Dawson Trail Dispatch December 2022

Santa Rolls Out on Pre-Christmas Tour

By Dan Guetre

What do you do when your employees have everything under control weeks before the big gest day of your year? You hit the road and greet all your fans.

Thom Doerksen AKA Santa is on his annual tour throughout southeast Manitoba on prob ably one of the most joyous gigs on the planet.

Doerksen took on the roll two decades ago and has not looked back or regretted his deci sion. During Covid-19 restrictions, Doerksen could have parked the sleigh and hung up the

iconic red jacket but instead came up with a concept that has now taken on a life of its own… the Santa Stop Tour.

It wasn’t an easy path as the ideas to salvage his passion evolved.

“I was in touch with our local Health In spector and was bouncing ideas off him and every answer was the same... ‘that would encourage gathering, therefore making you subject to fines.’ Continued on page 3...

Municipalities Receive Funding to Mitigate Disasters

By Dan Guetre

The Province has approved 8 projects in the southeast that mitigate against future disasters under the 2022 Mitigation and Preparedness Pro gram (MPP).

“This innovative initiative, delivered through the Manitoba Emergency Measures Organization, offers an important opportunity for municipalities to build local resiliency against natural disasters, extreme weather events and the impacts of climate change,” said Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk.

First introduced in 2020, the MPP opens when a disaster financial assistance (DFA) program is established for a natural disaster and the cost of the DFA program is sufficient to be eligible for federal cost-sharing arrangements.

The majority of municipalities with a claim under the 2022 Spring Flood DFA program also applied for MPP project funding, which enables municipalities to invest municipal DFA deduct ibles into an approved mitigation or preparedness project.

The municipalities to receive funding are Mu nicipality of Emerson-Franklin up to a maximum of $20,629.21 for sewer lift station generators for Dominion City and Emerson; RM of Ritchot up to a maximum of $63,225.09 for a reserve fund; RM of La Broquerie up to a maximum of $56,927.13 for an emergency generator; RM of Piney up to a maximum of $15,601.00 for road improvements to raise Road 81E south of Sprague; Village of St-Pierre-Jolys up to a maximum of $11,046.83 for the third phase of the northwest storm sewer upgrades; RM of Hanover up to a maximum of $145,733.44 for water pumps; RM of De Sa laberry up to a maximum of $33,165.87 for a re serve fund; RM of Ste. Anne up to a maximum of $47,268.56 for a drainage project with the Seine

Rat Roseau Watershed District.

Ste. Anne Police cuffs the Grinch at the community event. He was released soon after and rumours have it that the Grinch and Santa were seen reconciling any differences. Photos Facebook / The Santa Stop

Ste. Anne Police Chief Honoured by Peers

By Dan Guetre

has also been a key figure for the Manitoba Association of Chiefs of Police (MACP) from 2019 to 2021.

Robichaud was recently chosen

to receive the Outstanding Service Award from the Manitoba Associa tion of Chiefs of Police. The award is given to one of its members who

have made significant contributions to the Chiefs of Police Association and policing in Manitoba.

The Town of Ste. Anne council could not be more proud of their Chief and the way he has led the community police department.

“We know Marc and his depart ment are a model department with all the services they provide,” said Ste. Anne Mayor Yvan St. Vincent. “Marc does a tremendous amount of work in our community but also Pro vincially as he’s extremely dedicated to policing as a whole.”

“This recognition shows that it’s not only our town who appreciates him, and the award is well deserved and I would imagine very humbling for Marc as it was from his peers,” added St. Vincent.

Over the years, the police department

has developed into a perfect training experience for auxiliary officers.

“It has benefited our community by having the auxiliaries provide a strong, positive presence in our town and specifically at events where the community gathers,” stated the Mayor. “It’s also proved to be a great training ground for future policing in our community and other communi ties; it’s been a real win-win!”

St. Vincent believes the commu nity benefits greatly with Robichaud heading the department.

“Our police department in the Town of Ste Anne is something we, council and residents, are extremely proud of due to the excellent level of service they provide,” St. Vincent conclud ed. “We are fortunate to have them and something we want to continue to grow and invest in.”

Marc Robichaud has not only been at the helm of the Ste. Anne Police Department for almost 15 years but

Marc Robichaud was presented with the Outstanding Service Award from the Manitoba Associa tion of Chiefs of Police. The award is given to one of its members who have made significant contributions to the Chiefs of Police Association and policing in Manitoba. Submitted photo

Santa Rolls Out on Pre-Christmas Tour

“We were getting quite frustrated as Santa needs to help spread Christ mas Spirit,” explained Doerksen. “Then it was suggested, a one car parade. Finally the Health Inspector was good with that. And BOOM, the Santa Stop Tour was created.”

In many communities the Santa Stop Tour parades through town as families gather along the route. Some communities were so im pressed with Santa and his ability to connect they created their own take on the event still bringing in Santa and his entourage.

Ste. Anne recently held their Main Street Christmas, for a second year in a row and Santa joined in an expand ed parade the community developed.

Richer hosts their Annual Christ mas in the Park where hundreds gather for free hotdogs, hot choco late, a giant bonfire, sleigh rides, music, ice skating and of course, a visit from Santa.

Almost everywhere the Santa Stop Tour goes, local fire departments jump on board to get in on the com munity event and escort Santa’s brightly lit display. The RCMP and local police departments have also joined in the experience.

It takes a certain character to put oneself out there playing one of the biggest most recognized rolls on earth, but Doerksen just figures its destiny.

“I do like to have fun with life and the way I see it, the good Lord has blessed me with the roll,” he ex plained. “Big beard, big belly and the personality of the man in Red… sooooo… HERE I AM!!!”

If there is a business model that in corporates “extreme Jolliness” as a prerequisite, Doerksen has that too.

“The Santa Stop and The Santa Stop Tour are two sides of this coin,” explained Doerksen. “The Tour is us rolling through commu nities singing away bringing cheer for all to hear. The Santa Stop itself has a few sides as well. Santa will come to your home for that in per sonal touch.”

And that’s not all.

“Prearranged, Santa puts gifts in the sack, cracks the door open, ringing his bells and comes in a ho ho ho’n. Kids race over with excitement and will bring me to the tree area for us to hang out,” he added. “Santa will talk with them, joke with them and sometimes we even sign. After that, it’s time for business. Santa reaches into the sack, pulls out the gift and calls the child by name. Santa sits the child on his lap, asks the ques tions ‘have you been good?’, ‘what do you want for Christmas?’.”

“Santa then hands the gift to the child while moms or dads take pic tures and we move to the next kid,” he continued. “Santa makes sure that there is plenty of time for photos af terwards as well... group, family or whatever they need.”

With this unique service he ex plained that a family with 3 children would take about 15-20 minutes.

“We also offer up Zoom calls,” noted Doerksen. “For this, Santa has homework to do. We get a bunch of information that Santa ‘should know’. This is VERY helpful when you have a kid who is star-struck or shy. Santa can prompt them with questions or talk about stuff that they already know to help bring that comfort level down to open them up. These calls are about 10 minutes long.”

In 2022 The Santa Stop and the Santa Stop Tour are rolling through 15 communities. He has already visited Ste. Anne on November 29, Vita, Grunthal, St. Pierre-Jolys and St. Malo on December 2 and the Kleedfeld Santa Parade on December 3.

He will be visiting Mitchell, Marchand and La Broquerie on December 9, followed by Niver ville, New Bothwell and Blu menort on December 10, then off to Paradise Village and Richer on December 16. He also is plan ning on touring Steinbach on De cember 17.

“This Santa also has a few side projects open to all as well,” he added. “On December 4, Schin kel properties has Santa at the Days Inn (Wpg east) and Stein bach for photos (bring a tin for the bin). On December 7, Royal LePage has Santa at their Stein bach office. Santa will be at Grunthal Grocery for photos on December 10 and a few days later, Santa will be at the Jake Epp Library who I hear is hav ing a big event. Just a few days before Christmas, Santa will be back in Grunthal for an event on December 17 and 18 hosted by Hanover Ag.”

“Our vision is very simple,” said Doerksen. “Bringing joy to all. Our purpose was to help build Christmas Spirit through out the southeast.”

Doerksen reminds everyone that all public events are posted on The Santa Stop Facebook page. You can also reach out to TheSantaStop@gmail.com to discuss his services.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Southeast communities are enjoying a visit from Santa during his 2022 Santa Stop Tour.

Photos Facebook / The Santa Stop

Stop Trying to Criminalize Law-abiding Firearms Owners

The Liberal Government has introduced new amendments to Bill C-21 that will ban millions of hunting rifles.

The new prohibition includes any “rifle or shotgun that is ca pable of discharging centre-fire ammunition in a semi-automatic manner and that is designed to ac cept a detachable cartridge maga zine with a capacity greater than five cartridges.”

This is the largest assault on hunters in Canadian history.

This ban is sneaky and under handed. By moving this signifi cant change to the legislation—a change the government promised they would not make—at the com mittee amendments stage, the Lib erals did not allow a democratic debate or experts to weigh in on the ban.

Had they done so, the evidence would have been overwhelming. Hunting rifles are not the problem. No one believes that going after hunters, and legitimate hunting rifles, will reduce violent crime across the country. This is just the latest in Justin Trudeau’s dishon est vendetta against Canadian gun owners.

Canada’s police chiefs have been clear, when it comes to gun

crime, 86% of the guns used are smuggled illegally from the Unit ed States.

Toronto Police Deputy Chief Myron Demkiw was clear when he testified before the Public Safety Committee last February”

“Our problem in Toronto are handguns from the United States. The issues around what you de scribed [the Liberals proposed ban on “assault style weapons”] is certainly not going to deal with the crime problem we’re facing in Toronto.”

Instead of going after the illegal guns used by criminals and street gangs, Justin Trudeau is once again targeting and attempting to criminalize law-abiding hunters and farmers.

Nobody knows better the re sponsibility and social covenant of owning a firearm than lawabiding Canadian firearms own ers. Licensed firearms owners already follow incredibly strict guidelines when it comes to the purchase and storage of firearms and ammunition. Adding more rules-particularly this “gotcha” style of legislation-only serves to persecute, antagonize, and entrap those Canadians who are already doing everything they can to fol

low the rules.

As Regina Police Chief Evan Bray noted, banning guns isn’t a solution because a firearms ban is “only as good as those willing to follow it”.

In other words, those already following the rules will continue to follow the rules and those who already refuse to will not be de terred by further bans.

Sadly, this government cannot see past their own ideological hostility toward those who own firearms and thus fail to make the distinction. They continue to equate hunters, farmers, and sport shooters with criminals.

Inexplicably, at the same time the government is going after lawabiding citizens they are also pur suing their soft-on-crime agenda.

As a result, the Liberals have made life easier for violent crimi nals by repealing mandatory mini mum sentences for gun crimes with Bill C-5, made it easier to get bail with Bill C-75, and their unwillingness to stop the flow of illegal guns across the US border.

Their approach has seen violent crime increase 32% since Justin Trudeau took office, with 124,000 more violent crime incidents in 2021 compared to 2015. Gang-

related homicides have increased by 92%.

It’s an appalling record of fail ure.

Conservatives support commonsense firearms policies that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals and those who should not have them. But we also rec ognize that those who do the work to learn how to own and operate firearms safely and responsibly should not be harassed by govern ment under the guise of “making our streets safer.”

Conservatives will oppose these amendments in committee and in the House.

We will stand up for the millions of Canadian hunters and farmers affected by Justin Trudeau’s inef fective bans and advocate for real, tough-on-crime policies to clean up our streets, secure out border, and keep Canadians safe.

Supporting MB Hydro Keeps Rates Lower

We are making important changes to support Hydro, by decreasing its debt and reducing rates for the ben efit of Manitobans. By reducing the annual water power rental fee and the debt guarantee fee, dropping both by 50%, our government is giving Hydro key cost savings every year – savings estimated at nearly $190 million for 2022 alone.

These fee reductions are great news for all Manitobans. They will allow Hydro to use the savings to begin paying down its $24-billion debt, also decreasing interest charg es. Debt reduction is key to keeping rate increases low and ensuring Hy dro has cash to reinvest to maintain reliable service for customers. By making these changes for Man itoba Hydro, we are protecting cus tomers from higher rate increases in the future and ensuring we can re view and expand our hydro-electric system as required.

Earlier this fall, our government passed Bill 36, The Manitoba Hy dro Amendment and Public Utilities Board Amendment Act.The prima

ry objectives of the bill are to keep rates low for ratepayers, enhance the oversight of major capital spending by Hydro, increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the regulatory process as well as create role clar ity for Government, Hydro and the Public Utilities Board (PUB). This legislation strikes the right balance of ensuring Hydro is on the right path to improved financial health, protecting Manitobans from energy rate shocks, while maintaining the independence and effectiveness of the PUB and respecting the fact that it is a Crown Corporation and accountable to your elected govern ment and all Manitobans.

Our government is taking action to reduce Manitoba Hydro rates that were raised through the shameful actions and mismanagement of the former NDP government, which also saddled Hydro with a record debt of $24 billion. The NDP’s tripling of Manitoba Hydro’s debt over a 12year period amounted to $16,000 in additional costs per household across our province.

Our government will stabilize Manitoba Hydro and protect the low rate advantage enjoyed by rate payers across our province. We are working to secure Hydro’s financial stability for the benefit of all Mani tobans.

Manitoba Hydro is one of the most important partners in shaping our province’s economic future. We will continue to work with Hydro to provide clean hydro-electric power to Manitobans and their businesses, while keeping rates among the low est in North America for years to come.

As always, I look forward to hear ing from you with your questions or concerns. I can be reached at 204424-5406 or at dennis.smook@leg. gov.mb.ca.

The Dangerous SovereigntistNationalistSeparation Movement

By Monica Guetre

Although not new to us, the resurgence of protectionist and separation move ments all seek to divide intentionally by usurping Canadian rights and freedoms. The mindset of a sovereigntist-nation alist, whether it’s based on language, culture, race, gender, political affilia tion or religion, is that there is a sole identity that binds its citizens to a state either within a boundary or across the globe.

The agenda of a sovereigntist govern ment is for full autonomy by possess ing full control over affairs within a geographical area. The nationalist will claim to be very proud of their nation and often believes that their nation is better than any other nation. A protec tionist uses restrictions on international trade to protect domestic industries.

A sovereigntist’s or nationalist’s as sumption is that people are the same and live the same way they do. Less empathy is a common trait with an in ability to walk in another’s shoes. Many in this movement are individualistic and self-centred, and the complete opposite of problem solvers, consensus builders, common sense, inclusive, or fair mind ed. Thankfully, the majority of Canadi ans are not like this. When you boil it down, these sovereigntists or national ists band together because they think are superior and have an inherent right to everything. Racists, xenophobia, Fas cists, Communists... are all words that come to mind.

This extremist thinking is trying to le gitimize in the Prairies. Some provincial politicians think they have an inherent right to what goes on in those existing boundaries. They forget that boundar ies change and have over time. Those lines drawn on a map are there in part to benefit all of us, they are not there to separate us. Not one of us has an in herent right to stomp on others. Elected politicians and any other person in a leadership role have an obligation to us all, right across this country regardless of so-called boundaries.

Recently the Alberta UCP Party, led by Danielle Smith, introduced Bill 1, the Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act. This party’s politicians say it is to fight harmful federal laws and defend the constitutional federal-pro vincial division of powers. The Bill outlines measures such as giving the province’s cabinet (apparently there is an amendment to water this down) the ability to rewrite laws and order gov ernment agencies, police, cities and universities to disregard federal legisla

tion that the Alberta government deems unconstitutional or harmful to the prov ince. The question is who protects us from the ruling party when they deem to ignore federal laws?

Following suit, our neighbour just to the west introduced The Saskatchewan First Act saying it is to confirm Sas katchewan’s autonomy and exclusive jurisdiction over the exploration for nonrenewable natural resources; the devel opment, conservation and management of non-renewable natural and forestry resources; and, the operation of sites and facilities for the generation and produc tion of electrical energy through its natu ral resources.

Instead, provinces should focus on removing inter-provincial barriers from trade to health-care, education, etc. We need to protect ourselves from provincial and federal politicians bent on ignoring laws – because they happen to not like the answer.

We’ve already separated provincial and federal jurisdictional power under Cana dian law which also includes our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Provinces and Territories have a right to seek remedy in our federal judicial system and some of these court decisions have also ben efited these jurisdictions.

Maybe we really need to re-visit this jurisdictional purview as a nation instead of piecemeal. How long has it been for that kind of review?

It looks like the Alberta UCP and Sas katchewan Party Politian’s don’t like the answers to their questions as the courts have decided we, as a nation, can indeed protect our environment, water and air.

