The only butt on the beach should be yours.

That was the message from the province Thursday as it revealed plans to ban smoking at its 82 public beaches, including Grand Beach, and the dozens of playgrounds in its provincial parks by the summer of 2014.

"We don't think that our beautiful sand beaches should be park ashtrays," Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Gord Mackintosh said. "We only want one kind of butt on our beaches."

During the first year of the ban, park officials will only hand out warnings to offenders, Mackintosh said. By 2015, offence notices will be issued carrying a fine of $299.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/butts-banned-at-the-beach-196257211.html

Hotel room service? There's an app for that.

When the Grand by Lakeview hotel opens at the Richardson International Airport in July you won't have to worry about fussing with the phones to reach housekeeping or room service.

Instead, a customized in-room iPad will hook you right up.

The soon-to-open 100-room boutique airport hotel will be the first in the city to offer an iPad in every room with customized mobile connection for all the hotel services.

So instead of having to call the front desk to get them to call housekeeping to bring an extra pillow, a couple of touches on the iPad will get the message right to the pillow department.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/need-a-pillow-tap-the-ipad-196257601.html

Complete: CALGARY -- WestJet and Air France have tightened their relationship.

A new agreement between the airlines will enable Air France to offer 10 additional Canadian destinations through a code-sharing deal with its Calgary-based partner.

Starting March 12, travellers will be able to use the Air France website, the French airline's call centre or a travel agency to book flights that will include some travel aboard WestJet planes.

It's the ninth code-share agreement for WestJet Airlines Ltd., which also has 21 interline relationships with other foreign airlines.

The Air France flight code will be used on select WestJet flights from Toronto to several destinations across Canada.

Winnipeg and Calgary flights will also bear the French airline's code for Toronto and Montreal connections to Air France's flights to Paris.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/air-france-adds-westjet-cities-196256961.html

VANCOUVER -- Sen. David Braley is ready to reap the benefits of three Grey Cups in four years with the official announcement Friday that the 2014 Grey Cup game and festival are coming to Vancouver.

The Lions will hold a news conference at 9:30 a.m. at BC Place Stadium with B.C. Premier Christy Clark and Michael Copeland, the chief operating officer of the Canadian Football League, in attendance to announce the formal awarding of the championship game to Vancouver.

Braley, who owns the Lions and the Toronto Argonauts, profited from the 2011 Grey Cup in Vancouver and last year's 100th edition in Toronto. According to the Toronto Star, the Hamilton, Ont., businessman earned as much as $10 million from the 2012 championship game. That was considered a one-off, however.

Last year, Braley benefited not only from federal government money -- the Ministry of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages gave $5 million -- but from his native province. Tourism Ontario advanced $4.5 million toward the celebration, owing to the special significance of the event -- Grey Cup No. 100.

http://www.leaderpost.com/sports/football/cfl/Lions+land+2014+Grey/8065870/story.html

MONTREAL -- Air Canada reported Thursday its planes were fuller in February.

The country's largest airline said it had a system load factor -- a measure of how full its flights were for the month -- of 79.8 per cent for February, up from 76.8 per cent a year ago.

The increase came as system traffic, as measured by revenue passenger miles, decreased 0.7 per cent and capacity, measured as available seat miles, slipped 4.4 per cent with one less day in the month compared with 2012.

"The difference in capacity and traffic from the previous year is attributed almost entirely to the additional day of operations reported for the February 2012 leap year, making those year-over-year comparisons less meaningful," Air Canada chief executive Calin Rovinescu said in a statement.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/more-flew-air-canada-this-february-196257091.html

(Reuters) - Tourism in Greece is bouncing back this year in an otherwise flat European market, held back by the weak economic climate, travel industry executives said.

The desire for a beach holiday closer to home for cost-conscious consumers in Europe is helping to revive tourism demand in the country, battling recession and a debt crisis.

