Editorials – Brandon Sun

Jeremy Ockey, riding Castlefield Confellow, jumps the Joker hurdle during the Gambler’s Choice show riding event during last year's Royal Manitoba Winter Fair. Health officials have warned of the potential spread of measles at the event this year. (File)

Measles risk requires responsible response

4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 10:21 AM CDT

“Manitoba, for whatever reasons they may be, has this high rate of measles. If you’re attending events and not vaccinated, and you’re not feeling well, please don’t come in. Be conscious of other people, think of other people.” – Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett

With the opening of this year’s Royal Manitoba Winter Fair just days away, Manitoba public health officials are warning the public about the risk of exposure to the highly-infectious measles virus while attending the annual event in Brandon.

That concern is far from hypothetical, as those officials point out that dozens of persons who attended the three-day Ag Days event in January were infected with measles while present at that gathering. The doctors fear that the infection levels at the six-day winter fair could match or even exceed those that occurred at Ag Days, and are urging those who are considering attending the fair to reflect on the potential risk of doing so.

That reflection should include the recognition that the latest data from the federal government show that Canada has already had more than 500 confirmed and probable cases of measles this year, with more than 300 of those infections having occurred here in Manitoba. That makes our province the national epicentre of the outbreak, providing all the more reason to take precautions to both protect ourselves and our families, and to prevent the illness from continuing to spread.

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Everyone gets to pay for unexplained war

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Everyone gets to pay for unexplained war

5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 11:01 PM CDT

“Even the Trump administration cannot explain why they’re at war in Iran right now. The Epstein files seems to be as good of a reason as anyone else can figure out.”

— Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, March 13

In case you haven’t sidled your car up to a gas bar recently, we suggest you check your heart medication before you glance at the cost at the pump if you do.

On Thursday afternoon, gas prices at the pumps in Brandon were averaging 155.9 cents per litre, with Global News suggesting that Canada’s national average for regular gas sat just below 170 cents per litre.

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Updated: Yesterday at 11:01 PM CDT

A thick plume of smoke rises from an oil storage facility hit by a U.S.-Israeli strike late Saturday in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 8, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Vahid Salemi

Countries aren’t hurrying in response to Trump’s plea

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Countries aren’t hurrying in response to Trump’s plea

5 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 17, 2026

“It would be nice to have other countries police (the Strait of Hormuz) with us, and we’ll help. We’ll work with them.”

— U.S. President Donald Trump

Thanks, but no thanks.

That’s the overwhelming response to U.S. President Donald Trump who, over the weekend, started telling other countries that they have to get involved in the war that the United States and Israel started with Iran.

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Tuesday, Mar. 17, 2026

This still image from video released by the U.S. Navy shows the Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi surrounded by Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels in the Strait of Hormuz Wednesday, May 3, 2023. Iran seized a Panama-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the second-such capture by Tehran in recent days, the U.S. Navy said. (U.S. Navy via AP)

Manitoba not positioned to cash in on data centres

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Manitoba not positioned to cash in on data centres

5 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 17, 2026

In case anyone wonders what’s at stake when the government talks about the need to increase Manitoba’s electrical capacity, a pair of Bell Canada announcements over the last 10 months are good examples.

Last May, BCE Inc. CEO Mirko Bibic announced that Bell Canada would be opening six data centres in British Columbia that would be equipped to power artificial intelligence models and applications.

All of the new data centres combined, according to a Globe and Mail report, would need up to 500 megawatts of electricity once fully operational over the next few years.

The plans represent an investment of at least $300 million in the province over three years as part of the first stage of the company’s “Bell AI Fabric” strategy, with the aim of providing so-called sovereign AI computing solutions for Canadian companies and governments.

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Tuesday, Mar. 17, 2026

Bell Canada signage is pictured in Ottawa on Wednesday Sept. 7, 2022. Rogers Communications is confirming plans to broadcast several specialty channels as part of a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery that Bell Media had attempted to thwart. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Government data shows extent of truancy issue

4 minute read Monday, Mar. 16, 2026

You start to deal with a problem by admitting that you actually have one, not by burying it because you’re concerned about how it might look.