When a politician doesn’t have the character to accept a decision that hasn’t gone their way is when things get messy, extreme and even dangerous for us all.

We’ve seen that happen elsewhere over many recorded centuries, and even Canada is not immune. This is when nationalists, separatists, sovereigntists, protectionists come out of the woodwork exposing their life philosophy. We need to learn from past mistakes.

All of us are free to put forward com mon sense proposals that benefit and even change Canadian law. A politician that doesn’t accept the court’s decision for the greater good shouldn’t be in that leadership role.

Instead of lauding our separateness let’s take a step back, take a breath and put it into perspective and do the hard work of long term planning. Our unique ness is diversity of our people (not the same) and all those magical spaces in be tween (muskeg, forests, prairies, moun tains, and coastlines), nature and the environment, how we connect with each other and our land that we should strive protect now and for future generations.

How do you put a price to protect this with a line on the map?

From my family to yours, have a safe and happy Christmas and New Years.

Fuel Tax and Affordability

I’d like to highlight a recent funding announce ment. Our provincial government is providing the Bibliothèque Ste. Anne Inc. with $27,492.02 for their activities throughout the 2022-23 fiscal year. Congratulations to Bibliothèque Ste. Anne Inc. for receiving this funding. I am proud to be part of a government that recognizes the impor tance and value of supporting their rural com munities, and especially their rural libraries.

Now, I’d like to take a moment to address the record high gasoline prices and the impact this has on cost-of-living and affordability in Manitoba. Our gas prices are shockingly high, and they have continued to remain that way for quite some time. Our provincial government has not increased the fuel tax as it has been set at 14 cents per litre for the last decade. Manitoba fuel tax is also not dependent on the pump price, but rather tied to volume, or litres of fuel purchased. Meaning, fuel prices may have doubled, but fuel tax revenue to our province has not been impacted.

However, federal taxes on fuel are threefold. Firstly, the federal government has its own ex cise tax on fuel at 10 cents per litre. Secondly, they apply the carbon tax, which is currently equal to 11.1 cents per litre, and will continue to increase annually to over 37 cents per litre by 2030. Premier Stefanson, along with her col leagues from Saskatchewan and Alberta, have written Prime Minister Trudeau requesting that he cease increasing carbon taxes at this critical time. The third federal government tax is the GST, which applies on the total price of fuel, re sulting in a windfall for the federal government as gasoline prices rise. It is estimated that about $10 million in monthly GST is paid by Mani tobans at current prices, which is nearly double

what the federal government collected in GST on fuel before gas prices skyrocketed.

With the sharp price escalation, affordability is top of mind for everyone. To help ease the burden of rising costs and high inflation, our government provided significant tax relief in Budget 2022, including the Education Prop erty Tax rebate at 37.5 percent to over 396,000 households where the average rebate cheque this year was $581. A new Residential Rent ers Tax Credit, which delivers $525 to renters across Manitoba and expanded the credit for up to 45,000 additional renters in social hous ing and on non-EIA Rent Assist who were not previously eligible. Our government also in troduced an $87 million Family Affordability Package to families with children and to lowincome seniors.

When it comes to gasoline taxes, it is clear that the federal government has to be at the table and part of any solutions. In the mean time, our provincial government will continue making efforts to help Manitobans with costof-living and affordability.

For more updates and information, visit my website at boblagasse.com. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact my constituency office at ca.lagasse@outlook. com or 204-807-4663.

Donate to Charity if You Can

By Anni Markmann

The pandemic over the past three years has financially affected people in different ways.

Some of us have not been financially affected; we can still donate and should continue to donate and maybe a bit more than normal if we can.

Many charities are having a tough time on both sides of their financial statements:

1. Donations to charities may be down since many people cannot donate be cause their incomes have decreased, or expenses have increased, or both!

2. Expenses have increased for the char ities: especially organizations like food banks. Their costs have gone up just like all of us have noticed our food bills go ing up;

3. Many charities like food banks have even more demands; more individuals and families are using food banks to help them get through the month.

So if your income has remained the same (or increased) and your expenses have been manageable, consider donat ing to some of our great local or pro vincial charities…. They really need the help; this year in particular.

Giving Feels Good

Giving makes us feel happy. Giving is good for our health. Giving promotes cooperation and social connection. Giv

ing evokes gratitude. Giving is conta gious. Giving is a great “unselfish” act. December is a good time to donate to your favourite charity or to a local char ity that is new to you. It’s like having the federal and provincial governments match your donation.

Saving Taxes

Your first $200 of donations saves about 26% of tax ($200 donation saves $52 in taxes payable); once you donate more than $200, the tax savings increase to 46%; donate another $200 and now you save $92 on that second $200 donation. So you can “double your donations”! Make your charitable donations before December 31 so you can use them on your 2022 tax return.

And you do not need to claim dona tions each year; I have some clients who donate a few hundred each year and ac cumulate them; we claim them every 35 years instead to get a better tax break. You can carry forward donations up to five years.

A reminder that donations don’t help those with no taxes payable. Check your Notice of Assessment or taxes: if line 43500 was zero for 2021 for you and your spouse, then making a donation does not increase your refund.

I recommend donating locally as much as you can. Find out about charities in your community or in the region, or at

least within Manitoba. It feels good to help those that are fairly close to us.

Donate Your Old Car

Consider donating your old car. Chari ties like the Kidney Foundation, Teen Challenge, and Juvenile Diabetes Re search Foundation can accept your old car or truck and give you a donation re ceipt for the value of the vehicle. I will add one note of caution that I learned from my parents. My brother was quick to have our parents’ car donated (which is a good thing), but he didn’t realize my parents cannot use the donation receipt because they do not have taxes payable.

Instead, we should have had the car given to one of the children and then one of us could have donated it and given the tax savings to our parents or more to the charity. I learned from AJ Fiola Insurance in Ste. Anne that MPI allows a vehicle to be given to a child without having a safety inspection.

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Frohe Weihnachten, Glaedelig Jul.

Your Ste. Anne Tax Service team

Anni Markmann is a Personal Income Tax Professional and Certified Finan cial Planner; living, working, and volun teering in our community. Contact Ste. Anne Tax Service at 204-422-6631 or 36 Dawson Road in Ste Anne (near Co-op) or info@sataxes.ca.

The ROC Eastman 50/50 is Back

One of the southeast’s largest 50/50 draws is back with the jackpot already over $65,000 and climbing daily.

Recreation Opportunities for Chil dren (ROC) Eastman supports countless families by equipping their children to participate in recreation activities.

For the past two years, ROC East man has sold out with their grand prize winners taking home $50,000. The $5

tickets are on sale now at roceastman. ca/buy5050 and in-person at their ticket locations such as RONA La Broquerie Lumber, Sunshine Greenhouse / Chino’s Bistro, Homestyle Deli / 1st Choice Con venience, Country Meat & Deli, Super Splash and more.

Tickets are on sale until December 17 with the Grand Prize Draw taking place on December 19 at 12 noon. The Grand

Prize winner takes home 50% of ticket sales, up to $50,000.

The winner does not need to be present at draw location and will be contacted by phone/email as indicated on their ticket.

All proceeds will help ROC Eastman, a local charity, to continue providing services to reduce barriers to recreation participation for children living in the Eastman region of Manitoba.

One of the southeast’s largest 50/50 draws is back with the jackpot already over $65,000 and climbing daily. Photo Facebook ROC Eastman

And the Winner is... Southeast Recording Studio!

By Dan Guetre

Studio 23, a recording studio located on a rural property just north of Ste. Anne, took home the Studio of the Year 2022 award at an event held in Winnipeg recently.

At the Manitoba Loud Music Awards, hosted by Badlands Promotions, Jody Hunt er accepted the honour.

“Thank you to Manitoba Loud Music Awards for awarding STUDIO 23,” said Hunter on his Facebook page soon after the announcement.

Hunter started working on the sound stu dio in the fall of 2017 and opened the doors to artists by the spring of 2018.

“I wanted to create an environment where musicians would be able to create and share their gift of music with the world while do ing it at affordable cost,” Hunter explained to the Dispatch. “Working in music venues I have gotten to know a lot of local musicians in Winnipeg and area, and I have listened to them and what their needs are. I feel that I have taken what they said and created the best environment for them as possible.”

“There has been a lot of great artists that have recorded out of STUDIO 23,” added Hunter. His studio has hosted local talent such as Violet Vopni, Kristen Mckay, The Bloodshots, Seventh String, Orvis Thomas

and The Sorels.

When asked about artist satisfaction with the service he provided, Hunter said, “STU DIO 23 does see a lot of repeat clients and I am very thankful that they are happy with the service they are receiving.”

Hunter is thankful for the credit he was given at Manitoba Loud Music Awards (MLMA) at their annual awards ceremony.

“I am very honoured to be recognized by MLMA as Studio of the Year,” he said.

“Both Badland Promotions and MLMA have been doing a lot for our heavier music scene and we, as an industry and commu nity, are very thankful for their dedication and support.”

Hunter doesn’t plan to start relaxing when it comes to developing his studio.

“As a business it is always important for me to keep looking at the future, and how I can help make improvements for the bet ter,” he explained. “I plan on getting more equipment into the studio [and] by doing so it will allow artists to work with a different selection of gear that they might not nor mally have access to.”

As for the philosophy of his business, “The next year or so I plan to continue to support our music scene the best I can by sponsoring more events,” he said.

Ritchot Municipality

One Step Closer to New Daycare in IDC

By Dan Guetre

The RM of Ritchot is all in for a new day care to be established in Ile Des Chenes after approving all the contractual agreements dur ing their mid-November council meeting. Ri tchot was one of nine municipalities that were granted a daycare which will have a unique story behind the actual build.

As a local partner in the project, Ritchot had to provide a minimum of two acres of ser viced land with 15 years of free rent and sup port services including snow removal, land scape maintenance and repairs. These support services reduce costs for child-care operators, ensuring long-term sustainability of centres.

The new IDC 74-space daycare facility is based on a “cookie cutter” design Ritchot CAO Mitch Duval reminded council.

“It’s one of the ‘build off site, move it, screw it together, Lego block type of system’.” Duval stated at the council meeting. “We are the guin ea pigs for this project to see how it works.”

The massive project build will be under the management of JQ Built, an arm of the John Q Public corporation which works with the Capital Region municipalities.

The concept, supported by the Province, is to build all nine daycares off-site in modular sections, move them to the communities and put them together. The rational for all the stakeholders in the project is cost savings, and managing quality. JQ Built even advertises

this project as a “Daycare in a box”.

Costs could be saved with shared admin istrative capacity and expertise, getting better value for the dollars and reducing the project timelines according to JQ Built. Additionally they believe a joint venture can reduce project risks.

“Through the John Q daycare pilot project local leaders, administration, provincial ex perts and child-care providers have taken a team approach to developing a new process that supports the delivery of critical infra structure faster and more efficiently. We are excited to share this process so more commu nities large, small, rural, urban and northern across Manitoba can participate,” said Brad Erb, chair of JQ Built Inc.

This initial round will see more than 650 child-care spaces created. The Province is also soliciting proposals to develop up to eight more facilities in communities throughout the province with close to 600 additional childcare spaces to be identified by the spring.

According to Duval, the new daycare is scheduled to be complete and ready for the September 2023 school year.

When the new daycare is established and if the Province signs on for further builds, May or Chris Ewen has set his sights on additional daycares across Ritchot communities.

“I’d stop at 5,” he chuckled addressing his council.

Studio 23, a recording studio located on a rural property just north of Ste. Anne took home the Studio of the Year 2022 award at an event held in Winnipeg recently. At the Manitoba Loud Music Awards, hosted by Badlands Promotions, Jody Hunter accepted the honour. Submitted photo

Holiday Spirited Entrepreneurs Create Venture Focused on Christmas

By Dan Guetre

Starting a successful business venture takes good timing and offering customers products they need. Two friends seem to have combined both of these when they decided to set up a pop-up Christmas themed retail site in Steinbach located at the corner of Hwy 12 and Hwy 52.

“Pop’s Tree Shop is a pop up Christmas tree market,” ex plained Robin Bryan, one of the partners in the venture. “[We have] a range of Christmas tree options including premium bal sam fir, fraser fir and wild black spruce of sizes ranging from 2 to

12 feet will be available. We also sell Christmas decorations such as wreaths and candles.”

Bryan, with his business partner Mark Neufeld, grew up in Prawda and Marchand respectively.

According to Bryan, both he and Neufeld have experience in running a pop-up Christmas tree market. They were involved with a venture called Chestnut Trees in Winnipeg.

“The biggest motivator for starting this pop-up market is that we both love how much buying a Christmas tree in this warm, old-timey and welcoming setting creates a memo rable and enjoyable experience for families,” explained Bryan. “We

hope that setting this up in such a key intersection of Steinbach brings brightness and enjoyment to the whole community.”

Pop’s offers locally raised trees from landowners and woodlots in the southeast. These include spe cialty pines and spruces. Bryan visited the local tree farms and met with landowners, vetting the quality of the trees. The partners also offer some hand-selected exotic selec tions such as Balsam and Fraser Fir brought in from Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan.

Pop’s Tree Shop is open Monday to Friday from 12 pm to 7 pm, and Sat urday/Sunday from 10 am to 7 pm.

Manitoba Boosts Newcomers’ Transition into Education System

increase in newcomers who have fled war-affected countries and are enrolling in Manitoba schools.”

The Intensive Newcomer Sup port Grant is an application-based annual grant. It supports newcom er students, many of whom come from refugee backgrounds, whose schooling has been disrupted or whose literacy is low.

School divisions are experienc ing a significantly higher demand for newcomer resources due in part to an influx of newcomers flee ing the brutal war of aggression in Ukraine, the minister noted.

Grant applications for new fund ing proposals will be accepted this fall. The additional funding will support school programming

for newcomer students who have arrived for the 2022-23 school year. The additional funding for the grant program brings the total amount of support to $1.8 million for this school year. The minis ter said this builds on significant funding in education, including an additional $7 million for special needs funding, for a total increase of more than $460 million for this school year.

Ewasko noted supporting new comer and refugee students aligns with the vision articulated in Man itoba’s K to 12 Education Action Plan that all Manitoba students succeed, no matter where they live, their backgrounds or circum stances.

Pop’s Tree Shop is a pop up Christmas tree market and sells Christmas decorations. Submitted photo

“Our government is committed to ensuring that all Manitoba students receive a high-quality education, whether they have lived in our province for many years or are newcomers to Manitoba,” said Lac du Bonnet MLA and Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko. “This investment will support schools and school divisions in responding to the sharp increase in newcomers who have fled war-affected countries and are enrolling in Manitoba schools.”

Submitted photo

Governments Partner to Create Rural Child-Care Spaces

In partnership the governments of Canada and Manitoba are allo cating up to $70 million in capital funding for new child-care fa cilities, creating more than 1,200 new, regulated non-profit childcare spaces across the province with a focus on rural and First Na tions communities.

In part this announcement is supported by the Canada–Manito ba, country-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement signed in 2021. The agreement provides Manitoba with more than $1.2 bil lion in federal funding over five years to support an average fee of $10 a day for regulated child care spaces in the province by March 2023, significantly reducing the cost of child care for families across the province.

“Families living in rural areas face unique child-care challenges, especially if the nearest child-care centre is far from their home or there aren’t enough children near by to make a full-time care centre sustainable,” said federal parlia mentary secretary Ya’ara Saks, on behalf of federal Minister of Fam ilies, Children and Social Devel opment Karina Gould. “This ini tiative will help more Manitoban families find child care that meets their needs in their communities.”

“Funding for this project is be ing provided through the CanadaManitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agree ment and is a collaborative ap proach with communities to sup port the development of and need for child-care spaces in Mani toba,” said Lac du Bonnet MLA and Education and Early Child hood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko.

“[This] significant announce ment is another example of what we can accomplish when we work together with other levels of gov ernment and community partners,” said Premier Heather Stefanson. “Access to high-quality child-care services closer to home is essen tial for Manitobans to be able to enter or re-enter the workforce, upgrade their skills and training, support their families and play an active role in the growth of our communities and economy. Our government is proud to partner on this unique and collaborative project that will quickly create new child-care facilities in com munities of great need.”

In exchange, local partners will provide a minimum of two acres of serviced land with 15 years of free rent and support services in cluding snow removal, landscape maintenance and repairs. These support services reduce costs for child-care operators, ensuring long-term sustainability of cen tres.

