A Care Closet will be up and running one day this week to help those who are in need of basic personal items. Donations have been collected to provide a selection of items for those in need to choose from. This is the first time a project like this has been set up in tri-community and it gives people a chance to clean out their closets and help those who are less fortunate.
“This is the first time we have done this event,” said The Pas Helping Hands 4-H Volunteer Leader Cheryl Antonio. “I heard about it through a friend, through another organization and began to research it. Usually Care Closets are set up in schools, health facilities, churches, etc., and are more of a permanent venue. They can also go by similar or different names, however, they all do the same thing.

Northland Ford is celebrating a milestone anniversary this year as today marks 30 years in business in The Pas. It was a venture that Northland Ford Dealer Principal Dale Bigelow decided to take a chance on and it paid off.
“The former dealership, Northgate Motors, went into receivership in 1992 and there was an empty building left,” said Bigelow. “At the time I was working for Trail Motors GM dealership. I was a journeyman mechanic and had spent 10 years in the shop, then got into sales. I decided it was time for me to make a move, so I called a Ford of Canada representative in Winnipeg and five months later we opened the doors to Northland Ford on March 29, 1993.
“There were huge changes from working in the shop to running a dealership. It was a change for me to manage staff and daily business operations.”

Electric vehicles are becoming the future of transportation and in order to meet that demand and shift, communities will need EV chargers and infrastructure to accommodate this change. The Town of The Pas and The Pas Community Development Corporation (TPCDC) are working together to install an EV charger in the community for the near future.
“Electric vehicles can become very important to economic development and tourism, with it being quite new in the local community, we don't know exactly what impacts will happen, but we do know there is an opportunity to advance alongside the rest of the country,” said TPCDC Economic Development Coordinator Jackie Rechenmacher. “With the popularity of EV and the requirements from federal government over the next 10 years, this is an opportunity to work towards that goal and ensure The Pas is an option when it comes to EV tourism.

If you wanted to learn more about Indigenous culture, Swan Valley Regional Secondary School (SVRSS) is offering two free sessions for people to partake in. The first is learning Ininimowin, which is one of the most widely spoken Indigenous languages in Canada. Ininimowin has five major dialects, Western/Plains Cree, Northern/Woodlands Cree, Central/Swampy Cree, Moose Cree and Eastern Cree.
The second session allows participants to make their own ribbon skirts.
“These Ininimowin and Ribbon Skirt Making classes were part of our Indigenous Education goals for 2022-2023,” said Swan Valley School Division Indigenous Academic Achievement Coordinator Lorna Jean Munro. “We meet annually to review and discuss what goals and activities we’d like to do each year to promote Indigenous Education in the division.”
“Everyone is welcome to participate,” said Munro. “The language class is an introductory Ininimowin class for all ages. Participants will be introduced to the syllabics chart and learn how to enunciate, read, write and speak in the language.
“I will be instructing the Ininimowin class and the classes are free, with no registration required. They are held every Tuesday from 6 to 6:30 p.m. in the SVRSS Resource Centre. These classes run from March 14 to May 16, 2023.”
Ribbon skirts have different meanings according to the people who wear them. It’s mainly to honour First Nations heritage, and to express history, resilience and character while reclaiming identity and matriarchal authority.
“In short, ribbon skirts are worn by Indigenous women to celebrate their culture, their strength, and their connection as women,” said Munro.
“Jan. 4 is National Ribbon Skirt Day, a day where all women are encouraged to wear their ribbon skirt as a symbol of resilience, survival and identity. There’s no experience necessary to make a ribbon skirt, just a willingness to learn about a way of knowing and doing from an Indigenous perspective.
“The Ribbon Skirt Making sessions are held on Thursdays in the SVRSS Family Studies Area at SVRSS,” said Munro. “Elder Marilyn Pohlmeier is leading classes and there’s a limit of 10 participants per session. Participants will need two meters of cotton fabric in terms of supplies.
“The class is held from 6 to 8 p.m. and the sessions are ongoing with these classes running from March 20 to May 25. Participants must register with me to book their session.”

Swan School of Dance held their annual recital on March 22 at the SVRSS gymnasium.

The Dauphin Kings find themselves in a hole after opening the best-of-seven quarterfinal series with the Swan Valley Stampeders with a pair of losses.

The Kings carried a 1-0 lead into the first period of game one, Friday in Swan River, but could not hold the lead in the third, giving up the tying goal less than five minutes in, before Swan Valley scored the winning goal with 1:08 remaining.

