The local maker community is a close-knit group, one that continually supports each other year round. They can often be seen offering their products at various local markets or in select shops in the area.

A sudden medical emergency involving her four-year-old son would have resulted in Jenna Scheller, owner-operator of Hippie Mama Gifts, having to close her shop during one of the most important weeks of the year for any business, the week before Christmas.

But a group of 10 local makers, led by Brianne Lytwyn of B and C Boutique and Cynthia Dawidowich of Welcome Home Cleaning Service, offered to run the shop, while Scheller tended to her son.

Upon hearing about Scheller’s son, Lytwyn reached out to other local makers, all of whom have their products for sale in Hippie Mama Gifts, located at 119 Main Street North, next door to CIBC.

Lytwyn said Scheller initially resisted the offer.

“She told me multiple times not to do this, because she knows we’re all busy and didn’t want this much given to her. But we pushed back and forced ourselves onto her to help out,” she said. “We had all the makers pick up shifts. We had the help of Cynthia. She made sure we could get in the shop and she cleaned it up for us. And we all just picked up our shifts and learned the store. It was a great time. Every maker that I talked to loved it. It was some of the best times. The customers were amazing and the shop is so friendly and opening and so safe and warm and friendly. It just felt really good.”

Scheller continued to work from home in order to keep the shelves stocked with her products, while the makers manned the shop during the week.

Amy Thompson of Amy Rae Maker also helped in the shop and said the week went well, adding it was a learning experience.

“It was a lot of fun just to be in the shop and see that side of the business and how much work that Jenna puts in. We were joking, it took four of us in one day to do what Jenna does on her own. So it was really neat to see the other side of the business that you don’t necessarily see and all the work that she puts into it,” she said. “It was very eye opening how much goes into that side, behind the scenes.”

While they did it to help a friend in need, it also gave the makers a chance to give back to Scheller because of the support she has given them by selling their products in her shop.

“We’ve become friends through our businesses and it’s kind of like a little family that we have going on. So there’s no question that we wouldn’t help anybody who needs it,” Thompson said.

As a business owner, Scheller is well aware of how important the Christmas season is for businesses, big or small, and how heavily they rely on and are impacted by sales at that time of year.

“These sales not only sustain most of us through the slower January and February months, but also allow us the ability to upgrade, update and expand our businesses in the new year,” she said.

When she thought she would have to close the shop the week before Christmas while tending to her son, Scheller was “crushed.”

But less than 24 hours later, Lytwyn reached out to Scheller and explained about the group of makers and what they had planned.

“I can’t say I believed in the term ‘Christmas miracle’ until these amazing humans banded together and made one happen. These ladies and gentlemen not only kept the shop open through the week before Christmas, they greeted customers with a smile, kept a log book, let me know what I needed to create that evening and even left little encouraging notes,” Scheller said. “I have no words to express how much their actions meant to me. My only hope is our little maker community continues to work together, promote each other and grow stronger with each passing year.”

No one was happier than Stephen Jaddock when he learned the morning of Jan. 18 that all buses in Mountain View School Division were running.

For the previous six school days, the MVSD superintendent/CEO was dealing with the after effects of a snow storm which, for the most part, stalled the division’s transportation program from Jan. 10 to 18. Buses were back on the road in Winnipegosis and Ethelbert, Jan. 17.

“Even in the transportation department, they’ve been hard pressed to remember if we went that many school days in a row. When you look at it, that’s a week plus a day of school. And having them spread out is one thing, but when they come at the heels of each other it’s just a cumulative effect,”

Jaddock said, adding such a long stretch without bus students in class puts a strain on the entire system.

“Usually, if you have one day or even two days where you can’t get students in, we could bounce back from that, we could work around it, get extra time on the days that the kids are in. But it’s just when there was that many in a row we just can’t make it up. It’s just gone.”

In particular, the Provincial Grade 12 English Language Arts exam was supposed to have been written during that time.

Fortunately, Jaddock said, the province has contingencies for such situations and students will be able to write a makeup exam in the future.

“It seems like every year, if we want to attract a snowstorm, it’s when we start that exam,” he said.

Throughout the extended cancellation parents were understanding with the division not receiving any significant calls or complaints. In fact, most of the concern expressed came from staff, Jaddock said.

“Our principals worried about students not having the contact time,” he said.

To help mitigate those effects, the division has taken a lesson learned during the COVID pandemic and is encouraging students to check on what lessons they are missing via an online learning platform such as Teams or ClassDojo.

