The unseasonably warm weather for January has created some interesting times for those that enjoy outdoor recreational opportunities, with many activities that rely on the snow and cold being put on pause during what is usually peak winter, following the closest thing to a cold snap that the Swan Valley has seen all season. 

The Dauphin Kings earned a split over the weekend and remain in third place in the MGEU West Division of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.

Dalton Andrew scored twice, with both goals coming on the power play to lead the Winkler Flyers to a 3-2 in over the Kings, Friday in Winkler.

The Flyers built a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes and hung on in the third period as the Kings pulled to within one, late in the game.

On Saturday in Winnipeg, the Kings upended the Freeze, 6-1, with Madden Murray, Rylan Gibbs and Sheldon Shyiak each netting a goal and an assist and Gavin Nemis chipping in with a pair of helpers.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley liked the team’s pushback against Winkler.

“We got down a couple of power-play goals, but really had a solid third period and pushed back. We had a real good chance to tie the game with about 10 seconds left and it didn’t happen. But at the same time, I’m happy with the effort, for sure,” he said.

Momentum was tough to come by with the number of penalties called in the game. The two teams combined for 13 power plays.

“At times I thought we were playing in the Federal League. There was a scrum just about every time, two or three guys jumping guys. And for some reason, the officials allowed a lot of it, not giving 10’s (misconducts) or anything,” Hedley said. “It was a playoff type atmosphere. I was really happy with the way the guys responded and pushed back. We were on our heels for a bit at the start. They came at us hard. But the good thing is we hung tough and almost got a point out of that game.”

It took a while to get going against the Freeze.

Hedley said those are tough games when you’re up to face one team in a playoff-type of atmosphere and then face a team that is out of the playoffs.

“It wasn’t our greatest effort, but we found ways to score and we found ways to get it done when we had to,” he said.

This week, the Kings have three games, all on home ice, against teams below them in the standings.

The week gets underway, Tuesday, when the Neepawa Titans come to town, followed by a Friday night date with the Waywayseecappo Wolverines. On Saturday, the Winnipeg Blues visit Credit Union Place.

All three games begin at 7:30 p.m.

Hedley said this is an important stretch for his team.

“There’s time in March there towards the end of the season where there’s a lot of road games. So we’ve got to take advantage of being at home,” he said. “Neepawa is a tough test. They’re playing real well. They’ve beat some good teams lately. They’re fighting for their lives in the playoffs, with Wayway right on their heels. They’ll be coming in hard. We’re going to have to bring our A game and make sure we’re ready to play,” he said.

At 25-13-1-0, the Kings have 51 points and are three back of the Blizzard, with four games in hand.

A local dentists has been chosen to lead Manitoba Dental Association (MDA) for 2024-2025 as it’s 100th president

Last month, Dr. Daron Baxter was elected by the the association’s board of directors as its ninth female president.

“Dr. Baxter is a well-respected general practice dentist who grew up in Winnipeg but chose to build her career in Manitoba’s Parkland region. Her experience in the public access to oral health care in both larger city and smaller community settings will help guide the board to continuing its advocacy for accessibility in dental treatment,” said MDA chief executive, Rafi Mohammed.

Check out the full in depth story in this week's Dauphin Herald!

Work on rehabilitation of the Buckwold Bridge is expected to begin soon after city councillors awarded the contract at a special meeting, Feb. 5.

Five bids were received for the project with the lowest quote of $1,089,908.47 from Armcon Ltd., of Stonewall, eventually chosen.

Dauphin director of Public Works and Operations, Mike VanAlstyne said the quotes received did not come as a shock, like when the bids for Main Street South came in.

“They are slightly higher than our estimate, but within an acceptable range, for sure,” he said.

VanAlstyne said Dauphinites can expect to see work begin by the end of the month as the site is prepared for construction season.

“The contractor will install a netting, a mesh underneath the bridge to prevent any birds from nesting, and there may be some slope work this spring before spring runoff,” he said. “Then we anticipate the contractor to be starting the deck rehab work probably in May at some point.”

