In the world of building and engineering, it still seems to be a male-dominated industry, but a former Valley resident has been breaking ground in this field, as she is building infrastructure for the future. Sarah Soprovich has completed her Masters in Engineering and has worked on projects in Canada and the United States.
Her interest in engineering came from her love of math and science in school.
“We moved to Swan River from Winnipeg in 1991 when I was one year old,” said Sarah Soprovich. “As a kid, I was mostly interested in sports, playing volleyball, basketball, and fastball, as well as snowboarding at Thunder Hill. I graduated from the Swan Valley Regional Secondary School in 2008 and moved to Winnipeg to do my Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Manitoba, followed by my Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering at the University of Calgary. I’ve always wanted to do my Masters and my employer was willing to help financially for a Masters in Engineering. It was a course-based program and I mainly took courses in Project Management.
“I was always really strong in math and science in school. I initially thought that I wanted to be an architect, but my high school physics teacher told me that the engineers were the ones who applied the science and that I should look into that instead.”
There are several different fields in engineering, and if one is not in that industry, it’s quite easy to assume it’s all the same thing when it’s not.
“Engineering is effectively the practice of using science, math, and technology to solve problems,” said Soprovich. “Civil engineering is very broad but usually refers to the design of infrastructure that the public regularly uses. Civil engineering can include structural transportation, water treatment, hydrology, hydraulics, and geotechnicals.
“I’m a structural engineer and am mainly focused on bridge design, so the majority of my projects have included bridge and structure design. I have worked for Stantec Consulting Ltd. for my entire career. I started with them as a summer student between my fourth and fifth years of university.”
Soprovich started her career in civil engineering in Manitoba but has worked on several keynote projects in Calgary and in Chicago as well.
“I actually started in Winnipeg, and it included a lot of construction inspection on rural and urban bridge replacement projects, along with some design and eventually project management,” said Soprovich.
“When I moved to Calgary, I was involved in a few projects, including the Green Line, which is the design of Calgary’s future LRT line running north-south through the city; the design of the Airport Trail Overpass, which is a two-span concrete bridge on 19th Street over Airport Trail; and two pedestrian tunnels at 90th Avenue and Southland Drive.
“Chicago was amazing,” said Soprovich. “I moved to Chicago in 2019, to work on the Chicago Transit Authority’s Red and Purple Modernization project, which is the largest and most high-profile project I have ever worked on. I was leading a segment of the project that included 2 km of new structure and track, as well as four new stations and two temporary stations on the Red and Purple lines of the El Train, Chicago’s transit.
“I joined the project about six months in, which was pretty wild, and ended up having to come back to Canada in March 2020, while continuing to work on the project remotely for about three more years. The project is still under construction and we won an award in May 2023, due to the number of women we had leading the project, which is rare in engineering.
“As a result, I was able to travel back down to Chicago for the awards ceremony and see how construction has progressed,” said Soprovich. “The project was very high-stress, but I met some of my best friends at Stantec due to it.”
Soprovich is back residing in Winnipeg and working on a lot of municipal projects. These projects are smaller in scale than some of the projects she was a part of in Calgary and in Chicago.
“Since I have started working in Winnipeg again, the projects are a bit smaller scale than what I have worked on elsewhere, but it is still rewarding to complete projects in rural communities,” said Soprovich. “In 2022, there was significant flooding in Manitoba and I spent much of the summer inspecting damaged bridges and culverts. We have now moved on to replacing this infrastructure and I have completed or am working on projects in the Town of Neepawa and the Municipalities of Souris-Glenwood, Ethelbert, and Lorne.”
Out of all the projects Soprovich has been a part of during her career, the one that stands out the most was the one in Chicago.
“The Chicago project is absolutely the largest and most high-profile project I have worked on,” said Soprovich. “It is a $2 billion design-build project and we worked hand in hand with both the contractor and the owner.”
Working in civil engineering is still a male-dominated field, but Soprovich has been working hard at training and mentoring women to become engineers. Slowly the field of engineering is becoming more diverse as more women are entering studies in university.
“Civil engineering is one of the more diverse engineering fields, but it is still primarily male,” said Soprovich. “I’m on a few committees that are trying to address this, and the goal overall is for 30 percent of the engineering field to be female by 2030; however, progress has been slow moving. On my current team, I have two female Engineers In Training (EIT) and a female student. I’m very passionate about providing them mentorship for their careers.”
Soprovich is part of a couple of initiatives that are geared toward getting more women into the field of engineering and consulting.
“The Association of Consulting Engineering Companies Canada - Technical Women in Consulting Engineering (ACEC-TWICE) is actually more focused around retention and growth of women in the consulting field,” said Soprovich. “A lot of what we do is promote awareness, often through hosting events with speakers, networking, and a yearly reception in March.
“I’m also involved with two committees with Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba (EGM)- Engineering Changes Lives and the 2030 Coalition, which are both focused on increasing diversity in the industry and meeting that 30 percent goal by 2030.”
Soprovich recently won the 2023 Early Achievement Award for her work in the industry. She was recognized by her peers working in the industry and so far, it’s the start of more big things to come for her career.
“This was through our professional association, EGM,” said Soprovich. “It was really an honour to be acknowledged for my hard work, and I am truly grateful for the team and mentors I have at Stantec who have supported the development of my career thus far.
“I would like to continue to work on large, multi-disciplinary projects both locally and across the country, and continue to see the work that I do come to life to make other’s lives easier.”