“We ask that classroom teachers keep those software programs viable and have students sign up. So that when something like a prolonged absence due to buses not running, or just even one no bus day, those students can check in can see what their assignment is and can get some work done,” Jaddock said, adding throughout the period schools remained open for staff and in town students.

The division’s transportation department is guided by a policy which, among other things, outlines conditions which trigger bus cancellations.

But, Jaddock added, there is obviously more that goes into making the decision.

“All types of input that we gather on a daily basis. So it’s not just a cut and dry this is when buses run, this is when buses don’t run,” he said, adding in the case of this extended stoppage, input from the bus drivers was a major consideration.

The big problem was not the highways, but the feeder roads which were all plugged and high winds, which caused extremely poor visibility, Jaddock said,

“That made it very difficult and risky for us to send a bus out that might get halfway down the road and then hit a drift and then not be able to move.” he said. So that’s what we were basing those decisions on and more coming from the field of bus drivers who’ve been out there, who live out in the country and are saying ‘everything is snowed in. I can’t even see the road’.”

What it boils down to is safety, Jaddock said, and the well-being of students is at the centre of any decision to cancel buses.

“Believe me if we can get the buses running we want to err on that side, but we also have to err on the side of safety. We could have a bus full of students that is blocked or stuck or gone into a ditch or can’t see the road, that type of thing. So we want to make sure that we mitigate those dangers, as well,” he said. “We have to remember that we’re responsible for those students.”

Beyond extreme weather events, the division also has a temperature threshold which will trigger a transportation shutdown. But with that threshold set at -45C, temperature did not play a role in this latest round of cancellations.

“We are working and schools are working hard to make sure that students are caught up and able to get their learning done. But it was just a big sigh of relief this morning when all the buses were running,” Jaddock said.

Ask just about anyone responsible for staffing at any business - small, medium or large - and you are likely to hear of many difficulties in filling vacancies.

An inadequate workforce is a problem in most jurisdictions, including here in the Parkland, but a group of area municipalities have banded together to help address the problem in the area.

The City of Dauphin, RM of Dauphin, Grandview Municipality, Municipality of Gilbert Plains, Mossey River Municipality, Municipality of Ste Rose and Municipality of Roblin each provided $3,500 in seed money to run a one-year pilot project aimed at recruiting skilled workers and matching them directly with employment in the area.

Immigrate Parkland has been two years in the making, said Martijn van Luijn, City of Dauphin Economic Development manager and chair of the Parkland Immigration Committee, and with Saturday’s launch has set a goal of recruiting 40 to 50 workers in the first year.

“We have adopted terms of reference, have had monthly meetings, developed a new brand . . . and together with our partners, we’ve been working to build this project and to get it to launch today. So we’re ready for the next step and to start recruitment of skilled workers and bring them to the Parkland,” he said, adding the project has been supported from the beginning through strategic partnerships with Regional Connections, Rural Manitoba Economic Development Corporation and the Parkland Chamber of Commerce.

The Parkland Chamber of Commerce has been selected as the agency which will oversee Immigrate Parkland to ensure transparency and fairness in the process.

“We want every community to be part of this and for every community, every welding shop, every farm, every little mom and pop store to be able to tie into this program,” van Luijn said. “And to be able to have impartiality, the chamber of commerce actually popped up as the best agency for us to execute this program. We want to start slowly and build it up correctly and do it correctly. We’re looking forward to working with everyone in the future and we hope that in due time we can welcome many new families to our region.”

Forecasts predict the trend of labour shortages in all sectors will continue unless more skilled foreign workers are attracted to fill vacant positions. On hand for Saturday’s launch of Immigrate Parkland, Manitoba’s Minister of Labour and Immigration, Malaya Marcelino, said the Province is intrigued by the possibilities the program presents in addressing those challenges.

“(The Province of Manitoba is) just really excited that this is happening,” Marcelino said. “I hope that you are going to be able to go forward with a lot of success with this and that’s going to inspire other communities around you to say ‘wow, look what’s happenning in this region. Let’s try to replicate that’.”

Acknowledging the time and effort that was put into getting the project to this point, Marcelino said Immigrate Parkland is poised for success.

