CAIRO (AP) — Six people died and nine others were injured after a tourist submarine sank in the popular Egyptian Red Sea destination of Hurghada, two municipal officials said Thursday. They were speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Emergency crews were able to rescue 29 people, according to a statement released by the Red Sea governorate. The submarine was sailing off one of the beaches in the tourist promenade area, and it had carried 45 tourists of various nationalities.

It was not immediately clear what caused the submarine to sink.

Many tourist companies have stopped or limited traveling on the Red Sea due to the dangers from conflicts in the region.

The Associated Press

A well-known Mount Pearl businessman is on the road to recovery after undergoing grueling treatment for an aggressive, and rare, form of cancer.

“The doctors had said to me, basically…that they were going to kill me, and bring me back to life.”

Scott Hillier of Coffee Matters credits his cancer care team for helping him through his treatment and recovery. The process started with a very aggressive surgical procedure that removed tissue and lymph nodes

He says undergoing the surgery alone was very hard and required a great deal of adjustment, but even then the cancer remained, and he entered into an aggressive round of chemotherapy.

Scott Hillier during Chemo Therapy (submitted photo)

He says the chemo he underwent was a type of treatment medical professionals no longer like to use.

“It’s a very harsh chemo,” says Hillier, “so much so..that I couldn’t take the chemo and go home.” He says in order to take the treatment he had to be admitted to hospital 24 hours in advance to get his body ready, undergo the treatment, resulting in five days in hospital, with another two days to recover, and then back home for 14 days before entering hospital for another seven-day ordeal. “That continued for a three month period.”

Hillier says the hardest part was being laid up and so sick that he couldn’t do anything. He thanks his husband for “being through more than I did” and running the business in Hillier’s absence. He also credits the support of his three children, and his staff for “being more like family.”

Listen to the full interview with Your VOCM Mornings Here:

The City has unveiled a new Recreation Levy for Swift Current ratepayers. 

The levy will be for $140 per property per year, and will be going towards not only the maintenance and general upkeep of existing recreation spaces, but also towards saving for a new Aquatic Centre or Field House.

Swift Current Mayor Al Bridal hopes that the public understands why the council finds this measure necessary. 

"We want our citizens to understand that recreation does cost money," said Bridal. "The only way we can continue to have these facilities is to maintain what we have or build new ones."

In the first year, the City expects to raise $1 million to put directly into savings for a new Aquatic Centre or Field House. Both projects are being pursued by the City through grant applications, witht he Aquatic Centre taking precedence. 

Bridal noted that this is a move they need to tmake to show those in charge of the grant programs that the City of Swift Current is seriously committed to getting the updated indoor pool. The total cost of the new Aquatic Centre is estimated to be around $36 million dollars total.

"Then next year if they don't give us a grant by the end of next year, we will say we have $2,000,000 saved," said Bridal.

He confirmed that the Recreation Levy will be kept in place during the application for grants, and even after the Aquatic Centre is built. 

"I don't think it will ever come off," said Bridal. "Because we're always going to have recreational facilities and we're always going to have to maintain and build new facilities."

For the taxpayers, Bridal says this levy has the benefit of showing where the money is going directly. With a general tax increase, the money is dispersed to all aspects of governing. The Recreation Levy goes directly into the maintenance of public facilities, and into the savings account for new ones. 

"In 20 years' time, hopefully, that Aquatic Center is paid off and the levy of $140 will be targeted towards something else," said Bridal.  

Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey each scored two goals to help the Montreal Victoire secure the first PWHL playoff spot this season after a 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Frost on Wednesday night in St. Paul, Minn.

Saskatoon city council approved the functional designs for a project meant to upgrade a busy westside intersection.

In the midst of an overdose crisis, organizations are calling for the Saskatchewan government to fund naloxone nasal spray, which is easier to use.

Dawson Creek is looking at team care to serve the needs of the community.

A man in his 20s has died after a shooting in Brampton on Wednesday night, Peel police said. The shooting happened around 11 p.m. near Heritage Road and Embleton Road, police said in a post on X. 

Good morning. As Canada sprints into an election, the threat of disinformation looms large – more on that below, along with anti-Hamas protests in Gaza and Justin Trudeau’s new digs. But first:

Today’s headlines

• Carney calls Trump’s 25-per-cent tariffs on vehicles ‘a direct attack’ on Canada and its auto workers
• On the ground in the epicentre of Ontario’s measles outbreak
• Winnipeg police identify Buffalo Woman, the victim of a serial killer, as Ashlee Shingoose

A new poll suggests that Canadians are feeling less anxious about losing their jobs as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to pursue his trade war with Canada and much of the world.