The project involves partial depth replacement of the entire deck, placement of new glass fiber reinforced polymer reinforcing, placement of new concrete, compression seal replacement, targeted local repairs to curb and girder ends and installation of rip rap with an eye toward protection of utilities, environmental protection and restoration of the site.

Buckwold Bridge lies on Fourth Avenue Southwest. As part of a major east-west route within the city the contract puts an emphasis on time with performance penalties for missed deadlines.

All works associated with rip rap and bird net installation need to be completed no later than Mar. 31, while the substantial completion date – all rehabilitation works, including girder end repairs and removal of traffic control has been set at June 28. Daily liquidated damages, should either of these deadlines be missed will be charged to the contractor at the rate of $2,500 per calendar day until the work is completed.

The overall completion date for all works including any deficiencies, removal of temporary works and site restoration is July 12, with daily liquidated damages charged at $1,000 per day.

As the rehabilitation of the bridge is straightforward with really no structural repairs required, VanAlstyne expects the contractor will be faced with few, if any challenges.

“(The bridge) is in good shape,” he said. “We have to do a little bit of repairs to the ends of the girders, the underside beams, but just to kind of prevent further spread of chloride intrusion.”

Other bids received as part of the request for proposals included MD Steele Construction at $1,439,674.19, Fort Richmond Construction at $2,484,870, and Minty’s Moving at $2,486,780. A non-compliant bid was also received from Western Construction Services.

The work will be paid for by the City’s Gas Tax Reserve and funding provided by the Province.

While there is still plenty of work to do to finalize Mountain View School Division’s 2024-25 operating budget, a big piece of the puzzle was revealed last week as part of the Province’s education funding announcement.

And while the funding plan contains a lot of information to digest, MVSD secretary-treasurer Lori Slepicka said the division will be working with more provincial resources than it had last year.

“We are receiving an increase of two per cent in our provincial funding, so that’s in a positive direction,” Slepicka said. “There was a huge decrease in our formula funding due to a decrease in student enrolment and now we’re on the formula guarantee, which is their promise to make sure that no division gets less money through the formula than what they would have received in the previous year. And then there’s a bunch of extra funds outside of the formula.”

MVSD will receive a total of $26.4 million in operating support, representing an increase of .9 per cent over last year’s allocation, along with an additional $300,000 targeted to child nutrition programs for a total of $26.7 million in provincial funds for the coming year.

“So a portion of that funding has to very specifically be used for (the child nutrition) program,” Slepicka said adding programs currently run in most, if not all schools in the division and it remains to be see how the new money will be used. “ Most of it is operated through the schools directly and they apply for grant funding on their own. Divisionally we don’t fund breakfast programs currently. We have to see. We haven’t received any details other than the dollar amount and that it has to specifically be used for nutrition programs, but what the parameters of that are . . . no details yet as to how we have to spend it other than on nutrition.”

As part of it’s announcement the Province also lifted the restrictions on local taxation, allowing school boards to go to ratepayers to raise funds.

“We haven’t got anywhere near finalizing numbers or anything like that, so will we be presenting a deficit budget or a balanced budget? I’m not sure yet. The other thing that changed this year is they’ve lifted the restrictions on the local taxation, so that’s an option this year. And we’re not anywhere near having those answers yet.”

Overall, the Province’s support for education increased by 3.4 per cent, an amount higher than the provincial rate of inflation, Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Nello Altomare said.

“After years of feeling the pinch, schools and kids deserve a government that’s ready to fund them at the level they deserve,” Altomare said, adding the increase addresses growing enrolment and supports classroom needs. “Funding will be stable and predictable for divisions while we develop a new funding model for the next fiscal year. For kids, this funding will ensure every student gets the support they need including a universal nutrition program to keep kids fed, healthy and ready for learning.”

Slepicka hopes the new funding model makes things more fair and equitable and that MVSD will see a few more dollars once it is implemented.

“For years everybody has been saying the formula doesn’t work, the formula doesn’t work,” she said.

“So hopefully we come up with a formula that is that will work better and there won’t be all of that funding outside of the formula.”

