On Oct. 3, the first official harvest of the SVRSS Growcer Farm took place, celebrating the multi-year effort it took to get this hydroponics project off the ground, housed right on the campus of the regional secondary school.
The hydroponics farm – which uses carefully managed water, nutrients, light and temperature in a year-round controlled environment – with the first few rounds of produce being different varieties of lettuce to start with, soon to be followed by some other leafy greens.
Known as the Rural and Northern Food Security Initiative, the cutting-edge program aims to develop a regional research and training centre that focuses on growing and managing health and traditional foods within local, rural and northern communities.
The initiative not only aims to provide students with access to nutritious food but also equips them with essential lifelong skills in leadership, sustainability, environment and agriculture.
“The process starts out with seedlings getting planted in what’s called rockwool with no soil, being fed nutrients in the water,” said SVRSS teacher Kari Goethe, who leads the Environmental Management curriculum and is a part of teaching the students who are actively managing the Growcer farm.
“The plants stay in that seedling area until they grow their first true leaves in about two weeks. Then they get moved over to the main racks and can stay there for about 4-6 weeks, depending on the cultivar that has been planted.”
The first seedlings planted at SVRSS were on Aug. 16.
Goethe also explained how students and supervisors monitor the hydroponics system every day, testing the pH and specific nutrients that the plants need, as well as temperature, humidity, salts and so on.
The Growcer farm also comes equipped with its own sensors so that the system can be monitored remotely, and can be able to send out alerts if there is a metric that is outside of the levels of where it is supposed to be.
The managers of the Growcer farm will be consulting with the cafeteria and Culinary Arts program at the SVRSS to see how they can collaborate and make use of the produce, so some of the leafy green foods that will be available in the SVRSS cafeteria this year could have been grown just outside of the regional school in an unassuming, white building.
At this time, there are six students registered and taking the course where the primary focus of the course is maintaining the Growcer farm. Other students in the school have also had the opportunity to at least view the farm and learn what it’s about and how it works.
“The students are really enjoying it,” said Goethe. “Everybody has been really positive with their experience in there so far.”
Goethe also showed her appreciation to all the community partners that made the project possible, which has included the Sapotaweyak Cree Nation, Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation, and the Swan River Kinsmen Club, with additional support from the Manitoba government, Farm Credit Canada and Westman Communications Group. The initiative has interested local First Nations communities as it opens up the possibility of starting greenhouse opportunities of their own to provide their communities with year-round nutritional produce products.
With SVSD’s educational expertise, the program envisions having a research and training academy where students can learn hands-on skills and return to their home communities to implement what they’ve learned.
The Growcer farm will educate Environmental Management students and Culinary Arts students directly. Those outside of those programs also benefit as this resource helps to alleviate food insecurity and foster a greater appreciation for local food systems.
“By establishing a Growcer farm at our school, we can provide our students with the skills they need to thrive in an evolving job market,” said Goethe. “They will leave with job-ready skills and a deeper understanding of sustainable food production.”

The Aurora Borealis have been lighting up the northern hemisphere of our globe last week as geomagnetic storms have been creating intense Northern Lights.

With no formal candidate forums or debates announced, the Dauphin Herald and the Roblin Review partnered with the Manitoba Teachers’ Society to ask the candidates six questions so voters can get a better idea of exactly who is hoping to help shape the local education system.

Eight of the nine candidates responded. Their candidates’ unedited answers appear in the next two issues of the Review.

Want to know more about the candidates in Wards 1 (Roblin) and 2 (Grandview)? Pick up a copy of this week’s paper.

Halfway through his mandate, Dauphin mayor David Bosiak is pleased with what has been accomplished and excited about what the next two years might hold.
That excitement is piqued even more considering the culture of co-operation and teamwork that is prevalent around the council table and throughout City Hall.
“The willingness to communicate. The willingness to share ideas. The willingness to have discussions even though we don’t have to agree on things, that we’re not having to fact check each other. We are talking about realistic things,” Bosiak said.
“I can probably speak on behalf of the entire council that we are all motivated to make Dauphin a better place. Not better by cutting things or reducing spending, but by providing beneficial and needed public good. We want to do everything possible that a city can do to make it a great place to live, a great place to own a business, a great place to want to own a business.”
While talk around Dauphin often revolves around the recreation opportunities and natural beauty that surrounds the community, a list of the city’s attributes has to include the educational opportunities, the world class health care availability and the volume of development currently under way.
But perhaps Dauphin’s strongest attribute is its people, he said, who consisently step up when called upon, such as during the recent Manitoba Summer Games.
“We have positive energy. We’ve had tremendous success with our events getting back up and running post-COVID,” he said.
“There’s an enthusiasm with the volunteers in our community that I’ve seen, which is so consistent with post 2004, the last time we hosted the summer games. I recall back in the day we were saying ‘well, we did that, what else can we do?’ And I have a sense of the same kind of energy and enthusiasm now. There’s just so many small examples of a synergy, of people willing to work together.”
With planning already underway for 2025, Bosiak is hoping city council can build on that momentum and enthusiasm to champion some new initiatives with potential to make life in Dauphin even better.

