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UPDATE: According to the Rural Municipality of Mountian Facebook page, the Steeprock River Bridge to the north of the community of Mafeking has been repaired and is reopened.
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There is a new timeline for residents of Mafeking to be able to leave the community according to Chief Administrative Officer of the RM of Mountain, Paige Wozny.
Our Reeve was actually out there this morning and I'm not sure who on the crew he was talking to, but they figured that the Steeprock River bridge that's north of Mafeking is hopefully going to be open either early afternoon today or tomorrow morning.
Wozny said that once the Steeprock River bridge is open, crews will be able to start working on the Bell River bridge to the south of the community. Residents have been stranded in the community due to the two bridges being closed after they were damaged by floodwaters.
We will continue to update the situation as they become available.
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- Contributed by Sam Brownell
Minnedosa is under a local state of emergency. Chief Administrative Officer James Doppler says the town sent a warning out last night telling people the state of emergency was likely coming this morning.
If we can't contain the spill-over from the river, there is a possibility we have to go to mandatory evacuation.
Doppler said there are some residents who have already had to leave their homes. The town is asking that anyone who wants to volunteer to sandbag go to the Town of Minnedosa Public Works Shop.
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- Contributed by Sam Brownell
The students at École MacNeill held an outdoor concert yesterday afternoon as a part of Music Monday, which promotes musical education across Canada. Jennifer Knutson teaches grades four and five, as well as music at École MacNeill and she said this year's concert had a focus on peace.
We often try with our Music Monday concert to do it outside so that the neighborhood can hear. One of the whole ideas behind Music Monday is that if you go outside during the concert you'll likely hear children's voices singing around the noon hour.
Doing the concert outside also allowed École MacNeil to invite the student's families to hear them sing. There was a silver collection at the concert that raised nearly $500 to go toward the Parkland Ukrainian Family Fund.
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- Contributed by Sam Brownell
Mossey River Municipality has declared a state of emergency because of historic flooding. Reeve Ron Kostyshyn says the Fork River Tributary and the Fishing River Tributary have left their banks, causing major overland flooding.
As of today's council meeting and doing some assessment of the road infrastructure and bridges, we've gone through some major flooding issues since Thursday of last week which has prompted the state of emergency resolution we put through.
The municipality is working with the provincial government to assess just how severe the damage is, and they ask that anyone who has experienced a lot of damage contact the municipality office at 204-656-4791.
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- Contributed by Sam Brownell
Residents in the Community of Mafeking aren't able to leave because bridges to the North and South of town have been damaged. Reeve for the RM of Mountain, Robert Hanson says residents might be able to leave in three days when a bridge to the north of the community is expected to reopen.
Hanson said Mafeking's ambulance is stuck outside the community and anyone needing medical care will have to be taken out by medical helicopter. We are expecting to receive more information from the RM tomorrow morning.
Residents of the RM of Mountain that have been displaced because of the flooding are asked to call the RM office at 204-236-4222.
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- Contributed by Sam Brownell
Assiniboine Community College and Mountain View School Division are getting ready for the 10th Annual Graduation Powwow, although it will once again be a virtual event this year. Carole Shankaruk, MVSD's Indigenous Education Facilitator said it's very easy for graduates to participate.
All they have to do is submit their name and their grad photo's to our schools, and they will be part of this production. It's about four minutes, it's beautiful, and it goes on social media, it goes through all our sites, and every graduate will be honored with a gift.
Students that want to be included in the video have until Monday, June 6th to submit their grad photos and names by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to be included in the video.
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- Contributed by Sam Brownell
Due to washouts and some overland flooding on certain sections of highway, there are some road closures to be aware of:
- Highway 10 from the Ashville Junction at Highway 5 to PR 488 East of Swan River is closed except for local traffic.
- Highway 20 from Camperville to Cowan is open for local traffic only, except between 12 to 15km East of Highway 10.
- PR 367 from Highway 10 to PR 366.
