The community is mourning the passing of a well known and respected philanthropist, volunteer, advocate and lawyer after Doug Deans died at his home, Oct. 20.
Born and raised in Dauphin, Deans completed a law degree at the University of Manitoba. He returned to the community in 1974 to article with Johnston and Company Law Office. After being called to the bar in 1975, Deans practiced at the firm until his retirement in 2024, earning a reputation as an extremely caring and dedicated advocate for his clients.
That reputation was recognized through a Queen’s Counsel appointment in 2020.
Outside of his professional life, Deans was an avid outdoorsman enjoying hunting and fishing, golf, cycling, travel, and quiet time with family and friends.
Deans’ support of the community and numerous community activities was unparalled with him often taking a leadership within the organization he joined, such as the Dauphin Public Library and Parkland Regional Library, where, as chair, he presided over the purchase of a $100,000 bookmobile.
Deans also introduced the first Writer-In-Residence program in rural Manitoba and participated in developing the first on-line public access catalogue in public libraries in the province. He also co-chaired the building committee, which saw the $700,000 construction of the library branch in Dauphin.
Health care was another cause close to his heart, with Deans serving as chair of the Dauphin Regional Hospital board and later as president of the Dauphin Hospital Foundation for more than 15 years before retiring in late 2020.
With the foundation, his accomplishemnts were many, including spearheading a drive to bring the MRI machine to the Dauphin Regional Health Centre. In the role, Deans led the Palliative Care Redevelopment Project, endorsed the purchase of a $50,000 patient manikin to support medical teaching in the facility, and provided leadership in a major capital contribution toward construction of the Dauphin Community Health Services Building.
Perhaps closest to his heart was Duck’s Unlimited, an important conservation organization to which he dedicated more than 45 years.
That contribution was recognized earlier this year with a viewing bench installed in his honour along the Dead River in Vermillion Park.
Doug was predeceased by his parents Keith and Isabel Deans. He is survived by his wife of 51 years Lorrie (nee Moline), sister Marilyn (Ron) Lamoureux, son Greg (London), and daughter Heather (Jeff), as well as his nieces and nephew and their children.

With the voting in Manitoba’s municipal election looming, Dauphin’s outgoing mayor is worried some Dauphin residents may be considering casting their vote based on misinformation about the City’s Craft District vision for Second Avenue.
“I’m worried that it has become a wedge issue,” mayor David Bosiak said, referring to recent social media posts being shared claiming malfeasance on the part of members of council and City staff throughout the process.
“At no point in the planning or approval process was coercion, improper influence, or any attempt to circumvent policy or established municipal procedures involved. All decisions were made through the City’s required public processes, with council exercising its authority independently. I can state unequivocally that neither councillor Steve Sobering nor Economic Development manager Martijn van Luijn exerted any undue influence over the development or approval of the plan. Any claims otherwise are simply false.”
The concept of a Craft District emerged through community consultations undertaken in 2022 and 2023 as part of the development of the City Plan, a process which involved not only the current council, but also its predecessors, with the assistance of consultants from Urban Systems. The resulting City Plan was unanimously approved by council.
As a result of that work, Dauphin’s Economic Development Committee - which Bosiak chaired - recommended the development of a downtown revitalization plan, an initiative which received unanimous support from council, Bosiak said.
Urban Systems was once again contracted to lead the process following a request for proposals issued by the City.
The consultants undertook a planning process, which ran for more than a year and a half, Bosiak said, and included consultations with council, city administration, businesses, and the public at large, along with considering best practices and approaches taken in other Manitoba and Western Canadian communities.
As a result of that process, Urban Systems presented council with the Craft District concept, which was unanimously approved.
“Funding associated with the initiative was included in two municipal budgets, both of which were subject to the City’s public budget process,” Bosiak said.
“While there were questions, there was no indication of public disapproval at that time.”
The idea of a craft district is related to a broader vision of tourism, he added, and offers an important opportunity for promotion of the community. When coupled with other attractions, such as the Northgate Trail System, could mean big things for the local economy.
“A whole bunch of people are coming to Clear Lake already. How do we get them up to Dauphin and Northgate for a day or for a day and a half? What do we need to have besides a bike trail system? Maybe a funky little bakery, an artisan meat shop, a brew pub, a couple of neat restaurants, maybe a couple little stores on Main Street,” Bosiak said.
“Dauphin has that and it’s attractive to tourists.”
It is also attractive to people looking relocate to Dauphin permanently, he added.
“To young professionals like lawyers, doctors, nurses, lab techs and other people that we need here. People that want to work in the justice center, people that want to work in the treatment center. They can fill their weekends right here,” Bosiak said, adding he has heard feedback to that effect from young RCMP officers, who have recently come to work in the city because of what it has to offer and because of its potential.
“Dauphin right now is top of the list in Manitoba of where young officers want to go.
“Our issues are very similar to other municipal issues in Manitoba and across the country, but our opportunities are very unique. We need to act on them.”

