2 Teens Dead Near Portage

Two teens are dead after falling through thin ice.

On Wednesday, October 21^st at around 2:45 a.m. officers received reports of two males trying to enter a home in Delta, just north of Portage La Prairie.

The pair told the homeowner that they were looking for the home of someone they knew. The homeowner was concerned and called police.

When officers arrived the males fled, and while searching, officers heard calls of distress coming from a nearby marsh.

Police discovered that they had broken through the ice and fell into the water. The two males, an 18-year-old from Brandon and a 17-year-old from Portage la Prairie did not resurface.

Their bodies were recovered later that day.

Details: Contributed by Tess Kovach; Published: Oct 22, 2020 - 3:50 pm

Public health officials are introducing more restrictions for Manitoba’s Northern region.

Dr. Brent Roussin says the added restrictions — which go into effect on Monday, October 26 — will be the same as those currently in place in the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region, which include:

reducing gathering sizes;
closing of casinos, bingo halls and entertainment facilities with a license under the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Control Act that requires the licensee to present live entertainment must close to members of the public, with the exception of providing food for take-out or delivery;
limiting the occupancy of other licensed businesses, retail businesses and restaurants of 50 per cent of their usual capacity;
limiting the occupancy of personal service businesses of 50 per cent of their usual occupancy or one person for each 10 square metres of the premises that is open to the public, whichever is less; and
requiring a restaurant or licensed premises, theatre, museum, gallery, library, personal service business, concert hall, or fitness facility to keep contact information for members of the public attending their premises and maintain those records for 21 days to support contract tracing.

The Northern Region and Churchill are currently listed as ‘orange’ on the Pandemic Response System. The region is home to 45 active cases of COVID-19.

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Travel restrictions north of the 53rd parallel remain in effect — but there are a number of exemptions for Manitobans who live in that region, employees of critical businesses, government officials and health care providers.

Details: Contributed by Matt Hamel; Published: Oct 22, 2020 - 1:48 pm

Public health officials are introducing new measures for schools in both the Winnipeg and Northern Health regions, in response to rising COVID-19 case numbers in those areas.

On Thursday, chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin announced the new measures — which he says will go into effect as of Monday, October 26:

• Schools must ensure two metres of physical distancing to the greatest extent possible, and adjust classroom space as necessary; excess furniture must be removed from classrooms to create additional space; and other spaces within schools must be repurposed to accommodate more distancing (e.g., multipurpose rooms, empty rooms, shared spaces, common areas and libraries).

• Extracurricular activities are only permitted if all learning and distancing requirements have been met. If these activities continue, established guidelines must be followed and, in the case of sports, participants should maintain distance when not active.

• Teachers and staff who move across cohorts of students, including substitute teachers, are required to wear medical masks. Medical-grade disposable masks have been issued to all schools. N95 masks are not required.

• Indoor choir and the use of wind instruments are not permitted.

• All field trips must be postponed or cancelled.

• Blended learning (in-class and online) for grades 9 to 12 where distancing cannot be achieved will continue as per status quo.

• Kindergarten to Grade 8 students may be offered a temporary remote learning option for the duration of the Restricted level (orange).

These measures beginning next week are only for schools in the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region and the Northern health regions.

Details: Contributed by Matt Hamel; Published: Oct 22, 2020 - 1:20 pm

CancerCare Manitoba’s mobile mammography screening clinic will be in Russell and Rossburn in the coming weeks. The clinic was in Roblin from October 16^th to 22^nd.

Health educator with the Cancer Care Manitoba Screening Program, Laryssa Sawchuk explains more about their stops around the Parkland.

“The mobile screening mammography clinic is for women aged 50 to 74 to come and have their breast cancer screening completed. It’s for women who don’t have signs or symptoms of breast cancer. It’s just a quick appointment and they can come to our clinic for about 10 to 20 minutes. We’ll ask them a few health questions and then perform the test.”

She stresses the importance for women to get regular screening to catch early signs of breast cancer.

The mobile clinic will be in Russell from October 26^th to 29^th, and in Rossburn from November 3^rd to 5^th.

Details: Contributed by Tess Kovach; Published: Oct 22, 2020 - 1:16 pm

Four more people who contracted COVID-19 have died and 147 new cases were announced today.

Three men from Winnipeg, all over the age of 70, and an 80-year-old man from the Interlake are the province’s most recent deaths. Manitoba has now reported 47 deaths due to COVID-19.

There have been a total of 3,773 cases in Manitoba, with 1,807 considered active and 1,920 recovered cases.

There are 42 people in hospital with 8 in intensive care. That's the highest number of hospitalizations in the province to date.

Today’s data shows:

Seven cases in Prairie Mountain Health region;
10 cases in the Interlake–Eastern health region;
10 cases in the Northern health region;
33 cases in the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region; and
87 cases in the Winnipeg health region.

