Latest news with #Regina-based
02-07-2025
- Politics
Joy and responsibility: Saskatchewan immigrants reflect on what it means to belong
As many in Saskatchewan celebrate Canada Day, the day holds many different meanings. For some, it's a day of national pride, especially in light of rhetoric around Canada becoming the 51st state (new window) that originated from U.S President Donald Trump. But for others, it is a day to mark a moment of reflection for many who now call this country home. I've been here for a while now, and it feels like home, said Iryn Tushabe, a Regina-based author who immigrated from Uganda in 2007. I have friends here, I have community, people who came to my aid when I needed child care and babysitters. Saskatchewan is where I became a mom, where I became a spouse, and where I became a writer. Speaking on CBC's Blue Sky , Tushabe said her 2019 citizenship ceremony was filled with emotion. It was very surreal, a mix of joy and also a bit of sadness. Because by becoming a Canadian citizen, I gave up my Ugandan citizenship … that's a special kind of pain. Still, she said, the moment was triumphant: This is where I am, and this is where I'll also call home. Fleeing conflicts for safety and freedom Lili Htoo Saw was 20 years old when she arrived with her parents and siblings, carrying just one suitcase. Her family had fled Myanmar — then Burma — by foot through jungle and land mines, spending nearly a decade in a Thai refugee camp before resettling in Canada. Coming to Canada felt like immediate freedom, Saw said. We all felt like we were free, that we have a safe place where we can build up our future. She says becoming a Canadian citizen was once unimaginable. The happiness went up to the honeymoon stage, she said. But then I realized it was 50/50—that I have many responsibilities as a Canadian citizen, and it is time for giving back. Now working as a settlement caseworker in Regina, Lili says helping newcomers is her way of honouring what she's gained: It is a privilege to treat every newcomer with respect, dignity … I was once a newcomer. So it is a very, very perfect place to give back to Canada. For Naseer Alokozai, becoming Canadian means gaining something he's lacked for most of his life: stability. Afghanistan has been in conflicts for like five decades now, he said. We have been through so many turmoils in our lifetime. We want a stable place where we can call home and build our future. Naseer Alokozai says he wanted to give back to the country that brought him and his family in by joining the Saskatoon Open Door Society, where he leads the Indigenous newcomer connection program. (Submitted by Naseer Alokozai) Photo: (Submitted by Naseer Alokozai) Alokozai knew he and his family had to leave his home country once the Taliban took control of the government in 2021. They fled to Pakistan where they stayed for seven months before coming to Canada in November 2022. Alokozai now lives in Saskatoon with his family, where he leads the Indigenous newcomer connection program with the Saskatoon Open Door Society. He holds permanent residency, and says full citizenship would give the security he has long been looking for. Being a citizen will give me that peace of mind … that belonging. Citizenship comes with responsibility Tushabe says while she is grateful for citizenship, she doesn't believe Canada is a country without flaws. There might be a reluctance upon newcomers to our country to be critical because they're so grateful for where they came from, said Tushabe. But in becoming a citizen and getting that privilege to vote, they have every right to be just as critical of what's going on here as the people who are born and raised here. She says she has sharpened her expectations — especially when it comes to homophobia and racism. People always think, 'Oh, it must be so hard being in Uganda and having to deal with all of that.' But actually, when you live in Saskatchewan, it's not written into the legislation, but you encounter these minor violences on a daily basis, she said. Even in the schools that my children go to, there is homophobia. Tushabe said Canadian identity is something that evolves over time, and she's come to see herself as part of a larger collective, which includes learning about identity as a Black woman — something she never really had to think about living in Uganda as an Omukiga woman. By the time I became a citizen, I had grown comfortable in my Blackness, so that it felt like I was joining a community of other Black people that have been here longer than I have. And I strive to contribute. She says another component of connecting with Canadian identity is honouring Indigenous people. To also be in community with those who were here long before all of us came here, to learn from them and tell stories responsibly, in a way that honours all of that history. Jeffery Tram (new window) · CBC News
Winnipeg Free Press
28-06-2025
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
Sponsored Content FPDI drone pilot program
When Corbin Spence-Hart's boss approached him earlier this year to see if he would be interested in taking part in a training program to become a licensed drone pilot he immediately said yes. Spence-Hart works as a First Nations safety officer in Nelson House, part of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation in northern Manitoba. He viewed the opportunity to become an accredited drone pilot as a chance to do more to help people in his community including assisting on search and rescue missions and helping deal with the wildfires that have plagued the region of late. In April, he was part of the first cohort of 15 students to graduate from the Advanced Drone Accreditation Training program offered through First People's Development Inc. (FPDI), a non-profit organization that facilitates partnerships designed to develop and deliver training- to-employment programs to meet labour market needs. The pilot program was developed in conjunction with Saskatchewan Polytechnic and its Centre for Continuing Education's training solutions department. Instruction was provided by Transport Canada-certified instructors from Queen City Drone, a Regina-based company that has trained hundreds of drone pilots in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Evan Colgan, supervisor of FPDI's robotics and drones department, says the organization offered a couple of previous drone courses that were extremely popular with young learners and felt it was time to provide something a little more advanced to help meet a growing demand for trained drone pilots. 