The editors of Canada’s Top 100 Employers have named Fusion Credit Union as one of Manitoba’s Top Employers for 2024. This marks the fifth consecutive year that Fusion has received this recognition, an accolade that CEO Darwin Johns is both excited and honored to have received.

“We’re thrilled to be recognized as a Top Manitoba Employer again this year,” said Johns. “To receive this acknowledgement five years in a row is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our employees, as they are the driving force behind our success.”

More in this week’s Review.

The final bonspiel of the 2022-23 curling season played out Saturday, March 18 with some familiar names battling it out in the finals of the three events.

Taking top spot and winning the Cross Town Motors trophy was the Colton Stadnyk foursome with a 6-2 victory after six ends over Terry Hawryluk.

For a look at the action and pics of the winning rinks, check out this week’s issue.

The Sam Waller Museum is welcoming and eager to introduce their new curator to the community. Kristen Fader started her role as museum curator last Monday. Fader comes to the job with an extensive post-secondary education and bilingualism.
“I hail from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where I spent the entirety of my childhood braving East Coast winter storms and spending summer days at the beach,” said Fader. “My mother is from Québec, and so my first language and schooling, up until undergrad, was in French allowing me to be bilingual, which I’m continuously grateful for. Like my father, grandfather and as my siblings have now done, we Fader’s have all gone to Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.

Ever wonder what the Dauphin Herald online papers look like? Ever thought about switching from your paper copy to an online edition? 

Now is your chance to check it out and see how you like it with the Dauphin Herald's Total Market Coverage for March 2024.

Read below, enjoy!

Soon northern Manitoba residents will have bus service that travels to western Manitoba. Recently Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation (WSFN) purchased the old Greyhound Bus Depot in Brandon and formed an agreement with Mahihkan Bus Lines to have part of the building as a bus terminal/depot.
The former Greyhound Bus Depot is about 10,734 square feet and located on the southeast corner of Sixth Street and Rosser Avenue. It closed its doors when Greyhound ended service in October of 2018.
Also in that same time frame, First Nation owners of Aseneskak Casino in Opaskwayak Cree Nation, received approval from the Manitoba Motor Transport Board for its Kelsey Bus Lines division to conduct public transportation throughout Manitoba. The Kelsey Bus Lines division was sold and transferred the new partnership to form Mahihkan Bus Lines as of April 1, 2019.
The name Mahihkan, in Cree, means wolf, hence their slogan ‘Travel with the pack’. Currently Mahihkan Bus Lines travels to and stops in Flin Flon, The Pas, Wuskwi Sipihk, Swan River, Neepawa, Dauphin and Winnipeg.
WSFN’s new acquisition will result in not only further expansion for the First Nation community but also expansion of travel and shipping services for northern Manitoba. WSFN also plans to incorporate some economic spin-offs with a VLT lounge, smoke shop and restaurant within the building as well.
“We had a look at this property a while back and had a good opportunity to buy it,” said WSFN Chief Elwood Zastre. “We got it for a good deal. Brandon doesn’t have anything downtown for First Nations, so we are going to convert it into reserve land. Then we will be putting some businesses in there with it being a depot for the Mahihkan Bus Lines, and then some VLTs and possibly a pharmacy, with some space for office or business rentals as well.
“There are several great benefits for our people in this new venture. It’s going to employ our people in Brandon and get the bus line going into Brandon. Now people can take the bus from The Pas to Swan River to Brandon or Winnipeg.
“This will provide affordable transportation for people with medical appointments to go to the city and back home,” said Chief Zastre. “It will also help with freight and having things sent out and arriving to the north.”
“With a trusted partner in Brandon, we will be able to offer services between Brandon to Dauphin, which will connect with our current six days a week, from Sunday to Friday, that travels between Winnipeg and Flin Flon,” Mahihkan Bus Lines Operations Manager Aynsley Smith. “We are in the planning stages, but we are hoping the run will include more small towns that had bus service before the closure of Greyhound.
“The start date for these services really depends on when WSFN finishes their renovations and upgrades to the site. Currently, Mahihkan Bus’s Fleet includes seven motor coaches, four minibuses and 4-15 passenger vans. We will be offering the same six-day-a-week service that is offered on our current routes.”
Meetings have been held between WSFN and the City of Brandon and renovations are expected to commence soon in the very near future.
“We finished the deal and are in the process of starting renovations,” said Chief Zastre. “We met with the City of Brandon last month, and as a result, we have the permits and everything ready to go.
“This venture is all for our people and our future going forward.”