It was as good a start as you could get for the Dauphin Clippers hockey team.
Forrest Karlson opened the scoring with his first of three on the night just 1:25 into the game to spark the Clippers to a 5-0 victory over the Glenboro/Carberry/Baldur Wildcats in the season opener, Saturday in Dauphin.
Karlson added an assist to give him a four-point night and Xander Perih made 17 saves to earn the shutout.
On Sunday in Boissevain, Brayden Budolowski scored twice and added an assist and Ben Miner stopped all 20 shots he faced in a 5-0 victory over the Boissevain/Deloraine/Waskada/Pierson Broncos.
Clippers coach Drew Kulcheski said the Clippers are starting to see some pieces being put together after playing just three preseason games.
“Guys were starting to gel and play some meaningful games together. It was nice to see a full buy-in from the group,” he said.
The team’s resiliency showed in the two contests, with Kulcheski noting the Clippers got into some penalty trouble, Saturday.
“Guys were able to rally around each other. And then Sunday, we were down a few bodies guys were able to have a next-man-up mentality and we picked up where we left off on Saturday,” he said.
“Everybody is playing for the logo on the front of the jersey and it’s starting to bleed into our games.”
Kucheski was pleased with the team’s defensive play, allowing just 37 shots in the two games.
“That was one of our keys going into the season. We had set a standard for ourselves to be under about roughly 23 shots a game. That’s where I would like to be,” he said.
“Not that we don’t have trust in our goalies, but I would like them to face as little shots as possible and just buy into that team defence. If we can get the back end going, it just makes everything on the front end easier.”
Kucheski was grateful for the fan support in Saturday’s season opener.
“It was good to see a lot of people in the rink to support the Clippers to start the year,” he said.
Dauphin plays just one game this week, heading back out on the road Friday, to play the Falcons in Birtle at 7:30 p.m.
Kulcheski expects more of the same kind of effort he saw this past weekend.
“I think we have more to give. I know we’re coming off of back-to-back 5-0 wins, but I think we’re still a ways away from where we need to be,” he said.
“Some guys can get some confidence going into this weekend and start going from there.”

It was another week of mixed results for the Dauphin Kings, last week.
Bryson Yaschyshyn made 42 saves in helping the Kings to a 2-1 win over the Swan Valley Stampeders, Tuesday in Swan River.
On home ice Friday, Yaschyshyn was pulled after allowing four goals by the 5:30 mark of the second period as the Winnipeg Monarchs skated to a 5-3 win.
Kings head coach Bryan Kromm said he wouldn’t make any excuses for the mistakes that happened following Friday’s loss.
“We get what we get. The results are what they are,” he said.
Yaschyshyn has the Stampeders’ number in Swan River, having stopped 96 of 99 shots in two games up north.
“He played very, very well. We saw his game or what I thought he could do. We were waiting for that to come to fruition and it did on Tuesday, for sure,” Kromm said.
Kromm feels the Kings are starting to improve play in the offensive game.
“I think we had some good possession tonight and some good looks tonight. So I think that side of the game is something that’s positive and so we’ve just got to keep building on that,” he said.
Most of the team’s goals have come from Quentin Fisk, Brody Green and Bennett Muller, who have scored 24 of the Kings’ 40 goals.
So Kromm would like to see increased secondary scoring.
“I think it will come. I think there’s some new guys in the lineup that once they get comfortable with us, they’re going to start to produce that secondary scoring for us,” he said.
The Kings dealt forward Kurtis Kinoshita to the Northern Manitoba Blizzard last week in exchange for Renat Nahnieiev, a native of Kremenchuk, Ukraine.
The 20-year-old forward picked up his first point Friday, assisting on Fisk’s goal 48 seconds into the game.
Dauphin also added 17-year-old Tegan Kurtz, who was with the Niverville Nighthawks, and had two assists, Friday.
Kromm was impressed with their play on Friday.
“They were good. They’re exactly what we were hoping they would be. They’re bringing in more of an offensive punch to our game, so I’ve liked what I’ve seen in the first little bit since they’ve gotten here,” he said.
Kurtz, who doesn’t turn 18 until Dec. 3, had been dealing with back issues the last two years and Friday’s game was his first since the 2024-25 season when he was with the Winnipeg Wild.
“It was good to see him back on the ice finally,” Kromm said.
Kromm said there may be another trade or two to come, but that’s about it.
The Kings host the Steinbach Pistons, Friday at 7 p.m., for Ladies Night.
With that the only game this week, the focus in practice will be to get everybody on the same page.
“Obviously, we’ve talked about the newcomers. They have to start to get a feel for the guys and what we do five-on-five. I’m really looking forward to the practice time and getting us all on the same page for Steinbach,” Kromm said.