'We thought we needed to get others accredited so that First Nations communities can utilize this new technology because its growing and there's so many regulations that you need to know,' he says. 'This class is kind of perfect, especially for those communities that may not get this kind of chance otherwise.' Students received about 20 hours of classroom instruction as well as hands-on training as part of the Advanced Drone Accreditation Training program. Classroom instruction was provided in FPDI's offices on Mountain Avenue while flight training took place in a park space the organization reserved for test flights. The three-day program covers a wide range of topics including: a thorough understanding of Canadian Aviation regulations governing the use of drones; how to pilot a variety of different drones; how to read flight charts; and how to communicate with air traffic controllers. The final day includes a written test and a flight review which students must pass before receiving their pilot's license. The program is free of charge and is open to any First Nations person who resides in Manitoba. 'We really wanted to make it accessible to our First Nations which is why we offer the free tuition,' Colgan says. 'We really just wanted to make sure that we give as many people a chance as possible to help out their community.' Spence-Hart says one of his favourite parts of the program was having an opportunity to test fly some of the latest state-of-the-art drones including those used by law enforcement and firefighters. He also appreciated the fact that the instructors did a good job of explaining all the rules and regulations in easy to understand terms. 'They did an excellent job. They really helped us with some of the more confusing (topics),' he says. Queen City Drone owner Ryan Beston conducted both the classroom and hands-on instruction for the program's first session. He was impressed with the enthusiasm of the students and their genuine desire to learn. 'One of the guys in the class was actually the fire chief of his (community). He went up afterwards to a Sask Polytech staff member after we were done and said: 'When I came into this class I knew zero about drones or anything remote controlled. Now I'm 100 per cent sure I can do great with this',' Beston recalls. Gerry Youzwa, director of training solutions for Saskatchewan Polytech, says teaming up with FPDI to offer drone accreditation training was a natural fit for the institution since a big part of its mandate is to partner with industry to design custom training programs that address specific skills gaps in the labour market. 'Obviously our goal (with the program) was to provide Indigenous participants hands-on training in drone technology,' she says. 'Those types of skills are really in high demand and can help people manage emergency response plans and really map out the topical aerial view of different land masses that are being impacted.' A second session of the program is scheduled to run July 28 to 30 and will be open to 15 students. Future sessions will depend on demand from First Nations communities and FPDI may consider expanding it to include other provinces if there is enough interest. 'It's loads of fun and I hope more people join it,' Colgan says.
Global News
25-06-2025
- Business
- Global News
EDR looking to grow the economy by growing local businesses
Six Regina-based businesses have been selected to receive funded support for their growth plans from Economic Development Regina's (EDR) new Upscale Program. The program will offer companies like Crazy Ape, Sticks and Doodles and Greenwave Innovations mentorship, growth plans and $10,000 in federal funding — all in a effort to help these companies expand. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy EDR told Global News this initiative will also help grow the economy since growing business mean more jobs and investment. This is the first year of the three-year program. A new set of companies will be selected to join the program each year. Katherine Ludwig has the full story in the video above.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'At home here in Regina': New exhibition captures 56 years of Indigenous art, self-determination
Little glass seed beads adorn a menstrual cup, carefully capturing the moon cycle phases around its sides. The beadwork, a traditional art practice for Regina-based Métis artist Audie Murray, is transposed onto an unconventional object to talk about contemporary experiences of the world. Titled Moon Cup, it is one of the featured pieces in the MacKenzie Art Gallery's (MAG) newest exhibition showing how Indigenous art and performance has been used to challenge colonial oppression. 'It's really hard to separate politics and indigeneity and that is not because of Indigenous people but the way that the government and others see Indigenous people,' said Murray in a recent interview. 'We are political, our lives are just intrinsically related to politics and rules and laws that the government imposes on us.' 'So for art to be a way of reacting to these different political climates, it's just a natural thing,' she said. Murray, like the other featured artists in the gallery, use humour as a layer in their work. Another of her pieces, Protection (2020), is a beadwork condom still in its wrapper. The needle and thread punctured through, rendering the object unusable for its intended protective use. Her third artwork Celestial Gloves (2021) is a pair of worn work gloves with porcupine quills, which Murray says shows the 'physical traces of labour or hard work that we have to do as Indigenous people.' Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969 is showing in Regina at a time when public dialogue about western separatism and expediting natural resource projects is facing pushback from First Nations who want to see inherent and treaty rights upheld by provincial and federal governments. The exhibition traces through 56 years of the Self-Determination Era through performance and artwork. It emerged from the 19-month Occupation of Alcatraz, where activists asserted they had treaty rights to the federally abandoned island outside of San Francisco. Even Saskatchewan-based artists such as Bob Boyer and Ruth Cuthand played a role in that art movement, says MAG's executive director. 'I feel really good … when we're bringing outside curated shows that can help us understand ourselves here more and this, I think, really is exemplary of that,' said John G. Hampton during a walk through the gallery rooms. The MacKenzie lent work from Murray, Boyer and Cuthand for the 2023 debut of Indian Theater at the Hessel Museum in New York state. But Hampton, who made history in 2021 as the first Indigenous director of a major non-Indigenous art institution in Canada, says 'it's just so at home here in Regina.' The exhibition is one of the largest the MAG has had for some time. More than 100 pieces of work are spread across almost all of the second floor gallery space and down to the main floor theatre. Hampton hopes the show inspires people with its 'breadth and scale and the sophistication of work that's been produced since 1969.' The exhibition's curator, Candice Hopkins, is from Carcross/Tagish First Nation in Yukon, but is based in New York. She says she relies on her relations in the art world to bring together pieces that are 'in dialogue with one another.' 'I want it to feel not just lively but alive,' said Hopkins, who was in Regina for opening night on May 22. 'You should not only feel like you're part of it, but you should feel like all of these (artworks) have agency in and of themselves. And so I really feel that at the MacKenzie.' Indian Theatre will be at the MAG until September 21. The gallery space will have a live performance on the evening of Thursday, June 12 with Nicholas Galanin's piece White Carver activated by local woodcarver Chad Arie. nyking@ First Indigenous CEO of Saskatchewan arts organization 'humbled' by chance to inspire her community Beadwork artist Audie Murray to be first Indigenous Artist in Residency The Regina Leader-Post has created an Afternoon Headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. Click here to subscribe. With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.
Canada Standard
27-05-2025
- Business
- Canada Standard
Anxiety, Optimism as Throne Speech Chatter Points Toward Faster Project Approvals
With King Charles III set to deliver the Carney government's first Speech from the Throne beginning at 11 AM Tuesday, the rumour mill in Ottawa was warping between anxiety and optimism, as early signals about fast-tracking major "nation-building" projects stoked fears that climate impacts, environmental protection, and Indigenous consent might be shunted aside. Newly-appointed Energy Minister Tim Hodgson set the tone for the discussion Friday, in what CBC described as a "boisterous speech" to a sold-out business audience in Calgary. "Energy is power," Hodgson told participants. "Energy is Canada's power. It gives us an opportunity to build the strongest economy in the G7, guide the world in the right direction, and be strong when we show up at a negotiation table." He pledged a two-year approval period for major projects, rather than five, declaring that "I want to be very clear. In the new economy we are building, Canada will no longer be defined by delay. We will be defined by delivery." Related: Canada's New Energy Minister Tells Oil and Gas Execs It's Time for Some Quick Wins Hodgson said Canada "will remain a reliable global supplier of oil and gas for decades to come," the Globe and Mail writes, but appeared to emphasize overseas markets that are pivoting swiftly away from fossil fuels. "The real challenge is not whether we produce, but whether we can get the best products to market before someone else does," he said. "It's high time to trade more with people who share our values-not just our border." But while the Globe says industry executives "have given Mr. Carney's government a laundry list of ways to attract energy capital and boost energy security, from scrapping a cap on emissions to streamlining project reviews," CBC reports that Hodgson "did not make any announcements or signal any changes in government policy beyond what the Liberals had pledged during the campaign." That included pressing the oil sands industry to get moving on the Pathways Alliance project, a $16.5-billion carbon capture hub in northern Alberta that has been stalled while the industry tries to arm-twist more generous subsidies out of the federal government. "All of us, governments and industry, need to get the Pathways project done," Hodgson said. "This government will not be a government of talk, but a government of action. We need the same from the province of Alberta and the Pathways Alliance." View our latest digests "We need to demonstrate to our customers outside the U.S., and to our fellow Canadians, that we are a responsible industry," he added. "And this government believes Pathways is critical to that reality." Recent independent analyses have indicated that Pathways won't likely break even without "substantial efficiency improvements" and better revenue prospects and would likely be "scuppered" without permanent subsidies. In October 2023, the Regina-based International CCS Knowledge Centre admitted the technology won't be