The Billy Beal Classic Ice Fishing Derby had another successful year at Whitefish Lake on Saturday (March 16), with a 14 pound, two ounce Northern Pike earning Kevin Frank $10,000 at the event, which raises money for Valley Lions Medical Assistance Fund...

While it would be easy to assume that unseasonably warm weather would be good for construction projects, in the case of the Main Street South redevelopment, it is having the opposite effect.

In fact, warm daytime temperatures have caused crews to change gears and work through the night instead, said Dauphin’s director of Public Works and Operations Mike VanAlstyne.

“Because of the soft conditions during the day, it just makes more of a mess than it would be if the weather was normal. It slows production down to almost a halt with trucks being stuck and material being stuck and everything else,” VanAlstyne said. “So by working through the night they have colder weather and they can travel on that semi frozen ground.”

Progress on the Main Street South project has been consistent, he added, with the contractor Russell Redi-Mix, completing approximately 65 per cent of the City’s portion of the project to this point.

Work on the western retention pond is all but complete with just some final grading work to do. That work will have to wait for drier conditions, VanAlstyne said. The eastern retention pond is about 80 per cent complete and installation of storm sewers is wrapping up, while Manitoba Hydro and its contractor are working to complete the relocation of gas lines on the west side of the roadway.

VanAlstyne expects the City’s portion of the project to be completed soon.

“I would imagine we will be done most of it by the end of the month,” he said. “This week will be critical with the colder weather.”

At that point service roads will be completed and at which time the focus will shift to reconstructing the main roadway.

“There’s a traffic management plan in place. So once the service roads are constructed the main roadway will be closed to traffic and traffic will be diverted onto the new roadways,” Alstyne said. “The city’s involvement will definitely be a lot less at that point.”

He added the project continues to be on schedule with a completion set for later this summer.

“They’re really pushing to be done by the end of August. Which is the original project completion date,” he said, adding the contractor has been diligent in making sure work progresses. “We’ve had some challenging snowstorms that have put in a couple of hiccups, but nothing that’s been crazy. And really the warm weather has probably been the biggest challenge so far, but they’ve done a good job of working and doing what they can when they can.”

On top of the drainage work and Main Street reconstruction, there will be intersection improvements at Dauphin Marketplace Mall and at Riverside Road.

Plans call for the entrance to the mall parking lot to be moved to the south and the intersection to be controlled by traffic signals.

All direct access to businesses along the stretch of road will be blocked with the entrance coming off the new service roads.

The plan also calls for expansion of the street to four lanes all the way to Triangle Road and the installation of a raised centre median starting just south of Whitmore Avenue.

As an added bonus, milling and overlay work will take place on Main Street from Whitmore Avenue to Fourth Avenue South.

“I can’t predict their the timeline, but I could guess that they may do that sooner rather than later,” VanAlstyne said. “Because they want to make sure their asphalt plant is up and running and working properly so I could see them doing that earlier on.”

The Dauphin Kings enter the 2023-24 Manitoba Junior Hockey League playoffs riding a four-game winning streak to end the regular season.

Included in that winning streak is a 2-0 victory over their quarterfinal opponents, the Blizzard Jr. A Hockey Club, Wednesday in The Pas, a game in which the Kings sat their top line of Jordan Bax, Cayden Glover and Ashton Paul, as well as starter Cole Sheffield.

The night before, the Kings scored three late power-play goals en route to a 7-3 win over the Portage Terriers at Credit Union Place.

On Friday, Dauphin snapped a 2-2 tie with three third-period goals in skating to a 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Blues in Winnipeg.

And in the season finale, Logan Walker scored three times and added an assist to lead the Kings to a 6-3 win over the Selkirk Steelers, Saturday in Selkirk.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley was pleased with how the team played in the final four games.

“I’m really proud of the guys for the way they worked in the last four games. Actually, the last couple weeks. They worked hard. We didn’t get the results all the time, but the compete and being hard on pucks and the speed and playing fast was all back again. I think we’re ready to go for playoffs,” he said. The schedule will begin on Friday in The Pas with the second game of the series in Dauphin on Sunday (4:00pm).

The Kings and Blizzard split the season series with each team winning three games and they each won twice on the road. The Blizzard outscored Dauphin 15-12 in the six games.

Hedley said it will be a tough series.

“We know what they bring. They work hard in five-man units. We have to match their work ethic and compete level. It’s going to come down to two great goaltenders,” he said.

The Kings, he said, have to play fast, get on pucks quickly and move them quickly.

