Steinbach

The school year may be winding down, but the heat is ramping up—with a heat blast last week, and temperatures heading into the upper 20s later this week.

As those summery highs start to take effect in the southeast, the Hanover and Seine River school divisions are sharing how they keep their students and staff cool.

Assessing heat conditions

Summer heat is not as black and white as winter cold, with numerous factors influencing condition assessments.

Art lovers and curious festival-goers will find plenty to celebrate at this year’s Summer in the City festival in downtown Steinbach, especially within the vibrant hub that is Artists in the City. Cassandra Kornelson, one of the event organizers, describes the area as "the heartbeat of the artist part of the festival," where the creative spirit of the Southeast takes centre stage.

Canada Post has rejected a request from the union representing about 55,000 of its workers to send their ongoing labour dispute to binding arbitration.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers made the request in a statement Saturday, saying it was inviting Canada Post to a fair, final and binding arbitration process to resolve negotiations that have dragged on for months without producing a new collective agreement. 

It was an uncomfortable Sunday evening for some people in Steinbach when the power went out while it was still 27 degrees.

This meant no air conditioning units were used and fans were not running.

The outage occurred shortly before 8pm.

Manitoba Hydro reported that approximately 1600 customers were impacted. A downed power line is reported to have caused the outage.

Power was restored by 9:30pm.

Updated at 9:26pm on June 1: By 9:26pm on Sunday, Hydro customers in Steinbach were starting to report power as being restored.

Originally published at 8:26pm on June 1: A large portion of Steinbach is spending Sunday evening without power.

There is no information on Manitoba Hydro's power outage map at this time. Information shared to social media indicates the outage ranges from Loewen Boulevard to McKenzie Avenue. It is not clear how far west the outage reaches.

Some businesses like Shopper's Drug Mart have closed early due to the outage.

Fire crews in northern Manitoba have so far been able to contain an encroaching wildfire that forced thousands from their homes, while more residents in Saskatchewan have been told to leave due to a fast-moving blaze. 

The Saskatchewan government has issued an evacuation alert for the dozens of residents that live in the small northern hamlet of Timber Bay.

Residents have been asked to make their way to a hotel in Regina. 

Before jetting off to Ottawa for the annual Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) convention, Steinbach Mayor Earl Funk made a pit stop at the Country 107 morning show served up by A&W Steinbach — and the conversation quickly swerved from politics to peanuts. 

Carly Koop from the Country 107 team sat down with Mayor Funk for a rapid-fire round of random questions. The light-hearted Q&A gave listeners a rare behind-the-scenes look at the mayor’s everyday life — including a few surprises. 

April was another strong month for construction in Steinbach, with over $13 million worth of building permits issued. 

City Council reviewed the monthly report at the last council meeting in May, showing a combined total of $13.1 million in new residential and commercial construction.

Deputy Mayor Michael Zwaagstra said April was a very strong month.

As Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre argues the government's plan to speed up key infrastructure projects doesn't go far enough, some Indigenous leaders are accusing Ottawa of not giving them enough time to weigh in.

The government is developing a bill to fast-track what it calls nation-building projects with a streamlined regulatory approval process as a substitute for reviews under the Impact Assessment Act, also known as C-69.

While the federal government and cities across Canada are making strides on expanding the housing supply, the provinces still need to get serious about building quality homes, a new report released Thursday argues.

No province earned a grade higher than C+ in the report assembled by the Task Force for Housing and Climate, a non-governmental body that was struck in 2023 with backing from the philanthropic Clean Economy Fund.

The task force's "report card" evaluated governments based on their policies for building homes quickly and sustainably.