Kings coach and general manager Doug Hedley said the first 40 minutes of game one was really good for his team.

“We really shut down the middle, shut down their speed, controlled the neutral zone. (Carter) Zalischuk got a great goal on hard work and compete,” he said.

In the third period, the Kings forwards failed to protect the middle of the ice in the defensive zone resulting in a number of opportunities for the Stampeders.

“Sheff (goaltender Cole Sheffield) made some great saves and kept us in it,” Hedley said.

The winning goal came off a faceoff in the Kings end when a shot from Swan Valley defenceman Collin Jennings deflected in off of Justin Keck’s pants.

“But I was happy with the effort. We were really good for 40 minutes. It was a decent crowd there and there was a good atmosphere and the guys played very well,” Hedley said.

The Kings came out flying in the first period of game two on Saturday.

Dauphin outshot the Stampeders, 18-10 in the frame and carried a 2-1 lead into the second period.

They increased their advantage to 4-2, eight-and-a-half minutes into the second, before running into penalty trouble, resulting in Swan Valley scoring four power-play goals in the frame en route to a 5-4 lead entering the third.

After Jakob Brook tied the game at five, 8:17 into the third, Jennings completed a hat trick with 2:29 remaining to lift the Stampeders to a 6-5 victory and a two-games-to-none lead.

“We know we have team speed and when we play fast, we’re a tough team to beat,” Hedley said of the team’s start in game two. “Sometimes we just get to not stopping on pucks and getting on the wrong side of battles.”

Most of Swan Valley’s offence comes from the line of Keck, Trey Sauder and Jakob Jones, which combined for 85 goals and 195 points in the regular season.

When that line is on the ice, Hedley said teams have to be good in the D zone, be strong in the corners and protect the middle of the ice.

“And tonight, whether you agree with the penalties or not, we still took four or five in a row and one five-on-three that I think they sold pretty well. The bench pretty well called it. There was no hand up until the bench yelled, then the hand came up,” Hedley said, adding he liked the way the team pushed back in the third.

“I really liked our third period. We pushed back after giving up a two-goal lead and being down going into the last 20 minutes. I thought the team really show a push and resilience and tied the game up,” he said.

Even after Swan Valley took the lead late, the Kings still had some good opportunities to tie the game late.

Hedley knows the series is far from over, remembering last year’s series with Swan Valley, when the Stampeders won two games after Dauphin took a three-games-to-none lead.

“It’s not over until you win four. We were sitting here last year, up 2-0 and it ended up going six,” he said.

“You’ve got to get some goaltending. You’ve got to get big saves at the right time. And stay out of the penalty box. You can’t play on your heels and you can’t be killing penalties for eight, nine, 10 minutes in a row and expect to be on your toes all the time. We’ve just got to figure it out. Check with our feet and control our sticks and make sure we come back and push harder.”

Firefighters from around the Parkland and beyond were treated to some specialized training this past weekend thanks to the Dauphin Fire Department and the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic (WFPS).

In separate sessions over the weekend, instructors from the Winnipeg service walked 80 participants through a scientific and evidentiary based firefighting curriculum which addressed both theoretical and practical approaches to modern firefighting. It provided attendees with the knowledge and practical skills required for sound decision-making regarding strategies and tactics on an ever-evolving and dynamic fire ground, Dauphin fire chief Cam Abrey said.

A lot has changed with residential home construction in the last 30 or 40 years, he said, adding there are many more combustibles involved and flames simply do not act the same as they used to.

“We’re making our homes so much more airtight than they used to be, as well, so there’s a higher potential of flashover and backdraft as dangers to firefighters that are arriving on scene,” Abrey said. “So where a structure used to last they said 15 to 20 minutes before you had structural failure of a floor collapse or a roof collapse, we’re now looking at five minutes.”

The training offered on the weekend also included an occupational hygiene component, which provides knowledge surrounding exposure to carcinogens at fire scenes and limiting the after effects.

“We know that firefighters are 25 per cent more susceptible to developing a cancer than the general public, because of the carcinogens that we’re encountering, the asbestos and everything else that was filling up homes as we’re in there battling the fire,” Abrey said, adding while firefighters have respiratory protection and protective clothing they wear while working, that same equipment can cause problems.

