The Thanksgiving weekend was a different one for everyone in the tri-community area this year. The first taste of winter arrived on October 12 and impacted hydro for many living in the area and even ruined Thanksgiving dinner as well.
“Manitoba Hydro started receiving reports of power outages throughout eastern and northern Manitoba and the Parkland area on Sunday night and into Monday,” said Manitoba Hydro Media Relations Officer Peter Chura. “At the most, on Monday, there were more than 12,000 customers without power due to severe weather province-wide.

On October 17, 2025, in Winnipeg, Freedhome Developments Ltd., in collaboration with Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN), proudly celebrated the topping-off ceremony of La Cour, a six-storey mixed-income community at 366 Marion Street in St. Boniface. The project marks an important milestone in Winnipeg’s housing journey. Wholly owned by
OCN stands as a leading example of Indigenous-led economic sovereignty and a meaningful step forward on the path of reconciliation.

A new Ukrainian dance program is being offered through the Benito Vesselli Dance Club to help engage children at a much younger and earlier age into the art of Ukrainian dancing. It is important to see cultural programs continue and to create a succession plan where there is a variety of ages when it comes to participants.
“Our club has had an increase in enrolment every year for the past couple of years,” said Vesselli Ukrainian Dance Instructor Amanda Bulycz. “I know right after the pandemic, our club took a hit, we were down to only seven dancers total in the whole club. Now we have over 35 dancers and that number continues to increase.
“We are extremely excited to see such a large increase in enrolment and involvement in Ukrainian dance, especially in our small town. Our club works extremely hard to keep the Ukrainian culture and traditions alive, and having an increase every year helps. We look forward to welcoming our new families into our dance family and community.”
Bulycz is bringing a new age category for Ukrainian dancing that will engage pre-school-aged children. She has seen other communities in bigger centres offer Ukrainian dance programs for tots, but hasn’t seen anything like it in the area.
“Our club has offered a Rhythm and Movement Class for three to five year olds for many years and has had great success,” said Bulycz. “As for a toddler class, I have seen other Ukrainian dance clubs in cities offer a parent and tot class, but nothing within the Valley. I’m looking forward to bringing the Ukrainian Dance Tots Class to the Valley.
“Tots in Motion is for our littlest dancers to join in on the Ukrainian Dance Fun. It’s a brand new program that the Benito Vesselli Dance Club is offering new this season for children 18 months to three years of age.
“Tots will explore the studio, meet our instructors, enjoy movement and dance while building confidence, all while having fun with simple dance activities,” said Bulycz.
“Austin Spencer and I are the Vesselli dance instructors and will lead this group. Parents are encouraged to stay, help and join in on all the fun with their toddler.
“I’m planning something special for our Tots in Motion class to perform at our Year-End Concert on May 9,” said Bulycz. “We might even have a small performance at Vesselli’s Malanka on Jan. 10.”
There are several more reasons other than succession planning that led to the creation of the Tots In Motion class. Bulycz has experience working in Early Childhood Education and will use that to help create the programming for the Tots In Motion classes.
“I thought about creating a tots group for a few reasons, one being the younger siblings of our current dancers always trying to sneak into the gym to join their siblings’ dance group,” said Bulycz. “We have many siblings who weren’t old enough to join dance, but wanted in on the fun. I thought, why not create a fun class made just for them and other tiny dancers that are ready to move. The program is created to be welcoming for our youngest dancers, focusing on building connections and having fun.
“I have many activities planned, but our main focus and goal will be creating a fun and welcoming environment for children to build coordination, rhythm and confidence. We will dance with scarves, feathers, tambourines and drums, move to traditional Ukrainian dance music, and learn basic steps such as marching, running, skipping, clapping, etc.
“The class is designed with toddlers in mind,” said Bulycz. “I’m an Early Childhood Educator as well, so I have been able to combine my knowledge as an ECE when making up lesson plans for the tots class. The class will be laid back, calm and meet the dancers at their level. I’m really looking forward to all the fun we will have.”
There is still time for those who are interested in the Tots In Motion class to sign up. The first class started last week, but there is still time to try it out and register for the season.
“Our Tots in Motion Class started on October 16, and will be running Thursday evenings from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Benito,” said Bulycz. “Tots are welcome to join anytime and our first two classes are free to try before committing. The fees for the Tots in Motion class are $125.00 for the dance season. Anyone interested in registering can contact me or message Benito Vesselli Dance Club on Facebook to register or for any questions.”

As our sun bombards Earth with coronal mass ejections (CME), those of us in Canada and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere have been treated to some autumnal aurora borealis this month, with some shows of Northern Lights getting strikingly bright and active.

