Need to catch up on what’s happening in Waterloo Region? These were the most popular stories on CTV News Kitchener this week. Unclaimed $40 million Lotto Max ticket in Grey County The clock was running out this week to claim a $40 million Lotto Max jackpot. The winning ticket was from the Oct. 28, 2025 draw and, one year later, the prize still hadn’t been picked up. Just hours before it was set to expire, the ticket was validated. The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) still needs to determine if the claimant is the rightful owner before it can announce the winner’s name. All we know is that the $40 million ticket was sold somewhere in Grey County. Results from the 2026 Municipal Election Change was the big theme in this year’s municipal election – at least in terms of mayors. Across Waterloo Region, only Berry Vrbanovic was re-elected for another term representing Kitchener. Voters picked Scott Hamilton over Jan Liggett in Cambridge, Shannon Weber over Dorothy McCabe in Waterloo, and Kristopher Wilkinson over Natasha Salonen in Wilmot Township. A recount will be held after two candidates tied for Waterloo Catholic District School Board trustee, while another trustee with the public school board was re-elected despite withdrawing from the race. Canada’s longest-serving mayor reflects on end of 46-year run in Milton, Ont. Gord Krantz’s record-setting run as Canada’s longest-serving mayor has come to an end. The 89-year-old lost his first municipal election after 14 consecutive terms in office. Before taking on the top job in 1980, Krantz served as a town councillor for 15 years. CTV’s Spencer Turcotte sat down with the now-former mayor to discuss his impressive political career. He also interviewed George Minakaki, Milton’s new mayor-elect. Even though Krantz was voted out of office, he won’t be far from it - he can see it from his living room window. “The town hall is in my front yard,” he joked. Thousands of items up for auction as Inn of Waterloo liquidates contents It’s the end of an era for the Inn of Waterloo. Thousands of items from the hotel are being auctioned off, including beds, linens, televisions, banquet chairs, commercial washers and folding machines. The Inn of Waterloo opened its doors in 1972. It was turned into a temporary men’s shelter in late 2020 and, the following February, a fire destroyed one of its towers. The hotel closed its doors for good in December 2023. Prices for each lot start as low as $0 and wraps up on Nov. 17 and Nov. 18. Kitchener man trades 20-year warehouse career to found tech startup using AI A Kitchener man shared the story of a huge career change. Mike Nickason, 52, spent two decades as a forklift operator in a warehouse. Due to illness, and other personal challenges, he had to step away from that work. Then he stumbled across “vibe coding,” where a user instructs AI models to build software infrastructure. Nickason began creating new programs from scratch. Eventually, he developed K-W Live. The platform pulls open-source data from the web and displays it in one single dashboard, including emergency service updates, transit alerts, traffic cameras, flight information and satellite imaging.