Nothing says Christmastime like a Santa Claus Parade and The Pas Community Renewal Corporation (TPCRC) is about to bring some Christmas Cheer to the tri-community. This year’s theme for the parade promises to be a fun one that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.
“The theme this year is ChristmaZoo,” said TPCRC Community Engagement Coordinator Holly LaJambe. “TPCRC has been collecting and brainstorming themes for all the years we’ve been organizing the Santa Parade into a big secret list and it continues to grow.
“We choose themes that are inclusive, open to interpretation so everyone can be creative with them, and fun for all ages. Every year, we select a few choices from this list that are different from the past few years and then our staff have fun debating these until we settle on one.”

With many people about to start holiday shopping, along with searching for that perfect gift comes find deals or bargains on those top-demand items on peoples’ wish lists. Stores started the whole Black Friday bonanza of deals, by copying our American counterparts, but now retailers have taken it to another level with the Pre-Boxing Day sales strategy, which is get a deal before the big sale hits.
There are good portion of rural Manitobans who do shop local when it comes to buying gifts for the holidays, but for those who are looking to buy gifts that are not carried locally, they tend to rely on shopping online.
Shopping online can provide the convenience of doing so from home and not having to worry about travelling treacherous highway conditions only to stand in long loud lineups at the mall.
The majority of holiday online shoppers tend to scour the Internet looking for advertised deals or sales. With Meta (Facebook) being so ad-driven, a lot of these retail giants are using this platform to advertise specials or sales online. This may seem like a great way to keep informed about sales, but it’s now becoming a great way to become a victim of fraud.