This short article was on the World Spectators Facebook page. We’ve also included some questions posed to the World Spectator staff and their researched reply.
There was a 3.7 magnitude earthquake Sunday night in the Esterhazy area with people reporting significant shaking at around 11:08 pm followed by a smaller quake 29 minutes later. Seismic activity was recorded northeast of Esterhazy.

Read more in the October 21st edition of the Russell Banner.

A youth has been remanded in custody following a threat with a fire arm at Ebb and Flow School.

On Oct. 7, at approximately 11 a.m., Ste. Rose du Lac RCMP were dispatched to a report of a youth pointing a firearm at the school.

Officers responded immediately and were advised by a faculty member that a male youth, who was not a student at the school, had pointed a firearm at another student and then left the school grounds.

No one was injured in the incident, but the school went into lockdown as a precautionary measure.

Police were directed to the residence where it was believed the suspect may have came from.

When they arrived, the homeowner advised that the suspect did go to the school and had returned, but had since left again.

Police seized an air soft gun that was believed to be used in the incident.

A short time later the suspect turned himself in at the Ste. Rose du Lac detachment.

The 15-year-old was remanded until his court appearance on charges of uttering threats against a person, pointing a firearm, uttering threats to property and two counts of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

Ste. Rose du Lac RCMP continue to investigate.

Read the full story in this weeks Dauphin Herald.

The Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF), the National Government of the Red River Métis is proud to announce that, as part of its ongoing commitment to affordable, safe, and accessible housing for Red River Métis Citizens across the province, has broken ground for its Russell Métis Seniors Affordable Housing project. This housing project will consist of two duplexes, for a total of four affordable seniors housing units.

Read all about it in this weeks issue of the Russell Banner.

Viewers who catch television shows via streaming, especially fans of Apple TV’s The Morning Show, can now watch the editorial works of a former Valley Resident. Andrew Gust has been working on The Morning Show for a few years now and has worked his way up to become an editor with the production.
“I first started on The Morning Show a few seasons ago, in season two, and I came in as an assistant editor,” said Gust. “We worked for three weeks before the pandemic hit and shut the entire world down. Film sets are places where people work in very close proximity, so filmmaking was put on pause for a while. I wound up going to a different project for a little while and then came back for season three of The Morning Show as an assistant editor.
“My mentor with the show gave me more creative opportunities to get involved with the process and by the end of season three, I became a creative editor. For season four, they brought me back as a full-time editor, joining a team of four editors for The Morning Show. I worked my way up on the show by spending a lot of time with the directors and producers, as well as demonstrating to them my creative abilities.”
A lot of work goes into producing just one episode of a television series like The Morning Show.
“On a film of this size, while filming, they capture an incredible amount of footage from multiple camera angles as well as different performances by all the actors,” said Gust. “When they are done shooting an episode, the editor receives this mountain of footage to go through. It’s the editor’s job to piece together all the best footage from all the different performances, camera angles and components that make up an episode.
“Editors, some days, will receive up to five hours of footage a day for a couple of weeks straight, and then they have to whittle that down to one hour for the entire episode. The ratio of footage shot to what actually ends up being seen by the audience is vastly different. There are a lot of decisions that go into what remains on screen.
“The story and performance are number one,” said Gust. “Editors have to piece it together in a way that feels cinematic and allows the audience to become absorbed in the show. The best work an editor can do is sort of invisible. If you are watching a show, if you think about editing too much, it can become distracting. Sometimes, if you watch a show and you just think about the story, and not the editing at all, that is when the editor has done the best job. It’s like being an invisible artist and putting it all together.
“Once the editor has pieced together the footage for an episode, they then present a rush cut of it to the director of the episode. From there, it will go through several different stages with producers, actresses such as Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, because they are producers on the show as well. Then it finally goes to Apple to take a look and give their notes. From there, it goes through all the other stages of post-production. A composer will write music for the episode for all the different scenes and moments.
“There are also a ton of visual effects on the show that people are not aware of,” said Gust. “This is a show set in New York City, but it’s actually shot in Los Angeles. So any time there is a scene inside an apartment or office, the windows in reality are just a blue screen. That all just gets replaced later on by our video effects team to give it the façade of being in New York. Some scenes will be shot in New York, but the filming will only last a few weeks.
“The episode then goes through an extensive sound design and colour production. It’s a long process to get to the final product that people get to view at home. From start to finish, it could take several months working just to finalize the edit for an episode and then months afterwards to finish it.”
The Morning Show has a storyline that focuses on the pressures of working in mainstream media. The episodes reflect a lot of the social issues of our time, such as the Me Too movement and other political issues. It takes a lot of time to get the writing and production work done for each episode, while making sure it is still relevant with the times.
“A show like this with big-name stars is a complicated beast for sure,” said Gust. “The scripts for a show like this try to be as topical as possible, with the news cycle and covering cultural discussions that are happening at the moment. At the script writing stage, they almost take a full year to write it and then finish it, because things are always changing in the world. It takes a very large village to make this show come to fruition.”
Being an editor on a production like The Morning Show has been an incredible experience for Gust. He has learned so much in working his way up and looks forward to other projects in the future as well.
“I’m still pinching myself,” said Gust. “To work on a show that not only has a wide global audience, but also tries to have a social commentary of different sorts, is really a dream come true. To be working on something like this that hopefully can spark discussion amongst people about the topics it covers. It covers a wide range of topics and social issues, and ones that hopefully resonate with everyone, even if the character lives in this larger-than-life world. The relationship conflict and situations they find themselves in, hopefully, resonate with audiences.
“It’s sort of surreal to see my name on the credits of something like this. I’ve always hoped I could get to this point and am extremely grateful to be part of a big project like this. I never would have thought that growing up in rural Manitoba that something like this was a possibility for a career path.
“Season five of The Morning Show is coming up and we will start filming that in February or March. I also just concluded a very different and much more wholesome comedy series for Hallmark called The Chicken Sisters. It’s a lighter watch and was a lot of fun to work on.
“Right now, I’ve really enjoyed working on a project like The Morning Show, with all these people who have had all this exposure in the industry,” said Gust. “I would love to also sink my teeth into a grounded feature film that features blue-collar people and their lives as well. I think that is more of something where I come from and I know that those stories are ones that are important to put out into the world. I’m just waiting on a Manitoba director to write the feature film script about a farmer in rural Manitoba.”

