-page decision, which was released on Monday.

“In passing them, the council acted in excess of its jurisdiction… I find that the council’s interpretation of its authority to pass banning resolutions is both incorrect and not reasonable.”

Councillors push decision on new fireworks restrictions to next spring

Fire prevention officers will meet with cultural groups and fireworks sellers to talk about conducting safe celebrations, but the city won’t impose any bans or create new bylaws before next year.

City council’s community services committee heard from the Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Service Tuesday and from speakers arguing both for and against additional fines, enforcement or restrictions around the sale and use of fireworks.

The committee was split on how to approach new fireworks bylaws and eventually voted to revisit the issue next March, promising to create a working group to explore the issue further, in the meantime.

“I think it’s a very complicated file, and it’s important that we’re able to hear from the councillors on what direction they want this to take for the city,” Lisa Gilmour, the WFPS’ assistant chief of community risk reduction, said after Tuesday’s meeting.

Empty buildings could fill vacancy fund

The city is considering a new reserve fund that would use vacant building fines to improve enforcement and expand programming to help owners maintain their residential properties.

The creation of the Vacancy to Vitality reserve could serve as a dedicated funding source to tackle Winnipeg’s empty buildings, including hiring staff to scale up enforcement and collection efforts, the city’s community services manager of licensing and bylaw enforcement said.

“Vacant and derelict buildings can affect safety, neighbourhood appearance, and community confidence,” Winston Yee wrote in a report to be discussed by city council’s property and development committee July 6. “The proposed Vacancy to Vitality reserve would help the city move from policy direction to action. It would provide a clear way to use empty building fee revenue to support enforcement, redevelopment, and prevention efforts.”

The city handed out 857 empty building fee invoices from 2020 to 2025, totaling $4.04 million. Twenty-eight per cent of those invoices have been paid, resulting in $878,761 being collected.

Jewish, Palestinian groups differ in reaction to minister’s comments

Jewish and Palestinian leaders are speaking out after Canada’s heritage minister called an exhibition at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights flawed.

Heritage Minister Marc Miller said Monday the museum made an error in its Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present exhibition, which he viewed last week.

“Not identifying Hamas as a terrorist organization is, I think, a failure,” Miller told The Canadian Press.

Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s director of research and advocacy, said Miller should have intervened before the exhibition’s opening, which chronicles the displacement of about 750,000 Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Minister rebukes museum on exhibition

OTTAWA — Heritage Minister Marc Miller said Monday the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg made “an error” in its presentation of an exhibition about displaced Palestinians.

In an interview with The Canadian Press on Monday, Miller said the museum should change how it portrays the current conflict between Israel and Palestinians and update the museum’s oversight.

“It isn’t up to me to speak to, or insert myself in, the curation of any particular exhibit. But manifestly, you cannot deny the fact that this is an exhibit that is born in controversy — and perhaps some of it could have been avoided,” Miller said.

The museum says it is collecting feedback but is defending its phrasing in the exhibition.

Carbon capture project gains support

A direct air carbon capture facility proposed for southwestern Manitoba has been shoring up allies in local and Indigenous governments and large corporations, as Montreal-based Deep Sky aims to convince the province its project is ready to launch.

The venture capital-backed tech firm sent the province a package of support letters late last year, encouraging the government to provide the regulatory support and electric power supply needed for the facility to move forward, according to documents obtained by the Free Press/The Narwhal.

“Deep Sky Manitoba is not a speculative concept,” the company wrote in a December letter. “It is a commercially viable infrastructure project that is backed by real market demand and presents an economic opportunity for Manitoba on a global scale.”

Deep Sky is proposing a 145-acre facility in the agriculture and oil-dominant southwestern region that will scrub 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere each year and inject it into porous rock formations 1,000 metres below ground. The company says it will use technology first tested at its existing accelerator in Innisfail, Alta., and will finance the $200-million Manitoba project by selling carbon credits.

‘Abandoned’ former Tory leadership candidate Daudrich quits party

Longtime Progressive Conservative party board member and leadership candidate Wally Daudrich is leaving the Tories and looking for a new political home.

“I am by my nature a very loyal person and I have now concluded that while I would never quit the conservative movement, the PC party has completely abandoned me and all conservatives like me,” Daudrich said in a letter sent Saturday to the party leadership obtained by the Free Press.

He was informed by the party earlier this month that he would not be allowed to seek the nomination in Turtle Mountain, where PC incumbent Doyle Piwniuk has decided not to seek re-election in the next provincial vote, which must take place on or before Oct. 5, 2027.

Daudrich was accused by the party executive of violating its constitution and making “repeated disparaging comments regarding current and former Progressive Conservative MLAs.”

Longtime St. Vital councillor cites difficulty working with mayor among reasons he won’t seek re-election

St. Vital Coun. Brian Mayes will not run to keep his city hall seat after nearly 15 years in the role, opting to seek a school trustee position instead.

During an emotional news conference at St. Vital Park Monday, the councillor announced he’s decided to leave city hall.

“This has been a dream job in many ways and a very difficult final term,” he said, his voice at times breaking with emotion.

Mayes said his key accomplishments included securing $11 million of improvements at St. Vital Park and helping expedite the city’s target date — from the 2090s to 2045 — to complete a master plan to reduce combined sewer overflows.

Long to-do list for Jets

They have holes to fill, money to spend and questions to answer.

But the biggest one heading into July 1 hangs over the Winnipeg Jets like the dark clouds that have become a fixture around here lately: Is Connor Hellebuyck staying or going?

Clarity on that potentially stormy situation will shape much of general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff’s summer to-do list.

Hellebuyck made it clear during his year-end media availability that he needs to see significant roster improvements around him, seemingly putting enormous pressure on Cheveldayoff to begin delivering when free agency opens Wednesday.

Word test

TESTING

Premier Wab Kinew is an imported Manitoban, born in Kenora and raised on Onigaming First Nation in Treaty Three (in northwestern Ontario) before his family moved to Winnipeg. He’s the son of well-known Anishinaabe leader and traditional knowledge keeper Tobasonakwut Kinew and Kathi Kinew.

These are the words we provided feedback on: Boniface, Cockburn, Dauphin, Dene, Hellebuyck, Iafallo, Íslendingadagurinn, Kinew, Kildonan, Malak Abas, Métis, Newfoundland, Orlikow, Pembina, Portage la Prairie, Premier, Regina, St. Vital, Samyn, Schiefele, vínarterta, Wiebe, Generation Z.

Tornado destroys couple’s home in Rossburn

Brian Brown grabbed his wife, Bernadine, and pulled her to the floor with him as a tornado demolished part of their brick farmhouse south of Rossburn on Sunday night.

Bernadine had been putting clothes in a dryer in the northeast corner of the house when her husband noticed a large tree fall outside a window at about 8 p.m.

“I just yelled at her to get away from the windows, and I grabbed her and threw her on the floor,” Brian said from the couple’s property Monday.

The tornado ripped the roof off the century-old house and tore apart the second floor, snapped large trees and flipped vehicles in the Browns’ yard. It was one of two Rossburn-area homes to be damaged by the tornado.