The 2024-25 funding of schools is an overall increase of $104.2 million that includes:
• $51.5 million in operating costs for public schools;
• $3 million toward smaller class sizes;
• $27.5 million for nutrition programming;
• $11.3 million for capital support, which includes principal and interest costs related to building schools; and
• $10.9 million to independent schools as per their funding agreement.

Local fans of live music and the infamous “Highwaymen” – Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson – are in for a real treat later this month.

MCMA award winners Ryan Keown, Mike Sacharko and
JR Charron have teamed up for a tribute to country music’s first and foremost “supergroup” and are playing a Feb. 24 show at the Roblin Theatre.

Read all about it in this week’s Review.

Many municipalities have been eagerly awaiting Manitoba Multi-Stewardship Material’s (MMSM) draft of a provincial wide recycling program that would alleviate the responsibility and costs associated with recycling to municipalities. This is not a new topic, but has been an ongoing process since 2021.

Now that MMSM has released a draft of how it will operate, there still seems to not be enough details and information being shared to municipalities on how it will work.

Find out what MOR head of council Robert Misko has to say in this week’s Review.

Celebrating improvements being made to the Dauphin Regional Health Centre, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said it is time to start changing the culture of health care in Manitoba.

“We have to fix the culture on the front lines in our health care facilities right across Manitoba. We have to send that message that help is coming whether you’re a physician, whether you’re a nurse, whether you’re a health care professional, and that we’re serious about improving work life balance,” the premier said during a recent visit to Dauphin.

Find out more in this week’s issue.

A public consultation is scheduled to be held in Dauphin on Feb. 19, to collect feedback about barriers, lack of services, supports, and other key issues with adult disability services.

The Integrated Adult Services (IAS) Pilot Project is seeking feedback as a result of a human rights complaint that was filed against the Province of Manitoba.

Find out how to register for the meeting in this issue.

