For those wishing to have their item listed in upcoming editions, there is now an earlier deadline for publication, so items are needed at least two weeks in advance of the date of your event. Please email to carthur@brandonsun.com.

TODAY (Nov. 12)

• 9 a.m. — The Wheat City Kennel Club’s Confirmation, Obedience Trials and Rally Obedience Trials will be held in the Canada Room at the Keystone Centre, with Great Dane of Canada specialty and Doberman Pinscher Club of Manitoba both on Saturday.

• 1:30 p.m. — Taoist Tai Chi meets every Thursday afternoon at Trinity United Church (1515 Sixth St.) until 3 p.m.

Council officially sworn in, Joe Masi appointed deputy mayor

Portage la Prairie City Council members were officially sworn in on Monday, Nov. 2, during an inaugural ceremony at City Hall in front of family and friends.

During the proceedings, council members presented their oaths of office and completed signing requirements under the Municipal Act of Manitoba. Portfolios and committee assignments were distributed, with most councillors returning to the same roles they held over the previous four-year term.

Among the assignments, Councillor Joe Masi, who continues as the city’s finance chair, was appointed as Deputy Mayor for the entirety of the four-year council term.

The appointment marks a shift from the previous term’s approach, which utilized a rotating deputy mayor model.

Rural Roundup — Nov. 12, 2026

NEEPAWA

The Town of Neepawa is acting against the spread of Dutch Elm Disease before the arrival of winter.

This fall, the tree-killing fungus was identified in 38 trees within the community. To eliminate the disease, council voted on Oct. 20 to hire Middleton Enterprises to cut down the infected trees.

The cost of the removal has been set at $34,500, plus GST. Removal is expected to begin as soon as possible. Each year, in accordance with the Forest Grant Agreement, the province comes into a community and marks any diseased trees that it finds.

For those wishing to have their item listed in upcoming editions, there is now an earlier deadline for publication, so items are needed at least two weeks in advance of the date of your event. Please email to carthur@brandonsun.com.

TODAY (Nov. 5)

• 10 a.m. — Book Sale will be held at the Library Branch located in the Shoppers Mall until Saturday with books, puzzles and more. This is a fundraiser to support the Shoppers Mall Library. Cash and card payments available. For more information, call 204-725-9901 or email wmrlshoppersmall@wmrl.ca.

• 1:30 p.m. — Taoist Tai Chi meets every Thursday afternoon at Trinity United Church (1515 Sixth St.) until 3 p.m.

Canada launches first-ever attempt to count visa ‘overstays’

Canada has begun its first-ever population count to determine the number of people who are in the country without legal status after having overstayed their visas and losing their right to remain in the country.

The federal government conceded that there is no reliable estimate because getting to a specific number is both complex and a priority.

Estimates of the number of people who have no legal status in the country have varied between 20,000 and 500,000, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, and two million people cited by Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre earlier this year.

The issue promises to be a political hot potato as the Conservatives last week called for a better system to track the departure of temporary visa holders.

Garry Theatre reopens in Selkirk after five-year restoration

After five years of planning, fundraising and renovations, the Garry Theatre is welcoming moviegoers back to the historic Selkirk landmark.

Public screenings began this week following a grand opening Oct. 16 and a donor open house the next day. The theatre is launching with a Halloween-themed lineup featuring Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Ghostbusters.

The city is describing the reopening as a soft launch as new staff learn ticketing and concession software and bring a projector back into regular use after sitting mostly idle for five years.

“The story of The Garry Theatre is in many ways the story of the people of Selkirk,” Mayor Larry Johannson said, noting the building has been part of the community for 75 years.

NHL’s name game not so easy today

Foster Hewitt and Danny Gallivan had it easy.

For younger readers who may not have heard of Hewitt or Gallivan, they were the radio/TV voices a number of decades ago of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens respectively. In 1960, the National Hockey League consisted of six teams — Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers joining the aforementioned Habs and Leafs in a compact league located in a tiny geographical section of North America.

Since almost all of the players in 1960 were Canadian (the odd American was sprinkled into some of the teams’ rosters), doing play-by-play wasn’t too difficult. Hull, Richard, Howe, Kelly, Duff, Beliveau, Bathgate, Moore … easy on the tongues of the broadcasters.

Today, of course, the NHL consists of 32 teams, seven in Canada and 25 in all corners of the United States. Canadian players make up the largest percentage (42 per cent), with Americans next at 28 per cent. If a country has ice, it’s likely it has a player or two in the NHL and today, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Belarus, Latvia, Norway, Austria, Slovenia, France and Australia (yes, Australia — Jordan Spence of Ottawa and Nathan Walker of St. Louis)— are represented on NHL rosters.

Castle-like museum needs repairs

The board of the Hillcrest Museum in Souris is attempting to fundraise $100,000 from community members to restore several features of the historic fortress-looking heritage building.

A host of repairs for the 2027 season are focused on remaining windows that have not yet been repaired, with work including building new window sashes, replacing rotting sills and removing improperly installed storm windows, board president Debora Kain told the Sun in a recent interview. The board aims to fundraise the total before the end of next year.

“I think it’s important to keep up,” Kain said. “There is a lot of people’s time and effort caught up in keeping this going since 1967.”

The heritage home, formerly owned by Fred and Maud Sowden, was purchased that year by a group of Souris citizens to establish the museum. It still operates as a museum and attracts roughly 3,000 visitors per year.

Squeal on Pigs develops African swine fever plan

The first plan to manage a potential outbreak of African swine fever in wild pigs here in Canada has been developed by Squeal on Pigs in Manitoba.

The organization created an emergency response plan that outlines tactics, such as trapping pigs, and surveilling them with drones, co-ordinator of the project, Wayne Lees, told the Sun in a recent interview. The plan is in its “final stages,” and is expected to be distributed to all other provinces to build a foundation for their response plans in the next two months, he said.

The plan was created to give a baseline in case the highly-contagious African swine fever were to arise in known populations of wild pigs in Manitoba, he said. The plan enhances a host of tactics that are already used by Squeal on Pigs in its attempt to eradicate wild pigs in the province.

“Whenever you have a disease outbreak, you do all the things you would do during normal times but you do them much quicker and in a way that would limit the spread of infection,” Lees said. “Its like any prevention, you have to prepare for the worst.”