On Wednesday, independent MLA Mark Wasyliw tabled leaked information in the legislature about truancy in Manitoba schools. Included in the information was an internal briefing note, dated July 26, 2024, that contained a breakdown of “severe chronic absenteeism” across Manitoba’s 37 public school divisions in 2023-24.

Severe chronic absenteeism for an elementary student means missing 20 per cent of classes during a reporting period. For a high school student, that level is reached if they have 20 or more unexcused absences in a core course.

More than 15,000 students were chronically absent in the 2023-24 school year, a staggering number. That’s eight per cent of K to 12 students across the board, though some districts were much higher: 60 per cent in the Frontier school division, and 20 per cent in Kelsey (The Pas), Turtle River (McCreary) and Mystery Lake (Thompson) schools.

Downtown efforts may be paying off

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Downtown efforts may be paying off

4 minute read Friday, Mar. 13, 2026

When it comes to downtown Brandon, it can be very easy to be skeptical of any new ideas and initiatives that local groups and authorities embark upon.

After all, the question of downtown degradation has been an ongoing issue since at least the mid-1960s, as the popular business shift away from Rosser, Princess and Pacific avenues to suburban shopping malls became more noticeable. That was to accelerate even faster when big box stores came knocking at the turn of the last century, with demands for large parking spaces and stand-alone structures.

By the 1980s, the deteriorating state of the downtown core was a hot topic, even as the bulldozer took down the old city hall building and the Prince Edward Hotel.

Over the decades, several well-meaning attempts at downtown revitalization have been made by elected officials and by organizations such as Renaissance Brandon, the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation and the Brandon Downtown Development Corporation.

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Friday, Mar. 13, 2026

Time for a new funding formula

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Time for a new funding formula

4 minute read Friday, Mar. 13, 2026

The Mountain View and Beautiful Plains school divisions have approved their 2026-27 budgets, and each division’s budget includes a substantial hike in property taxes.

The increase is 7.24 per cent for Mountain View, and a staggering 10.4 per cent for Beautiful Plains taxpayers to shoulder.

The situation playing in Mountain View and Beautiful Plains is similar to that which is unfolding in school divisions throughout the province. Park West School Division is proposing a 10.12 per cent increase in school taxes for the 2027 calendar year as part of its draft 2026-27 budget. Brandon School Division trustees recently approved a 7.25 per cent increase. The tax increases in some other divisions are even higher.

This news should not come as a surprise to those who have been following the school funding issue over the past several years. Last fall, we noted that the provincial government was in the process of implementing the province-wide harmonization of teachers’ salaries, and that school divisions — rural divisions in particular — would bear the brunt of that cost.

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Friday, Mar. 13, 2026

Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Tracy Schmidt said responsible use of AI was a “big theme” of Friday’s event. (Mikaela MacKenzie/Winnipeg Free Press files)

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Promises, rhetoric won’t bring solutions

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Promises, rhetoric won’t bring solutions

5 minute read Thursday, Mar. 12, 2026

Manitoba’s partisan politicking has become so mired in sophistry and empty promises, we have to wonder if voters really buy the rhetoric that our political leaders are peddling these days.

An email from the Progressive Conservative caucus earlier this week that criticized NDP Premier Wab Kinew for not doing enough to deal with rising food inflation is a great example of how party sniping has become little more than political background noise.

In December 2023 — only a few months after the NDP came back into power in this province — Kinew made a rather unwise promise to Manitobans as he stood in Brandon’s Keystone Centre.

“You’ve heard the big chains, the billionaires owning these big chains talk about ‘Oh, it’s transportation costs that are the reason why grocery prices are going up. Well, guess what? We’re calling their bluff,” Kinew said, with a dollop of class warfare chest thumping. “Transportation costs will be reduced for the big grocery chains starting on Jan. 1, and if they don’t pass the savings to you, then we will take further action to follow up with that.”

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Thursday, Mar. 12, 2026

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew waits before the Speech from the Throne, at the Manitoba Legislative Building in Winnipeg, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Lipnowski

National power grid would help make Canada stronger

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National power grid would help make Canada stronger

4 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 10, 2026

There’s a long-standing complaint about the Canadian economy — namely that we have been overly satisfied with being the hewers of wood and the haulers of water.

In other words, that one of the major drivers of our economy has been to harvest raw materials and ship those materials to other countries for valued-added processing — products that we then often buy back, at higher prices.