Growing up with a love of reading and making up stories is a sure path to a career in writing of some sort. That is exactly what fueled the fire for Sonya Ballantyne to become a writer, director and filmmaker.
“When I was a little girl, I loved making up stories,” said Creative Native Writer, Director and Public Speaker Sonya Ballantyne. “When I was in nursery school, I saw this huge book on my teacher's desk and she told me that people got paid to write books, and I knew it was what I wanted to do when I grew up. I became a film director, because in film school there were people who wanted to change my work, so it wasn't about Indigenous people or about the reserve as so to maintain my writing that I decided to pursue directing. I prefer writing though. “I always wanted to leave the reserve. I grew up mostly on the Misipawistik Cree Nation, but spent a lot of time in Opaskwayak Cree Nation and Chemawawin growing up. I always wanted to travel. The best route to get me away from home was to attend university, so I went to the University of Manitoba when I was 17. It was a hard few months, because I hadn't ever been away from home. I was on my own mostly, because my family still lived back home. “I really wanted to at tend this history of film class I signed up for, so I kept making excuses to stay in Winnipeg,” said Ballantyne. “By the time Christmas rolled around, I loved Winnipeg and the university, and decided to stay.” Ballantyne’s first experience with film making happened to be on her own first film. She had a story to tell and audiences were listening, which led her to do more. “The first real project I worked on was my first film,” said Ballantyne. “It was a short film called Crash Site and it was about two Cree sisters who reconcile after the death of their parents with the help of a superhero. “The highlights of making it were how everyone responded to it. It is still shown in university classes and festivals to this day, even though it is almost 10 years old. The challenges were mostly related to how many things had to change. I ran out of time when we were making it so some scenes were changed or left out entirely.” Ballantyne’s list of films and writing projects has been extensive over the last nine years. Every year she has worked on some kind of project. Crash Site was her first short film she did as a director and writer in 2015, and it was the winner of the Gimli Film Festival pitch competition. Nosisim is a short documentary that Ballantyne both wrote and directed 2017, which recently placed in the Indigenous Art Centre of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. Then in 2018, Ballantyne was co-director for My Boy, a short documentary. Eagle Girl was another short film that Ballantyne both wrote and directed in 2019, and it was the winner of the ImagineNative pitch com petition. Ballantyne was also named a Barbie Role Model in 2019, and worked as a sensitivity consultant on the video game God of War Ragnarok. Then Ballantyne wrote The Walking Dead: LAST MILE: video game in 2022. For television, Ballantyne was a writer and story editor for the series Acting Mel and her Kookum. “I love showing the world as I see it,” said Ballantyne. “With my newest film, Death Tour, I wanted to portray northern Manitoba as I saw it. Good, in 2022 to 2023, and was nominated for the Writer's Guild of Canada Award. Another television series that Ballantyne wrote for was Builder Brothers Dream Factory last year. Ballantyne’s more recent film project is The Death Tour, which she was a co-director and wrestling consultant. The film has been screened at Cannes Film Festival 2022 and Slamdance Film Festival 2023. “I enjoyed working on Builder Brothers Dream Factory the most, because it was my first real writing job out of working full time at a government job,” said Ballantyne. “I was so prepared to come in and fight for everything that I wanted to say, and I ended up being embraced by the writer's room. I didn't have to put up a fight for anything or justify why I wanted to tell the story I wanted to tell. “I wrote a story about this little girl Mel finding out her Kookum was a residential school survivor. I remember being asked how we were going to portray residential school in an age appropriate way for a pre school audience, and I think we succeeded. I never thought I would write for a Cree girl that wasn't my own creation and not only did I get to that with Dream Fac tory, but I also had two Cree actresses play Yeah, it can be harsh but it is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Our people are dealing with terrible things, but there is so much joy despite the hardship. “I also like that I am contributing to more representation for Cree women and girls. I never had a TV show or movie that showed Cree women or Indigenous women in general, in film genres I enjoyed while I was growing up. When I became an adult and still didn't see the content I wanted, I decided I would have to create it. “I promised myself I would never write some thing about residential school, but my creative juices had other plans,” said Ballantyne. “A lot of my work has autobiographical elements, so sometimes it can be hard to watch or create to the north. Each night, even if we didn't announce a show, word got out quickly that there was one and every kid on the rez would be there. They were so excited for the show and for this one wrestler, The Matriarch, that when she won a match, the kids almost broke the ring in their happiness. things that are about harder aspects of my life. It took me a long time to be able to sit in on screenings of Nosisim, because it felt like relieving the death of my grandma every time, but I find the more open I am about sharing the hard things about my upbringing, the more audiences connect with it.” With the film The Death Tour, it allowed Ballantyne to dive into her love of wrestling and what wrestling matches in northern communities can bring to the people as well as the wrestlers. At one point in Ballantyne’s life, she wanted to become a wrestler. “My family were huge fans of wrestling so WWF was always on,” said Ballantyne. “I really loved how accessible it was. Anyone could be a wrestler. “I seriously looked at becoming a professional wrestler when I was 13, but I came up during the time of WWF's Attitude Era, where the most popular match for women was a bra and panties match. The winner was the woman who could strip the other down to her underwear. “I wanted to be Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels, my favourite wrestlers, but I saw the glass ceiling for myself before I even started,” said Ballantyne. “I was disheartened and gave up on that dream. “Wrestling events brings a lot of joy “I think a lot of people would see something like a wrestling match as not too important in the grand scheme of things, but I saw for myself how happy it made the audience whenever we had a show,” said Ballantyne. “I think anything that makes a person happy is important. “Many of the wrestlers had never been to a reserve, including my fellow director, Stephan. It really opened their eyes to what Indigenous people endure in their own back yards. There were a rash of deaths while we were on the trips and so many shows were cancelled while the community mourned. Despite their grief, one community made sure our group was ok by bringing moose meat stew and pizzas to us. The wrestlers were overwhelmed by how they were welcomed to and embraced by the communities we visited.” Ballantyne is already working on her next film project and for 70s rock music lovers, it’s sure to be one to watch. “I'm working on a film called Six, which follows the friendship of two young girls and how they survive residential school through the music of Creedence Clearwater Revival."