Westman

The Manitoba Wildfire Service (MWS) says our province remains at a moderate to high fire danger level. Human activity, including arson, is contributing significantly to current wildfire conditions. As a result, critical firefighting resources are being diverted to respond to deliberately set fires, often in or near communities.

It was announced last week the Manitoba government is investing $19.7 million to rehabilitate Oak Lake Dam, a critical piece of water infrastructure to the RM of Sifton.

The multi-year rehabilitation project is cost-shared with the Government of Canada under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP). It will include the reconstruction of the dam spillway and the stabilization and protection of its embankments. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney is scheduled to convene the Incident Response Group in Ottawa today to discuss the ongoing wildfire situation across the country.

Carney also convened the group of ministers and senior officials a little over a month ago in response to an earlier wave of wildfires, which peaked in May and June, then receded, and have now flared up again.

More than 6,000 people are currently out of their homes in Manitoba, and the communities of Lynn Lake and Snow Lake ordered residents to flee for the second time in just weeks.

The Brandon Riverbank Discovery Centre installed their most recent bronze sculpture in the Peter Sawatzky Sculpture Garden earlier this month, this one of a curious black bear.

Director of Marketing and Communications for Brandon Tourism, Lanny Stewart, says the sculpture garden is a wonderful addition to the Riverbank, the City of Brandon and to the Westman Region from a place-making perspective, from a tourism perspective.  

The Manitoba government’s all-party committee exploring the future of local journalism concluded a series of province-wide public consultations on Friday. The final stop was held in Winkler, with Winnipeg, Brandon, Thompson and Gimli also hosting events previously. The consultations aimed to focus on rural and northern media and cultural media such as French, Filipino, Punjabi and Chinese language publications.

As we enter the heart of July and the back half of the 2025 growing season, producers are looking to protect their crops to help ensure they don’t lose any yield come harvest time. That’s especially the case for canola, as plants start heading towards full bloom and will start forming pods and seeds.  

The Conservatives want Prime Minister Mark Carney to sell all the assets in his blind trust to avoid any possible conflicts of interest.

Carney set up the blind trust after he was sworn in as prime minister in March and the details of how it works were made public on Friday.

They show that the prime minister has set up screens to avoid potential conflicts related to his previous interests in Brookfield Asset Management, Brookfield Corporation and Stripe Inc.

But Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre believes that's not enough.

A Killarney area driver hit a hydro pole on the service road along Highway 18 on the north side of town, knocking out power from mid-afternoon to about 8 pm.  Manitoba Hydro crews worked feverishly to replace the pole and restore power to the large area affected by the downed pole.

The driver was brought to the Tri-Lake Health Centre.

The post indicated about 2,655 customers were impacted.

The single-vehicle accident is still under investigation.

A Manitoba grandmother is sharing her story in hopes of warning others after nearly falling victim to a convincing phone scam involving a fake emergency call from someone pretending to be her grandson. 

Anne Emberly says she received a call that sounded alarmingly real. The voice on the other end claimed to be her grandson, saying he had been in a car accident and was now in jail. 

The Manitoba government is investing more than $189 million in infrastructure upgrades in western Manitoba including multiple highway rehabilitation projects, bridge repairs and culvert replacements, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor announced today.

“Our government values western Manitoba and is committed to making long-overdue investments in this region,” said Naylor. “Our government is making sure that critical infrastructure for local farming communities and residents is safe and functional for everyday use.”