The Diocese of Charlottetown announced that Rev. Jim Willick has been elected to work as the diocesan administrator until a new bishop is named.

The election of an administrator for the Catholic diocese became necessary on Feb. 2 when Bishop Joseph Dabrowski was installed as the 10th Bishop of Hamilton, vacating the position in Charlottetown after around two years in the role.

The college of consultors, a body of priests appointed by the bishop, elected Willick to the administrator role in a vote Feb. 4.

He will hold the position until Pope Leo XIV names Dabrowski’s successor as bishop. Willick will continue on as pastor of Our Lady of Assumption Parish in Stratford and St. Joachim’s Parish in Vernon River, where he has served for almost six years.

“I’m still, I suppose, in the learning process, only having done it for a week,” Willick told CBC News on Thursday. 

Willick was raised in Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula. He attended the University of Guelph where he earned a bachelor of science and agriculture degree, which he said is what brought him to P.E.I. in the 1980s. He continued that work until he “felt God calling me to do something different,” and became a parish priest in 1998.

“I always say I went from being a soil man to a soul man,” he said. “I decided, since I felt called to be doing this work as a priest in Prince Edward Island, that that’s where I would stay.”

Willick’s work as a priest on the Island has brought him to Morell, Tignish and Souris. 

“I covered both tips of the Island, that’s for sure,” he said. “I remember when the bishop was going to move me … I said it would be nice to be somewhere in the middle, so he came up with Stratford.”

P.E.I.’s bishop is leaving. What does that mean for the Diocese of Charlottetown?

Bishop Joseph Dabrowski is leaving his position as leader of the Catholic Church on the Island and heading to Hamilton, Ont. The Charlottetown diocese now has to wait until the Pope names his replacement. CBC’s Taylor O’Brien has the details.

Willick’s work as diocesan administrator involves most of the pastoral duties a bishop would carry out, such as governing the diocese and working with the chancellor to ensure things run smoothly. 

He also gives the green light on where priests may be placed in parishes and will be attending meetings with Atlantic Canadian bishops in April to represent the diocese.

Willick said he can’t close parishes or order the diocese buy property, nor is he able to ordain a new priest or conduct masses in the days leading up to Easter.

“There are some things just totally reserved for the bishop,” he said.

Willick said he recently went through the history of every bishop the diocese has had since 1829. He found it was often three to eight months before a new bishop was chosen, but in the last 10 to 15 years, it seems to be taking longer.

He thinks it’s going to be at least a year before the Diocese of Charlottetown has a new bishop.

“We don’t get any indication,” he said. “We find out on a particular day that someone has accepted to be the role of our bishop.”

Vancouver’s crowded 2026 mayoral election became slightly less crowded on Wednesday night.

Brightside Homes CEO William Azaroff was nominated as OneCity’s leadership candidate, defeating Amanda Burrows, following a two-month contest among party members.

In front of a crowd of around 300 people, Azaroff — who defeated Burrows 1,324 votes to 929 — said he would focus on “pro-growth, pro-housing, pro-worker, practical progressivism.”

“This party has it within our grasp to bring the city together around common themes of making the city work again, building things that people need, listening to the people, and ensuring that those who are struggling to get by have a partner at City Hall,” he said.

Azaroff made a number of promises during his campaign, including modernizing the city’s traffic light systems and fast-tracking a renewal of Britannia Community Centre, but said a more detailed platform would come in the months ahead.

OneCity combined its leadership reveal with an annual general meeting, where it announced dozens of people had passed the party’s application process for running for council, park board and school board.

Burrows, executive director of First United Church, congratulated Azaroff on his victory, but declined to say whether she would seek a council nomination with the party.

A ‘People’s Primary’ on the left?

The number of candidates OneCity will run is dependent on the nature of its ongoing discussions with two other progressive parties: COPE and the Green Party.

All three parties have said they wish to avoid vote-splitting in the October 2024 election, but have yet to agree on a common mayoral candidate or the number of candidates each party would run for council, school board and park board.

The Green Party has already nominated councillor Pete Fry as its mayoral candidate, while COPE is considering whether to put forward a candidate, and has characterized this period as “The People’s Primary, a chance for the opposition parties on Council to present and debate their ideas in the public sphere.”

Azaroff said he was committed to continuing negotiations with the Greens and COPE, but stopped short of saying he would end his campaign if another progressive candidate ended up garnering more support prior to the election.

“I think the most important thing is to defeat [ABC Vancouver’s] Ken Sim. And so if we can work together with the other parties, the Greens and the COPE, I think that’s in our interest,” he said.

“At this stage, I’m excited to get out to Vancouver, share ideas, and build momentum for the ideas that we present.”

Other mayoral candidates in the race are Kareem Allam of the Vancouver Liberals and Rebecca Bligh of Vote Vancouver, with Colleen Hardwick seeking TEAM Vancouver’s nomination.

Внаслідок російських обстрілів цієї зими Дарницька ТЕЦ зазнала серйозних пошкоджень, частина об’єктів на станції була повністю зруйнована. Наразі розпочато процес відновлення, який відбуватиметься у кілька етапів, повідомляє компанія “Євро-Реконструкція”, що володіє Дарницькою ТЕЦ.

В компанії зазначили, що розпочали відновлювальні роботи, щойно дозволила безпекова ситуація. Хоча розчищення завалів місцями ще триває, паралельно вже розпочато і відновлювальні процеси.

“Залучено внутрішні резерви, укладено договори з підрядними організаціями, проведено закупівлю основних матеріалів для відновлювальних робіт. Частина підрядників уже приступила до виконання робіт. Роботи організовані поетапно з визначенням першочергових напрямків”, – йдеться у повідомленні.