- PR 366 from 18km North of Grandview to PR 367.
- PR 366 from the junction of PR 367 (Blue Lakes) North to PR 485.
- PR 271 from Highway 10 to Highway 20.
- PR 489 from Highway 20 to PR 271.
A little further North, Highway 10 is now closed at Bell River. There are also spots of overland flooding on Highway 10 a few kilometers South and North of Mafeking. The RM of Mountain does not recommend travelling on municipal roads.
The Municipality of Ethelbert has declared a State of Emergency due to flooding in the area. They are urging residents to avoid travelling on rural roads if possible.
The RM of Mossey River is also advising caution if travelling today. The Sifton Waste Transfer site is closed today due to road closures.
The RM of Grandview is also dealing with some washed out roads and does not recommend travel if possible.
We will keep an eye on when the highways are re-opened.
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- Contributed by Alec Woolston
It's time to bait your hooks and cast your lines, recreational fishing is now open in the Parkland for the season.
Thanks to warmer weather taking its time coming to Manitoba, anglers are reminded to watch out for late-spawning female fish.
"The water temperatures are still much colder than they have been in the past few years and so we're actually seeing a later spawn. So we certainly want to encourage people to be mindful of what they're catching as they go out for the opener. You're gonna see fish that may not have spawned yet, so those larger females we certainly want to encourage people to protect, to release them so they can spawn", said Max LeGal, the Regional Fisheries Manager for the Western Region.
Keeping your water gear clean and decontaminated is also crucial, especially after the detection of zebra mussels in Lake Manitoba last year. Fishing licenses are a must as well. You can purchase them in person at select issuers, go to manitobaelicensing.ca, or call 1-877-887-1203. You can also find the Manitoba Angler's Guide here.
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- Contributed by Alec Woolston
Manitoba Hydro started receiving outage reports from the massive winter storm that hit the Parkland on Sunday, April 24th. Despite massive amounts of damage to poles and lines in the area, Hydro was able to restore power to everyone in the area by 10 pm on Wednesday, April 27th.
According to Media Relations Officer Bruce Owen, this is the worst storm the province has seen since the fall of 2019, and because of that storm, they were more prepared this time around.
The heavy wet snow glued itself to power lines and so if you can imagine a power line has a diameter of about an inch and a half, but the diameter became almost three and a half inches with that coating of ice.
A wire in the Dauphin area during the storm, from Manitoba Hydro Twitter.
According to Owen, another major issue that Hydro had was accessing all of the downed and broken poles.
Another challenge was getting to it, there were areas where municipal equipment had to get out in front of us to plow roads.
Owen said there isn't lingering damage that will be around because of the storm, and all poles that were damaged have been replaced.
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- Contributed by Sam Brownell
The Parkland Ukrainian Family Fund has officially welcomed its first two families to the Parkland, just over two months after Reit-Syd Equipment made the $25,000 donation that kicked off the fund.
Don Tarrant from Reit-Syd said that thanks to the incredible generosity of people around the Parkland and beyond, they're going to be welcoming more families than expected.
When we started it I thought maybe we could do one or two families, and had a number of how many dollars we could do for one or two families. The way it turned out right after that we thought maybe we could do three or four. Then with some cost reductions, what we could do, and the amount of money to come in, we're going to shoot for ten or twelve families.
You can get more information about the fund and how to donate by calling Larry at 204-648-5904, or Karen at 204-648-3567.
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- Contributed by Sam Brownell
A ground search has begun this week at the site of the former Pine Creek Residential School. There was a ceremony on Monday that included sacred fire, drumming, and speeches by community elders. The Catholic Church-run residential school was in operation from the 1890s to 1969.
Chief Derek Nepinak said that while it is a difficult situation for the community, he hopes the search will help with the healing process. Chief Nepinak said they're searching an area of 65 hectares, which will take at least four weeks.
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- Contributed by Sam Brownell
