Be generous guests to gratify wild granny

From Kidd to Ligety, unique World Pro Ski Tour carries on

Most afternoons, Billy Kidd can be found gliding along the “Heavenly Daze” ski trail as he offers a free clinic with the guarantee — he always kids — that it will get them closer to the Olympics or their money back.

This weekend, the 1964 Olympic slalom silver medallist will be cruising down memory lane when a pro circuit that once featured him makes a regular stop on his home snow in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Fifty-some years ago, the charismatic Kidd added pizzazz to an up-and-coming World Pro Ski Tour, along with Jean-Claude Killy and later the Mahre brothers. It's a tour that took root in the late 1960s, thrived for years before disbanding in 1999 and returning in 2017.

Kidd, who's easy to spot in his distinctive cowboy hat, will definitely feel a little nostalgic when the circuit's first races of the season — first in a year due to the global pandemic — take place Saturday and Monday.

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.

Consume, at what cost?

Consumers are the kings, queens, servants and paupers of the market economy, increasingly relied upon to drive growth.

A recent study points to many struggling to keep up — a sign of growing income inequality post-COVID-19 pandemic.

The report from RBC highlights wealth growing faster for those at the top, while others are experiencing their share declining.

“There’s a lot of questions regarding consumption in the (United) States … with this narrative about the K-shaped economy,” says Rachel Battaglia, an RBC economist and co-author of Affordability: Decoding Canada’s uneven household realities.

Ex-nurses blame red tape for holding up return to workplace

Former nurses who want to go back to work are calling out the regulatory red tape that’s in their way, even as hospitals across the province struggle to fill nursing shifts.

Brian Sinclair's legacy will be visible for years, but there was so much we failed to see as he neared death

Ten years later, the ghost of Brian Sinclair still haunts the edges of Winnipeg's consciousness. It whispers, moves, seems to shimmer; a phantasmic video image reconstructed from hundreds of pages of documents.

In my mind's eye, veiled by the fog of imagination and time, this is how that ghostly video begins.

It's a perfect September afternoon in Winnipeg, moments before 3 p.m. The skies above the city are gentle. Outside the Health Sciences Centre's emergency room entrance, a white Handi-Transit taxi slows to a stop.

There is a man in a wheelchair. Hands resting on his thighs, clad in a dark jacket. The cab driver pushes his wheelchair to the triage desk, and then leaves. A man in scrubs, holding a notepad, walks over to greet him.

NDP tries to zap Pallister’s plan to have government set electricity rates

Premier Brian Pallister's plan to set Hydro electricity rates at the provincial cabinet table may have hit a snag.

After successfully delaying legislation that would enshrine cabinet control over electricity rates for the foreseeable future, the opposition New Democratic Party has asked the Public Utilities Board to step in and hold an emergency rate hearing. It would be the first time the regulator has examined the inner workings of Manitoba Hydro in more than two years.

In a letter dated March 11, NDP Leader Wab Kinew and MLA Adrien Sala ask the PUB "to call on Manitoba Hydro... to present a general rate application to the board at the earliest opportunity" to consider a range of issues, including cabinet directives to Hydro on collective bargaining agreements.

Right now, Hydro employees who are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are on strike, after rejecting a two-year wage freeze that was dictated to the utility by the provincial cabinet. The NDP alleges that this amounts to an illegitimate intrusion into Hydro operations that could threaten the viability of the utility.