У компанії наголосили, що відновлювальні роботи здійснюються за рахунок фінансових та матеріальних ресурсів підприємства, оскільки акціонери забезпечили Дарницькій ТЕЦ фінансову стабільність. 

Разом з тим розкривати орієнтовні строки відновлення стратегічно важливого об’єкта в компанії не готові.

“У публічному просторі з’являються різні оцінки вартості та строків відновлення. Звертаємо увагу, що така інформація є чутливою з огляду на безпекові обмеження, адже Дарницька ТЕЦ є об’єктом критичної інфраструктури. Підприємство діє відповідно до вимог безпекових органів та профільних відомств і не може деталізувати окремі технічні аспекти відновлення. Ми розуміємо суспільний інтерес до цієї теми та надамо підтверджену і виважену інформацію, щойно це стане можливим”, – йдеться у повідомленні.

Вас також можуть зацікавити новини:

Toronto police say they are searching for a missing 12-year-old child last seen in Scarborough.

Officers say Firaol was last seen on Thursday around 3:20 p.m., in the Pharmacy Avenue and Danforth Avenue area. Police have since set up a command post at a school in the area.

Police describe Firaol as five-feet-two with a thin build, short black hair, and brown eyes. They were last seen wearing a sweater, blue jeans, and a black jacket.

Investigators say they are concerned for their safety.

MILAN – They held onto their Beijing success too long.

Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Valérie Maltais agree they were slow adapting to changes in speedskating’s team pursuit after winning Olympic gold in Beijing in 2022.

“The strategy that we used at the Olympics felt so good for us, and so we kept using it,” Weidemann said.

Being shut out of World Cup podiums last season and barely qualifying for the pursuit at the 2025 world championship was a wake-up call for the Canadian trio.

“Last year was a complete bust,” Blondin said.

Team pursuit is three athletes from one country skating close together in a single file, and working as one unit to complete six laps as quickly as possible. The clock stops when the last skater of the three crosses the finish line.

Where skaters previously rotated the leader by changing positions during the race, more countries adopted a no-change formation post-Beijing, pushing one another with a hand on the back instead.

“Strategy-wise, other teams started doing no exchanges, and then they started closing the gap on us,” said Blondin. “We were pretty slow with adapting to that.”

Related Videos

2:48
‘You have to be confident’: Canada’s Grondin speaks silver medal win in Men’s Snowboard Cross

Previous Video

Next Video

Rotating to freshen the front engine seems intuitive, but Blondin pointed out that exchanges can cost a team two-tenths of a second per lap.

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

So the Canadians started this season with Ottawa’s Weidemann in front for all six laps, Maltais of La Baie, Que., in the middle and Ottawa’s Blondin at the rear.

“The strategy looks counterintuitive because you’ve got one person at the front and you think you should be sharing the load, but actually at the front, especially for the first few laps, I’m really relying on my teammates,” Weidemann said. “I’m skating lap times at the front that I actually can’t skate by myself, so I’m going faster than I’ve ever gone.”

The Canadian women will attempt to defend their gold medal starting Saturday in the quarterfinals at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium.

“When we show up to the line, we’re all nervous, but we know we can do it because we’re going to start together and finish together,” Maltais said.

The six-foot-two Weidemann is the metronome setting the tempo.

“My job is to do eight consistent strides and hit the corner in the same entry position every time and to not make any sudden movements at the front,” Weidemann said.

Added Maltais: “For myself, being in second position, I’m really able to tuck in really well behind Isabelle and kind of skate blindly and give a really good push for Izzy.”

Blondin, a full foot shorter than Weidemann, has no pusher behind her. She wants to stay in the draft of her two teammates, and get her hand on the back of Maltais as much as possible, with the intention of crossing the finish line tucking in beside Maltais.

“A lot of teams really struggle with that third spot,” Weidemann said. “Ivanie, from her mass start and short-track background as well, we like to say she’s impossible to drop. You just can’t get rid of her. She’s so little, she’s so agile.”

Maltais’s move back to Quebec from Calgary after Beijing in 2022 also meant the Canadian women trained together less.

“Previous to Beijing, we were training together every single day, so it became very natural,” Blondin said. “Over the years, it just became harder and harder to skate in line behind each other and know how the person skates.”

So in addition to revamping formation, the three women came together in Calgary in August and Quebec City in October for pursuit-specific camps.

They also spent a few days in Salt Lake City ahead of the season’s first World Cup in November, when they placed second just three tenths of a second off their Canadian record.

The trio then placed second in Calgary the following week and won the last team pursuit in Hamar, Norway, before the Olympic Games.

“We haven’t felt like that since ’22, just being able to nail it,” Blondin said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2026.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

***THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE***

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO

Secretary Rubio is on travel to Germany, Slovakia, and Hungary from February 13-16, 2026.

12:00 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Rubio meets with China’s Director of the CCP Central Foreign Affairs Commission and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Munich, Germany.
(POOLED CAMERA SPRAY AT TOP)

3:00 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Rubio meets with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Munich, Germany.
(POOLED CAMERA SPRAY AT TOP)

5:10 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Rubio meets with Syrian Foreign Minister Assad al-Shaibani in Munich, Germany.
(POOLED CAMERA SPRAY AT TOP)

6:40 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Rubio hosts a reception for the U.S. Congressional Delegations in Munich, Germany.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE CHRISTOPHER LANDAU

Deputy Secretary Landau is on official travel on February 13, 2026.

DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE FOR MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCES MICHAEL J. RIGAS

Deputy Secretary Rigas attends meetings and briefings at the Department of State.

UNDER SECRETARY FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS ALLISON M. HOOKER

Under Secretary Hooker joins Secretary Rubio on travel to Germany and Slovakia from February 13-16, 2026.