The Swan Valley Fire Department was kept busy early Monday morning (Oct. 13) with six incidents to respond to, all related to the first major snowfall/freezing rain of the season, fallen trees and power lines.

City Council took the opportunity to get some work done prior to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation holiday during a regular meeting, Sept 29.

Utility bills

With the postal strike, City administrators are encouraging everyhone to sign up for electronic billing to ensure they do not miss the due date for the quarterly ultility bills.

Electronic billing can be accessed by visiting www.dauphin.ca and completing registration by Oct. 9.

 Customers who do not register for electronic billing may pick up their printed bills at City Hall during regular business hours, beginning Oct. 20. Should mail delivery resume, any uncollected bills will be sent by mail at that time.

The due date for third quarter utility bills remains Nove. 17, and customers are responsible for ensuring payment is received on time. Accounts not paid by the due date will be subject to late payment penalties.

Added to taxes

Councillors voted to add two outstanding accounts receivable to the tax rolls in the amount of $2,559.85.

That total is comprised of $436.21 owing at 901 Whitmore Ave. E for  temporary storage and $2,123.64 outstanding at 29 6th Ave. SE for yard cleanup costs.

Council also opted to added one outstanding water account to the tax rolls in the amount of $33,700.53 owing at 2001-2175 Mountain Road as the owner did not pay the current water bill.

Proclamations

Council proclaimed, Oct. 1, as the International Day of Older Persons recognizing that life expectancy worldwide continues to rise and is expected to reach 81 years by the end of the century and by 2050, two billion people worldwide will be 60 years of age or older.

Oct. 5 to 11 was proclaimed as Fire Prevention Week, reaffirming the City’s commitment to ensuring the safety of those living in and visiting Dauphin. The proclamation stressed the need for fire awareness and marks the exceptional service provided by the Dauphin Fire Department.

Finally, council proclaimed 2025 as the 40th Anniversary Year of the Dauphin and District Handi-Van recognizing the  accessible, affordable and inclusive transportation the organization provides to many residents in Dauphin and in surrounding communities.

Trail dollars

Council reviewed a recent provincial news release concerning a provincial investment in more than 30 recreational trails including Dauphin’s Northgate Trails Inc., which received $15,000 for general trail maintenance.

Accounts approved

Councillors authorized the issuance of 49 cheques totalling $489,386.36 to cover accounts.

One electronic fund transfer was also approved in the amount of $1,215.37.

Recreation funding

Council authorized the mayor David Bosiak and city manager Sharla Griffiths to sign a three-year recreation funding agreement between the City and Rural Municipality of Dauphin.

The agreement will see the RM contribute $419,000 for the 2026 fiscal year, while funding for the 2027 and 2028 fiscal years will be determined on a per capita basis based on 2021 census data.

The agreement also lays out details of capital costs, cost of living increases and board governance.

Read the full story in this week’s edition of the Dauphin Herald.