Initially, more than 650 new spaces will be created in nine com munities with demonstrated childcare needs in partnership with the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region, rural municipalities and First Na tions communities including the Rural Municipality’s of Portage la Prairie/City of Portage la Prairie;

Headingley; Macdonald; Town of Stonewall; Ritchot; St. Cle ments; Morris; Whitemouth; and Peguis First Nation.

The projects are part of a new partnership between government and local municipalities. This is the first time the Manitoba gov ernment has expanded eligibility for capital funding beyond childcare providers.

Working with the Manitoba government’s Early Learning and Child Care Program and Social Innovation Office, John Q Public designed a hybrid-construction pilot project using modular build ing, prefabricated construction process and an innovative build ing design that can be replicated, readily transported and built in communities across Manitoba.

“Through the John Q daycare pilot project local leaders, admin istration, provincial experts and child-care providers have taken a team approach to developing a new process that supports the delivery of critical infrastruc ture faster and more efficiently. We are excited to share this pro cess so more communities large, small, rural, urban and northern across Manitoba can participate,” said Brad Erb, chair of JQ Built Inc. and reeve, Rural Municipal ity of Macdonald.

This innovative hybrid-con struction process allows the de velopment of high-quality facili ties by leveraging the benefits of economies of scale to reduce costs, material waste and project delays, the premier said. This al lows the buildings to be devel oped off-site under controlled conditions before facilities are moved to the final site and placed on a permanent foundation.

The buildings are expected to be moved to community sites this winter, the premier noted, adding the new child-care centres are an ticipated to be fully open by sum mer of 2023.

The Manitoba government is also soliciting proposals to de velop up to eight more facilities in communities throughout the province with close to 600 ad ditional child-care spaces to be identified by the spring.

In addition support for early learning educators was announced in October. The two levels of gov ernment are providing more than $4 million to reimburse the tuition of early childhood educator stu dents by up to $5,000 per school year to help cover tuition-related costs of recognized programs said Terry Duguid, MP for Win nipeg South, on behalf of federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Karina Gould, Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning Minis ter Wayne Ewasko and Manitoba Advanced Education, Skills and Immigration Minister Jon Reyes.

Under this program students enrolled in early learning studies must also confirm they will work in Manitoba’s early learning and child-care sector for two years as part of the application process.

Celebrating Over 25 Years of Service to Our Communities!

“Funding for this project is being provided through the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement and is a col laborative approach with communities to support the development of and need for child-care spaces in Manitoba,” said Lac du Bonnet MLA and Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko. Submitted photo

Attention New Home Owners in Lorette St. Pierre RCMP Investigate Scam

Welcome to the growing community of Lorette!

Have you purchased a home, town home, duplex, or condo in the LUD of Lorette, in the last year? Is this your FIRST TIME living in Lorette?

Do you have questions about your new community?

The Welcome Basket Committee would be happy to answer any questions. We have a FREE basket of Gift Certificates, coupons, gifts, and information which have been generously provided by the businesses and organizations in the LUD of Lorette.

In order to qualify, you must email your request to lorettewelcomebasket@gmail.com (no strings attached). You cannot contact us via Lorette Discussion Board or Facebook.

With the holiday shopping sea son in full swing, the Manitoba RCMP would like to remind the public when making purchases through the various marketplace platforms online, to please be cautious and aware of the risk of fraud. You should only agree to meet in a public space and pro vide payment upon meeting with the seller so you have a chance to examine the item prior to pay ment.

On October 28, St-Pierre-Jolys RCMP received a complaint from a resident of New Bothwell who stated she had been the victim of an online scam.

The victim stated that on Oc

tober 22, she found a social media post advertising a puppy, located in Altona that needed a new home due to the owners being unable to give it the quality of life it deserved. The victim contacted the seller via social media and struck up an online con versation in hopes of acquiring the puppy.

Over the next few days, photos and videos of a puppy were provid ed to the victim and an agreement was reached in regards to a price. The victim agreed to provide an etransfer deposit with the remaining amount owing to be given in person when they met for the exchange.

On the day of the exchange, the victim attended to the agreed-upon

location of the meet where she then received a text message stating that the seller’s spouse wanted the full payment prior to the exchange to which she submitted once again via e-transfer.

Once the full amount was trans ferred, the victim did not hear back from the seller.

The investigation has found that the seller’s profile was recently cre ated and that this person may have been successful in defrauding two other victims in Winnipeg in the same manner.

If you’ve been a victim of fraud, please contact your local police. StPierre-Jolys RCMP continue to in vestigate.

Manitoba Conservation Officer Services Encourages Safe Snowmobiling

Manitoba Natural Resources and Northern Development is encouraging all snowmobilers to sled safely this season and advis ing that conservation officers will be conducting snowmobile pa trols to help ensure public safety.

Recreational snowmobilers are reminded that a Snopass permit is required to ride on trails managed by Snoman. A Snopass costs $150 for an annual permit or $75 for a seven-day permit and can be

purchased through Manitoba Public Insurance.

More information is available at snoman.mb.ca/snopass.

Manitobans are reminded the fol lowing actions can result in provin cial fines:

- Operating a snowmobile without a Snoman permit ($486 fine);

- Operating an unregistered off-road vehicle ($174 fine);

- Failure to wear a helmet ($174 fine); and

- Public consumption of alcohol ($672 fine).

Impaired operation of a snowmo bile carries with it the same conse quences as driving a vehicle while impaired. Penalties can include sig nificant fines, impoundment of the snowmobile and a conviction result ing in a criminal record.

Conservation officers and the RCMP play a critical role in moni toring trails for impaired driving of fences.

If the Lights Go Out, Are You Ready?

We can’t predict if or when the power will go out. Most outages are short, but past severe weather events have knocked out power for several days over wide areas. Be prepared this winter with a well-stocked emergency kit con taining essential items that will help you and your family weather any storm.

- flashlight and extra batteries - bottled water (3-day supply) - canned and dried foods that don’t need cooking (3-day supply), - food for your pets - manual can opener - hand-crank, or battery-powered radio, and batteries - car charger or battery pack for mobile devices - extra blankets or sleeping bags - candles and matches -first aid kit and medications -disposable plates, towels, and cutlery - activities like playing cards or crossword puzzles to keep you occupied.

Other supplies may include fire wood and an extra propane tank or briquettes for your barbecue if you plan to cook outdoors during an outage. Never operate fuelburning equipment indoors, as

poisonous carbon monoxide gas can build up quickly. Exposure to car bon monoxide causes flu-like symp toms and can result in death.

If you have a natural gas fireplace, keep it well-maintained by hiring a licensed gas contractor to inspect it with other gas appliances annually. Many natural gas fireplaces will work without electricity.

During a lengthy power outage, a

portable generator can restore elec tricity within minutes. To prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, never operate your generator inside your home, garage, or shed. And ensure the generator has a transfer switch to prevent back-feeding onto power lines. This protects our power line workers from injury as they work to restore your power. Visit hydro. mb.ca/safety for more information.

Portage la Prairie and surrounding communities were some of the hardest hit by the powerful storm that ripped through southern parts of the province in October 2019. The damage to our system was unlike anything seen before and thousands of customers were left without power. In the days to follow, crews worked tirelessly and in challenging conditions to rebuild hundreds of kilometres of distribution lines and entire sections of our transmission network to restore power as quickly as possible.

Photo from www.hydro.mb.ca

St-Labre 200 - Giving Back to the Community

The St-Labre 200 Inc. Committee proudly announced their most recent recipients to this year’s Giving Back to the Community Campaign.

The Giving Back to the Commu nity committee got together in Octo ber to go over every application with great thought and care. In all a total of $85,550 was requested from over 19 applications. For 2022, the Com mittee is gifting a total of $15,000 to seven community groups bringing the total amount given over the years to $131,648.

This year’s recipients are Serving

receiving hip surgeries the ability to comfortably use the facilities; Stable Connections Inc., offering occu pational therapy services with hip potherapy (equine therapy) to chil dren in need of support will receive $4,000 towards the building of an indoor area/therapy centre; Brave stone Centre Inc., a women’s domes tic abuse centre will receive $2,000 to help support their Early Childhood Education program which provides weekly learning projects to help in social, emotional, physical and cog nitive development of infants and preschool children residents; $250 for Arthécom to support workshops in visual art to francophone students so they can learn to express them selves through different mediums; South East Rotary Club, will receive $1,000 towards their D.A.R.E pro gram and along with the Steinbach and Sprague RCMP, they bring drug education to local schools; and the Canadian CMV Foundation will re

ceive $2,000 towards the support of Bill 214 to make Cytomega lovirus (CMV) screening part of the regular newborn screening in Manitoba.

St-Labre 200 is a 24 hour gokart building competition fol lowed by a 200-lap race. Reg istered teams pay a fee for the kit, but the event is free to all those that show up. Free admis sion, free on site camping, kid’s area with activities, BMX track, on site hot showers and the re nowned boot toss competition. On site canteen for those that don’t want to cook all weekend and a live band on our brand new movable stage!

In 2023 July 7 and 8 will be the next edition for St-Labre 200. For those wanting to register a team, registration is always at midnight, between February 28 and March 1, and usually sells out within 15 minutes.

Stable Connections received $4,000 towards their new indoor therapy building. Through hip potherapy, they are able to help children in need of support.

Arthécom is receiving $250. They will be teaching new ways for students to express themselves through art.

The South Eastman Rotary Club is receiving $1,000 towards their D.A.R.E. program. They will be able to bring drug education to local schools with the help from the local RCMP detachments.

The Giving Back to the Community committee got together in October to go over every application with great thought and care. In all a total of $85,550 was requested from over 19 applications. For 2022, the Committee is gifting a total of $15,000 to seven community groups

Conservation Officers and RCMP Nab Illegal Trapper

On October 22, conservation officers from the Sprague area, in collabo ration with RCMP, were conducting hunter inspections. During a traffic stop, officers found a loaded firearm in a vehicle. Further investigation revealed the individual was trapping prior to the traffic stop and did not have a valid trapper’s licence or a valid possession acquisition licence. The individual was fined $723 for having a loaded firearm in a vehicle and trapping without a licence. The firearm was also seized.

Manitoba Natural Resources and Northern Development advises con servation officers are continuing enforcement to protect Manitoba’s natural resources through a variety of enforcement activities across the province including roadside check stops in key locations to ensure com pliance with natural resource and public safety legislation.

Anyone with information on illegal activity is asked to call a local Manitoba Natural Resources and Northern Development office or the Turn in Poachers (TIP) line at 1-800-782-0076.

New Canada Dental Benefit and Canada Housing Benefit

The federal government final ly released some details about how these two new benefits will be administered and how individuals can apply for the benefits.

Both benefits will be admin istered by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and you will need to apply online using your CRA My Account or My Ser vice Canada Account (MSCA). Canada Dental Benefit

The interim Canada Dental Benefit is intended to help low er dental costs for eligible fami lies earning less than $90,000 per year. Parents and guardians can apply if the child receiving dental care is under 12 years old and does not have access to a private dental insurance plan.

Depending on your family net income, a tax-free payment of $260, $390, or $650 is avail able for each eligible child for each period. This interim dental benefit is available for 2 peri ods. You can get a maximum of 2 payments for each eligible child. Benefit payments are ad ministered by the Canada Rev enue Agency (CRA).

The first benefit period is for children under 12 years old as of December 1, 2022 who receive dental care between October 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.

The Basics of the Canada Dental Benefit:

- For children born on or after December 2, 2010.

- Families earn less than $90,000 per year.

- Do not have access to a pri vate dental insurance plan.

- Up to $650 per child per pe riod.

- First dental care period: Octo ber 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023.

- Second dental care period: July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

- The parent that receives the CCB is eligible to apply.

- Shared custody: each parent can receive 50% of the benefit.

For all the online details and to apply, search: Canada Den tal Benefit.

What is the Benefit?

Combined family income

under $70,000 eligible for the full benefit of $650 per child; family income $70,000 – 80,000 ($390 per child); family income $80,000 – 90,000($260 per child); family in come over $90,000 do not qualify.

How to Apply

Apply online using CRA My Ac count or using My Service Canada Account (MSCA). If you do not have online access, get registered now. You can search CRA My Ac count to find out how. If you do not have direct deposit set up with CRA you can do so online as well. When you are ready to apply for your benefit, you will need all the claim information:

- Dental care provider’s name, ad dress and phone number.

- Date or expected date of your child’s dental appointment; do not apply until you have an appoint ment scheduled.

- Your employer’s name, address and telephone number; same for your spouse.

- Cost of dental care service, or ex pected cost.

Validating your Claim CRA may request your dental care receipts at a later date to validate your claim, so keep your receipts for up to six years!

Canada Housing Benefit

The one-time top-up to the Can ada Housing Benefit aims to help low-income renters with the cost of renting. You may be eligible for a tax-free one-time payment of $500 if your income and the amount that you pay on rent qualify.

The Basics of the Canada Housing Benefit

- 2021 net income: $35,000 or less for families; $20,000 or less for in dividuals.

- Have 2022 eligible rent that you paid in the 2022 calendar year.

- Equal to at least 30% of your 2021 net income.

- If you share rent (roommates), each of you can claim even if only one individual was making pay ments to the landlord; use the por tion of the rent that you paid.

- If you paid rent to a parent or an other relative, only include this as rent if the payment would be con sidered by the CRA as rental in come for tax purposes for the par ent or relative who received it.

How to Apply

Applications for the one-time topup to the Canada Housing Benefit will open on December 12, 2022. Apply online using CRA My Ac count or using My Service Canada Account (MSCA). If you do not have online access, get registered now. You can search CRA My Ac count to find out how. If you do not have direct deposit set up with CRA you can do so online as well.

To apply for the Canada Hous ing Benefit, applicants will need to provide the address of their prin cipal residence, the total rent paid in the 2022 calendar year for that residence, as well as the name and contact information of the persons to whom the rent was paid.

Impacts on Other Benefits

The one-time top-up to the Can ada Housing Benefit does not re duce other federal income-tested benefits such as the Canada Work ers Benefit, Canada Child Benefit, Goods and Services Tax Credit, and Guaranteed Income Supplement.

Impacts on provincial or territo rial benefits will be determined at the discretion of each province or territory. We are not aware at this time if there is any impact for Mani tobans.

Keep Your Receipts

Keep your records and receipts to support the amounts in your appli cation for six years. The CRA rou tinely checks to confirm that recipi ents were entitled to the payment they received.

If your application is selected for review, the CRA may ask you to provide additional information.

Anni Markmann is a Personal In come Tax Professional and Certified Financial Planner; living, working, and volunteering in our community. Contact Ste Anne Tax Service at 204-422-6631 (phone or text!) or 36 Dawson Road in Ste Anne (near Co-op) or info@sataxes.ca.

St. Pierre-Jolys RCMP Respond to Fatal Collision

On November 5 at approxi mately 7:30 pm, St. PierreJolys RCMP were notified that a serious collision had occurred at the intersection of Krahn Road and Doerksen Road in the RM of Ritchot. When police arrived on scene,

a 60-year-old male from the RM of De Salaberry was receiving medical care on the road, but was unresponsive. He was pronounced deceased on scene.

Initial investigation has deter mined the pickup truck driven by the male was travelling north on

Krahn Road and entered the ditch at full speed where the road ends. It appears the male was not aware the road ended as there were no visible attempts made to stop the vehicle. The male was not wear ing a seatbelt at the time of the collision.

“It Is Okay tO

NOt Be Okay”

What is NOT Okay is to Go Through it Alone: Lagasse

By Dan Guetre

With an emotional speech to mem bers of Provincial Legislature, Daw son Trail MLA Bob Lagasse spoke from the heart about his battle with mental health issues.

Lagasse, who spoke remotely to the chamber, has one message for those who feel despair, whoever you are, “seeking help does not make you weak.”

With the knowledge that there is still a stigma associated with mental health, Lagasse uniquely relied on courage to address the subject, and from his own personal battle.

“In this environment of political theatre we tend to be harmful to the detriment of our own and other’s mental health,” he spoke to his col leagues. “Remember, it’s okay not to be okay but what’s not okay is to go through it alone.”

“For members of this chamber I have one message… be kind to one another. Be uplifting. Be truth ful.” He made these comments after many barbs were thrown around the Legislature during the heated Kirk field Park provincial by-election by all parties.

According to Lagasse’s office, the MLA did not intend for his state ment to lead to conversations re garding the decorum in the chamber but to focus more on mental health struggle.

“I am grateful to be a public fig ure, of sorts, and to have a platform available to allow me to speak out,” Lagasse told the Dispatch. “I know how much stigma there is related to mental health, men’s mental health in particular, and wanted to share my story for others who may be struggling to see that they are not alone.”

