Westman

The farmland market in Saskatchewan may be tilting toward the buyer.

It’s not there yet because sellers still have the upper hand, but real estate agents in the province say more land may soon come up for sale, thus tipping the scales in favour of buyers.

As of August 2025, 265 farmland properties were posted on the MLS system in Saskatchewan. That’s down drastically from 2020, when the number of farms for sale was close to 500.

Abtshof Farms owner Alex Boersch says Manitoba’s drainage improvements have had unintended consequences for farmers downstream, which became vividly apparent after the August 20 heavy rains that brought severe flooding to his farm. With GPS-guided systems perfected over the past decade, water now flows off fields faster than ever, overwhelming rivers that can no longer handle the sudden volume.

Funeral For:  Helen Meda
Funeral Date: August 29, 2025 
Helen Meda, 91, of Vita formerly of Lonesand, passed away Saturday, August 23rd at Vita Personal Care Home. She is survived by 1 sister, 1 brother, and their families. She was predeceased by her husband Michael and 2 brothers. 
The funeral service for Helen Meda will be held Friday, August 29th at 11am at Birchwood Funeral Chapel, Steinbach with ash interment at Ridgeland Cemetery, Sundown, Manitoba.  
Arrangements by Birchwood Funeral Chapel, Steinbach.
 

Funeral For:  Elnora Ella Neufeld nee Klassen 
Funeral Date: September 2, 2025 
Elnora Ella Neufeld nee Klassen, 100, of Winkler passed away Saturday, August 23rd at Tabor Home, Morden. She is survived by 2 daughters. She was predeceased by her husband Jacob E. Neufeld.  
A memorial service for Elnora Ella Neufeld nee Klassen will be held Tuesday, September 2nd at 11am at Winkler Bergthaler Mennonite Church with burial prior to the service at Blumenfeld Cemetery. 
Donations may be made to Gateway Resources Incorporated. 

Funeral For:  Lena Janzen 
Funeral Date: August 29, 2025 
Lena Janzen, 92, of Killarney passed away Friday, August 22nd at Bayside Personal Care Home. She is survived by 1 daughter, 2 sons, 1 son-in-law and their families. She was predeceased by her husband Peter and 1 daughter. 
A memorial service for Lena Janzen will be held Friday, August 29th at 11am at Killarney Mennonite Church with private burial at Killarney Cemetery. 
Donations may be made to Turtle Mountain Bible Camp. 
Arrangements by Wheatland Funeral Service, Killarney. 

A Manitoba man sentenced to life in prison after a judge convicted him of sending letter bombs to his ex-wife and two lawyers in 2015 has been denied full parole. 

A parole board hearing for Guido Amsel took place earlier this month, 10 years after Amsel committed his crimes. 

The board found that despite Amsel's generally behaving positively while incarcerated and participating in some programming, he shows no remorse for his actions and continues to believe he was set up by police and his ex-wife. 

The Canada Revenue Agency has offered contract extensions to around 850 call centre employees as their union sounds the alarm over staffing levels. 

CRA spokesperson Etienne Biram says the workers, whose contracts were set to expire in September, were contacted about the decision last week.

The federal union representing workers at the tax agency recently launched an online campaign denouncing staffing cuts. 

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is set to meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington this week after Ottawa announced it would be lifting some retaliatory tariffs.

LeBlanc's office said he will travel to the United States capital on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last Friday that Canada will drop some retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products to match American tariff exemptions for goods covered under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement on trade, called CUSMA. .

Students and staff are back to school next week – and some families are eager to get back to some sense of normal, while others have really been enjoying the summer holidays with no set schedule.  And then there are those families who will be starting the new school year in a new community, a new school and maybe their first bus ride. 

It's been 5 months since Grant Jackson resigned from the Manitoba Legislature as the MLA for Spruce Woods to join the race for Brandon-Souris in the federal election after the announcement of MP Larry Maguire's retirement.  Jackson became the new MP by a majority vote for Brandon-Souris at the end of April.

And that began the next race, MLA for Spruce Woods.