“The longer you hang on to it, the more chance of a turnover with a team that works real hard. We just have to make sure that we’re hard on pucks, we work hard, we protect the middle of the ice and really look after the net front and help Sheff out as much as we can,” Hedley said. “We know he’ll make the first one. We’ve just got to look after rebounds and second shots and make sure we box out.”

But the biggest thing, Hedley said, is it is going to come down to will, hard work and never quitting.

“We’re going to make mistakes, everybody does. It’s just how you rebound, how resilient you are and how many times you’re going to be pushed,” he added. “It’s the best time of year. You find out about the players in your group and the players find out a lot about their teammates. It’s one of those things that is nothing but a positive experience.”

Hedley feels home ice advantage is overrated, noting they won the Turnbull Trophy two years ago in game seven in Steinbach.

“The only difference is the noise factor and a lot of times that gets you pumped up and ready to play, regardless of whether they’re going against you or for you,” he said. “It’s a matter of the focus, where we’re going and not necessarily who we’re playing. Our goal is to win the series and move on to the next one.”

Winning in The Pas twice will give the Kings confidence heading into the series. Because it’s a small ice surface, the key will be moving the puck quick.

“It’s one-touch. You can’t handle it too long. They come at you hard and they work hard. It’s a small building, things happen fast, so the support for your teammates all over the ice has got to be there,” he said. “So short passes, deep pressure and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”

Kings court:

The Manitoba Junior Hockey League recently named its award winners. Winkler Flyers forward Trent Penner was named Most Valuable Player, while Noah Szabo of the Steinbach Pistons won the Top Defenceman Award and his Pistons teammate Grady Hoffman won the Rookie of the Year Award. Blizzard netminder Tomas Anderson won the Top Goaltender Award and Blizzard coach Eric Labrosse was named Coach of the Year. Josh Lehto of the Virden Oil Capitals won the Hockey Ability and Sportsmanship Award. Penner, Szabo and Anderson were all selected to the first all-star team along with Steinbach forward Leo Chambers and forward Dalton Andrews of Winkler. Tayem Gislason of the Portage Terriers was the other defenceman selected. The second all-star team consists of forwards Sean Williams of the Waywayseecappo Wolverines, Lehto and Nolan Chastko of Virden, defencemen Sebastian Hamming of the Blizzard and Kaycee Coyle of the Niverville Nighthawks and Dauphin’s Cole Sheffield in goal. The rookie all-star team includes forwards Hoffman, Marlen Edwards of the Blizzard and, Nathan Brown of Niverville, defencemen Cole Slobodian of Virden and James Edwards of Winkler and goaltender Raiden Legall of Niverville.

With construction of the Maamawi Park now underway, residents are wondering just what will be included in the facility.

Committee member Stacey Penner said they are excited to see construction of the hill begin.

“I know it has garnered a lot of information,” she said.

The park’s name is Ojibwe, meaning together. Penner said when deciding on a name for the park, the committee was excited to celebrate the rich culture of the local Indigenous population.

“And something that really suits us in our community coming together for free physical activity. It’s just very, very fitting philosophically what we’re shooting for in building this park,” she said.

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The Dauphin Agricultural Society (DAS) visited its own history in presenting the annual Ron Brook Memorial Award at its Farm Outlook 2024, Mar 14. For 40 years DAS has been presenting continuing education opportunities for producers, first through the Challenges of Production seminar and in recent years, through the Farm Outlook programming.

To mark that milestone this year’s award was presented to the organizing committee of the first seminar.  That first committee consisted of DAS members Rod Fisher, George Richardson, Bev Prestayko, Brian Damsgaard and Reg Tarrant, who worked in conjunction with Lyle McNichol and Peter Kiez from Manitoba Agriculture and with the help of the local Bank of Nova Scotia branch. In presenting the award, Farm Outlook co-chair Jim Kaleta said in the early days Dauphin hosted one of the very few farm seminars in the province and the program took place over two days, drawing hundreds of producers from the Parkland and beyond to learn from a full slate of agricultural industry professionals. Banquets were regularly standing room only and always offered important keynote speakers - in one instance the federal Minister of Agriculture Eugene Whelan.

The Ron Brook Memorial Award was established in 1990 to honour the long-time DAS director who died during a fair in the late 1980s. It is presented annually to a deserving individual or organization which provides notable contributions to DAS and the agriculture industry. As an added bonus this year, on behalf of award recipients, DAS will offer a one-time only $2,000 scholarship to a student entering a post-secondary agriculture related program.

Pictured above are Reg Tarrant, George Richardson, DAS president Teren Stykalo, Rod Fisher, Farm Outlook co-chair Jim Kaleta and Brian Damsgaard.