Lagasse’s very public remarks and honest empathy towards oth ers could not have come at a more opportune time with the Holiday Season in full swing followed by months of the Manitoba winter. Re search has shown that the pressures surrounding this time of year and Seasonal Affective Disorder attri bute to a higher percent of the popu lation suffering from depression and higher anxiety.

“I felt that it’d be best to not hide this, to share that I am human, and I do struggle,” explained Lagasse. “Sometimes I think people view people in different positions of power, like athletes, they view us as almost not human in a way. And that’s the furthest from the truth, we are extremely human.”

“Because of my ADHD, I get hyper-focused on certain ideas; whether healthy or not,” he added. “This time I wasn’t able to kind of pull myself out of them. I spoke with my wife who helped guide me

to contacting my doctor to have my ADHD treated as ADHD and depression tend to go handin-hand,” said Lagasse.

The MLA said having support systems in place are integral to starting any journey to healing.

He also agrees that there is no cookie cutter solution.

“Every person is walking a journey that is unique to them,” Lagasse said. “Struggles are dif ferent and barriers are as well. The most important thing is to understand what those barriers are and how they are affecting your mental health.”

If you see someone struggling, Lagasse shares some advice.

“Be there to listen,” he sug gested. “You don’t have to agree, you may not even under stand, but be open to listening and support the individual on their journey to getting the help they need.”

“Anyone who is experiencing any sort of mental health strug gle should reach out to their support system; friends, family, doctors, or someone you trust,” he added. “I also encourage those who need to talk reach out to Talk Suicide Canada at 1-833-456-4566 and/or the Kids Help Phone at 1-800-6686868.”

Two from Ste. Anne Face Charges of Fraud Against Charity

The organizers of a 2021 fund raising event have been charged after they allegedly failed to turn over funds to the charity they were fundraising for.

Heather Neuert, a 39-year-old female and Christian Thomas Gord Lillyman, a 40-year-old male, both of Ste. Anne have been charged for their alleged involvement with Theft Over $5000, Fraud Over $5000, Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Criminal Breach of Trust.

Police began an investigation in December 2021 after the Children’s

Hospital Foundation of Manitoba (CHFM) brought their concerns of missing funds.

In January 2021 the charity was contacted about a proposed idea for a virtual fishing tournament fund raiser called the Full Tilt Winter Walleye Tournament.

CHFM allowed the organizers to use their logo for advertising as they were under the belief that the net proceeds would be donated to the foundation.

492 people registered for the event with $22,147 in entrance fees collected. A number of corporate

sponsors donated prizes to the event as they believed it was for a charitable cause.

The event dispersed $9,118 to event participants as prize money. $13,039 in net pro ceeds was never forwarded to the foundation.

During the investigation, of ficers determined that the orga nizer and a co-accused retained the funds for personal use.

Both accused were released on Undertakings as mandated by the Criminal Code of Can ada.

With an emotional speech to members of Provincial Legislature, Dawson Trail MLA Bob La gasse spoke from the heart about his battle with mental health issues. Lagasse, who spoke remotely to the chamber, has one message for those who feel despair, whoever you are, “seek ing help does not make you weak.” File photo

Manitoba Targets Violent Offenders with “Warrant Unit”

By Dan Guetre

With more than $3 million available to police services in Manitoba, the Province is hoping the RCMP, Winnipeg Police along with all the other police agencies can create an integrated violent offender apprehension unit and strengthen inten sive bail and probation supervision for serious and violent offenders.

“The increase in violent crime is a concern to citizens across this province. Many acts of violence are being com mitted by repeat and prolific offenders who are well-known to law enforce ment,” said Steinbach MLA and Jus tice Minister Kelvin Goertzen. “These officers will use criminal intelligence practices to target and track high-risk offenders who have warrants for arrest, who are gang-involved, drug traffick ers, illegal gun smugglers, or involved in organized crime. Once identified as high-risk offenders, these individuals will receive enhanced surveillance and monitoring, which often leads to arrest ing these individuals before they cause further harm.”

Intensive community-based super vision programs increase community safety by breaking cycles of offending which may not otherwise be addressed, Goertzen noted, adding that additional intensive supervision and support is ex pected to decrease the likelihood of an individual offending or breaching a bail

condition, thereby benefitting both the individual and their community.

“The benefits of the creation of this new unit for rural detachments are that they can look after the high risk prolific offenders, or even complete a lot of the prep work needed to assist in locating them, where in some detachment areas, these offenders are the primary cause of many of the calls for service that of ficers respond to,” explained Sgt. Paul Manaigre, RCMP Media Relations Offi cer. “They will also assist in monitoring bail conditions that some detachments may not have time to look after due to call volumes so this could assist greatly in getting the repeat offenders off the streets quicker thus hopefully reducing call volumes for detachments.”

Manaigre is no stranger to the chal lenges of rural policing with many of his years as an officer spent in some of the local RCMP detachments. He is also a former resident of St. Adolphe.

“I’m now into my 28th year of po licing in the RCMP, all in Manitoba, with 14 of those years working in StPierre-Jolys and I can tell you this new unit will be a benefit to the larger and busier detachments,” said Manaigre. “If you can reduce the workload on the of ficers, you can then develop proactive initiatives within the communities in an effort to further reduce crime.”

While Manaigre holds the position of

Media Relations, he also is busy assist ing various detachments.

“I myself do work from time to time in St-Pierre-Jolys, Morris / Emerson, Lundar / Ashern, Falcon Lake and at the airport to provide that extra assistance when needed,” he explained.

“The [new] unit will be a dedicated unit consisting of officers from the RCMP, Winnipeg Police Service and other local police services who will be tasked with creating and monitoring a list of the many accused who are wanted by police as well as the managing of bail conditions for those that may be deemed a high risk to a community to re-offend,” said Manaigre.

Manaigre admits that staff shortages have created some shortfalls when it comes to being proactive as opposed to reactive.

“I would say at times it is a challenge to be proactive due to staff shortages but the RCMP has contingencies in place where officers are deployed to other areas, from other detachments or our Headquarters, to assist in providing that shift coverage,” he explained.

But he does see this new unit as a new tool that can address this issue. “This new unit will provide detachments that added ability to reduce some of the workload our officers have in monitor ing bail conditions or actively searching out wanted suspects.”

Steinbach Arts Council Presents ‘Manitoba Treasures’

The Steinbach Arts Council (SAC) is presenting their second visual arts exhibit of the season with the exhibit “Manitoba Treasures” at the SAC Hall Gallery, featuring artwork by Wil helmina Richardson. The exhibit is open to the public for viewing until De cember 16. The exhibit is also available for viewing online at steinbacharts.ca.

Wilhelmina Richardson recently moved to the area from Pembina Val ley. She has had artwork chosen by and contributed to organizations including: A Rocha Pembina Valley Interpretive Centre, Ducks Unlimited, Youth for Christ, S.T.A.R.S, and Morden Police

Department, to name a few. Grateful for the recognition, she was awarded by ‘The General Authority of Manitoba’, for creating and teaching a program entitled “Skills 4 Life”, designed to aid youth and young adults in preparing for independent living. As well, she was very involved with the Pembina Hills Arts Council based in Morden and the Winkler Arts and Culture center for many years. She has enjoyed instruct ing many workshops, art bars, parties, and contributing to numerous fundrais ers dear to her heart, via local events and art auctions. She was also involved with the Winkler Harvest Festival and

Morden Corn & Apple Festival as an artist, doing live art demonstrations.

“Wilhelmina is new to the area, and she wasted no time in reaching out to the Steinbach Arts Council to share her gift with us,” said Tonya Godee, Exhib it Coordinator at the SAC Hall Gallery. “She has been terrific to work with and we are glad to have another talented art ist show their work in our centre.”

She is pleased to announce that she now has an art studio in the area. De signed to bring out the artist in you, her art studio is open to individuals of all ages wishing to explore their gift of vi sual art.

“The [new] unit will be a dedicated unit consisting of officers from the RCMP, Winnipeg Police Service and other local police services who will be tasked with creating and monitoring a list of the many accused who are wanted by police as well as the managing of bail conditions for those that may be deemed a high risk to a community to re-offend,” said Sgt. Paul Manaigre, RCMP Media Relations Officer. Submitted photo

Province Introduces Off-Road Trails Safety and Maintenance Act

By Angelique Forest

The Manitoba government is in troducing the off-road trails safety and maintenance act, which would ensure that users of off-road ve hicles (ORV) would have access to safe and quality recreational op portunities by supporting organiza tions that lead this important work, Environment, Climate and Parks Minister Jeff Wharton announced.

“Organizations like Snowmobil ers of Manitoba Inc. (Snoman) and the All-Terrain Vehicle Association of Manitoba (ATVMB) manage the province’s ORV trail networks, ensuring Manitobans and visitors have access to safe, high-qual ity ORV recreation opportunities,” said Minister Wharton. “We want to ensure that their important work is not limited by increased costs for labour and fuel, aging equipment and reduced volunteer capacity. This new legislation will help pro vide additional tools for these orga nizations support the rehabilitation of lands impacted by ORV use and ensure we continue to protect natu ral ecosystems.”

The proposed off-road trails safe ty and maintenance act includes a $25 annual fee for registered ORVs to ensure organizations have access to sufficient, sustainable resources for initiatives, the minister noted. The funding generated by user fees would be provided to ORV organi zations to support trail development and maintenance; safety education, training and promotion; emergency trail repair; rehabilitation of lands

damaged by unauthorized ORV use; operations and administration of Snoman and ATVMB; and trail capital projects, if sufficient funds are available.

The $25 annual fee would be col lected by Manitoba Public Insur ance at the same time as ORVs’ annual registration. The annual fee would not apply to ORVs exempt from registration under the Drivers and Vehicles Act.

The Woodridge ATV Sandhogs

believes this is a step in the right direction.

“The bill proposed would help provide funding for the provincial association to provide safety pro grams for young riders and or new riders,” said Gary, a representative for the Woodridge ATV Sandhogs. “It would also provide funding for trail maintenance and new trail de velopment.”

“Currently all the clubs survive off of membership fees, volunteer

hours, donations and any fund raising events they may hold,” he added.

“There are no changes the [government is] proposing to ad ditional safety such as mandatory safety training for children under 16 or say mandatory helmet use for UTV riders, like other prov inces have implemented,” Gary stated.

In addition, the legislation also proposes changes that would al

low for modernized and more conve nient ways for Manitobans and visi tors to access products online, like short-term Snopasses.

Improved access to Snopasses, cou pled with user fee revenues, would contribute to a more robust network of high-quality trails for Manitobans and visitors to enjoy, the minister noted.

New trails, along with the expansion of existing routes, would also support economic development across the province, particularly in rural com munities, MLA Wharton noted, add ing that if the proposed legislation is approved it is anticipated the new fee would take effect in late 2023.

A Carbon Monoxide Alarm Could Save Your Life

Did you know that most illnesses and deaths from carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning occur in the home when people are sleeping? Take precautions to prevent this ‘silent killer.’

What Causes CO?

CO is an odourless, poisonous gas produced by the incomplete com bustion of propane, gasoline, natural gas, wood, charcoal, or heating oils. Because your furnace, water heater, gas range, dryer, fireplace, or wood stove can be sources of CO, it’s important to have your appliances checked annually by a licensed gas contractor. Never operate a propane heater, barbecue, generator, or any other gas-powered engine inside your home, garage or shed. And al ways back your car out of the garage to let it warm up. Even in warmer months, CO poisoning can occur if you’re not careful.

Be Alarmed

The best way to alert you and your family to CO is to install a CO alarm near sleeping areas and on each level of your home. It works like a smoke alarm – if CO is detected, the alarm will sound to warn you before toxic levels are reached. If the alarm

sounds, evacuate your home imme diately and leave the door open as you exit.

Call Manitoba Hydro at 1-888624-9376 (1-888-MB-HYDRO) for an emergency inspection. If anyone feels sick, call 911 for medical at tention.

Do not ignore an alarm if it sounds!

The longer you’re exposed to CO, the more dangerous it becomes.

If you or any other occupants in your home have flu-like symptoms such as nausea, headache, or dizzi ness, it could be CO poisoning. The difference is CO poisoning will not cause a fever.

To make sure your CO alarm is working properly, test it regularly

following the manufacturer’s instructions.

Also check the expiration date and be familiar with its beep pat terns.

A chirping sound may mean the batteries, or the alarm, should be replaced.

Visit hydro.mb.ca/cosafety for more information.

Improved access to Snopasses, coupled with user fee revenues, would contribute to a more robust network of high-quality trails for Mani tobans and visitors to enjoy File photo

reached. File photo

CP Holiday Train Comes Through

Council Approves Fire Truck Purchase for Richer Department

By Dan Guetre

The RM of Ste. Anne Council has recently agreed to purchase a fire tanker truck for the Richer Fire De partment according to CAO Mike McLennan.

Council approved the expenditure at a special meeting held on Novem ber 18 where the only topic was to discuss the merits of whether the equipment was necessary.

“The existing tanker, a 2006 Freightliner, is being replaced as

it was aging and no longer met the needs of the department,” explained McLennan. “It was a retrofitted ve hicle, with limited storage space, highway speed limitations and some accessibility issues due to the manual transmission.”

The new tender will allow for more effective response from the fire de partment added the CAO.

“The former tender is being reappropriated to the Municipality’s public works department to be used

throughout the municipality dur ing regular maintenance and special projects,” he added.

McLennan said the new tanker truck is a 2012 Freightliner M2 with overall good mileage, with features, such as increased storage and it will better suit the needs of the Fire De partment.

The cost of the vehicle was $254,000.

“This purchase had been accounted for in the 2022 Budget and was paid

from our Fire Equipment Reserve,” said McLennan.

Additionally, the RM of Ste. Anne will receive funds from the Province for a fire protection services delivery review.

“The Municipal Fire Protections Services Delivery review is a sepa rate initiative from the tanker pur chase,” explained McLennan. “This system review is being funded by the Province through their Munici pal Service Delivery Improvement

Program.”

“[This] provides municipalities and planning districts with support to complete a review of their systems, programs and services,” he added.

“As the Municipal Fire Protection Services was due for a review, the RM applied for this program, and was selected to have an in depth review done to ensure the best pos sible fire protection and emergency response service delivery to all resi dents of the Municipality.”

The RM of Reynolds Fire Department had the honour of working with the Whitemouth Fire Department with traffic control for the iconic CP Rail Holiday Train as it passed through the area.

Submitted photo

Looking for a New Pet this Holiday Season? Consider the Checklist

By Angelique Forest

As the holidays are fast ap proaching, many children are begging for the opportunity to have a new furry best friend join their families. Consider ing a new family member is no easy task and comes with many responsibilities. Are you unsure, and wondering if your family is ready? Or perhaps you are struggling to find your perfect fit?

What energy level can you match? Are you willing to go for long walks daily?

Age, personality and the breed of the animals can be a big indicator of the exercise required for the lucky new fam ily member. Younger animals tend to need time and patience along with training. Senior ani mals can also be an option for those that aren’t able to spend the time or energy exercising animals, and are often already trained.

What do my surroundings permit? What size of animal is permitted in your home?

It’s best to double check that if renting, the animal’s weight is within what’s allowed to prevent needing to re-home them in the future. Sometimes a smaller caged animal is easiest for starter pet owners, or even fish! Betta fish are highly rec ommended as first-time pets, as they are easy to care for and can only be kept by themselves.

When considering bigger pets, like dogs for example, it’s important to remember that some require more exercise or veterinary attention than others. For example, some small dogs require less intense exercise but may be more prone to acci dents or health problems. Look ing into the type of animal and breed is key for a perfect fit.

Who else am I considering?

Where should I look?

Remember to think of family mem bers, roommates, and if you have children or other pets in your home. For example, would your fish be safe if you brought home a cat? There are also specific breeds of dogs that do better with children and family set tings than others.

Rescue representatives are very good sources of knowledge on whether the animal you choose is a good fit. Steinbach & Area Animal Rescue is an amazing organisation with many adoption options that could give a loving animal a home. They are a non-profit dedicated to finding forever homes for aban doned, homeless and surrendered animals.

Why is adopting better?

According to the Canadian Humane Society, there are a large number of breeders contributing to the stray animal population, both for cats and dogs. “Puppy mills” are inhumane high-volume breeding facilities that put profit above welfare. It’s estimat ed that there are thousands of active inhumane breeders across Canada. Life in a small, cramped cage with poor sanitation and no love or atten tion – is no life at all. The goal is to curb the demand to put a halt on the supply. It’s best to take the time to learn where that cute puppy is com

ing from, to ask specific questions and not to buy if they cannot be sure that animal comes from a reputable and humane source.

