What you’ll notice first in the portraits by Lisa Wood on view now at the School of Art Gallery at the University of Manitoba are not the subjects’ faces, but their hands.

Gesticulating hands, reaching hands, hands covering a mouth. Tattooed hands. Hands attached to wrists wrapped with friendship bracelets and smartwatches, tracking thousands of steps logged over hundreds of shifts. Hands that perform labour.

“I love painting hands,” the Brandon-based visual artist says. “I think that when a viewer sees faces, they’re thinking about that particular person, but when a viewer sees hands, they’re personal, but I think that we can connect more or think more about ourselves when we’re seeing somebody else’s hands.”

The paintings are part of a suite of works that compose SHIFT/WORK: Portraits of Precarity, a multimedia research-creation project that shares the experiences of rural Manitobans navigating precarious work — whether that’s insecure, short-term or contract-based employment — created from more than two years of research.

Conservative MP Grant Jackson is defending a former staffer who praised the Conservative party in several letters to the editor that appeared in Westman newspapers, without disclosing that he was paid by the party.

The former parliamentary affairs director for Jackson, Levi Cottingham, submitted letters in papers such as the Roblin Review, the Dauphin Herald, the Minnedosa Tribune, the Erickson South Mountain Press and the Neepawa Banner & Press since he entered his role with Jackson last year. The letters routinely criticized the federal Liberals and complemented Conservative policies.

“I don’t think there is a problem here whatsoever,” Jackson said in a phone call last week. “Levi Cottingham very publicly worked for me, campaigned for me, was my campaign manager, and subsequently has been my director of parliamentary affairs up until (March 6).”

The end of that professional relationship had nothing to do with the letters, Jackson said.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) is launching a national advocacy strategy to challenge the federal government’s decision to shutter agricultural research stations across Western Canada, including a long-standing facility in Portage la Prairie.

Joe Masi, Portage la Prairie city councillor and Manitoba Director for the FCM board, informed Portage council that the national organization has instructed staff to research the economic and agricultural impacts of the closures. The move follows a coordinated effort by municipal leaders from Manitoba and Saskatchewan to bring the issue to the national stage.

“I’m pleased that the board of FCM is going to get involved,” Masi said. “We need to try to restore or reverse that decision of cuts because it’s a loss of jobs and an impact on our community.”

The Portage la Prairie site is a hub for grain, oilseed, and conventional crop research. It also serves as a primary centre for Manitoba’s fruit, vegetable, and potato sectors. Beyond the scientific loss, Masi highlighted the immediate blow to local employment, noting the cuts include a research economist, two technicians, and multiple seasonal and student positions.

VIRDEN — A piece of land beside the Highway 1 Co-Op gas station in Virden has been sold to an equity firm out of Calgary that has plans for the property.

The plot at 558 Frame Street East was agreed to be sold to Park Avenue Equities Ltd. during council’s regular meeting on Jan. 20. Information cannot be disclosed about the future of the property yet, but plans appear to be in the works, Virden Mayor Tina Williams told the Sun.

“They haven’t made public what they are putting there yet,” Williams said. “They are not buying it to sit on it, let me put it that way. They are not buying it to just have the land.”

The property is directly across the street from the Co-Op gas bar that was added to the community in February of 2024.

A large herd of bagwaji-bizhikiwag (wood bison) call Chitek Lake Anishinaabe Provincial Park in Manitoba home — and their community has recently grown even larger.

On Feb. 18, the herd welcomed ten new bulls and cows to their territory nestled between Lake Winnipegosis and Lake Winnipeg — more than 300 kilometres northwest of the City of Winnipeg.

They’d traveled 12 hours in a massive cattle trailer across provinces, from Elk Island National Park in “Alberta.”

Wood bison, once on the brink of extinction, have seen their populations climb thanks to conservation efforts. And even though historically the species wasn’t known to live in this herd’s area, the vast isolation of the park’s boreal forest, fields and lakes helps keep them safe from disease as their numbers come back.

A smǝlqmíx (Similkameen) expert is warning that climate change and over-logging could lead to “an extinction event” for fish throughout the Okanagan Basin by 2040.

Lauren Terbasket, a Lower Similkameen Indian Band (LSIB) member who works for the band’s Parks Working Group, shared that these issues have led to warmer water trends across the Similkameen Watershed system in recent years.

That’s why climate resilience must become a priority, said Terbasket.

“The water warming trends indicate that we will be looking at an extinction event — in terms of fisheries — by 2040,” she said.

The Portage la Prairie School Division is proposing a 10.97 per cent increase to the local mill rate as it deals with $4-million in mandated salary and benefit costs.

Superintendent Pam Garnham unveiled the $58.3-million draft budget during a public presentation Wednesday, February 26 at Portage Collegiate Institute (PCI). The increase translates to approximately $160 more per year for a home valued at $250,000, while a farm valued at $1 million would see an increase of roughly $370.

Garnham said the hike is largely driven by a new provincial collective agreement that harmonizes teacher salaries across Manitoba.

“We had to budget over $4 million for salary increases, benefit increases, and payroll tax increases,” Garnham said in a recent interview. “We want to maintain our staff. Our board made a very strong decision that they were not going to cut staff, because the staff need to be in the classrooms with the kids.”