“Newcomers need their families in order to be successful. We know that newcomers need a welcoming community in order to be successful and we know that newcomers need jobs and jobs preferably in their field of study and in their experience,” she said. “When we have that kind of set up of their family, a welcoming community and jobs that they can actually succeed in, then it’s going to be a very, very good initiative and that we’re going to be seeing a lot of the things that we’re hoping for together as a community. I want to thank all of you for all the work that you put in and know that as a province we’re here to support you in this important endeavour and we’re here with you the whole way. As a new Immigration minister this actually means a lot to me as an immigrant myself. I came to this country as a young child with my parents and I know what it means to be able to come to a welcoming community and to be able to thrive and succeed and contribute to that economy and to that community. We’re going to be here for you when you need us.”

More about the program, and information needed to apply can be found at immigrateparkland.ca.

Talk about being committed to a community. After a six-month delay in their plans to open a retail cannabis store in Roblin, Adam and Dylan Carritt of Prairie Trichomes are finally ready to go.

The store, located on 2nd Avenue NW right next door to the 50 & Over Club Drop-In Centre, is set to hold its grand opening Saturday, Feb. 3.

Check out the rest of the story in this week’s Review.

A new but very familiar face has taken over the reins of the Roblin Agricultural Society.

At its annual general meeting held Thursday (Jan. 18), long-time member Dean Chescu was elected president with Ellen Arnott stepping down after five years at the helm.

Find out more in this week’s issue.

The 2024 bonspiel season got underway Jan. 11 with 16 rinks battling it out in this year’s version of the Roblin Farmers’ Bonspiel.

With four events this year, the ‘spiel saw some rinks playing four games on the final day, Saturday, making for some very tired curlers after the finals.

Read all about it in this week’s Review.

AgriInsurance program is expected to provide farmers with nearly $5 billion in coverage on an estimated 9.55 million acres for the upcoming crop year.

That continued stability was announced Tuesday at Ag Days by federal agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay and Manitoba ag minister Ron Kostyshyn.

Want to know more? Check out this week’s paper.

Recently The Pas Legion has voted in a new president, Roger Nikolychuk. Roger is no stranger when it comes to volunteering as Legion member, for he has strong family ties to The Pas Legion that started with his mother, Angie, who was the former president of The Pas Legion. Serving The Pas Legion has become the Nikolychuk family’s legacy.
“I’ve been a Legion member with The Pas Legion for 29 years, but I wasn’t really active until about 2014, when I became involved with it through the air cadets,” said Angie. “My kids were in air cadets at the time, and the Legion sponsors the air cadets and monitors their activities closely, so we naturally started giving back to The Pas Legion for everything they gave for the cadets.

When thinking about the Grub Box being in existence for 50 years, since 1973, I’ve had to go back in history some 70 years, to the early 1950s, when I was in my teens. I had a part time job working for Mabel and Gilbert Jones at Jones’ Grocery, stocking shelves, burning garbage and delivery groceries to customers with a bicycle during the summer and on a toboggan throughout the winter months. I kept this part-time job all through my teens until I left The Pas at age 19, to join the RCMP.
After a few years of police work and a better part of a year on the RCMP Musical Ride in 1961, I got out of the force, got married and pursued getting into business to fulfil the entrepreneurial blood in my veins. Firstly, here in The Pas in the service station business, then to Saskatoon again in a new Esso service station.
In 1967, still living in Saskatoon, I received several phone calls from my previous employer, Gilbert Jones, who wanted to retire, but couldn’t find anyone to buy his grocery business. Initially he was told, ‘I don’t know anything about the grocery industry’. His reply was, ‘I will teach you’. I told him I didn’t have the kind of money needed to buy his business. He then told me I didn’t need any and that he would finance the purchase. With that my family was packed up and moving back to The Pas.

Physician and nurse shortages, as well as closed ERs, are issues that aren’t going to be solved any time soon, especially for rural and northern Manitoba communities, but there is another option. The online service Q-Doc has had a successful year in providing patients with virtual appointments with physicians and nurse practitioners, to help people who don’t have access to immediate healthcare in their community and to prevent unnecessary visits to the ER. Q-Doc has seen substantial growth over 2023, when it came to service providers and patient usage.
“There have been a lot of highlights in the past year for Q-Doc,” said Q-Doc Co-founder Dr. Norman Silver. “At the end of 2022, we had 62 physicians and as of now we have 113, along with 30 nurse practitioners as part of a pilot project with the provincial government that went really well. So, provider wise, we have gone up about 80 percent in that capacity. We were able to recruit 30 nurse practitioners in a month. The nurse practitioner pilot went really well and allowed patients to be seen through Q-Doc as a result.