NewsNow
It's a night that's a lot of fun for kids, but can be worrying at times for parents. Halloween means a lot of kids running around after dark, and Cpl. Melanie Roussel with the Manitoba RCMP's Media Relations Team has a bit of advice, for both kids and drivers.
"Slow down, watch for the kids walking around. Expect the unexpected basically, kids are super excited, it can be unpredictable, it's Halloween, so they'll be crossing the street when they're not supposed to probably," said Cpl. Roussel.
Cpl. Roussel says drivers need to make sure they're paying extra close attention to the roads, and especially need to make sure there's no distracted driving. As for kids, she says they should make sure to use designated crossings, and to look for cars before crossing the street.
Another worry from parents is things that might be in their kid's candy. We often hear stories on social media about things like razor blades in candy, but Cpl. Roussel says that doesn't happen often at all. Either way, she said it's a good idea for parents to go through their kid's candy to be safe.
"This is very rare, it's not something we see often, but it is something that you have to be aware of, and that's why it's so important for parents to go through the candy, to throw away anything that's unwrapped, spoiled, suspicious," said Cpl. Roussel.
Cpl. Roussel also said kids should make sure to only visit lit houses, and to never enter a house.
- Details
- Contributed by Ian Gillingham
Lance Jacobson has started his third term as Mayor of the Town of Swan River.
After defeating Ainslee White by an over 2-1 count in Wednesday's election, Jacobson was sworm in on Thursday night, along with councillors Don Bobick, Dee=Ann Clarkson, David Moriaux, Tanya Powell, Drew Ronnquist and Duane Whyte.
Jacobson is looking forward to carrying on some topics that he and the previous council were working on.
"Crime obviously, and keep working on that with our RCMP, Our new GIS team has been doing a fantastic job. Homelessness as well as addictions and all of that. We will be working with the province and lobbying them to help deal with some of those things. We are always going to be talkng about economic development and so forth, not just for Swan River but for the entire Swan Valley region."
Other topics sure to come up in the coming weeks and months is improvements to the intersection of Highways 10 and 83, as well as discussions surrounding a possible new arena for Swan River.
- Details
- Contributed by Jeff Henson
It's an annual tradition.
Someone will win $100,000. Tens of thousands of additional dollars is up for grabs. The Dauphin Kings Tractor Lotto is back. The grand prize is $100,000. There is are draws for $1,000.
Add in two draws for $2,500, two more for $5,000, and one draw for $10,000. There's also a massive 50/50 draw. Historically, the winner has taken home between $35,000 and $43,000.
There is one noticeable change this year. In past years, the Supplementary Draw has been for riding lawnmowers.
This year, that's not the case, but don't worry, there is still a supplementary draw.
"This year, we figured we would stay with the type of season," said Christian Laughland, Director of Business Operations. "We figured people would be interested in snow blowers. We're going to give away three 2026 Ariens Platinum snow blowers. They're worth about $3,500 each."
A ticket for the supplementary draw is only $20.
The Tractor Lotto is one of the Kings' most important fundraisers. The team's budget is between $800,000 and a million dollars each year. The Lotto raises more than $100,000 annually.
The draw date is Sunday, December 13. That's when the Kings host the Neepawa Titans.
Tickets are now on sale. You can get them at Tractor Lotto.
You can also get them in person at Reit-Syd Equipment in Dauphin.
"Also in Dauphin at the CNUF Office, Brendonn Holdings," added Laughland. "Multiple Fusion Credit Union locations. Dauphin, Gilbert Plains, Ethelbert, Winnipegosis, and Rorketon. Back again this year, thanks again to Grandview Home Hardware."
Single tickets are $100. The best deal is a three-pack for $250. Supplementary tickets are $20. A single 50/50 is $20. A five-pack of 50/50s is $50.
Dauphin Kings Tractor Lotto is back and it's your chance to win big, and support the Kings.
- Details
- Contributed by Darnell Duff
In the City of Dauphin, the 2027 Manitoba Municipal Election went exceptionally well, in all senses of the word.
From how smooth the process went on the backend, to the number of voters that showed up, Deputy City Manager Lisa Gaudet said everything went off without a hitch.
"So we had 6,089 eligible voters on the voters list this year, and we had a total of 1,979 accepted ballots throughout the election process, so that includes advance voting, sealed envelope voting, and voting on election day. So that gives us a 32.5% voter turnout...for comparison, in the 2022 Municipal Election, we had a voter turnout of about 44.6%," said Gaudet.