While the number of animals who are euthanized has dropped drasti cally over the years due to the hard work of shelter and rescue profes sionals and a growing number of people who choose adoption, hun dreds of thousands are still in need of a home each year. While adult cats and neonatal kittens make up a large portion of animals looking for a home, you can find dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, companion birds and even horses at many local shelters.

Adopting from a shelter can also encourage your friends and family to do the same! It’s also good to re member that many of the animals in shelters lived in loving homes and may even come to you house trained and/or ready to live with other pets.

Not to mention - it’s more cost-ef fective! All cat adoption fees include vaccinations, deworming, spay/neu ter, and tattoo. Spaying/neutering your pet is not only important to prevent further contribution to the homeless animal populations, but is also necessary to prevent cysts and cancers from forming as well.

Many animals receive a signifi cant amount of medical care prior to adoption including spay or neuter, first vaccinations, parasite prevention

(ex. fleas/ticks/heartworm disease) and microchipping and adoption fees typically don’t cover the costs in curred by the shelter. With so much medical care provided ahead of time, you can focus on long-term preven tative care with your veterinarian.

Not only do animals give you un conditional love, they have been shown to be psychologically, emo tionally and physically beneficial to their companions. Caring for a pet can provide a sense of purpose and fulfilment and lessen feelings of loneliness. And when you adopt, you can also feel proud about help ing an animal in need! Reach out to Steinbach & Area Animal Rescue today and learn more about how you can safely add a new loving member to your family.

Canadian Shelters See Increase In Animals Surrendered and WHS Is No Exception

You may have noticed the Win nipeg Humane Society in the media as of late as we experience high intake and surrender num bers, leading to a very full shelter. Ebbs and flows are the reality of shelter life, but we are currently operating at an 85 percent capac ity level at all times, any peaks then fill us to the brim.

With that said, we are not alone. This is currently a Canada-wide trend, so much so, Humane Canada, Canada’s federation of Humane Societies and SPCAs, recently held a meeting with stakeholders on the issue.

Canadian shelters are seeing an increase in animals surren dered due to many reasons but have identified a few key indi cators: behavioral issues, having too many animals, going back to work, no longer wanting their animal, and the cost of veterinary services being high. As we know, the pandemic shut down many community services, including behavioral resources and classes, and with a North American wideveterinary shortage, veterinary care remains costly.

To keep animals in their homes and out of Canadian shelters, in cluding ours, let’s work together to promote our programs.

- Our Emergency Pet Food Bank collects and distribute pet food to

those who are not able to buy food for their animals, whether it’s due to financial or personal situations. We welcome all food donations to support this initiative. More details on how to apply to be a recipient of the emergency pet food can be found here.

- Our Urgent Care program offers low cost, short-term veterinary care for pets who have been diagnosed with an urgent condition and their owners are not able to afford that care at their own clinic. Our goal is to help pets get through an urgent medical situation on a short-term ba sis. Please contact our WHS Clinic directly to see if you qualify and to apply: 204-982-2036.

- Our Primary Care program pro vides basic pet wellness needs such as physical exams, vaccinations, heartworm preventative and mi nor medical issues, for clients who qualify a low-income and need our help. Please contact our WHS Clinic directly to see if you qualify and to apply: 204-982-2036.

- Our Behaviour team offers a va riety of Behaviour Resources includ ing onsite Animal Training and Be haviour classes to assist with your pet training needs. From house training a new puppy to managing certain be haviours in adult dogs, our behaviour experts are here to help. Pet owners may also take advantage of our free Behaviour Helpline (204-988-8808)

to speak directly to our Behaviour Counsellors.

The good news: Adoptions remain on an upward climb looking close to pre-pandemic numbers, sometimes this can mean close to 60-70 animals being adopted each week! Nothing stops our supporters and animal lov ers alike from choosing to live a life with companion animals. How great is that! The WHS is committed to continuing and growing our diver sion programs, these programs being key in helping animals externally of the shelter and providing resources to do just that.

If you can assist us by becoming a foster parent, click here to learn more. Foster Parents ensure we can help many more animals at one time, more than we could ever fit in our shelter. If you have a barn, ware house or appropriate structure and are interested in hosting a barn cat(s), please read up on our Barn Buddies program; this program enables semiferal and less socialized cats an op portunity to strive in a comfortable environment.

All of the above-mentioned pieces are a part of the sheltering puzzle and help keep us going. I know that together we are good at doing hard things. Thank you for listening and for your ongoing commitment to our shelter animals.

With love and compassion, Jessica Miller, WHS CEO

Sometimes a smaller caged animal is easiest for starter pet owners, or even fish! Betta fish are highly recommended as first-time pets, as they are easy to care for and can only be kept by themselves. Submitted photo

Niverville on a Quest to Grow

Rated as Manitoba’s fastest growing community, the Town of Niverville could soon be bursting at the seams if its council did not have a plan and vision.

The Town, working with community planning consultants Urban Systems, has recently commissioned a Sustainable Growth Strategy which projects that the Town will absorb all available vacant residential land within 15 to 20 years.

As a result, the Town recently submitted a proposal to the Manitoba Municipal Board to transfer lands from the RM of Hanover to the Town of Niverville. This process is gen erally known as annexation. The proposal was submitted with the support of the RM of Hanover.

In a recent announcement issued by the Town of Niverville, they explained their longterm vision reassuring the community that “the Town of Niverville is always planning for the future.”

“Although 20 years may seem like a long time, it is important to plan proactively for the future to ensure sustainable growth for Niverville,” explained the announcement. “Trans ferring lands now to Niverville will ensure that they do not become fragmented or devel oped with incompatible uses, and more difficult to transfer or develop in the future. Ex panding Niverville’s municipal boundaries will provide additional certainty for everyone in the whole region.”

Generally speaking, Niverville intends to grow to the east, along Highway 311 and to wards Highway 59, away from the Red River. The annexation proposal affects roughly 50 parcels, consisting of nearly 2,600 acres of land.

With the support of the RM of Hanover who will give up the land, the annexation pro posal is proactive in answering many questions the public may have.

“The lands under consideration are generally used today for agricultural purposes,” said the announcement. “The Town of Niverville is committed to ensuring these lands can con tinue in their current use respecting the rural nature of the area today and into the future.”

Additionally, the Town plans to provide financial support to affected landowners to en sure that the transition to Niverville’s mill rate does not create undue hardship.

This undertaking will allow the Town to utilize the major regional investments in water and wastewater infrastructure made by the Government of Canada and the Province of Manitoba into making Niverville a regional hub for the southeast. The Town believes that once completed, new projects and regional partnership opportunities will become possible for Niverville and neighbouring municipalities.

In the next few weeks, representatives of the Town and Urban System will contact each affected landowner individually, for one-on-one discussions as well as a community meet ing. Following these discussions, public open houses will be held for all interested citizens to attend.

The Town of Niverville recently submitted a proposal to the Manitoba Municipal Board to transfer lands from the RM of Hanover to the Town of Niverville. This process is generally known as annexation. The proposal was submitted with the support of the RM of Hanover. Submitted photo

Operation Red Nose Returns for Busy Holiday Season

By Angelique Forest

Operation Red Nose (ORN) is up and running again after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. It’s a national campaign that started in Quebec over 35 years ago. Manito ba has about 10 hosts providing ride services including La Broquerie/ Steinbach and the St. Malo group.

Together with the RM of DeSala berry and the LUD of St-Malo, there is a red light installed on one of the deer statues located in St. Malo in the spirit of Operation Red Nose.

“This is our third year running a campaign. During the first two years of ORN in St. Malo, our icon ic deer statues were in storage and under repair, and also in the process of being relocated,” said Charmaine Gosselin, the coordinator for the St. Malo ORN. “Anyway, the deer

kitty-corner from the Coop Gas sta tion. Last month I asked the RM if, in the spirit of Operation Red Nose in St-Malo, we could somehow put a red light on one of the deer’s nose during Operation Red Nose. Like Rudolph! They approved it! And I am so excited.”

This year, St. Malo is offering rides to multiple communities along highways 75 south and 59 south: Dominion City, Grunthal, Ile des Chenes, Kleefeld, Landmark, Le tellier, Lorette, Morris, New Both well, Niverville, Otterburne, Rose nort, St-Jean Baptiste, St-Malo, St-Pierre-Jolys, Ste-Adolphe, Ste. Agathe, Tolstoi and Vita.

The La Broquerie/Steinbach ORN is handling the communities of Blumenort, Friedensfeld, Giroux, Kleefeld, La Broquerie, Marchand, Mitchell, Paradise Village, Sainte-

Anne, Sarto, Steinbach and Richer.

“A ride team of 3-4 people will drive their own vehicle where the clients need to be picked up. Two members of our ride team sit in the front seats of the client’s car, clients sit in their back-seat of their own car, and we drive the client and the client’s car to their home or desti nation while our other volunteer(s) follows in their vehicle,” Gosselin explained. “Clients need to have their own vehicle and need to make room for our two volunteers in or der to get a ride. Our volunteers use their personal vehicles as the escort vehicle, and we reimburse their gas at the end of the night. Our ride ser vices are completely free; however we accept donations by cash or etransfer.”

For the St. Malo ORN, funds raised will go towards the renovations of

the local community centre.

Typically the hours of operation run from 8 pm to 3 am on the days of December 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 30, 31 and are expected to run as it has in previous years.

Gosselin encourages anyone who’s curious to reach out.

“To date, almost 40 businesses and organizations have stepped up with either financial or in-kind do nations to help us with the expenses of offering these ride services,” said Gosselin referring to the St. Malo ORN. “We could not possibly offer this safe-road campaign without the business support.”

Running an ORN campaign is a lot of work, but it has been heart warm ing said Gosselin, especially when people and businesses reach out and offer their help and services to con tribute to this safe-road campaign.

People and business owners want to be part of this safe-road initia tive, and knowing they might be saving lives,

preventing DUIs, or simply con necting with community members with the friendly volunteers in their red vests, she added. “[It] makes all the hard work worth it.”

Both the La Broquerie/Steinbach and St. Malo ORN committees are always looking for additional vol unteers.

Those looking to help the La Broquerie/Steinbach ORN can call 204-424-9555 for additional infor mation or reach out to volunteer@ rednoseonline.com. They require over 200 volunteers during the entire campaign to offer ride ser vices.

Those interested in volunteering at the St. Malo ORN can contact st-malo@operationrednose.com or call/text 204-712-6041.

To request a ride, call your lo cal Operation Red Nose location. An operator will ask for your infor mation (name, phone number, de scription of your vehicle, number of passengers, current location, and address of destination).

Celebrating Over 25 Years of Service to Our Communities!

The RM of DeSalaberry and the LUD of St-Malo installed a red light on one of our iconic deer statues in the spirit of Operation Red Nose!

Photos submitted by Charmaine Gosselin

The St. Malo volunteer team ready for one of the evenings.

A group from the La Broquerie/Steinbach ORN team excited to put the miles on.

Hylife Highlighted in Social Responsibility Category at Annual Manitoba Trucker’s Association Awards

By Angelique Forest

and recognize those who made sig nificant achievements to trucking in Manitoba, and present awards to many local community members and businesses.

Announced at the gala was the

winner of the new MTA-Associated Trades Division Social Responsibil ity Award. This award was created to recognize those MTA members mak ing a difference in the communities in which we work and live.

The inaugural award recipient was HyLife. Nominated in the cate gories of community service, inno vation, and philanthropy, HyLife’s goal is to live their mission: take care of their 4,500-plus employees, take care of their customers, and take care of their communities.

“We were excited to learn about this inaugural community-minded award and knew that our HyLife values and ongoing social respon sibility initiatives would be a per fect fit,” said Hylife public rela tions and communications manager Stacey Ashley. “We submitted an overview of our projects and local involvement for consideration and are thrilled to be recognized by the Manitoba Trucking Association.”

The inaugural honour was created to recognize those MTA members dedicated to their communities and who contribute to society by lead ing the way with strong values.

“As an organization, HyLife is working hard to make a difference in the lives of their employees, their customers, the communities in which they live and work, and the environment, explained Susan Green, Communications Manager, MTA. “HyLife has set the bar high for future recipients of this award. Congratulations to everyone at Hy Life, the 2022 MTA-Associated Trades Division Social Responsi bility Award.”

Hylife is focused on improving their community, remaining a top leader in the social responsibilities category and knows exactly who to thank for it.

“At HyLife, our top priorities always circle back to our mission; we take care of our employees, our customers, and our communities. These three components are at the core of everything we do and every decision we make. It takes an en tire workforce, our leaders, and our

employees to accomplish the work that we do,” added Ashley, solidi fying the need for the entire com pany to work together to make this all a reality. “This honour truly be longs to our entire team.”

Some of the initiatives under taken at HyLife include one and two million safe miles clubs, vol unteer of the year, National Truck ing Week efforts to support the entire industry, the Local Heroes campaign, and HyLife Fun Days, which has resulted in more than $1,700,000 raised for local chari ties. HyLife is also a proud par ticipant in the Agricultural Clean Technology Program.

“Corporate Social Responsibility is woven throughout our business. We invest time in carefully creat ing initiatives that touch on com munity service, innovation, and sustainability,” said Joel Rempel, Senior Director Global Logistics Supply Chain, HyLife. “During the past few weeks, we have also been busy collecting food across our operations to help make the holidays a little brighter for fami lies in the communities where we live and work.”

As an example, HyLife’s Mil lion Mile Club, launched in 2016, recognizes their drivers for reaching 1,000,000 miles of accident-free driving. Currently, ten HyLife drivers have reached this status; they are expecting two more in the near future. In late 2021, Rudy Kroeker was the first HyLife employee to make it to 2,000,000 safe miles suc cessfully. As a company, Hylife pulled out all the stops to show their appreciation for Kroeker’s achievement, including a video highlighting his journey, media interviews, and a ceremony with leaders where he was presented with a special gift.

(Left) Scott Kinsman (Associated Trades Division) and (right) Joel Rempel (HyLife)

Nominated in the categories of community service, innovation, and philanthropy, HyLife’s goal is to live their mission: take care of their 4,500plus employees, take care of their customers, and take care of their communities. Submitted photos

Seniors Group Searching for Volunteers to Help Older Population Tackle Tech

By Dan Guetre

Seine River Services for Seniors is reach ing out hoping to find a few people will ing to walk seniors through the technology landmines as more are relying on tech to make their lives better and continue to live at home.

According to Melanie Bremaud, Senior Resources Coordinator for the non-profit organization, older adults have a myriad of concerns. While the tech is in their hands, Bremaud feels they might not be taking full advantage of the capabilities or are leaving themselves open to nefarious individuals.

“The comments I hear from older adults seem to indicate a low level of comfort with the use of technology,” said Bremaud. “I be lieve there might be a couple of explanations to this discomfort.”

Bremaud believes many seniors might be afraid of fully using the tech due to the in crease of scams they hear about, and there fore are not comfortable navigating safely to protect themselves. She is also aware that in many senior households, there might not be a friend or family member available to teach the skills needed.

“Many older adults own some pieces of technology, such as computers/laptops, smart phones and tablets,” she continued. “Most are only able to use the basic func tions; email, accept calls, check voicemail, call out, play games, etc.”

Many of the older adults who reach out to her seem aware of all the possibilities and benefits technology could offer but do not have the resources to learn these features and do it safely.

“Another issue, for older adults who use technology comfortably, might sometimes struggle with access to reliable services, de pending on the area they live,” she added. “Others just don’t have the means financial ly to enjoy the benefits of technology.”

Bremaud recognizes that there are some seniors who truly have no want or desire to use technology, and that is okay, but the ones who do, she would like to develop a volunteer program that could get her clients on the right track.

“There are seniors asking to learn a little more in depth from the basics; accessible settings, searching for apps they might enjoy or be of use for active/healthy aging; upload ing, downloading, scanning and saving pre cious documents so that they may declutter but keep memories safe; navigate the internet safely, the sky’s the limit!” said Bremaud. “There is definitely a variety of wants and needs, and many older adults are interested in learning and/or need the encouragement to use technology with confidence.”

One skill set Bremaud is looking for in

volunteers is the knowledge of technology security.

“It seems that many would benefit from cyber-security, whether it be for browsing, online purchasing or making sure they do not open an infected email,” she explained. “With this knowledge gained, I strongly be lieve there would be a bigger openness to learning new skills. They could enjoy tech nology safely the same way as those who were fortunate to have been educated on the subject.”

Bremaud has had experience in seniors be ing exploited through their technology.

“I have in fact had some clients share with me stories, where scammers call, email or text saying they are from a subscription of fice, where the client actually is subscribed to a magazine, product company, etc,” said Bremaud. “These messages tell the clients that they have won contests or are receiving money credits. And so the client has given the information to the scammer.”