The following Parkland health districts have active cases: Dauphin (2), Asessippi (2), Little Saskatchewan (1), Whitemud (2). Brandon has 14 active cases.

In the Interlake region, the Eriksdale/Ashern health district has 4 active cases.

The province is also introducing some new public health orders to Manitoba’s north, which will take effect on Monday, October 26^th. These new restrictions will be in place for at least two weeks.

For more information about COVID-19 in Manitoba, click here.

Details: Contributed by Tess Kovach; Published: Oct 22, 2020 - 12:56 pm

The second last day of Rotary Radio Week saw Rotary Club President Wanda Sime join Al Gaines.

They talked about how COVID-19 has affected the Rotary Club.

Sime, who’s been club president since the end of June, says COVID affected them from the start with isolation.

“So we weren’t able to gather together, cause we gather weekly, fundraisers were changed, we had to change our meeting place. We discovered Zoom, like the rest of the world, and with that, we learned a little bit about some of the challenges with online life.”

Sime has been a part of the Rotary Club for about 5 years now and the international reach of the club is what surprised her the most.

“It’s a community across the world and that’s something we’ve been able to really look into during COVID as well. With the challenge of not being able to meet in person that we were facing at one point, we were using Zoom. Well, with Zoom, that means you can get people across the world.

Sime has attended meetings in Texas and Mexico because Rotary is everywhere.

Coming up tomorrow for the final day of Rotary Radio Week is Benjamin Philippe. If you missed Jean-Louis Guillas yesterday, click here.

Details: Contributed by Isaac Wihak; Published: Oct 22, 2020 - 12:45 pm

The results are in!

Winning the vote, 231 to 128, Tom Anderson is the new Reeve of the RM of Alonsa.

John Cabak finished in second place.

Details: Contributed by Isaac Wihak; Published: Oct 22, 2020 - 5:43 am

It’s been exactly one year since Dan Mazier was elected as the Member of Parliament for Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa.

Mazier says the first year in his new role in federal politics was a learning experience and a big change — it was the first crop year of his life that he had no involvement in seeding and being on the land.

The former Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) president believes he’s in a strong position to advocate for producers in the riding and understand the issues they face.

Beginning to tackle the issue of rural internet connectivity seemed to be one of the most significant points of focus in Mazier’s first year as MP.

Earlier in the year, Mazier sent out a survey to all constituents in the riding to get their feedback on internet connectivity. He says the dead spots he noticed while travelling all over the riding are unacceptable.

“If we’re not connected to the rest of Canada, all of a sudden there’s lost opportunities. We don’t know what’s going on, we don't know what opportunities are out there.”

Putting the business and educational disadvantages of poor connectivity aside, Mazier also pointed to public safety concerns.

“You get 10 miles out of Dauphin and you have no connection. What happens if your car broke down and you’re in harm's way? You’ve got all these tools available to you [with your phone] and you’re not connected — on a major highway in Manitoba. That’s simply not acceptable.”

Mazier will be holding some town halls around the riding in December to continue stoking the conversation around internet connectivity issues — and plans to visit Dauphin, Swan River, Shoal Lake and Neepawa to meet with residents.

“It’s time for us to start saying ‘this is what we need’. It is an essential service as far as I’m concerned — and it’s something I think we can all stand behind.”

Despite the limitations imposed by the COVID situation, Mazier tells CKDM he was still able to touch base with most of the riding during his small business tour.

The MP for Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa says it all boils down to communication, and welcomes constituents to reach out to him and further the dialogue about what’s happening over in Ottawa.

“Being a new MP, I realized our democracy is good. We live in the best country in the world but democracy takes work from everybody. It’s not a spectator sport.”

Mazier was previously the deputy shadow minister for environment, and has now moved to the fisheries committee.

Details: Contributed by Matt Hamel; Published: Oct 21, 2020 - 7:05 pm

A fall federal election has been avoided following a vote today in the House of Commons.

The Conservative motion to form a committee to investigate Liberal COVID-19 spending was defeated by a vote of 180 to 146.

If passed, it could have sparked an election, as Trudeau had declared the vote on the Conservative measure a confidence measure.

Details: Contributed by 730 CKDM; Published: Oct 21, 2020 - 5:15 pm

A 17-year-old driver from Carberry received a $927 ticket after Brandon RCMP caught him going 167 km/h on the Trans-Canada Highway.

On Tuesday, October 20, police radar caught the vehicle going well over the posted 100 km/h speed limit.

When police activated their emergency lights to make the stop, the speeding vehicle lost control, going into the ditch and landing on top of a utility box.

The young driver and two passengers exited the vehicle, all managing to avoid serious injury.

The 17-year-old was issued a ticket and Serious Offence Notice, which suspends his license until he meets with MPI — so his mother had to pick him up from the scene.