The description actually comes from the Old Testament, but it was first used to describe the Canadian economy in 1930 by economist Harold Innis, who used the reference in his book “The Fur Trade in Canada.”

It’s not completely true now — Canada’s service industry is larger than its resource industry, but resources still play a large role, and every level of processing for resources that we can do in this country makes them more valuable to the overall economy.

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Tuesday, Mar. 10, 2026

Manitoba Hydro power lines are photographed just outside Winnipeg, Monday, May 1, 2018. Manitoba residents could see their electricity rates rise by 3.5 per cent in each of the next three years if an application by Crown-owned Manitoba Hydro is approved. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

EU membership not Canada’s best option

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EU membership not Canada’s best option

4 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 10, 2026

Almost one-half of Canadians favour the idea of Canada joining the European Union, according to a poll of almost 2,000 Canadians conducted last month by Abacus Data. It is an idea worth considering, given the fraught nature of our current relationship with the United States, but not to the exclusion of other viable options.

Proponents of the EU idea argue that joining the other 27 EU member states would give Canada unfettered access to one of the world’s largest single markets. It would allow for the free movement of our goods, services, capital and people across the European continent without tariffs or other barriers. That, in turn would bolster economic growth, attract foreign investment and create jobs.

They also point out that the EU is the world’s largest trade alliance, which gives it immense leverage to negotiate better access to world markets, as well as lower prices and tariffs. Canada, they say, would benefit from that strength — something that is sorely missing in its trading relationship with the U.S.

There are those who argue, however, that there would be a serious downside to Canada joining the EU, including the loss of national sovereignty, loss of control over immigration, a range of economic restrictions, mandatory adoption of EU regulations and other policies that may be contrary to Canada’s specific interests.

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Tuesday, Mar. 10, 2026

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks with reporters on the final day of a three country tour, in Tokyo, Japan, Saturday, March 7, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Risk is business poison … and Trump is risky

4 minute read Monday, Mar. 9, 2026

With every passing day, it seems more and more like the president of the United States doesn’t understand the business costs of risk and instability.

And not only the U.S. is going to feel the results of that blind spot.

It’s true that people do make money in unstable times — especially, as seems to be happening in the United States, if you know about significant government changes in advance, and tailor your stock purchases and sell-offs accordingly.

Much money has been made by anonymous traders (you could legitimately suspect inside traders) who have magically decided to dump stocks just before U.S. President Donald Trump has made sweeping or unexpected tariff decisions, as it has been made on oil plays by speculators who seem to know when military actions are about to take place.

Pauls gives NDP hope in Turtle Mountain

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Pauls gives NDP hope in Turtle Mountain

4 minute read Friday, Mar. 6, 2026

If anybody doubts the NDP’s determination to win seats in southwestern Manitoba in the next provincial election, scheduled for October of next year, they aren’t paying attention to the story that is unfolding.

Last August, the New Democrats came within a few dozen votes of winning the byelection in the Spruce Woods riding, which has been held by the Progressive Conservatives since it was created decades ago. Now, the NDP have their sights set on another longtime Tory stronghold, Turtle Mountain.

The riding, which is located in the southwest corner of the province, is currently represented by PC MLA Doyle Piwniuk, who was first elected in the Arthur-Virden riding in 2014. That riding was dissolved in 2019, however, and he won the Turtle Mountain seat that year. He announced in November that he will not be seeking re-election in the next general election, but intends to remain as MLA until then.

At the time of that announcement, Piwniuk told the Sun that “I wanted to make sure that Turtle Mountain had … time to select my successor for being a strong voice for Turtle Mountain and western Manitoba.” He may get his wish, but that strong-voiced successor may end up being a New Democrat, not a Progressive Conservative.

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Friday, Mar. 6, 2026

Rick Pauls speaks at a nomination meeting in Killarney on Monday. The former longtime Killarney-Turtle Mountain mayor will represent the NDP in the next election, which is scheduled for October 2027. The Tories had best take the race seriously. (Alex Lambert/The Brandon Sun files)

Growth at CFB Shilo also benefits Brandon

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Growth at CFB Shilo also benefits Brandon

4 minute read Thursday, Mar. 5, 2026

At a time of such widespread economic anxiety, yesterday’s report that the Canadian Armed Forces is planning to spend $84 million on the construction of about 180 housing units at Canadian Forces Base Shilo is welcome news for the base, Brandon and all of Westman.