She added that fortunately, in these inci dents, the clients had not lost any money, but is aware that are plenty of cases where it has happened.

“I believe scams are the biggest barrier to understanding and learning technology… volunteers would be an asset to older adults,” she said.

She has set a benchmark for success for this support program and her search for vol unteers.

“Ultimately, our goal is the hope to give seniors empowerment, independence and confidence in the use of technology,” she ex plained. “Not only does a senior benefit from the learned new skills, but they will also have some social contact. Many older adults have been deprived of that crucial need, even be fore the pandemic. We hope this possibility can inspire others in helping one another and support healthy aging.”

After volunteers who come forward and clear a simple vetting process, she would like to set up a hybrid mix of delivery.

“Some clients are not mobile and might need one-on-one,” she explained. “We are also working with local organizations for free or minimal cost to rent possible spaces for small groups.”

Bremaud is one of many Senior Resource Coordinators in the southeast. Seine River Services for Seniors assists seniors living in dependently in the RMs of La Broquerie and Ste. Anne and the Town of Ste. Anne.

If you have some technical knowledge and believe you can relate what you know to an older adult in a patient and compas sionate manner, you can reach Bremaud at 204-424-5285 or email her at labseinerss@ gmail.com.

RM of Ste. Anne Council to Rehash Pre-Election Reeve Debate

By Dan Guetre

At a recent RM of Ste. Anne Council meeting, the sometimes loud and passionate Reeve Debate hosted by the Richer Community Club, was a topic of conversation.

The debate questions for the two Reeve candidates were varied but became heated when residents brought up their dissatisfaction concerning municipal road maintenance.

The candidates were also questioned about their seemingly disinterested attitude when it came to volunteering on any community service groups. The candidate who won the election would only go so far as saying he will attend community events to show his support, while the incumbent Reeve, who ended up losing the election, left a sour taste in many of those present when he mentioned his fishing pole and boat are the only volunteering he is inter ested in. Both responses from either candidate created a lot of criticism from the residents who attended when polled after.

Many residents questioned the candidates about economic development, or the lack of a municipal plan to attract business and take advantage of municipality primed for tourism.

Newly elected Reeve Richard Pelletier was asked about what prompted the debate to be come a topic on the agenda, but to date, he has not responded.

RM of Ste. Anne CAO Mike McLennan did respond on behalf of council.

“At the request of one of the Councillors, this item was added to the agenda in order to have a general discussion around some of the themes and feedback that arose during the debate, such as economic development and recreation services,” stated McLennan. “This feedback will be considered when Council meets regarding their 2023 budget and long term strategic planning.”

He did not offer which councillor requested it be added to the agenda, nor when the discus sion will take place or what was discussed if it has already been looked at.

Many of the older adults who reach out to Seine River Services for Seniors seem aware of all the possibilities and benefits technology could offer, but do not have the resources to learn these features and do it safely. Stock photo

Search is on for Missing Man

On November 27, at 7:20 pm, Steinbach RCMP received a report of a missing 29-year-old male from a residence located on Autumnwood Drive in the City of Steinbach.

Ryan Cody Maynard last spoke with a family member on November 20, and was last seen at a home on Cedar Crescent in Steinbach on No vember 24.

Maynard is described as being 5’11, 165 lbs with brown hair and hazel coloured eyes. No clothing description was provided.

The RCMP and his family are concerned for his wellbeing. Anyone with information on Maynard’s whereabouts is asked to call the Stein bach RCMP at 204-326-1234, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800222-8477, or secure tip online at manitobacrimestoppers.com.

Species at Risk Spotlight: Red-headed Woodpecker

By Norm Gregoire

Woodpeckers are one of the most dynamic families of birds we share the tall-grass prairie ecosystem with. They are highly adaptable species and come in a variety of unique colours and patterns. For me, the wood pecker that stands out from the rest is the red-headed woodpecker.

In southern Manitoba there is some confusion with what a red-headed woodpecker actually is. Most of our woodpecker species have at least some red on their head, including the pileated, downy, hairy, and my favourite name for any bird, the yellow-bellied sapsucker. The differ ence between the red-headed woodpecker and other woodpeckers, is that the entire head and throat is completely red, whether a male or female. I find a better characteristic to use for identifying if it’s a redheaded or not is to take note of the plumage on the rest of the body. On other woodpeckers the black and white is mottled, whereas on the redheaded the colouration appears in blocks. The breast is entirely white; the wings are black and have a single white block on them, and the tail is also black.

Once you see a red-headed woodpecker they are unforgettable; unfor tunately, in Manitoba the numbers are quite low. Canadian populations are estimated to be as low as seven hundred to five thousand breeding pairs. Major reasons for the small population are attributed to the loss of old growth forests that the red-headed woodpecker depends on for nesting, feeding, and roosting. In southern Manitoba, shelter belts and well-grazed woodlots are particularly favoured by red-headed wood pecker. The first instinct of a property owner when an old tree begins to die may be to cut it down for safety or aesthetic reasons. If safe to do so, I prefer to leave them standing. Woodpeckers make use of these trees and in turn play a key role in maintaining the biodiversity in an area by excavating the cavities that provide nesting and sleeping areas for countless other species.

The good news for red-headed woodpeckers is that they are known to be adaptable. They are considered to be the most omnivorous of all woodpeckers in North America. Their diet consists of seeds, nuts, ber ries, insects and even occasionally eggs and other birds. How the redheaded hunts its prey is unique to the woodpecker family as well. When targeting insects, they act more like a flycatcher would, by flying out and snagging the insect mid-air before returning to the perch. Amaz ingly, red-headed woodpeckers are known to store these insects, such as grasshoppers and beetles, in tree cavities for later feeding.

I love the diversity of our wildlife in the tall-grass prairie, and I think the red-headed woodpecker showcases how unique this area is. The colouration, eating habits and the way they help to shape the surround ing ecosystem are all reasons why this at-risk species is truly a special part of our landscape.

Photo by Dennis Fast

Red-headed Woodpecker.

Ryan Maynard.

Submitted photos RCMP

Stay Prepared For Winter Driving During the Holiday Season

By Angelique Forest

Are you prepared for winter driving? Stay safe and ready with recommendations from the RM of Stuartburn, who sent out tips in their monthly newsletter.

Slippery or snow-covered roads, reduced visibility and bitter cold are all conditions that can make driving difficult and even dangerous during cold weather months. Winter also brings an increased risk of get ting stuck in your vehicle, so dress warmly before heading out and pay attention to the weather forecast.

Being prepared for the worst could save your life.

Prepare an emergency kit to keep in your vehicle during winter months:

- Food that won’t spoil, such as granola bars.

- Water - bottles that won’t break if the wa ter freezes.

- Blanket.

- Extra clothing and shoes or boots.

- First aid kit with seatbelt cutter.

- Small shovel, scraper and snowbrush.

- Candle in a deep can and matches.

- Wind up flashlight.

- Whistle—in case you need to attract at tention.

- Roadmaps

Other Items that may be helpful to keep in your vehicle:

- Sand, salt or cat litter (non-clumping).

- Antifreeze and windshield washer fluid.

- Tow rope.

- Jumper cables.

- Warning light or road flares.

Regular check-ups and additional gas in the tank in the case of a break-down can also change the course of an emergency. When travelling further distances, it’s a good idea to let someone know about the

Steinbach Chamber Hires New Executive Director

According to the Chamber, Reimer had demonstrated great leadership in her role as Program Director for Eastman Immigrant Services (EIS) over the last three years.

It is a natural fit for her to grow into the Executive Director role with the Chamber of Commerce having been at the helm of EIS, the Chamber of Commerce’s largest initiative added the Chamber in an announcement.

EIS’s employment division connects the local newcomer workforce to the business community in the region.

“We are confident that the skills and abilities Gwen brings to the or ganization will help to lead EIS and the Chamber to continued growth and added value to our business members and newcomers to our community,” they wrote.

Reimer is taking over from Michelle Bezditny, who recently took on the position of Director of Economic De velopment for Steinbach.

“Working alongside each other, they will continue to move our community forward, in collaboration with lo cal decision-makers and community partners,” the Chamber concluded.

plans just in case. Double check that you have your winter gear and cellphone before any long trips.

The Steinbach Chamber’s Board of Direc tors has hired Gwen Reimer as the new Ex ecutive Director for the Steinbach Chamber of Commerce.

Slippery or snow-covered roads, reduced visibility and bitter cold are all conditions that can make driving difficult and even dangerous during cold weather months. Photo RM of Stuartburn

Love is Limitless and Shared

Do we, as humans, really know what true love is? We say we love our wife, our husband, or our family. There’s a song of years gone by that said, “Love Makes the World Go Round”. The hippies of the 1960’s called themselves the “Love” generation and we hear on the current news that we are to love and not hate those around us. But I think our understanding of love is very shallow and there’s much more we could learn.

A very familiar Bible verse is John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” God’s love is our example to follow. There are three things about love that God teaches us.

First, love has no limits. God loves everyone on the face of the earth (the world). He loves those who are easy to love, but He loves the unlovely just as much! It’s easy to love those who love us, but it sure is a challenge to love the unlovely like God does.

Second, love involves giving. This is the Christmas season, and we love to give gifts to those around us. If our love doesn’t motivate us to give, then there’s something lacking in our definition of love. Giv ing isn’t limited to gifts. A person who loves will give of their time, talents, and treasures. A person who loves will still learn to give even if they have no monetary means to show it.

Third, love involves sacrifice. Our Bible verse tells us that God so loved us that He gave us His only Son, His prized possession, the One whom He dearly loved. 2000 years ago God demonstrated that love by sending His Son to earth to be born of a virgin (Mary). For about 33 years God the Father and God the Son were separated. The Father was in heaven and the Son (Christ) on earth. God sacrificed His Son to show His love to the whole world.

Jesus Christ came as a Babe in a manger, and we celebrate His birth at Christmas, but the real purpose for Christ coming to earth was to die and make full payment for all our sins. I John 2:2 says, “And he (Christ) is the propitiation (full payment) for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” What love shown to us by both Father and Son!

This Christmas season consider two things. First, have you respond ed to God’s love to you? The Bible says, “We love him because he first loved us.” The way to show God you love Him is to respond to His invitation to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Have you taken that step yet?

Second, once you’ve experienced God’s love, then you will want to share it with all those around you. God bless you this Christmas as you enjoy God’s love and share it with others.

In your Community

Pat Porter Active Living Centre (Serving Seniors Inc.) is a nonprofit organization that provides programs, activities and servic es for seniors and members of the community. Seniors are the foundation of our community and our goal is to keep them a part of it for as long as possible. Read on to find out about every thing we offer and how we can help you.

Check out our Website for Pro grams & Events at patporteralc. com. Our Centre offers a great variety of events and program ming weekly. Ranging from Fit ness Programs to Recreational and Social Programs, there is something for everyone!

Current Programs

Cost is $2 for members and $4 for non-members. Programs are subject to change.

Morning Walking: Monday-Fri day, 8:30 - 9 am

Coffee Corner: Monday-Friday, 10 am-12 pm.

Pickleball: Monday – Friday, 910:30 am.

Beginner Pickleball: Monday-Fri day, 10:30 am -12 pm, Tuesday 2 - 3:30 pm, Friday 1 - 3:30 pm.

Evening Pickleball: Mondays, 79 pm.

Registration required at patport eralc.com.

Cards

Card games are played Monday to Friday from 1-3 pm.

Fitness Classes Laughter Yoga: Monday, 1- 2 pm.

Fitness Drumming: Tuesday, 1-1:45 pm.

Pace: Wednesday, 1 - 1:45 pm.

Floor Curling: Wednesday, 1-3:30 pm.

Yoga with Carrie: Friday, 9-10 am.

Old Time Country Jam Wednesday, 7 - 9 pm.

Craft Corner Friday, 1-3 pm.

Games Night Monday and Wednesday, 7– 9 pm. Choir Wednesday, 10 - 11:30 am. Steinbach Rockin’ Rollers Sunday, 5 -7 pm. A fun new roll er-skating program is now being offered at the Centre. All skill levels and ages welcome, and no pre-registration required. Cost to participate is $5 ($3 for Pat Porter members). Please bring your own roller skates.

Special Events

Cooking Demo: with Southern Health is back! Thursday, January 26, 2023, 1:30 – 3:30 pm. $5/per son. Learn about healthy eating during a demonstration and tast ing session along with recipes to try at home. RSVP by calling 204320-4600.

Pancake Breakfast: Thursday, Jan uary 26, 2023, 9:30 – 11am. $8/ person. Enjoy a stack of pancakes and 2 sausages. All proceeds go ing to the Steinbach Meals on Wheels Program.

Square Dancing: Starting Tues days in January. Daily program schedule will be growing to offer Square Dancing Classes weekly. Check our website for more de tails.

Fundraiser: “Just remember, the true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart.” – The Polar Express.

Stockings For Seniors

This year again we will be offer ing stocking for seniors you may purchase anonymously or nomi nate someone in our community to receive a stocking filled with hope and joy for the holiday sea son. Place your order by phone, inperson or online, send a greeting along.

Choose between:

Package A - 2 meals on wheels gift certificates* and 1 Stocking filled with goodies at $25.

Package B - 4 meals on wheels gift certificates* and 2 stockings filled with goodies at $40.

*gift certificates for residence of Steinbach and Grunthal.

Delivery area: Steinbach, RM of Hanover, La Broquerie and Ste. Anne. Order by December 14. Call 204-320-4600 or online at pat porteralc.com.

Rentals

We have rooms of a variety of sizes and prices. For pricing and room, availability visit our website patporteralc.com, email rentals@ patporteralc.com or call 204-3204600.

Meals on Wheels

A healthy, warm and delicious meal cooked fresh daily and delivered to your door. We have two Meals on Wheels programs running out of Steinbach and Grunthal. Meals may be purchased for $8 for de livery (residents of Steinbach and Grunthal) or pickup. A meal includes soup, a main dish, sides and dessert. Please call 204-3204600 with any questions or to or der a meal. To receive a same day meal, you must call before 9 am.

Steinbach Accessible Transit Need a ride to an appointment or other errand?

Steinbach Accessible transit can get you there!

This service is available to resi dents of Steinbach. Visit our web site patporteralc.com for a full price list.

Available Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 5 pm. Call 204-326-4055 to book a ride. If your call is not an swered, leave a message with the answering service.

Appointments must be booked in advance to ensure availability.

Tache Senior Services is excited to announce Santa for Seniors’ program. This year Tache Senior Services will be providing a meal and small gifts to the seniors in Tache who are alone at Christmas with a delicious heart-to-home Christmas turkey dinner.

Tache Senior Services is grate fully accepting new donations of small gifts to add to the dinner.

If you can help in any way, here is their wish list:

Sultans of String, World Music

Thursday, January 19, 2023 at 7:30 pm. Cost $26 adult; $12 student. Join us at this multi-award-winning, 3-time Juno-nominated and Billboard chart ing band creates “energetic and ex citing music from a band with talent to burn!” (Maverick, UK). For more than a decade, Sultans of String have thrilled audiences with their genre-hop ping passport of Celtic reels, Flamenco, Django-jazz, Arabic, Cuban and South Asian rhythms. The group celebrates musical fusion and human creativity with warmth and virtuosity, with world rhythms that excite audiences to their feet!

Get a SAC

Concert Series Package

We have once again lined up an amaz ing 2022-2023 Concert Series. Get yourself a ticket package and attend concerts this winter!

Sultans of String – Juno-Nominated World Music, 7:30 pm, Thursday, Jan uary 19, 2023.

Assassinating Thomson – MTC Live

Theatre - 7:30 pm, Tuesday, February 28, 2023.

Cathy Daniel and Darryl Friesen – Classical Mezzo Soprano and Piano, 7:30 pm, Friday, March 17 2023.

For ticket package prices, call Tara at 204-346-1077

Christmas Sale

Christmas arrived early this year with our Christmas Sale! Find the perfect gift for the special people in your life starting at $10. Support local, featuring artists from our Buy or Lease Program and SEA Group. Find magnets, coast ers, select artwork that is discounted from 20-90% off, prints starting at $99 and more. Stop by the Steinbach Arts Council pr check out our inventory at steinbacharts.ca.

Winter Classes

Winter has come and so has registra tion for our winter classes! We are so excited for all the amazing classes that are coming to our Centre in the new year. From old classics like BOSS Dance, Everything Art, and Pottery to

fun new classes like French, Acrylic Painting, and Zumba, we have some thing for everyone! Register online at steinbacharts.ca. Volunteer at SAC

We are looking for people who are like-minded and love the arts as much as we do. As a non-profit organization, we would not have been able to thrive without volunteers who share their time, talent, and service. The Steinbach Arts Council would love to have you be part of our team.