Doerte Nordbeck from market research group GfK showed in a presentation at the ITB travel fair this week that bookings to Greece from Britain, Germany and the Netherlands for this summer were up 10 percent.

Tourism income for Greece, its chief money spinner, fell by 4.6 percent to 9.89 billion euros from January-November in 2012 according to the country's central bank.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/03/08/europe-tourism-outlook-idINDEE92708Q20130308

BOISE, Idaho - Restaurant owners in the eastern Idaho resort burg of Driggs and the state's other tourist towns will have to wait a little longer for any changes in the law to make liquor licenses more available.

The House State Affairs Committee agreed Thursday to hold a bill that would relax booze rules for eateries in more than a dozen tourist destinations across the state.

The bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace, told lawmakers that current rules only allow for two liquor licenses to be issued to restaurant owners in Driggs, a town of 1,600 people at the base of Grand Targhee ski resort.

His legislation would allow Driggs — along with other resort communities like Donnelly, Lava Hot Springs and McCall — to issue a special class of liquor licenses, helping restaurant owners and customers alike looking for more than beer and wine with their dinner.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/house-committee-votes-to-hold-bill-to-expand-liquor-license-access-in-idaho-resort-towns-196191371.html

Government agencies are already taking steps to comply with automatic spending cuts that took effect March 1. Some examples:

AIRPORT CUSTOMS

People arriving on international flights were said to experience delays at airport customs and immigration booths, including at Los Angeles International and O'Hare International in Chicago. Officials said Monday that's because they closed lanes that would have previously been staffed by workers on overtime.

AIRLINE FLIGHTS

There could be widespread flight delays and cancellations due to furloughs of air traffic controllers, but furloughs won't start until April because of the legal requirement to give workers advance notice. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood predicts flights to cities such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco could have delays of up to 90 minutes during peak hours. FAA officials have said they expect to eliminate overnight shifts by air traffic controllers in more than 60 airport towers and close more than 100 towers at smaller airports. But information posted online by the agency shows 72 airports that could lose midnight shifts and 238 airports whose towers could be closed.

TOURISM

The administration is cancelling tours of the White House beginning Saturday, citing staffing reductions. House Speaker John Boehner says Capitol tours will continue. Visiting hours at all 398 national parks probably will be cut and sensitive areas blocked off to the public. Thousands of seasonal workers looking for jobs would not be hired, according to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. He and National Park Service director Jon Jarvis said visitors would encounter locked restrooms, fewer rangers and trash cans emptied less frequently.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/a-look-at-how-the-cuts-could-affect-government-operations-and-you-196254911.html

A proposal by the United States to ban cross-border trade in polar bears and their parts was defeated Thursday at an international meeting of conservationists, marking a victory for Canada's Inuit over their big neighbour to the south.

Delegates at the triennial meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, rejected Washington's proposal to change the status of the polar bear from a species whose trade is merely regulated, not banned.

The proposal fell far short of the two-thirds needed to pass, garnering 38 votes in favour, 42 against and 46 abstentions. A similar proposal was defeated three years ago at the last CITES meeting.

While support for most of the meeting's 70 proposals covering the trade in other species fell along predictable lines, the U.S. proposal made for some odd bedfellows. Russia endorsed Washington's proposal, which was also supported by a cluster of animal humane societies. Canada was joined in opposition by some of the larger conservation organizations, including the CITES Secretariat and the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network, better known as TRAFFIC.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/03/07/polar-bear-trade.html

(A complete article published originally in the WFP, Mar.  '62)

The 50th anniversary of the extension of Manitoba's boundary is featured in this year's provincial government road maps. The maps show with a broken black line the province's boundary from 1881 to 1912. With the boundary change, the province gained a 440-mile shore line on Hudson Bay where the seaport of Churchill has sprung up. The reverse side of the map carries pictures of northern Manitoba and an index to Manitoba towns mid cities. The map, prepared jointly by Manitoba's departments of public works, and industry and commerce, is being distributed to service stations and tourist information centres.