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Business

Leader of Indigenous chamber steps down

Free Press staff 2 minute read 2:01 AM EST

The chief executive of the Indigenous Chamber of Commerce is stepping down.

Shelly Bulycz, who was appointed CEO in April, said she’s accepted a new job in The Pas.

She made the announcement in a message to chamber members on Tuesday: “I am grateful for the opportunity to have served the organization and worked alongside so many dedicated individuals who share a commitment to Indigenous business, entrepreneurship and economic reconciliation.”

In the message, board chair Adam Nepon thanked Bulycz and wished her well.

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Business

Almond Nail Bar staff in work stoppage

Gabrielle Piché 2 minute read Preview

Almond Nail Bar staff in work stoppage

Gabrielle Piché 2 minute read Yesterday at 8:05 PM EST

Technicians at multiple local Almond Nail Bar locations have walked off the job, calling for their paycheques.

The CF Polo Park location was closed Wednesday afternoon. Around 10 workers stood outside, holding signs alleging the company was exploiting foreign workers and staff hadn’t received pay.

They were kicked out by CF Polo Park management just before 4 p.m.

“I cannot keep working for someone for free,” said Harjeet Cheema, 28. “I ran out of money.”

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Yesterday at 8:05 PM EST

Business

WestJet to make new hangar home near Winnipeg airport

Gabrielle Piché 4 minute read Preview

WestJet to make new hangar home near Winnipeg airport

Gabrielle Piché 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 4:49 PM EST

WestJet will become the first tenant in a new development near the Winnipeg Richardson International Airport.

The Calgary-based airline plans to open a 73,110-square-foot aircraft maintenance hangar in West Lands, a sprawling site meant to boost business near the airport.

The hangar is expected to open at the end of 2028.

“Winnipeg is a very important market and city for WestJet,” said Alexis von Hoensbroech, WestJet’s chief executive officer. “We always had one missing piece of the puzzle, which is that we don’t have a hangar in Winnipeg.”

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Updated: Yesterday at 4:49 PM EST

Business

Local women’s workwear brand founder snags entrepreneur award

Aaron Epp 3 minute read Preview

Local women’s workwear brand founder snags entrepreneur award

Aaron Epp 3 minute read Monday, Nov. 2, 2026

A Winnipeg entrepreneur is $10,000 closer to helping people look like a million bucks.

Aderonke Akinloye has been awarded an RBC Rock My Business Youth Entrepreneur Award. The 29-year-old will use the $10,000 grant that comes with the award to kick-start Corporate Enclothè, a women’s workwear brand she’s been working on for the last five years.

Akinloye was one of eight Canadians — and the only Manitoban — to receive the award this year. She said she feels honoured RBC believes in her vision.

“It felt very great and humbling, to be honest, just to see my work and all the efforts I’ve put in recognized,” Akinloye said.

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Monday, Nov. 2, 2026

Business

London next stop for marketing Manitoba mineral industry products

Gabrielle Piché 4 minute read Monday, Nov. 2, 2026

Manitoba minerals will be on display in London, England, next month.

The Mining Association of Manitoba Inc. plans to travel to Resourcing Tomorrow — Europe’s largest mining event — with a handful of companies and a new marketing video.

Attendees at the Central Canada Mineral Exploration Convention, held at the Victoria Inn in Winnipeg, got a preview Monday.

“Every major economy is looking for secure and reliable critical mineral supply chains,” the video’s narrator states. “The search is over.”

Business

Province tabs $5M for potash mine growth

Gabrielle Piché 4 minute read Preview

Province tabs $5M for potash mine growth

Gabrielle Piché 4 minute read Monday, Nov. 2, 2026

Manitoba’s only potash mine aims to more than double production after netting a $5 million loan from the province.

“When we have money, we drill more wells,” said Daymon Guillas, president of the Potash and Agri Development Corporation of Manitoba.

Last winter marked PADCOM’s first commercial production cycle. Workers at the Harrowby site, near Russell, mined roughly 10,000 tons of potash, a fertilizer component.

Government funding announced Monday will allow PADCOM to mine at least 22,000 tons this winter, Guillas said.

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Monday, Nov. 2, 2026

Business

Brandon manufacturer says Canadian steel in demand, but high costs, long delivery times hit hard

Gabrielle Piché 5 minute read Preview

Brandon manufacturer says Canadian steel in demand, but high costs, long delivery times hit hard

Gabrielle Piché 5 minute read Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026

Something’s different in a Brandon plant.

Building envelope panels — or shells for homes and commercial buildings — keep being produced at Greenstone Building Products.

But the galvanized steel used by workers has been arriving later and the price is constantly increasing, according to company leadership.