A physician who got his start in the Valley has recently been recognized by Doctors Manitoba as one of the Top 40 Under 40 in Medicine. Dr. Rafiq Andani established his start as a rural family physician in Swan River, before moving on to Winnipeg. Since his time in the Valley, his portfolio has grown significantly.
“I was born in Edmonton and raised just north of Toronto,” said Dr. Rafiq Andani. “I was an undergraduate at Sir Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, ON. I attended Medical School in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, then I completed my residency through the University of Manitoba in the Northern and Remote Family Medicine Training Program. My first job out of residency was in Swan River for Prairie Mountain Health.
“I never planned on being a physician. Originally, I wanted to do web design and software engineering. In high school, I started a company that made websites. I always joked that I had the idea for Facebook, long before Zuckerberg did. When I was growing up, my dad was pretty explicit that I didn’t have the resolve needed to survive in business. He said I was too kind and wouldn’t have the ability to fire someone when needed. He encouraged me to pursue something that was better suited to my demeanour. It was my father’s influence that led me to medicine over entrepreneurship.”
Dr. Andani’s time in Swan River gave him the diversity he needed to expand the scope of his practice.
“The reality is when a physician works in a community like Swan River, they will have the opportunity to do everything,” said Dr. Andani. “There isn’t an oncologist or addictions specialist on site; it’s the family physician that patients see in the ER that will manage every aspect of that patient’s care, from clinic to home. This is the same work any rural family physician encounters on a regular basis that adds to the scope of their practice. This all just came with the job, for me.
“So, when I left Swan River, I tried to recreate my practice to model what I had done there, to here in Winnipeg. It’s still not quite the same, because it’s a revolving door of new patients and you never get to build that relationship in caring for or treating a patient like you would in a rural community. Now, I do a bit of addictions medicine, a bit of oncology and emergency medicine, which I all started out doing in Swan River, and it’s evolved.”
Dr. Andani has written a chapter for the Manitoba Opioid Agonist Therapy Practice Manual. He knows the issues surrounding addictions and realized there needed to be more resources out there for practicing physicians.
“A lot of the literature around addiction medicine is sparse or limited, so it’s hard to find good resources around managing addiction medicine,” said Dr. Andani. “Because it’s becoming more prevalent and an issue, a small cohesive group of providers teamed up together to help create this manual.
“I didn’t have the desire to author a chapter in this manual, but it was out of my involvement with this well-supported group of like-minded individuals, that were asked to take on a small task of this relatively bigger issue.”
Dr. Andani currently serves as a medical consultant for the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (FNIHB). This came from his work in Swan River, being part of a group that established some medical resources in a local First Nation community. That experience grew when the pandemic hit.
“That opportunity was from work I helped during the waves and peaks of the pandemic,” said Dr. Andani.
“Early into the pandemic, we learned from influenza and other outbreaks that had occurred in remote and isolated First Nation communities, there was a concerted effort from Indigenous leadership, in partnership with Indigenous organizations and government to help mitigate the impacts COVID-19 would have on these communities.
“My role through the partnership included the federal and provincial governments and the university. We had rapid response teams that would assist First Nation communities with COVID-19 outbreaks. One of the instruments in the public health response was to help facilitate testing. That involved me becoming more aware of those arbitrary jurisdictional boundaries that exist between Indigenous communities, the provincial and federal partnerships and the health systems. I think we did an okay job of expanding the testing and public health interventions through that work.
“From there, there was a recognition for the FNIHB to expand testing and diagnostic capacity within the nursing stations,” said Dr. Andani. “I was asked to join FNIHB in this medical consulting to help oversee and support lab diagnostic expansion. Now we’re expanding it to actual acute and emergency care, and lab diagnostics.
“If it was for my experience working in Swan River, I wouldn’t have been provided the opportunities to do this kind of work. The reason is that Swan River Hospital was one of the first pilot sites for point-of-care diagnostics in our lab as part of the Shared Health DSM Point of Care Project. It was serendipitous that I was learning point-of-care diagnostics in Swan River and then it would eventually come full circle to become part of my portfolio of work.
“A group of doctors I was working with in Swan River, started up a clinic in Sapotaweyak Cree Nation,” said Dr. Andani. “Part of that work not only involved expanding access to physician and nurse resources, but expanding the lab diagnostic capacity as well. I still feel like a lot of the work I am doing now still replicates the work that we started in Swan River, just on a different scale.”
Dr. Andani is also the first Associate Chief Medical Officer for Shared Health.
“This gives me some latitude to work on some projects without being the face of big decisions,” said Dr. Andani. “Shared Health has been a bit of a hot topic when it comes to the recent election, the discourse around healthcare, and what is the right way to manage, fund and incentivize our existing healthcare resources and expand them.
“Shared Health as an organization has a very important role in maintaining a provincial macroscopic perspective on resource allocation, distribution and maximizing efficiency while minimizing risk throughout the province. That coordination we saw during the peak parts of the pandemic really demonstrated the need for that type of superstructure.
“At its core, the problem then becomes, especially for providers in communities that are not in Winnipeg, how much of that voice and perspective is reflected in the organization,” said Dr. Andani. “Having trained in Swan River and in the Northern and Remote Family Medicine Program, the advantage of bringing in someone like me to fill the role as the Associate Chief Medical Officer for Shared Health is to provide that perspective to ground decisions and strategic planning around a perspective that is not exclusive to urban Winnipeg. I think that is primarily why the role was created and how I bring a unique lens to the Shared Health structure.”
Being named one of Manitoba Doctors’ Top 40 Under 40 in Medicine is quite an honour for Dr. Andani, but he knows there are some very important people who helped him get to where he is today, and for that, he wishes he could give them the spotlight as well.
“It was a nice experience,” said Dr. Andani. “I always think of these accolades as not a personal achievement, but more of a recognition of all the effort and sacrifice that people around me have contributed to my success. Although, it’s nice to see my name and picture, what it doesn’t capture is all the family and support that has allowed me to be recognized in this way. I think I could have 40 people as my top 40 that were the ones responsible for me receiving this award and it’s hard to capture that.”

Tim Hortons will be making the holidays a little brighter by introducing their first ever Holiday Smile Cookie Campaign this month. The original Tim Hortons Smile Cookie Campaign has been running for over 25 years and raised over $111 million. The most recent Smile Cookie Campaign raised $19 million that went to over 600 local charities and community groups.
The Pas Tim Hortons franchise is gearing up for this fun and festive holiday treat campaign.
“This is the first time Tim Hortons is hosting a Holiday Smile Cookie Campaign,” said The Pas Tim Hortons Franchise Co-Owner Kathryn Sanderson.

The Pas Kinettes pride themselves on having fun while making The Pas a better place to live, work and play. Kinettes enjoy planning and participating in local fundraising, that often showcases their work skills and talents. It also gives them an opportunity to network with like-minded people.
“We do have executive members and anyone can fill an executive position,” said The Pas Kinette Member Kristal Gluska. “The first Wednesday of every month is our general meeting, where we have supper together. The following week, we host the executive meeting.”

A Public Hearing was held with regards to was held to create a public lane across part of SW ¼ 10-56-26 WPM known as 645 Hogan Avenue. There was no representation from the general public with concerns in regards to this by-law. By-Law No. 4638 was given a third reading, after the Public Hearing and passed.
A new student councillor has been appointed. Josh Santolaja was born in the Philippines, moved to The Pas in 2017, and attends MBCI. He has participated on the Kelsey School Division Board and is looking forward to being a part of town council.
A new Assistant Municipal Superintendent has been hired to work for the Town of The Pas. Tanvir Shahrier Mahmud has accepted the position and comes with six years of experience in civil engineering and overseen multiple municipal projects. The position had been vacant for a couple of years.