“If you’re not maintaining the stuff properly those carcinogens are soaking into the turnout gear that we wear and then the next time you put it on it’s that skin-to-cloth exposure that’s happening.”

The Winnipeg service is a leader in North America when it comes to training their members on the subject and Abrey learned about the information at the national fire chiefs conference in Ottawa, last year from WFPS district chief Jack Robertson, who was one of the instructors locally this weekend.

“For him to take this initiative, not only looking at Winnipeg Fire, but wanting to expand to all departments across the province, that’s pretty significant,” Abrey said, adding it is the type of information that is just not practical to provide to firefighters getting their Level 1 and 2 certifications.

Dauphin, he said, has made an investment in two sets of gear for every firefighter and commercial washing equipment.

“It’s not a normal washing machine, it’s a very large industrial one. It’s actually an extractor that we’ve been using for a number of years,” Abrey said, adding the department has policies in place around occupational hygiene. “We tell our firefighters you come back from an incident you’re going to wash your gear.”

It is an opportunity a lot of smaller departments do not have, Abrey said, making it all that more important to open the workshop up to a wide area.

Firefighters attended not only from the local Riding Mountain Mutual Aid District, but also from departments in the West Region Tribal Council, Clearwater Training District, Swan Valley Mutual Aid District, Lake Winnipegosis Mutual Aid District, South Central Mutual Aid District and West Central Mutual Aid District.

Abrey knew there would be a good response to the invitation.

“It’s a common thing in emergency services that if you ever stop training, then you shouldn’t be in it,” he said. “Hopefully, (participants) go back to their home department and share the information that they got this weekend with everybody else to whet their appetite. And let’s get more through this training eventually.”

The City of Dauphin owns exactly one bridge and will spend money this year to make sure the structure continues to carry traffic over the Vermillion River.

An inspection of the Buckwold Bridge conducted several years ago determined repairs to the decking of the structure are required due to delamination in the concrete and chloride intrusions to the steel reinforcement in the concrete which could cause future issues through rusting.

And recently, city council awarded a contract for engineering services for the bridge rehabilitation to the Winnipeg firm of Dillon Consulting Limited.

The $111,247.80 contract includes $58,573 for the project design and tendering phases and $52,673.80 for the contract administration, inspection, and post-construction services.

City manager Sharla Griffiths said while the initial inspection of the bridge indicated work needed to be done, it did not include the full scope of the repairs.

“They will be coming out to visually inspect it in the coming weeks barring us getting any extra snow,” Griffiths said. “Then they’ll put their visual assessment into the mix with the report that we got three years ago and determine if there needs to be any more testing. Then set the design for it and tender that to actually get the work done.”

The current plan calls for a partial depth deck replacement over the entire span of the bridge at an estimated cost of around $900,000.

And while that seems like a large number, it is a fraction of what it would cost to replace the entire structure, director of Public Works and Operations Mike VanAlstyne told council at a recent meeting.

“I think a bridge of this size it would be $12, $15, $20 million probably. If we had to do the abutments and the pier replacement and removing those piers, I could see it being upwards of $30 million,” VanAlstyne said. “We thought that this would make the best, most economical sense.

“Fortunately from the inspections, our substructure, the piers and the abutments are in okay shape. We want to get on this work now to try to get another 50 years out of this bridge.”

Part of securing that future is developing a much needed maintenance plan.

“We have maintained it just like a paved surface,” he said, adding the consultant will provide rehabilitation options complete with a life cycle costs analysis and maintenance recommendations.

“This is a huge repair and we want to make sure that our bridge is kept in the best condition possible going forward.”

Pine Creek First Nation, in partnership with Ebb and Flow First Nation, hosted a naming ceremony on the lot they own between McDonald’s and the Dollar Store, Mar. 20.

Those in attendance said a prayer by the sacred fire before throwing some tobacco into the flames.

An eight-lane gas bar, to be named Anishinabe Gas Bar, will be built on the site.

A feast was served following the ceremony.

It’s warming up outside - most days. Even the calendar says its spring.

So we know that the long awaited end of winter is just around the corner.

Just as they have every year for years and years, the Russell Happy Helpers 4-H Club held their annual spring St. Patrick’s Day fundraising tea at the Park Manor on the north end of Main Street.

Along with setting up and serving during the afternoon tea, each of the 11 members of the club supplied a dessert for the afternoon as well as sold raffle tickets for gift baskets as prizes.

Get the full story in this week's Russell Banner!