In the news today: Interest rates, Manitoba First Nation lockdown, Missing N.S. kids

Heading into the year, many economists had predicted inflation would ease and a softer economy would keep the Bank of Canada on the sidelines while it waited for clarity on the U.S. trade front.

But the outbreak of war in the Middle East in late February has led to a surge in oil prices and upended inflation forecasts.

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Newfoundland and Labrador’s new Tory government expected to table budget today

The Progressive Conservative government in Newfoundland and Labrador is set to table their spending plan for the indebted province’s year ahead.

Finance Minister Craig Pardy’s budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year is expected to come with a deficit, though he hasn’t given many hints on what the shortfall may be.

He has, however, said that he expected the fiscal year that ended on March 31 to close out with a deficit nearing $1 billion.

While other Atlantic premiers have announced sweeping cuts to offset large deficits, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Tony Wakeham has made no promises to balance the books.

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Lockdown for Manitoba First Nation as RCMP search for suspect in bar shooting

Residents of a First Nation in northern Manitoba were urged to lock their doors late Tuesday as Mounties used police dogs and other specialized units to search for a man suspected in a bar shooting.

RCMP were called around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to a disturbance just south of Lagoon Road in Norway House, a roughly 800-kilometre drive from Winnipeg, and found two men had been shot and injured.

An alert from Norway House Cree Nation said the suspected shooter was seen running from the Playgreen Inn bar and into the bush of nearby Fort Island and that RCMP were searching for him.

As of early Wednesday, the suspect was still at large, and officials with Norway House Cree Nation said people should lock their doors and not let anyone into their homes.

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VPD officer’s testimony dropped from schedule of Myles Gray death hearing

A public hearing in Vancouver into the police-involved death of Myles Gray in 2015 is set to resume after a six-week adjournment.

But the first testimony from Const. Eric Birzneck, one of the Vancouver officers under investigation for the violent confrontation, has been dropped from the hearing schedule, and it’s now unclear if any of the seven constables will speak.

The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner that is conducting the hearing says “unanticipated scheduling issues” have delayed the start of proceedings for several hours, until 2 p.m. today.

Gray died during a takedown in the backyard of a home that left him with injuries including a fractured eye socket, a crushed voice box and ruptured testicles.

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One year later, RCMP saying little about disappearance of two Nova Scotia children

It’s been almost a year since young siblings Jack and Lilly Sullivan wandered into the woods near their family’s mobile home in rural Nova Scotia, and Mounties say there’s still no evidence of an abduction or criminal offence.

Investigators say the children, aged four and six, went missing on May 2, 2025 and have for months been the subjects of extensive ground, air and water searches.

Cold case expert Michael Arntfield says without evidence of where the children are, all potential scenarios remain viable, and he doesn’t believe Jack and Lilly would have wandered from their home in Pictou County, as the woods are so dense that two small children couldn’t have walked far.

Belynda Gray, the children’s paternal grandmother, dismissed the possibility that Jack and Lilly were abducted, but said it’ll be “a miracle” if they’re found.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2026.

The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

In the news today: Interest rates, Manitoba First Nation lockdown, Missing N.S. kids

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