Volunteering is a great way to build your resume, network and be part of this vibrant community. We have op portunities to help in putting up our pro motional flyers, setting up for events, theatre stage production, administrative work, and many more.

We are willing to train and introduce you to what our organization does. In return for your participation, we pro vide a volunteer certificate and a wel come packet. Put your name on our vol unteer list today! Go to steinbacharts. ca/volunteer.

Southeast Open Judged Exhibit is Now Open for Artist Applications

The Steinbach Arts Council (SAC) is inviting all artists to submit their ap plications between December 1, 2022, and February 17, 2023 as part of the 25th Annual Southeast Open Judged Exhibit (SOJE). This open call is wel come to all adults (18+) and students (17 and under) residing in the southeast region.

“We are very excited for our South east Open Judged Exhibit’s 25th an niversary! The Steinbach Arts Council loves to bring local artists together of

all skill level, and the 25th SOJE ex hibit is a great opportunity for all art ists in the Southeast region to come together,” said Tonya Godee, Exhibit Coordinator. “We can’t wait to see the variety of mediums and talent that will be showcased this year.”

Applicants can submit any visual art form/medium, from oil, acrylic and watercolour painting, charcoal, ink, pastels, coloured pencil, pencil, print making, mixed media to digital art, photography, pottery, sculpture, crafts,

and fibre arts. SAC encourages all art ists to showcase their work regardless of their skill level. Applicants are also welcome to join the non-competitive category if they do not wish to be part of the competition.

Due to the limited space in the gal lery, artists may only enter one artwork per person. There is a registration fee of $10 for adults and there is no fee for ages 17 and under.

Apply today by visiting steinbacharts. ca/soje.

Steinbach Arts Council’s

In-home Corks & Canvas Fundraiser a Success

The Steinbach Arts Council (SAC) held their third in-home Corks & Can vas Wine Tasting Fundraiser early in November. SAC brought the wine, ap petizers, and local artwork directly to 10 host homes. The host homes invited 12 guests to enjoy the in-home wine tasting, with access to the wine repre sentatives by phone.

Corks & Canvas has become an im portant fundraising initiative for the Arts Council, as they rely on the sales of the host packages and donations to be successful. This year they were able to raise over $11,000 for the arts commu nity. The funds raised allow them to cre ate sustainable programming, affordable and accessible classes and concerts, and

ultimately, help to keep the organization and community healthy, inside and out.

“It’s been exciting to see the communi ty’s enthusiasm about this annual event,” said David Klassen, Executive Director. “This has become one of our most suc cessful fundraisers, and one of the best methods of creating awareness for our organization.”

At the Right Time

Galatians 4: 4-7 ... 4) But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5) to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. 6) Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba Father.” 7) So you are no lon ger a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. (NIV)

Every Christmas you and I must come to terms with the birth and nature of Jesus Christ. Christians make incred ible, wonderful, and miraculous claims about the birth of Jesus... and we should because in our text today we read about that when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son.

Have you ever thought that there was a right time for Je sus to come? It is an incredible statement. Does this mean that there was only one time in all human history when ev erything was perfectly in line for the first coming of Je sus? That there was no other time when Christ could have come? We believe that is precisely what the Bible is saying. It tells us that Jesus Christ came at just the right time. Our celebration of Christmas highlights that perfect timing of His coming. As our text for this month says, when the right time came, the time that God had declared it would happen, Jesus was born of a Jewish woman by the name of Mary.

We know the Christmas story so well, but how often does that understanding cause us not to remember or overlook what happened in the Land of Palestine before Christ was born? I know this is true of me. We get so excited with our own planning that we lose sight of all the preparations and activities behind the scenes in Palestine before the birth of Christ. Just as we organize and plan, our Christmas ac tivities there were preparations made for this special event. The Christ Child from heaven was about to be born in a manger.

There were legislative preparations for His coming. Scrip ture teaches that God directed the crucial events so that all prophesies would be fulfilled. Little did Caesar Augustus know when he was in power and called for a census, he was doing God’s will? That census required all the people to return to their place of birth to be counted. That meant that a pregnant woman and her husband had to make a historic journey to Bethlehem.

Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus, was guided by the Holy Spirit of God to the place prophesied in the Old Testament where Christ would be born. Can you see the hand of God at work here? God had planned how this was to happen long before this night in Bethlehem. He had a purpose for this event. You can feel the love and compassion in the heart of God as His plan of salvation is revealed to all peoples.

By faith, we remember the first coming of Christ. At the right time, God sent His Son, and He... that is Jesus, can be faithful to do things in my life and your life at the right time as well. We are invited to become children of God, heirs together with Christ and He is leading us to reign with Him in eternity, to be victorious in this life. Christmas brought a new beginning, a reminder of that special event at just the right time.

11) Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12) This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:11-12 (NIV) Thus when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law: Unable to contain heaven’s joy any longer, the angels would explode with the cry of jubilation, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men ... To God Be the Glory Great Things He Has Done.

Merry Christmas ... Have a wonderful New Year.

Would you pray this prayer with me... “Lord Jesus, come into my heart? Forgive my sins. I want my life to change. My thoughts and my attitude need to change. I do not have the peace in my heart that I yearn for. I really want that Peace, joy and happiness that will fulfill my heart’s desire. Please let the Holy Spirit help me be the kind of Christian that will honour Your Name.” Amen.

Falcon Beach

Christmas Market – Saturday, December 10, 10 am – 3 pm at the Whiteshell Community Club, 20 301 Pr. All interested vendors please fill out the registra tion form and send to leslieannblaney@gmail.com by November 11.

Bingo – Wednesdays at 7: 30 pm, early bird games at 7 pm at the Whiteshell Community Club 20 301 Pr, Falcon Beach. Contact 204-349-2293.

Grunthal

Snow Place like Home - Join us for a winter show, iced with your favourite Christmas songs, every evening from December 15 - December 31. Santa Photos on December 17 – 18. Sleigh Rides: December 17, 18, 24, 25 and 31. Bringing the North Pole to your back yard – from playful arctic animals to dancing elves – experience a family-friendly drive-thru winter won derland of lights! Every day 6 – 9 pm. Open Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve at the Hanover Ag Exhibition Park. Admission by donation. Debit and Credit available on-site. Bring a tin to support Grunthal Caring Hands. All vehicles must enter grounds at TriStar Soccer Park

Coffee Connections - All adults ages 55+ are welcome to join us at the New Horizon Centre for a time of visit ing, while enjoying coffee, tea and refreshments. Join us and bring your friends. There is no cost. Contact Anita Funk 204-371-9134.

Ile des Chenes

Yoga - Thursdays at 9 am and Wednesdays at 9:30 am. Gentle yet invigorating yoga for adults 55+. $5 per class. Contact yogaforyoumanitoba@outlook.com to register.

Landmark Shoebox Drive - Open Tuesdays from 3:30 - 8:30 pm, and Saturdays from 10:30 am - 2:30 pm.

Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child is open again for this year. Come fill a shoebox for a child in need at 172 Main Street. Everything you need to fill a shoebox is available.

Lorette Family Library Night – Wednesday, December 14, at Bibliothèque Taché Library, 1082 Dawson Rd. Visit the library and enter the monthly draw.

Mitchell Toast & Coffee – On Tuesdays, drop-in for toast and coffee for $2 and a menu is available with prices ac cording to what you order at the Mitchell and Area Community Centre, 130 Ash St. Contact Jane Penner 204-346-2469, jpenner@jantre.com.

Piney Christmas Tree Fundraiser – In supporting of East Borderland Community Housing Phase III: Senior sup portive housing for the RM of Piney and southeastern communities. Christmas Trees are located at East Bor derland Primary Health Care Centre (EBPHCC) and East Borderland Community Housing. Tree $75 Donation or

Celebrating Over 25 Years of Service to Our Communities!

C ommunity E v E nts

Bulb $5 donation. Donate as much as you wish, all donations are recognized on a display board at EB PHCC. Donations can be dropped off at the EBPHCC in Sprague. Please place your donations in an envelope that includes your name and address on it. A charity receipt will be issued on all donations above $20. For more information, please contact Danielle Charette at 204-371-1983.

Randolph Christmas at Chortitz - Saturday, December 10, 3 pm at the Chortitz Heritage church. Traditional German Christmas carol singing. Free admission. Coffee after wards. Everybody welcome. Capacity is limited to 180 persons.

Richer

Richer Recovery AA Group - Meets every Monday from 7:30 - 8:30 pm at LUD Hall. If you would like more information, call Jeff at 204-371-5518 or Albert at 204-380-3058.

Chase the Ace - every Saturday night at the Richer Ho tel. Jackpot now over $2,500. Tickets on sale from 5 pm to 7:45 pm. Organized by the Richer Community Club, see Facebook page for more info.

Young at Heart Club Dinner & Dance - Saturday, December 17th, live music. Cost is $25 per person and dinner at 6 pm. Music until 11 pm. Call Ron 431-275-0874 for tickets.

Monday Night Bingos - To raise funds for Stacey Pchajek Memorial Foundation Inc. The foundation provides scholarships, bursaries and prizes to stu dents graduating grades 8 and 12. Limited seats please reserve. Doors Open at 5:30 pm at the Young at Heart Club, 22 Dawson Rd. MGCC License # BI/ BO4164. Contact Doreen Pchajek at 422-5243 or doreen@spmf.ca.

Ritchot

Forever Young Old Time Dance – Sunday, December 11, from 1 - 5 pm at the Pioneer Hall (upstairs of the St. Adolphe rink). Entertainment by Mark Morisseau. Admission $16 and includes lunch and a chance to win a door prize. Contact Jules to reserve your ticket at 204-883-2440.

RM of Stuartburn

Services to Seniors - Access Credit Union sponsored Free Shuttle for residents of the RM the first Friday of each month. Call to book a ride and do your banking and shopping locally or book your doctor’s appoint ment and we will get you to your appointment. Next Access Free Shuttle is June 3. Call 204-425-3701.

Services to Seniors Steinbach Shuttle - Subsidized cost $15/person. Minimum of 8 participants required for the trip to take place. Departure from Shady Oaks at 9:30 am. Call 204-425-3701 to book a seat.

Sprague Sprague Service to Seniors Seeking Volunteers - Seek ing individuals to assist and to provide a few services

to seniors within our community such as snow removal, transportation for a fee, volunteers in the congregate Meals Programs as well as home cleaning services to seniors for a fee. A criminal record check is required for cleaning services and transportation. Email lgdse niors@gmail.com with your rates and for information, or call 204-437-2604.

St. Adolphe

Skate with Santa & Pancake Breakfast - December 10, at the Community Centre. Pancake Breakfast from 9 am – 12 pm - $5, Skate with Santa from 10 – 11 am. Pre-buy your tickets at the canteen. Collection boxes for Santa workshop donations are at Esso and the arena.

St. Pierre-Jolys 3234 Manitoba Horse Cadets – Thursdays, 6:30 – 9 pm at the Community Hall from September to June. Cost is Free. Meet new friends, fun, adventures, lead ership, citizenship, community service, drill band, orienteering, and more. Contact Captain Phil Atkinson 3234Army@cadets.gc.ca or phillip.atkinson@ca dets.gc.ca. Website 3234manitobahorse.ca. Ste. Genevieve December drop-in at the Library and enter the monthly draw.

Steinbach

Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra- Tuesday, December 6 at 7:30 pm, Manitoba Holiday Tour with at the Stein bach Mennonite Church. $30 adult; $12 student. Spe cial package 2 Seniors (65+) for $52; family of 4 for $80 (2 adult tickets, 2 student tickets, for immediate family/household members) and music or theatre stu dents (private lessons) $8. Celebrate the season with your favourite holiday music featuring your favourite holiday carols, a special guest performance by a local choir, audience sing-along, and more. Call 204-3461077.

Steinbach & Area Garden Club – Saturday, December 10, 1 – 3 pm, Christmas Centrepiece workshop. Cost $50 per person, payable to and at Sunshine Nursery on the date of the Workshop. The Cost includes instructor and material. Registration deadline December 7. Con tact kathlers@shaw.ca or 204-346-1006.

A Gardener’s Christmas - Monday, December 12, 7- 9 pm. Annual Christmas celebration with video of club members’ gardens, appetizers and dessert. A-L bring sweets, M-Z Z bring savoury at the Mennonite Heritage Village. Annual Membership- Individual $20; Family $30. Contact email sagcnewsletter@gmail.com.

Ukrainian Settlement Support Donation Drop Off – Tuesday, December 6, January 3 and 17 from 5 - 8 pm at Southland Church. Specific areas of need for donation: furniture, mattresses and box springs, bedding, clothing for men, women and children of all ages, coats and jackets (all seasons), shoes/ boots, other household items for Ukrainian families. Drop-off at marked storage units in the parking lot; use west entrance, closest to Bush Farm Road. If you have to do nate outside of the defined dates/times, please ensure to clearly label “Ukraine” on the items and they will be designated for the Ukraine relief initiative.

An Evening with the Authors - Wednesday, December 7, 7 pm at Mennonite Heritage Village, PTH 12 N. Lo cal authors Gina Giesbrecht (Come Now, It’s Time to Go), Albert Martens (The Polar Bear Marathon), and Rudolf Duerksen (Death at the Grass Huts), share their writing. Refreshments to follow. Call Nita 204-3269661 or giftshop@mhv.ca.

Toy, Collectible, Vintage & Antique Show - Friday, December 9, 10 am at the Clearspring Centre. Bring the whole family out to shop and find great Christmas ideas. Contact Andy or Chris Kulcynski for details 204799-7894.

Manitoba Treasures Exhibit – On now until Friday, December 16, artwork by Wilhelmina Richardson at the Steinbach Arts Council. The exhibit also features a silent auction piece that features Celebrating New Life by our exhibiting artist Wilhelmina Richardson and Touch the Arctic (photography book) by internationally recognized wildlife photographer Dennis Fast.

The Longest Night Run- Wednesday, December 2122, 4:29 pm – 8:21 am; the Winter Solstice. Start at the Public Brewhouse and Gallery, 301 Main St. Cost Adults $10 and Kids $5. This is a relay, but first we need a relay team. You can also participate virtually, registration package will be sent to you. Run package pickup and snacks will be available all night at The Public Brewhouse and Gallery. Register at longest nightrun.com for the 5th annual community vigil to remember those lost and to honour those struggling. This year proceeds are to support those affected by the war in Ukraine – both local refugees and humanitarian efforts abroad. You can choose to walk or run, alone or with friends or family – for 30 minutes, 2 hours, 8 hours, or the whole night.

Astronomy & Group Walks – Fourth Tuesday of the month until March 2023, 8 – 9:40 pm with Chris Des rochers. Meet at the L.A. Barkman Park Gazebo. Walk along Bush Farm Tail, around Abe’s Hill, and observe sights of the night sky, using telescopes at the conclu sion of the walk. Dress for the weather and for walking, bring binoculars and questions. December 27 (sights visible: Mars, Jupiter, & Crescent Moon); January 24 (sights visible: Mars & Jupiter); February (sights vis ible: Mars, Jupiter, Venus, & Half Moon) and March 28 (sights visible: Mars, Venus, & Crescent Moon).To register, email smclean@jakeepplibrary.com or mre dekopp@jakeepplibrary.com. If the sky is unclear and weather is too poor, the hosts will make the decision to cancel 1-2 hours before the event and will send out an email to participants to let them know.

Chase the Ace Fundraiser - Steinbach and Area Animal Rescue – On Mondays at Smitty’s Restaurant. Come out and try to win cash. The jackpot goes up weekly until the Ace is drawn!

Royal Canadian Legion Steinbach Branch - Meets first Tuesday of the month via Zoom at 7:30 pm; Ladies Auxiliary meets first Monday of each month, 7:30 pm. Steinbach Legion, 227 Main St – Unit 5. Email stein bach190rcl@outlook.com.

Al-Anon - Monday 7:30 pm Steinbach Cultural Arts Centre back door, downstairs. For information call Lloyd 204-326-4365.

Creative Writers Club - Second Wednesday every month at 7 pm at the Jake Epp Library, 255 Elmdale St. This is not a class but rather a writing share group where we hope to foster and encourage our participants’ love of writing. Feel free to bring 5 pages of writing (single sided, double spaced) to share with the group. Our evening will begin with an ice breaker and then move into share time. Coffee and tea will be served. Contact Madison Redekopp email mredekopp@ja keepplibrary.com.