Though the voter turnout percentage was down from last election, there are a lot of factors that could have influenced that - the most notable being the difference in the number of candidates. In 2022, there were 17 candidates running for the 6 council spots, whereas this year, there were only 10.
Gaudet said one of the most overlooked fact about election planning is how long it takes. She said it was good to see their months of careful, detailed planning pay off.
"Election Day is really just a culmination of months of work that takes place behind the scenes, and there's a tremendous number of details to manage, and our election planning team did an outstanding job, and we didn't experience any issues that prevented residents from exercising their right to vote," said Gaudet.
Gaudet wants to thank all of her staff and volunteers for making sure the process went as well as it did. One of the most instrumental parts of any election is the Senior Election Official - for the City of Dauphin, that was Kirk Dawson.
"Kirk [Dawson] brings a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience to the role, and his leadership, and his organization, and his attention to detail were so invaluable throughout the entire process," said Gaudet.
Now the election is over, all the materials head back into storage to start collecting dust. But in 4 more years, the City of Dauphin will be ready to do it all over again, just as good as this year.
- Details
- Contributed by Ian Gillingham
Countryfest has announced their headliners for the 2027 edition of the festival.
Top of the list is a performer who's coming back from headlining last year's festival - Nate Smith, a Countryfest fan favourite. He'll be joined by another returner, but from back in 2013 in Kip Moore. Riley Green rounds out the list, who will be fresh in the minds of CFL fans, as he's set to perform at this year's Grey Cup.
Natalie Haslund with Countryfest's Programming Committee said after how this year's festival went for Nate Smith, they simply had to have him back, to help further cement his status as a Countryfest legend. His set was cut short this year by severe weather and a tornado warning.
"Nate Smith, when he got dragged off stage last year and he couldn't finish, we definitely said we had to bring him back," said Haslund.
If those names don't get your ears perked up, you'll be saying pinch me, because at the PlayNow Main Stage on Canada Day, they'll have a special opening band - one that'll make you feel like a million dollars.
"We're gonna have a special Canada Day celebration, we're gonna kick it off with a big Canadian rock act, gonna be a bit of a rock day, and we're gonna have the Barenaked Ladies, they're gonna be playing that night," said Duane McMaster, Countryfest President.
Tickets are set to go on sale at 10:00 AM on November 6th.
- Details
- Contributed by Ian Gillingham
Several new municipal leaders were elected to office in their respective municipalities on Wednesday.
Then there's Robert Killam, who became the new mayor of Ste. Rose Municipality without being subjected to a vote.
Killam was the only person to step forward for the top job in Ste. Rose, where he'll replace Robert Brunel, who stepped down after three terms as mayor.
Killam says Brunel has been very helpful in getting ready for the new posting.
"Robert was a guidance for me and certainly helped me. I have talked to him and he has agreed to stay near to his phone in case I need more help."
Killam wants to see some projects come to completion in Ste. Rose, such as their water rate study and the future of the dump in Ste. Rose.
- Details
- Contributed by Ian Gillingham
There will be tons of experience on the new Dauphin City Council, with former councillor and mayor-elect Steve Sobering being joined by four other recent members of city council.
But one of the newcomers is excited to start her first foray into Municipal politics.
Michelle Nyquist says she is honoured to have received the trust of Dauphin residents to serve on city council.
She decided to let her name stand on the convincing of now-former mayor Dave Bosiak.
"He had a little chat with me, and had me thinking that I am in a position to do some extra work for the city rather than having a quiet retirement, but instead keep going and do what I can for Dauphin."
One area that Nyquist would like to see happen is more support for the arts and culture community, such as the Watson Art Centre, the Countryfest Community Cinema, and yearly festivals like Ukrainian Festival and Countryfest.
- Details
- Contributed by Jeff Henson
Parks Canada says 77 of its current 133 employees at Riding Mountain National Park will be affected by a workforce adjustment plan being put into place through the federal government.
in a statement, Parks Canada says receiving an affected notification does not necessarily mean that an employee’s position will be eliminated.
Instead, it indicates that their position falls within the scope of the workforce adjustment exercise and is subject to further assessment.
The employees impacted at Riding Mountain National Park are part of 2,917 total employees receiving adjustments to their work, which could include layoffs.
Roughly 500 full-time layoffs are expected nationwide within Parks Canada under the under the workforce adjustment plan.
Parks Canada would not disclose the number of employees to be laid off at Riding Mountain National Park.
The adjustments come as Parks Canada looks to modernize its operations.
- Details
- Contributed by Jeff Henson
Steve Sobering will be officially making the move from the council seats to the mayor's chair for the next four years.