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

Local artist Frances Cooper is connecting with art lovers with her latest exhibition, Convey, at the Sam Waller Museum. Cooper’s vision of land comes to life through a series of handcrafted, environmentally friendly pieces.
“My work experience does lead into my art practice in the sense that a lot of stuff that I have seen was a result of things I stumbled upon through work,” said Cooper. “It was a gift and I didn’t know all of it at that time. Nature repeats all of these patterns and you can see these patterns in visuals such as rocks, water, sky tree rings and under microscopes. Depending on your viewpoint, you can see them on a broader scale when you get on the landscapes. This influences my work quite a bit.

The Pas Guest List unveiled another mural just before the National MMIWG2S+ Day, and this one reflects Indigenous women who were taken from the community, their families and friends.
“The theme of this mural is to commemorate the MMIWG2S+ within our community and at large,” said The Pas Guest List Director Gabrielle Swan. “When I first moved to The Pas two years ago, it quickly became clear that this something that touches every Indigenous family and the fact that I didn't really understand that until relocating here troubled me.
“I became good friends with Gloria Ballantyne-Packo after we collaborated on a Vintage Store and Coffee Shop pop-up two years ago. That pop-up event was a fundraiser for KB Memorial, an organization dedicated to raising awareness for MMIWG2+. Seeing the work that Gloria and her family put into keeping Kendara's memory alive, advocating for her after her death to ensure the RCMP handled things properly, working tirelessly to find anyone with information that would bring her killer to justice, and supporting other families in our community who are suffering from the same types of loss was inspiring. The Pas Guest List knew that we wanted to find a way to honour all of those who are impacted by MMIWG2+, and when we had the opportunity to bring Jackie Traverse to the community, we knew she was the person to take on a project of this magnitude.”

An organization to help people with disabilities that was formed by some volunteers in the mid 1980s has made the difficult decision to close its doors in the community. The Pas Association for Human Development has been struggling for some time with operating expenses without any solutions in sight.
“There has been an accumulating deficit that has been snowballing since the pandemic,” said TPAHD Executive Director Cathy Lipscomb. “This wasn’t an easy or haste decision to make and this decision didn’t happen overnight.
“TPAHD board of directors have explored every possible option to alleviate the deficit but to little or no avail. They reached out to all levels of government for assistance, numerous service clubs, our financial institution, citizens of The Pas and the surrounding area.

Voters in three Mountain View School Division wards will head to the polls, Oct. 30, to fill four vacant seats on the board of trustees after the nomination process identified nine candidates.

Voters in Ward 1 (Roblin) will select two trustees from three candidates.

Read all about it in this week’s Review.

Parkland Crop Diversification Foundation applied research specialist James Frey thinks Teff is offering local producers another option when it comes to crop management

The PCDF combined its first large scale plot of Teff, eight acres, on Oct. 3.

More in this week’s Review.

Dauphin fire chief Cam Abrey was honoured for his work done on behalf of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs (CACF).

At the association’s annual conference in Montreal last week, Abrey was presented a King Charles III’s Coronation Medal.

“There were 50 of us that received that medal through the CACF for their work that they did on the national level. Either through the national fire service or through their provincial fire services or a combination of both,” Abrey said, adding two other medals were presented to Manitobans including Steinbach fire chief Kelvin Toews and Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service deputy-chief Scott Wilkinson.

“We are all involved. I’m past president of the provincial association and Kelvin is our current president. We’ve both held a number of different committee seats on the national level. Scott Wilkinson has spoken at numerous conferences on the national level and he sits on a few different committees, as well.”

The coronation medal commemorates the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III as King of Canada. The medal is administered by the Chancellery of Honours at Rideau Hall. A total of 30,000 medals will be presented this year to those who have made a significant contribution to Canada or to a particular province, territory, region or community of Canada, or have made an outstanding achievement abroad that brings credit to Canada.

Currently Abrey sits on the CACF’s Cancer Prevention Committee aimed at developing policies and practises to help reduce the risk of firefighters developing cancer throughout their careers. He also sits on the Answer the Call Committee, which gathers information on ways departments can attract new firefighters and retain existing members.

“That’s probably the biggest challenge in the fire service today, bolstering the numbers on departments,” Abrey said.

Abrey also serves on the Executive Chief Fire Officer Committee, which oversees the professional designation program, and the Mental Health Committee, which looks for ways to assist those in all branches of emergency services who are at risk of developing post traumatic stress disorder.

The work is important and, while Abrey does not get involved for medals and pats on the back, it is nice to be recognized.

“It’s great honour. You have 49 others from across the country that are your peers that were there for the award, as well. You don’t do it for the recognition. You do it to try and improve the fire service and make it safer for those that are coming through,” he said.

“In December I hit my 25th year in the fire service and I never thought that when I stepped in that there would be any kind of recognition like this. I never thought that it would be a full-time career for me and I always tell the tour groups that come through the fire station that I’m living every little kid’s dream. I get to drive big red trucks and fight fires.”