Steinbach Professional Development Toastmasters Club – On Thursdays at 9:46 am, Eastman Education Cen tre, 385 Loewen Blvd. How can a person get the mes sage across well, keep meeting participants engaged, and fully use the capabilities of videoconferencing platforms? What works? What doesn’t? What is the etiquette expected? Join us in person or by zoom on 12 pm every Wednesday. All guests are welcome! Con tact Mark Hiebert 204-371-5197, email mhiebert@ barkmanconcrete.com.

Knit-Wits Fibre Craft Club- First Tuesdays of the month at 6 – 8 pm, Jake Epp Library, 255 Elmdale St. Do you enjoy knitting, crocheting, cross stitching and other types of fibre crafting? Join other adults for an informal knitting, crochet, etc. circle. All skill levels welcome. Please bring your own project/supplies.

Craft Night - Wednesdays at 7 pm, Jake Epp Library, 255 Elmdale St. Ages 16 years and up join us for a free event, with coffee and crafting. Our craft for the evening will be a beaded spring wreath. There is lim ited space available. To sign up, email mredekopp@ jakeepplibrary.com.

Book Club - Meets on the third Wednesday of each month from 7 - 8:30 pm Jake Epp Library, 255 Elm dale St. Books are available at the circ desk as well as on our Libby App (free with your library card). Please sign up by email mredekopp@jakeepplibrary.com. Limited space available.

Steinbach & Area Lions Club - Meets second and fourth Tuesday of the month, 6:30 pm, South East Helping Hands. Contact 204-326-2313.

Vita Christmas Vendor Sale – Saturday, December 10, 10 am - 3 pm, at the Friendship Centre

Eat Local on a Budget Part 8: Make Your Own Bread

Ritchot Senior Services December Highlights

Quilting & Knitting – Tuesday, December 6 from 1:30 - 2:30 pm. Ritchot Senior Services makes multiple donations throughout the year to different organizations and we need your help. Lap quilts are created and given to the Alzheimer society for those suffering with Alzheimer and dementia. All are invited to help create these beautiful pieces. You do not need to be a professional, only a will ingness to help. Our “Made with Love” program creates knit hats, scarves, mitts, slippers, anything you like to create. Items are then donated to different charities and those in need. Donations for these projects are always greatly appreciated. Pre registration for this event is appreciated.

Foot Care Clinics - By appointment only. For more information, please contact Janice at 204-883-2880.

Upcoming clinic dates:

Ste Agathe – Wednesday, December 7 and Thursday, December 8. St. Adolphe – Monday, December 12 and Tuesday, December 13. Ile des Chenes – Tuesday, January 10 and Wednesday, January 11.

Heart to Home Meals -To place your order please call 1-204-8168659 or 1-888-216-1067. Call Heart to Home and they will send you a menu. Menus are also available to pick up at Ritchot Senior Services. We ask you to please call or email Ritchot Senior Ser vices after placing your orders and let us know you have placed an order. This will assist us in organizing volunteers for delivery of meals to you.

By Janet Kroeker

bread easier to digest. The best ex ample of this approach is the mak ing of sourdough bread, which we will leave for a future article.

An easier method to transition from fast rise to slow rise baking is one a friend introduced me to.

order and pick up grains for mill ing from an organic farm direct –Deruyck’s Top of The Hill Farm. Scroll Can-Am’s Facebook page to see details about Deruyck’s offerings.

Order your meals by: Wednesday December 7. Meals ready for pick up or delivery on December 8. Wednesday December 21. Meals ready for pick up or delivery on December 22.

growing children. With frugality a part of the motivation, I baked up to 12 loaves per week, focusing on bread rather than sweets – some jam on bread would have to do. My adult children now reminisce about com ing home from school to the aroma of fresh baked bread and enjoying a snack of honey on a slice. If we were out of bread, it felt as though we were out of food – truly the stuff of life.

When we moved to the prairies 30 years ago, I bought myself a small grain mill and began sourcing local organic grain – another cost saving, but more importantly, resulting in a more nutritious and higher quality bread.

In the last 10 years or so my baking has evolved to embrace the slow rise bread movement. I was convinced that a slow fermentation process would produce a bread with a more delicate aroma and flavour, not to mention better bioavailabity of the bread’s vitamins and minerals. This process starts the breakdown of pro tein (including gluten) making the

The goal is to create a large batch of dough that stores in the refrigera tor for up to two weeks. By playing with the temperature and amount of yeast, you can speed up or slow down the rising time – in other words you can adjust it to your own time constraints. This method is de scribed in the book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, but you can also find it online.

Does baking your own bread truly allow you to eat local on a budget? The answer is a resounding “yes!” When comparing quality with qual ity - that is, buying a good qual ity loaf with baking one - you will spend 3 or 4 times less on homemade bread.

Check whether your food re tailer stocks locally sourced grains and flours, like Prairie Flour Mill products from nearby Elie, Mani toba. Close to where I live, Can-Am Country Corner near Stuartburn on Hwy 59, stocks Prairie Mill flour - organic white, whole wheat and white unbleached. Can-Am Coun try Corner is also a place you and

Home flour mills are available at Prairie Foods in Plum Coulee and Stoneybrook Pantry in Stein bach. If you intend to bake regu larly, this investment will pay for itself fairly quickly.

To try the recipe using the Ar tisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day method artisanbreadinfive. com/2013/10/22/the-new-ar tisan-bread-in-five-minutes-aday-is-launched-back-to-basicsupdated.

Look for upcoming bread bak ing workshops in your commu nity. The Woodmore Women’s Institute is planning one in 2023 in the Emerson- Franklin munici pality.

Maybe this winter will be your time to become a bread baker. May your kitchen be filled with the sweet delicate aroma of bak ing bread and your tummy hap pier with that slice of easily di gestible bread. Happy baking.

Brought to you by the Stuart burn Emerson-Franklin Local Food Initiative. You can find them on Facebook.

Fatal Two-Vehicle Collision Takes Life of Steinbach Man

On November 29, at approxi mately 6 pm, Oakbank RCMP re ceived a report of a two-vehicle collision on Highway 15, located approximately two kilometres west of Anola, in the Rural Municipality of Springfield.

The investigation determined that a westbound SUV, being driving by an 84-year-old man from Winni peg, veered into the oncoming lane and collided with an eastbound ve hicle, being driven by a 32-year-old man from Steinbach.

The 32-year-old, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was pro nounced deceased on scene. The 84-year-old was transported to hospital with non-life threaten ing injuries.

This service is available to all areas of the Ritchot Community in cluding St. Adolphe, Ste Agathe, Ile des Chenes, Grande Pointe, Howden and Glenlea. There are no contracts, no minimum or ders.

Coffee with Friends – Thursdays, December 8 and 15 at 11:30 am. Open to everyone. $2 for bottomless coffee and a treat. Ritchot Senior Services, 457 Main Street, St. Adolphe.

Forever Young Old Time Dance – Sunday, December 11, from 1 - 5 pm at the Pioneer Hall (upstairs of the St. Adolphe rink). Enter tainment by Mark Morisseau. Admission $16 and includes lunch and a chance to win a door prize. Contact Jules to reserve your ticket at 204-883-2440.

Does baking your own bread truly allow you to eat local on a budget? The answer is a resounding “yes!” When comparing quality with quality - that is, buying a good quality loaf with baking one - you will spend 3 or 4 times less on home-made bread. Submitted photo

RCMP FILES

If you have any information in regards to any item here you are asked to contact the Steinbach RCMP Detachment at 204-326-4452 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or manitobacrimestoppers.com or text “TIPMAN” plus your message to Crimes (274637).

Steinbach RCMP Arrest Youth with Knife

On November 3 at approximately 2:30 pm, Steinbach RCMP received a report of a male youth walking in the community in possession of a knife. The 14-year-old male attends Steinbach Regional Secondary School and is also known to frequent Stonybrook Middle School.

At no time was a direct threat made, but with no known whereabouts of the male, it was believed, after consultation with school division admin istration that for safety purposes a hold and secure for both institutions would be put in place. This went into effect at 3 pm.

Officers continued to patrol Steinbach for the youth while other of ficers attended the schools to assist with dismissal procedures to ensure those youth departing on a school bus or with a parent/guardian could safely leave the school. The youth who were to walk home remained in the school.

At 3:50 pm, the youth turned himself into the Steinbach RCMP, where he was taken into custody. He was charged with Possession of a Weapon for a Dangerous Purpose and the large kitchen knife was seized. The hold and secure was lifted at this time as well and all students were able to be dismissed.

No one was injured as a result of this incident.

RCMP Seek Shoplifter Who Targeted Drug Store

On October 8 at approximately 4:30 pm, a shoplifter targeted a local drug store on Main Street. An unknown male walked into the business and stole $400 worth of goods.

Steinbach RCMP are requesting the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect. If you have information regarding this matter, please call Steinbach RCMP at 204-326-4452, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1800-222-8477, or secure tip online at manitobacrimestoppers.com.

Thief Takes Cell Phone and Wallet, Uses Debit Card Thieves Target Construction and Gravel Company

On October 20, Steinbach RCMP received a report of a theft from a vehicle. The complainant advised that on October 14, an unknown person(s) stole a wallet and an iPhone 11 with a cracked screen from a dark green Chevrolet Cruze parked on Nadeau Street in La Broquerie. Further, the complainant’s debit card was used in Steinbach at 9:30 pm on October 14 at a grocer in Steinbach. Approximately $30 was used to purchase cartons of cigarettes at the grocer. The suspect was on secu rity footage purchasing the items with the debit card in question.

If you have any information in regards to the above matter, you are asked to contact the Steinbach RCMP Detachment at 204-326-4452 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or manitobacrimestoppers.com.

On October 19 Steinbach RCMP received a report of a theft from the Diamond Construction and Gravel company in Steinbach. Multiple tools were stolen from the loca tion including a wrench with serial number 8603180, a STIHL TS500I Cutquick concrete saw with serial number 189214466, A Milwaukee M18 grinder with serial number K02AF220800248, and a Milwau kee 18-inch pipe wrench with serial number 48227218.

If you have any information in regards to the above matter, you are asked to contact the Steinbach RCMP Detachment at 204- 3264452 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800222-8477 or manitobacrimestop pers.com.

A Dozen Propane Tanks Stolen

Sprague

RCMP

Request Help

with Info from Summer Break-in

On June 18, Sprague RCMP had been notified of s break-in that oc curred in the RM of Piney. Two subjects drove what appears to be a very specific Off

The Steinbach RCMP received a report of a theft from the Co-op gas bar on Brandt Street. Two un known males came to the gas sta tion between November 18 at ap proximately 11:45 pm and 5:45 am on November 19 stealing 12 pro pane tanks valued at approximately $360.

The Steinbach RCMP are looking for the public’s assistance in identi fying the suspects caught on video footage.

If you have information regard ing this matter, please call Steinbach RCMP at 204-326-4452, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800222-8477, or secure tip online at manitobacrimestoppers.com.

obtained photographs from the property owners which show the thieves, and the Off Road Vehicle they were driving. It appears to be an Intimidator Model GC1K, or “Classic” Model, around 2020 or

If you have any information in regards to the above matter, you are asked to contact the Sprague RCMP Detachment at 204- 437-2041,

On November 21 at approximately 9:45 pm, Steinbach RCMP re sponded to a motor vehicle collision with a Hydroelectric transformer in the residential neighbourhood of Stone Bridge Crossing in Steinbach. Residents nearby reported hearing a large bang followed by a loss of power. A sedan was observed having collided with a Hydro transformer. Two males got the sedan free and fled the scene. Speed is believed to be a factor in the collision.

Parts from the sedan were recovered on scene and are awaiting fo rensic examination. The suspect vehicle is believed to be a 2010-2012 black Ford Fusion with damage to the front and left side of the vehicle. Possibly with brown and/or green paint near the damage.

A youth from Steinbach, has been identified and police continue to investigate.

Steinbach RCMP encourages oth ers involved to contact RCMP. Stein bach RCMP requests assistance from the public to help identify the suspect. Anyone with information please con tact Steinbach RCMP at 204-326-4452 or Crimestoppers.

Road Vehicle onto the property, broke into the cabin, and stole numerous items.

Police

Stock photo of the suspect vehicle.

Celebrating Over 25 Years of Service to Our Communities!

Help to Identify This Bank Robber

On November 10 at approximately 4:55 pm, Steinbach RCMP re sponded to an attempted robbery at the TD Canada Trust on Main Street, in Steinbach.

A male entered the bank and handed the teller a note demanding mon ey. No weapons were seen, and the male left the bank shortly thereafter. He did not obtain any money.

The male suspect is described as tall with a slim build, blue eyes, wear ing a black jacket, blue jeans, black toque, black face covering, and a high visibility vest. It is believed that the suspect left the scene in a small black vehicle or SUV.

A few days later, on November 14, at approximately 3:05 pm, Emer son RCMP responded to a robbery at the Access Credit Union, on Main Street, in Lowe Farm.

A male entered the bank, handed the teller a note demanding money, and left the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash. No weapons were seen. He fled westbound in a light coloured 4-door sedan believed to be between the years of 2004-2008.

The male suspect is described as 6’ tall, in his mid 20’s to mid 30’s, with blue eyes, dark eyebrows, a large nose and slim build. He was wearing a black face covering, high visibility vest, blue jeans, black jacket and black gloves.

RCMP believe the same suspect was responsible for both robberies and used the same vehicle.

If you recognize this male or have any information on these incidents, please call Steinbach RCMP at 204-3264452, or Emerson RCMP at 204-373-2505, Crime Stop pers anonymously at 1-800222-8477, or secure tip online at manitobacrimestoppers. com.

Three Perfume Shoplifters Wanted

On October 18, Steinbach RCMP received a report for shoplifting at the Shoppers Drug Mart. Three suspects can be seen entering Shopper’s Drug Mart, looking at perfume, going to the self check out, scanning their items but then leaving without paying.

The suspects got away with $480.76 worth of perfume.

If you have any information in regards to the above matter, you are asked to contact the Steinbach RCMP Detachment at 204-326-4452 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or manitobacrimestoppers.com.

Traffic Stop Leads to the Recovery of Stolen Property

On October 21 officers with the Steinbach Traffic Services unit con ducted a traffic stop in the City of Steinbach on a parked vehicle, lo cated on Donald Avenue, where the driver was observed slumped over in the driver’s seat.

Officers approached the vehicle, with a single occupant inside, and observed what appeared to be meth amphetamine in the vehicle. The 42-year-old male driver, from the RM of La Broquerie, was awakened and placed under arrest. The driver was not injured and did not require medical assistance.

A search of the vehicle resulted in the seizure of a small amount of

methamphetamine, a loaded hand gun and a rifle, which were deter mined to be stolen from a property located in the RM of Ste. Anne. The 42-year-old was later released but appeared in court on November 24 in Steinbach.

On November 10, as a result of the ongoing investigation, officers with the Steinbach General Investi gative Section (GIS) and the RCMP National Weapons Enforcement Support Team (NWEST) executed a search warrant at the residence of the 42-year-old driver, located in the RM of La Broquerie, who had been arrested on October 21.

The 42-year-old property owner

and a 48-year-old male, from La Broquerie, were arrested inside the home and taken into police custody. A search of the residence resulted in the recovery of additional stolen property, a stolen firearm, two load ed firearms and several improperly stored firearms. The stolen property was deemed stolen due to identi fying features placed on them. A search of the outdoor property led to the recovery of a stolen vehicle.

The two accused were later re leased for court scheduled January 19, 2023, in Steinbach, where they will face several property and fire arms-related charges.

Steinbach RCMP would like to

remind the public to register, photograph and record serial numbers of vehicles and trail ers, including power sports and leisure products. Serial numbers of household products, such as electronics, power tools, bicy cles, and jewellery, should also be documented. This documen tation facilitates investigations by identifying victims of crime and substantiating property theft charges. In addition, this docu mentation increases the chances of the return of the property to its rightful owners.

Steinbach RCMP continue to investigate.

Thief Uses Debit Card from Stolen Wallet

On September 23, Steinbach RCMP received a report of a theft from a motor vehicle. The victim advised that his wallet containing his debit card was stolen from his vehicle located in Blumenort at ap proximately 7 am.

On the same day at approximately 9:30 am, a charge on the card was made at a gas station in Winnipeg. An unknown male suspect described as Caucasian, dark beard, roughly 5’10”, wearing a dark hoodie, dark pants, and a black and white hat was viewed on surveillance purchasing items at this time.

If you have any information in regards to the above matter, you are asked to contact the Steinbach RCMP Detachment at 204-3264452 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800222-8477 or manitobacrimestop pers.com.