The Leger poll for The Canadian Press, which sampled 1,599 Canadian adults from March 21 to March 24, suggests that 38 per cent of employed Canadians are worried about losing their jobs over the next year.

The City of St. John’s is reminding residents that garbage put out at the curb for collection must be completely covered from April 1 through November 30. 

Acceptable methods of covering garbage include using nets or containers with a closed lid. City garbage cart lids must also be completely closed.

Waste is not permitted at the curb before 6:00 a.m. on the scheduled collection day. This helps to reduce the amount of litter in your neighbourhood and on city streets, parks and open spaces.

A new study from Leger Marketing indicates that many Atlantic Canadians are not in a good mindset when it comes to their finances.

The study indicates that 60 per cent of people in the region say they don’t have enough money left to save, invest, or pay down debt, and more than half of respondents say money is their biggest stressor.

Wendy Brookhouse, CEO with Black Star Wealth, says there are several factors coming together that create the increased stress and strain on people’s finances.

She calls it a “tsunami” or “perfect storm” of things like inflation and high interest that are coming together to put stress on people’s discretionary income.

Internal divisions and leadership challenges threaten the party’s future. Can this election be different?

With Snowfall Warnings now in place for much of Southern and Central Manitoba, it appears sleds and toboggans will be getting more use than bikes at the beginning of Spring Break. Environment Canada has issued Snowfall Warnings for essentially all areas along and north of the Trans Canada Highway between the Saskatchewan and Ontario border.

Here in the southwest, the Melita, Virden, Souris, Brandon, Boissevain and Killarney regions are currently not within the Warning area, but we are still expecting accumulating snowfall starting tonight and lasting through Friday.

For the latest Road Report and Cancellation information, click here.

15 to 25cms is possible in the warning area, with lesser amounts south of the Number 1 highway. At this point, 5 to 10cms seems likely for the southwestern corner of the province.

Travel conditions will deteriorate starting Thursday night, and will remain poor throughout the day Friday. 

For the latest forecast details, click here.

Visibility will be significantly reduced due to heavy snowfall and localized blowing snow, as northeasterly winds gust to 70 km/h beginning tonight and continuing through Friday.

The snow will taper off Friday night, with cooler than average temperatures expected for the weekend.

School Division Boards across the province are struggling to make ends meet when it comes to the 2025-2026 budget. This has prompted increases to the special levy for education on property taxes in many communities.

The previous budget for Turtle Mountain School Division was $16, 053,337. But that number has risen by over $2 million for the 2025-2026 budget set at $18,180,452.  The Special Levy, which is the portion of property taxes that funds education, is projected to increase by 16.55% in this year's budget for Turtle Mountain.

"Each year balancing the budget is a challenge, but this year was difficult," says Wiesner.

In some ways you could say it was the perfect storm with rising maintenance costs and an increase in student population which prompted additional teaching and support staff. In addition to teacher salaries and benefits, there are additional financial obligations the school division board has, including contractual obligations for support staff and bus drivers.

"Each year balancing the budget is a challenge, but this year was difficult," says Grant Wiesner, TMSD Superintendent.

"The increase in provincial funding falls significantly short of covering the increased costs resulting from the provincial teacher collective agreement and increased staffing needs," shares Wiesner. "The Board received a 1.6% increase in funding in February, amounting to $108,621. This represents approximately one-eighth of the funding required to fully cover the increased costs associated with the teacher contract and the necessary staffing increases due to student population growth."

The Board did not anticipate the current situation, says Wiesner.  "The 1.6% increase compared to the previous year’s funding is much lower than expected, and with the rising costs that we're seeing, contractual obligations and our growing student body, it just was not making up the difference."

"We've had a number of years when school divisions couldn't tax and last year was when school divisions could start taxing again," explains Wiesner, "and the Board has always done its best to ensure that they consider the taxpayer and what our actual costs are, and how that's going to impact families with increases to the special levy.

In TMSD 82% of their budget is contractual obligations.  In addition to this the rising costs of bus fuel and maintenance, school maintenance, hydro, right down to cleaning supplies, says Wiesner, all costs have increased across the board.

"We need to maintain our school bus fleet and ensure that we're providing the best transportation service as possible,"

However, this year the TMSD Board decided to put school buses back into the budget.

For the last number of years, buses were not part of the school budget.  Wiesner says they would either purchase a bus through budget surplus dollars, or they were just maintaining their fleet as it was, without the purchase of new school buses.

