Local News

Canada Day celebrations will be taking place across the country on Tuesday and the communities of Watrous and Manitou Beach will be teaming up for a series of activities and events for residents and visitors.  

To start the day, there will be a pancake breakfast at the Watrous Civic Centre from 8-10am.  

A watermain repair has prompted a temporary closure of 9th Street NW between Lorne Avenue and Fisher Avenue in Portage la Prairie.

The City is notifying residents that the closure and disruption to water services are effective immediately on Monday, June 30.

Officials say they intend to restore water services and reopen the road by the end of the day once repairs are complete.

Residents affected by the closure may experience water disruptions during the repair work.

Meeting new people can be tough, but the City of Red Deer is hoping to make it a little easier this summer with the return of a popular community program.

Meet Me at the Park is back with a wide range of fun-filled activities for residents of all ages, aiming to bring the community together and foster a sense of connection and belonging.

Bridge jumping into water has continued in Airdrie despite posted warning signs, prompting the City to warn that it will begin issuing fines, with penalties extending to parents or guardians of youth offenders.

The enforcement follows a Streets Bylaw amendment passed on June 17. The City said fines are effective immediately.

"...The amendment addresses the dangerous activity of bridge jumping, which has raised serious concerns in areas including Bayside, Midtown and the Canals," the city stated in a news release.

Drivers in Portage la Prairie are seeing lower fuel prices at the pump this week, following a brief spike just days ago.

Prices rose to around 134 cents per litre last week, with most stations now at 129.9 ahead of Canada Day.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis with GasBuddy, ties the change to shifting conditions overseas.

Over the weekend, southern Manitoba saw several storms bringing widespread hail, though rainfall amounts remained light and scattered.

“We had storms for Friday into early Saturday, quite a few hail reports across southern Manitoba actually,” notes Environment Canada meteorologist Jason Knight.

He highlights the size of the hail: “Looks like to be tennis ball sized hail near Mulvihill in the Interlake; Neepawa, some golf ball sized hail.”

Rainfall totals, however, stayed modest with most sites seeing just 1 to 5mm.

Canada Day in Winkler has a packed schedule of events. 

From the opportunity to sample the best the region has to offer through food trucks to activities sure to keep the children entertained all day, there will be various ways to celebrate the nation.  

Another part of the celebration — one that highlights all the different ways the Canadian experience unfolds — is Winkler’s Culture Fest, which runs from 12 p.m. to 4:30 p.m at Parkland Stage in Winkler.

Winkler’s first-ever brewery has officially opened its doors as of last week. Heritage Farms Brewery celebrated its taproom’s grand opening on Friday, and interested beer enthusiasts can check out the scene for themselves at 400 Memorial Drive. 

Dozens of motorcyclists rode from Winnipeg to the NTL Indigenous Residential School Museum on this past Saturday for the fifth annual Every Child Matters ride, an event organizers say honours the children who died in residential schools and the survivors who continue to seek justice and recognition.

Some Summer Sizzler goers ducked into Jubilee Hall to escape sporadic rain showers on Saturday and found themselves in a wonderful world of costumes, curios and creators happy to share the back story on all of it.