ready to scale up by 2035. Hodgson previously served on the board of MEG Energy, one of the six companies that make up the Alliance and account for about 95% of Canada's oil sands production. Some of the concern anticipating deregulatory promises in the Throne Speech traces back to advance briefings the government has provided for key stakeholders, and to a May 26 Globe and Mail opinion piece that put forward several "simple fixes" to speed up approvals. It suggested reducing "regulatory duplication" for pipelines over 75 kilometres in length and for critical mineral and metal mines, in each case by limiting the reach of the federal Impact Assessment Act . "Both changes could be made easily and immediately by a simple Cabinet order (amending the regulations under the Impact Assessment Act )," wrote Deloitte Canada national infrastructure leader Jordan Eizenga, Aecon Group Executive VP Tim Murphy, and Ian Anderson, former CEO of Crown-owned Trans Mountain Corporation. "They are not complicated, and they do not require changes to legislation." Among other possible candidates for federal streamlining, "a pipeline operator should not need to undergo another impact assessment to add a compressor station on an existing pipeline. And a railway company should be able to add infrastructure adjacent to its mainline without need for further environmental review," the three authors wrote. As well, "the federal government must designate particular types of projects as being in the national interest where appropriate-fast tracking approval times and reducing budgets." Vittoria Bellissimo, president and CEO of the Canadian Renewable Energy Association, said she was pleased to hear Hodgson commit to delivery rather than delay, a major projects office to speed up federal regulatory reviews, and interconnections through a pan-Canadian electricity grid. "Next steps for Canada's clean energy industry is to identify projects. The priority will be on nation-building projects, built by the private sector with involvement from Indigenous communities, and on quick wins," Bellissimo wrote on LinkedIn. "Let's do this." On Thursday, Yukon News identified another nation-building project in the making, reporting that British Columbia and the Yukon are working on a new transmission line that will connect the territory to the North American grid. And Philippe Dunsky, president of Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors, pointed out that the effort now under way to dismantle the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act could reduce the country's capital flows to clean power by up to US$1 trillion over the next decade. "Meantime, Canada has been worried about its ability to attract sufficient capital for its clean energy transition needs, including approximately $1 trillion over the coming 25 years to finance new wind, solar, transmission and distribution, nuclear, and other projects. A big part of the concern had been the attractiveness of the IRA," Dunsky wrote on LinkedIn. "Crisis, meet Opportunity." But in a release Monday, Nature Canada stressed that nature must be at the centre of federal decision-making. Related: 95-Metre 'Mega-Banner' Urges Carney to Pick a Path, Choose Renewables and Climate Action "One Project, One Review by federal, provincial, and Indigenous governments is an important policy objective that can be achieved without reopening the federal Impact Assessment Act ," said Executive Director Emily McMillan. "But the federal government cannot abandon reviews of large development projects with environmental effects in federal authority or give carte blanche to provinces to carry out those reviews." Similar worries began rippling through the community last Wednesday, after Prime Minister Mark Carney released a single, concise mandate letter to all his Cabinet ministers that listed seven government priorities-including a new economic and security relationship with the United States, a single, strong Canadian economy, lower costs, and more affordable housing-all of which intersect with climate change, but none of which mentioned it. During the federal election campaign just ended, "the fact that Mark Carney has previously said that climate change was an existential threat demanding meaningful action gave us confidence we were picking a nicer guy with a steady, predictable hand on the wheel-plus, critically, for many of us, a climate plan," wrote Delta Management CEO and Canada's Clean50 founder Gavin Pitchford. "Except now, there's literally no climate plan or clean economy focus listed anywhere in his top seven priorities, as pushed out in the mandate letter to his new ministers this week." On LinkedIn, Pitchford added that diversifying the economy "means diverse products as well as diverse export destinations. The only thing more volatile than Donald Trump is the market for oil and gas. So why on Earth would we double down on pipelines?" Particularly when the global cleantech market is on track to triple in the next decade, he said, while oil and gas "is expected to greatly decrease over the next 15 years." But Clean Energy Canada Executive Director Rachel Doran responded to the mandate letter by pointing to the "abundant and realizable opportunities in the clean economy" that governments can tap into. "The federal government's current focus on building the economy and improving affordability offers clear opportunities and building blocks for a cleaner Canada," she said in a release. "All of Canada's 10 largest non-U.S. trade partners have net-zero commitments and carbon pricing systems, while roughly half of them apply carbon border adjustments on imports and have domestic [electric vehicle] requirements reshaping their car markets. Investing in our supply chains, while growing and leveraging our clean electricity, will be key to building a more globally competitive, and hence resilient, economy-one more able to stand on its own even next to an occasionally unfriendly giant." Source: The Energy Mix