Not many of us take the opportunity to look up at the stars and the wonders in the sky. One former Valley resident, Grant Gussie, found a passion for astronomy at an early age and wound up getting an extensive education in the field.
“I was born in Beausejour, but my mother was a Cox and was born and raised in Swan River,” said Grant. “My parents are Cliff and Kay Gussie, and my father passed away a couple of years back. Our family moved to Swan River when I was quite young. I spent most of my childhood growing up on River Road.
“I fell in love with astronomy while my dad was still getting his university degree, so I was in Grades 1 and 2, and we were living in Gladstone at that time. During that time, I had a cool Grade 2 teacher, Mrs. Chandler, and she took us all into Winnipeg to see the Man of Nature Museum and the Planetarium. I still remember the Planetarium and I thought it was amazing.
“At that time, we lived out on a little farm, just outside of Gladstone,” said Grant. “I would go out and watch the stars. I remember seeing the Pleiades for the first time and trying to make some sense out of the star patterns. I would try to find the Big Dipper and Little Dipper. I just fell in love with that.
“When I was nine years old, I got my first telescope for Christmas. I quickly outgrew that one and got a serious telescope in grade 7. I saved up $150 and my parents put in the other $150, and I got this six-inch telescope, which for me was quite spectacular. That and a few books made me spend a lot of time in our yard, on River Road in Swan River, looking through my telescope.”
Grant was dedicated and passionate about looking up at the stars. During his younger years, he was fortunate to see many objects in the sky, some unique and some quite impressive.
“There is a list of objects in the sky, which is called the Messier List,” said Grant. “It came about with Charles Messier, who made a list of things to avoid looking at when looking for comets. If you find them all, you get this Messier Certificate. I wound up getting the Messier Certificate from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
“The other thing that stands out for me was the first time I saw the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Ring Nebula. The Ring Nebula is something called a planetary nebula, which is a gas cloud surrounding a dying star.
“I also discovered my own cluster of stars called the Coat Hanger,” said Grant. “I was 14 years old when I discovered it. But when I went to university, I found out I wasn’t the first person to discover the Coat Hanger, nor was I the first person to call it that, but I still discovered it.”
Grant took his love of looking through a telescope and fostered his education in science. He focused his post-secondary studies in the fields of mathematics, science and physics.
“I graduated from the Swan Valley Secondary School in 1981,” said Grant. “I won the Science Award for the highest mark in Science at my high school graduation. After I graduated, I went to the University of Manitoba for four years. I graduated at the top of my class and received the gold medal for the major course in Science and my degree was in Mathematics and Astronomy.
“Then in 1985, I attended the University of Victoria and got a Master’s Degree in Physics. That was quite difficult because I didn’t have a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics, so I had to do a lot of work to get a Masters in it. Then I went to the University of Calgary and got a PhD in Astrophysics. The topics of both my Master’s Thesis and Doctoral Dissertation involved the process of stars similar to the size of the Sun that are dying.
“For my Master’s Degree I did research from the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory just north of Victoria, BC,” said Grant. “My PhD was more involved with Radio Astronomy, and I did a lot of radio work. That was quite a bit more interesting as I got to travel more. I spent some time in the Netherlands working with the telescopes there. I went to New Mexico several times.
“I also really did like being in New Mexico,” said Grant. “When I was there, I was at the Very Large Array and it’s a series of radio telescopes. There are 27 of them and they are spread out along three railway tracks, each 21 kilometres long. One day I walked out along the tracks and plunked myself out in the middle of nowhere and looked up at the sky. It was amazing. There is a galaxy you can occasionally see with the naked eye in very dark skies. It’s called Messier 33. I saw it in New Mexico one night, when it was really dark.”
“I also went to Hawaii and the Mauna Kea Observatory and did some research there. In fact, I did radio stuff all over the world and then went back to the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory to do some more work with optical as well. I enjoyed that time immensely.”
Grant was able to find some research jobs in his field that took him all over the world. During some of these jobs, he saw some of the most incredible views in the skies.
“After my Ph.D., I got a job in post-doctoral research with the University of Tasmania from 1992 to 1995,” said Grant. “I continued working with radio on similar topics, with a little bit more involving star formation this time, rather than star death. I met my wife, who was a nurse at the large public hospital there.
“I also spent time in New South Wales, where the Australian Telescope Compact Array is. It’s a network of radio telescopes near Narrabri, in north-central New South Wales. And also at a large radio telescope near Parkes, NSW. It’s all grain land out there and it looks a lot like the Canadian Prairies, except it’s really hot. If you go out and lie out under the stars, the sky is spectacular.
“While in Tasmania, I applied for a job with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) after I had spent a year and a half in Antarctica. In the end, I didn’t wind up getting that job because my visa was tied to my job in Tasmania and I had to reapply for another one. The criteria for the job with the CSIRO required me to not be a foreigner in Tasmania. The only way they would consider me as an applicant was if no one else was qualified in that topic, so I had to withdraw my application. That was kind of disappointing.
“I returned to Swan River for a few months and then got a job in Calgary,” said Grant. “That was the end of my astronomical career. I only got offers for one or two-year contracts with small colleges, and then would have to look for another job. Those positions weren’t going to get me where I wanted to go.
Grant built himself a huge telescope as a hobby and a reminder of his passion for astronomy.
“I still have a telescope. When I lived in Calgary, I actually built a really nice telescope,” said Grant. “I made two of them so far, and one of them I donated to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. It was the prototype for the one I kept, which is the bigger of the two I built. The scale is about 8 ft tall. I brought it here with me.”
Now Grant works in a different field altogether, but he still enjoys looking up at the stars.
“I wound up working in the oil patch in Alberta,” said Grant. “When people search for oil, they send sound waves into the ground and have these geophones that listen for the echoes underneath the ground. From that, they construct an image. The mathematics of it is similar to how radio telescopes construct an image of the sky; it’s the same sort of thing. So I did some geophysics with that, but over the years I’ve done more computer programming.
“In 2004, we moved to Salt Spring Island in B.C., where we still live today. I got involved with the local fire department in 2006 and became a fully qualified firefighter, which is something I still do. So I’m now a computer programmer and a firefighter.”