The expenditure is part of the Carney government’s $3.7-billion national military housing expansion project, which will fund the construction of approximately 7,500 housing units at Canadian Forces bases across the country.

Though bases in Valcartier, Que., Petawawa, Ont., and Edmonton will each see the construction of more than 1,000 new units, the addition of roughly 180 new housing units at Shilo, along with the arrival of hundreds of CAF members and their families who will occupy those homes, will have a substantial and lasting impact, especially here in Brandon.

That impact begins with the injection of $84 million into the local economy, including employment for construction tradespeople and the sale of building products, but the benefits will extend far beyond that.

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Thursday, Mar. 5, 2026

Railway crossing lights flash in front of the north gate of CFB Shilo on Wednesday afternoon. The federal government plans to build about 180 homes at CFB Shilo as part of a national housing expansion for military bases.

Should Manitoba consider ditching daylight time?

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Should Manitoba consider ditching daylight time?

4 minute read Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2026

Saturday night will be the last time British Columbians change their clocks to “spring forward.” That is because the province has decided to permanently adopt daylight time. As a result, most of that province will no longer undergo the twice-yearly time change that most other Canadians experience.

With that decision, B.C. joins Saskatchewan and Yukon in rejecting bi-annual time changes, while Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced earlier this week that her government is also considering following B.C.’s example.

A portion of eastern B.C., which is currently operating under “mountain time” — the time zone currently in place for cities such as Calgary and Edmonton, will not be impacted by the change. That creates the odd situation of a large portion of B.C. not having daylight time, while a smaller portion does. That will likely end, however, if Alberta also abandons the time changes.

In defence of the new policy, B.C. Premier David Eby told reporters this week that changing the clocks causes “all types of problems,” including families losing sleep, increased car accidents and even dogs waking at the wrong time.

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Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2026

B.C. has decided this weekend will mark the last time that province will move its clocks ahead as it switches permanently to daylight savings time. Don't expect Manitoba to do the same soon, though. (File)

An opportunity for Canadian energy

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An opportunity for Canadian energy

4 minute read Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2026

It is often said that, in business, timing is everything. That may be the case for Canada, which appears poised to profit from the turmoil occurring elsewhere on the globe.

As the CBC reported yesterday, Canada is starting to receive inquiries from nations regarding Canadian energy companies’ ability to offset the looming oil and gas shortages caused by the conflict unfolding in the Middle East.

Canada’s energy minister, Tim Hodgson, told the CBC that “The world right now is feeling incredibly insecure as a result of this weekend … So we’ve already seen an uptick in inquiries about how quickly Canada can expand its clean and conventional energy exports.”

It’s easy to understand why those nations are calling. More than 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply moves via oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, but that route has been effectively closed as a consequence of last weekend’s attack of Iran by Israeli and U.S. forces, and by Iran’s retaliatory attacks upon several nations in the region.

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Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2026

Plumes of smoke rise following reported explosions in Tehran, Iran, on Monday during strikes against Iran by the United States and Israel. Canada has a chance to capitalize on the turmoil in the Middle East by becoming a relatively drama-free supplier of oil and gas. (Tribune News Service)

Canada trading with the world as it is

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Canada trading with the world as it is

4 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 3, 2026

In what many will regard as the triumph of economic necessity over principle, Canada and India have agreed to a major reset of the two nations’ relations.

Following meetings over the weekend between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the two have announced the formation of a “new partnership,” along with a series of commercial and diplomatic agreements.

That includes a $2.6-billion agreement between the Government of India and Saskatchewan-based Cameco to supply uranium for nuclear energy generation, as well as billions more in deals involving defence, energy and critical minerals, technology and artificial intelligence, food production, education, pharmaceuticals, skilled labour and culture.

The deals are proof that Canada is serious about diversifying its international trading relationships and, in particular, reducing its reliance on trade with the United States. On that point, Carney told reporters yesterday that his government is focused on doubling Canada’s trade with India to $70 billion annually by 2030.

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Tuesday, Mar. 3, 2026

March 20, 2026

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