“It’s just a little bit nerve-wracking for us to hear the opposite narrative,” said Tilda Fortier, Greenstone Building Products’ business manager.

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Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026

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Business

One-day conference for health-care technology

Free Press staff 1 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026

Indigenous leaders and bioscience professionals are gathering this week to promote health-care technology in northern communities.

Bioscience Association Manitoba is hosting its second annual Indigenous Health Innovations conference on Thursday, a day after the World Indigenous Business Forum ends its Winnipeg tenure.

“We fly a lot of people in the North to get access for care for things that technology can actually give them,” said Andrea Ladouceur, Bioscience Association Manitoba’s president.

For example, Manitobans may hop on a plane for a strep throat test when they don’t need to, she said.

Business

Western inland ports form alliance

Aaron Epp 2 minute read Preview

Western inland ports form alliance

Aaron Epp 2 minute read Monday, Oct. 26, 2026

CentrePort Canada Inc. has formed an alliance with three other inland ports.

President and CEO Carly Edmundson signed a memorandum of understanding in Ottawa on Monday with Global Transportation Hub Authority, located in Regina; Port Alberta, located in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region; and Prairie Economic Gateway, a shovel-ready collaboration between the City of Calgary and Rocky View County.

The newly formed Canadian Inland Ports Alliance will align on major inland port initiatives, strengthening seaport-to-hinterland connectivity and supporting a more resilient, diversified and competitive Canadian trade network, the alliance announced in a news release.

The four ports have been in conversation since the summer, Edmundson told the Free Press on Monday. The alliance responds to growing pressures facing Canada’s trade and transportation network, including congestion, shifting trade partners, supply chain disruptions, marine gateway constraints and the need for stronger inland capacity.

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Monday, Oct. 26, 2026

Opinion

Building generational equity

Joel Schlesinger 6 minute read Preview

Building generational equity

Joel Schlesinger 6 minute read Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026

Ayobimpe Omisore is a Winnipeg single mother of four who knows all too well about working just to make the rent.

A little more than a year ago, she was struggling to pay $2,400 a month for a two-bedroom unit in St. Norbert.

She picked up extra shifts whenever she could as a health-care aide to keep up with the costs.

“I was lamenting about it at work one day, and a colleague said, ‘If you’re paying this much on rent, I think you can afford a mortgage,’” says Omisore, who came to Canada four years ago from Nigeria where she worked as a logistics manager.

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Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026

Opinion

What $4 pumpkin can teach us about workplace culture

Tory McNally 7 minute read Preview

What $4 pumpkin can teach us about workplace culture

Tory McNally 7 minute read Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026

There are few things more revealing about a workplace than what happens when someone suggests a little fun.

Put a pumpkin on the reception desk, announce a Halloween costume day or suggest that everyone take 20 minutes to enjoy some candy and you may discover that your organization falls into one of two camps.

There are those who embrace the opportunity to do something different and those who immediately begin calculating the cost of lost productivity.

Somewhere, a manager is currently wondering whether the employee who spent 15 minutes decorating their office door could have used that time to answer three emails. Another is worried allowing costumes will somehow lead to a complete collapse of professional standards. A third is quietly trying to figure out whether a bowl of miniature chocolate bars can be claimed as a business expense.

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Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026

Opinion

Processing potential long way from reality

Laura Rance-Unger 4 minute read Preview

Processing potential long way from reality

Laura Rance-Unger 4 minute read Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026

There are times in life when you want to be wrong — like when you walk into the doctor’s office believing your ailment will be the death of you.

It’s the same sort of feeling I get wading through the pile of newly released reports extolling the unrealized “potential” for more value-added processing in Canadian agriculture. There’s this little voice inside my head saying: “I’m from Manitoba. Show me.”

There are jaw-dropping numbers bandied about in various reports from Food and Beverage Canada, the Canadian Chambers of Commerce/PwC and the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. For example, more processing could add $75 billion on top of the $188 billion the sector already generates, create hundreds of thousands more jobs and a bigger domestic market for farmers. The list goes on.

Not to discount the solid analysis behind these efforts. Overall, it all sounds great, although notably missing is any mention of the growing concerns over ultra-processed foods and how that might affect future market growth.

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Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026

Leader of Indigenous chamber steps down

Free Press staff 2 minute read 2:01 AM EST

The chief executive of the Indigenous Chamber of Commerce is stepping down.

Shelly Bulycz, who was appointed CEO in April, said she’s accepted a new job in The Pas.

She made the announcement in a message to chamber members on Tuesday: “I am grateful for the opportunity to have served the organization and worked alongside so many dedicated individuals who share a commitment to Indigenous business, entrepreneurship and economic reconciliation.”

In the message, board chair Adam Nepon thanked Bulycz and wished her well.

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