The robins were in Melonee Hunt’s  yard stripping the berries from their Mountain Ash tree.

Manitoba Transportation and
Infrastructure is providing an update on
repair work to the Shell River Bridge on
Provincial Trunk Highway 83 near
Inglis. The bridge remains closed following
significant damage caused by
heavy rainfall in June.
A detour remains in place via
Provincial Road 482 through Shellmouth
and Dropmore.
Engineering assessments have been
completed, temporary steel supports
have been installed and demolition of the
damaged south abutment is complete.
Work is now focused on constructing a
new foundation and abutment, to be followed
by rebuilding the riverbank and
roadway approaches.
The bridge is expected to reopen to
traffic in December, subject to weather
conditions and construction progress.
Final project work and cleanup are
expected to be completed by early next
summer.
For the latest information on road
conditions, closures and travel advisories,
visit Manitoba 511 at https://manitoba511.ca/

As the meeting started, chairs became scarce every chair found in the building was gathered to seat those in attendance. In all 77 people showed up at the election public forum. more than sixty questions were submitted to be asked at the meeting. Each candidate was given a few minutes to speak before the questions were asked - although, not many were asked as time was short. The candidates were each given some of the more involved questions the night before the meeting. Questions were also taken at the door and eventually the floor was opened to the public. The evening gave citizens a chance to each hear the questions posed as well as the answers in a safe and non confrontational space. James Roszell and Celina Nernberg who are both running for a postion at the Park West School Board table were also on hand to tell the crowd about themselves and what they hope to accomplish as a trustee.

Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure has provided an update on repair work to the Shell River bridge on PTH #83 near Inglis.
The bridge remains closed following significant damage caused by heavy rainfall and the flooding of the Shell River in June.
Details in this issue.

A local volunteer with the Red Cross has been identified for her years of service and dedication to helping others during a time of crisis. Melanie Young was presented with the Order of Red Cross, the organization’s highest honour, on October 7, 2026, in The Pas, surrounded by family and friends. Young has spent over a decade helping others through the Red Cross.
“I’ve been a volunteer with the Red Cross for 14 years and am going into my fifteenth year,” said Young. “Initially, a friend who was working with the Red Cross was trying to build up a team and asked me if I would participate.