Brandon’s Santa Claus Parade will be held downtown on Saturday beginning at 6:00 pm – but there’s been a change. Organizers say because of the postal strike, mail carriers will not be available to collect letters to Santa or food donations. It’s recommended you donate directly to our local food banks.
———-
Roughly 85,000 new passports are being held back by Service Canada which stopped mailing them out a week before the postal strike. They did not want to risk having any documents held in Canada Post distribution centres.
If you urgently need your passport, you call Service Canada to arrange for pick-up at one of their locations.
———-
The Brandon Downtown BIZ has requested an additional $150,000 in funding from the City for 2025. The money will pay for operating costs, programming, and initiatives to attract visitors downtown. The organization
boasts a membership base of over 100 businesses.
———-
According to Stephen Tapp, chief economist at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Brandon business owners should look ahead to 2025 with cautious optimism, as economic growth continues to face challenges. He spoke at yesterday’s Brandon Chamber of Commerce luncheon. The bright spot – he predicts lower interest rates could help stimulate consumer spending later in the year.
———-
Today is the National Day of Action for Social Housing, and Manitoba has joined organizations across the country in calling for Ottawa to boost funding. The Right to Housing coalition in Manitoba wants to see at least 10,000 new rental units a year. The province has committed to 350 in its 2024 budget.
———-
How’s your driving? A new CAA survey found speeding, distracted driving, running red lights and driving while sleep-deprived are common across the country. The top one was speeding – 70% of us admitted to driving over the limit in residential neighbourhoods – and half of those polled said they regularly speed on the highways.
———-
The Canadian Space Agency is looking for a name for the first Canadian lunar rover. You can cast your vote on the agency’s website. The options include Athabasca, Courage, Glacier and Pol-R. The lunar rover, part of a mission to find water ice, will be not launched before 2026.
———-
Up in Alaska at a U-S military base – hungry bears broke into a storage room and feasted on MRE’s – ‘Meals Ready to Eat’. Troops in the field can just tear them open and chow down. It’s unclear what flavors the bears liked –
but there was an open packet of M&M’s in the mess.
———-
We all remember when the movies ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ ruled the box office – and became ‘Barbenheimer’. It was something impossible to manufacture, but that’s not stopping people from trying to create the same thing with ‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II’. Leading the pack is ‘Glicked’ – but there’s also ‘Wickiator’ and ‘Gladwick’. The musical and the sword and sandal film both open today.
