Mom’s criminal past a lot to unpack by yourself

Back to school means increased costs for parents, post-secondary students

In the words of advice for students from Thornton Melon: “It’s rough out there. Move back in with your parents.”

As comedian Rodney Dangerfield’s character alluded to in the 1986 comedy Back to School, it is indeed a tough financial environment as students head back to the classroom in 2026.

A Capital One Canada survey found families are struggling with costs, with nearly six in 10 parents surveyed stating back-to-school expenses are higher than expected.

It’s not just tuition, new clothes and supplies. Extracurricular activities — like hockey, figure skating, ringette, soccer, dance, etc. — also ramp up, involving tuition-sized payments.

Remove barriers, coalition says

Game on.

Just two weeks after city council approved a referendum on whether to open Winnipeg’s landmark intersection, an official ‘Yes’ campaign in support of tearing down the barriers has formed.

A coalition of downtown business and land owners, planners, architects and advertising and marketing firms — with the support of organizations such as the Exchange District and Downtown BIZ organizations — has taken up the challenge to defend Mayor Brian Bowman’s vision of a barrier-free Portage and Main.

Organizers said the campaign in favour of re-opening the intersection will be funded by an online crowd-sourcing campaign and will open a storefront headquarters in the shadow of the historic intersection. Lawn signs, promotional videos and mass mail will all be part of the drive to remove pedestrian barriers once and for all.

Boler sales and rentals happening as soon as they pop up

In January, Jorge Torres bought a Boler trailer — a little fiberglass egg on wheels — and brought it to his fiancée’s house to surprise her.

“The opposite of a good surprise is what she had,” laughs Torres, a 30-year-old contractor. “She says, ‘What is this garbage?’”

That garbage, Torres calmly explained, was a cult classic, a lightweight, ovoid escape pod first designed in Winnipeg in 1968, of which only 10,000 were manufactured, making it a valuable commodity and a retro, futuristic objet d’art with room for four sleepers. It was in pretty rough shape: scuffed up, beat up, used. It looked as though it needed a fresh coat of everything.

So to ease his fiancée’s worry, Torres, who had a rough year business-wise owing to the pandemic, found some images of refurbished models. “I’m telling you, I can fix it up and make it look really cool, even nicer than this,” he said, saying they could rent it out. There was a market, and a growing one at that, for camping and seeing the great outdoors after a year-plus spent indoors. She started to come around.

While the politicians talk, Bank of Canada aims to tame house prices with a dose of psychology

‘Any hope for bringing prices back to earth lies with those rising rates, rather than the flurry of words and actions we’ve seen in recent weeks from politicians at all levels.’

Canadian labour market still tight as economy sees slight bump in employment

OTTAWA - After sustaining three consecutive months of job losses and propelling fears of an economic slowdown, the Canadian economy posted a modest bump in employment in September, suggesting the labour market is still exceptionally tight.

The unemployment rate for the month fell to 5.2 per cent as fewer people looked for work, down from 5.4 per cent in August, Statistics Canada reported in its labour force survey released on Friday. Meanwhile,the economy added 21,000 jobs.

Economists say the latest jobs report shows employers are still eager to hire, and wages are growing accordingly.

The report showed wages were up by 5.2 per cent in September compared with a year ago, with the average hourly wage at $31.67. It marked the fourth straight month of five per cent or higher wage growth, but still falls short of the rate of inflation.

Discourse we’d rather avoid

We have all been there. A colleague says something that bothers us. A manager is not addressing an issue everyone can see. An employee’s behaviour is becoming increasingly difficult. A misunderstanding has taken on a life of its own. Or perhaps we simply need to have a conversation that we know is going to be uncomfortable.

Our first instinct is often to avoid it.

Honestly, that instinct is understandable. Difficult conversations can make us nervous. We worry about upsetting someone, damaging a relationship, saying the wrong thing or making a situation worse.

Sometimes we tell ourselves the problem will resolve itself. We decide to wait for a better time. We send the email instead of having the conversation. We hope if we give it a little more time, somehow it will become easier.