The former city councillor was voted as Dauphin's new mayor on Wednesday night, collecting 829 votes to defeat Keith Durston and Carter Taylor-Luke.
Sobering admits the next city council will be kept busy during the next term with a number of key projects, including the new justice center and the rebuild of the Dauphin Hospital.
Sobering is also excited to get back working on the craft district project, which is proposing to enhance a portion of the city's downtown.
There will be a lot of experience joining Steve Sobering at the Dauphin City Council table over the next four years.
Four incumbent councillors were voted back to the council table, including Christian Laughland, Devin Shtykalo, Ted Rea and Randy Daley.
They will be joined by newcomers Scott McCallum and Michelle Nyquist.
Some familiar faces will not be returning to the Mountainview School Division board of trustees, after unofficial results were released late Wednesday night.
Former school board chairs Jason Gryba and Gabe Mercier were not re-elected in Ward 3, replaced by Matthew Bayduza and Wanda Sime.
Ward two will be represented by Kyle Lylyk, while ward four will be represented by Jarri-Ann Thompson, Michelle Smigelski, Rodney Juba and Daniel McKay.
Several recent mayors and reeves were bumped from their jobs during voting Wednesday night.
Lyle Morran was beaten by Tom Barnett for the Mayor's position in Grandview, Jim Manchur fell to former reeve Larry Malowski in the Gilbert Plains Municipality Reeve race, while Thomas Matthews defeated Ken Cameron to become the new mayor of Minnedosa.
Lance Jacobsen held off Ainslee White by a 2 to 1 count to remain mayor Swan River, while Reynald Sahulka held on to the Reeve's chair with Mossey River Municipality.
Other mayor or reeve races saw Chris Radford defeat former MLA Len Derkach for the mayor's job in Russell-Binscarth, Kevin Boese became the new Reeve of Ethelbert Municipality, Shawn Buchanan will now head up McCreary Municipality as its reeve, while Kalvin Kreshewski received over half of the vote to become Reeve in Rossburn Municipality.
On the council side, Ivan Worrall, Shari Maillard, Steven Hopfner and Julie Peloquin will join newly acclaimed mayor Robert Killam on the Municipality of Ste Rose council.
Claude Hykawy, Rick Paradis, and Crystal Charlebois-Fiddler claimed council seats in the RM of Lakeshore.
In the City of Dauphin, vote totals are as follows:
Mayor
Steve Sobering - 1136 Votes
Keith Durston - 752 Votes
Carter Taylor-Luke - 91 Votes
Councillor
Christian Laughland - 1437 Votes
Ted Rea - 1379 Votes
Randy Daley - 1210 Votes
Devin Shtykalo - 1174 Votes
Scott McCallum - 1145 Votes
Michelle Nyquist - 1125 Votes
Jason Alf - 1092 Votes
Amanda Novak - 869 Votes
Michael Winter - 410 Votes
Richard Mitchell - 178 Votes
- Details
- Contributed by Jeff Henson
- Details
- Contributed by Jeff Henson
Earlier in the year, the Dauphin & District Food Bank was donated 70 acres of land by the City of Dauphin, and numerous community groups and businesses made donations to help grow a crop, and sell it for profit for the food bank. Yesterday, the food bank announced that fundraiser ended up generating $39,003.37.
Don Dewar, Owner of Dewar Seed Farms, is a former food bank board member. He was one of the partners involved in the project - he helped with seeding the land, and contributed both equipment and labour to make sure the project went well. When he heard the total raised, he was a bit surprised, in a good way. Looking ahead, he said he hopes the food bank will want to run this project again next year, and if they do, he'll be ready.
"Well, it's a little more than I thought it would be, but I guess prices had gone up, and there was no cost to the food bank, so it was all clear profit for them...we're hoping the food bank is going to request to rend the land or use the land again," said Dewar.
There's no doubt the project's success was in large part because of all the donations the food bank received. Some of them include Dewar's contributions, Intermountain Ag Supply providing seed and crop protection products, Dauphin Co-op contributing fuel and fertilizer, and Cargill Grain handling the delivery and purchase of the crop after harvest. Dewar said one of the most notable was the City of Dauphin, who donated the land, and allowed the food bank to use it rent-free.
"[The City] actually allowed them to use it rent-free, which was another big plus, no cost for the land...it's only 70 acres, so when you think about it, it's not a lot, but really there was probably close to $30,000 worth of inputs that were donated," said Dewar.
The Dauphin & District Food Bank is always looking for volunteers and donations. If you'd like to get involved, you can reach them at 204-638-7853.
- Details
- Contributed by Ian Gillingham