"We need to maintain our school bus fleet and ensure that we're providing the best transportation service as possible, so that's been added back into the budget," he explains. "But our buses are aging, and we need to get into a system where we can upgrade a couple of buses every year, just to ensure we have the safest buses on the road."

Wiesner says TMSD's primary focus for the 2025-2026 budget is to maintain the status quo when it comes to teacher-to-pupil ratios, like other divisions are doing.

TMSD has grown significantly over the last 5 years

Five years ago, TMSD had less than 1000 students enrolled in their Killarney, Boissevain, Minto, Mayfair Colony, Can Am Colony, Holmfield Colony and Wellwood Colony Schools.  Now in 2025 their total student enrollment is close to 1200.  "So, we have grown significantly in the last 5 years," notes Wiesner.

"We want to ensure that we have our teacher to student ratios where the Board has them set," shares Wiesner. "We feel that's the best for providing a good learning experience for our students.  We also need to make sure that we're supporting students with diverse learning needs the best way we can." 

The TMSD is committed to preserving current ratios of:

• 1 teacher to 18.75 students in K-4,
• 1 teacher to 19.75 students in grades 5-8, and
• 1 teacher to 21.25 students in grades 9-12

"Our hope is that as the Province is moving to developing another funding formula for school divisions, that it will be equitable and it will meet our needs, and that again it will consider places like Turtle Mountain where our schools are growing, which is an awesome thing that we are growing," shares Wiesner. "But we also have to ensure that we have the money to pay for the costs of growing."

Please listen to more with Grant Wiesner below!

Summer staff are starting to trickle back to the International Peace Garden as they prepare for one of the most exciting seasons in the year; spring planting!

CEO Tim Chapman says some of the 8 and 9-month employees will be coming back over the next few weeks to prepare the grounds and the flower beds.

"We're fortunate to still be growing our annuals through Saddler's Greenhouse up in Souris and that really allows us in the first early weeks to get a lot of stuff done without having to worry too much about irrigating the plants because Saddlers does an incredible job and brings the plants down to the Peace Garden towards the end of May early June, ready to go into the ground," shares Chapman.

Staff are eager to bring back their volunteer days to help with the clean-up of fall season leaves, winter wear and tear on trees and bushes and getting their buildings ready for staff and visitors.

Friday, May 2nd will be their facilities volunteer day where they have folks with a variety of skills coming in to help them get the main facilities ready.

May 30th will be their Volunteer Grounds Maintenance Day, "which is a chance where hopefully it's been a little warmer and we don't have snow on the ground, and we can start to do a little bit of the fall and winter clean up. There's usually a little bit of ice in March and April that takes down some tree limbs. So having volunteers help us kind of clean things up outside a little is very helpful," he says.

On the two Saturdays, June 14th and June 21st, the Peace Garden will be hosting their big volunteer planting days "where we welcome folks from all over to come be a part of putting those beautiful annual flowers displays actually into the dirt so that they can come back through the season  and see how those beds mature and really fill out when they hit peak bloom in late July and August."

Mother's Day is the official start to the summer season at the Peace Garden, which takes place on Sunday, May 11th this year, featuring a special lunch buffet and some wonderful surprises for visitors.

"It's always a really fun time of year to kind of kick off the season," shares Chapman. "Depending on what the weather's doing we should have a variety of our bulbs starting to bloom. And thanks to the Central Dakota Daylily Society out of Bismarck, we have about 200 new varieties of day lilies that will be making their first spring bloom in our dirt.  We planted those last year, so we're real excited to see all the color come out."

By mid-May many of the flowers and flowering crab trees will be starting to bloom and many of the cacti will be blooming as well in the Conservatory.

"With the days already being longer and the cacti enjoying their new home we already have blooms coming out, which is incredible to see, and they'll just keep taking off through the summer," he adds.

This year's theme for the outdoor gardens will be 'Peace' which has turned out to be quite timely, given everything that's going on internationally says Chapman.

"Part of that selection was just wanting to kind of ground ourselves again and what the Garden was founded on, but also after a couple years of some really intricate designs, we wanted the horticulture team to be able to do more flowy designs and maybe a little less detail, compared to especially last year when we were designing the images around the different book characters."

"So, it's going to be a really beautiful, colorful set of displays and includes some piece imagery like doves that will be worked into the design and peace signs," he adds.  "So, we really think folks will enjoy that and hopefully it also serves as another reason for folks to visit."