Portage

Wildfires across Manitoba have forced many communities to evacuate and the number of displaced people in the province is getting close to 20,000.

With hotel space filling up all across the south, special accommodations are being set up and several hundred evacuees have already arrive at the Portage Curling Club located in CanadInns, with that space becoming home for the next while.

The entire community of Flin Flon and the surrounding area have been evacuated and the only ones who remain are those who are fighting the fires and many other communities have been affected.

Farmers have been making good progress in the field; so far 88 per cent of the provincial crop in the ground. 

According to Saskatchewan's weekly crop report seeding is most advanced in the southwest at 95 per cent, followed by the west-central region at 94 per cent, the northwest at 93, the northeast at 92, the east central at 81, and the southeast at 80 per cent seeded.

As the wildfire crisis in Manitoba continues, Portage la Prairie is stepping up in a big way. The Portage Curling Rink has become a temporary home for more than 230 evacuees from the north, with more expected to arrive in the coming days.

The province-wide state of emergency declared earlier this week has led to mass evacuations, with Premier Wab Kinew calling it “the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most people’s living memory.”

With extreme wildfire danger threatening much of the province, the Manitoba government has declared a provincial state of emergency and implemented Level 3 fire and travel restrictions across all designated burn permit areas as of 8 a.m., Thursday, May 30.

The restrictions will remain in place until at least June 26.

The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) has released its third Farmers and Food Price Report.

The report shows that while food prices remain high, the share of the food dollar reaching Saskatchewan farmers continues to decline.

One of the contributors to wind is the Coriolis force. The Coriolis force arises from the fact that the Earth rotates. | Photo: File
Last issue, we talked about how the pressure gradient force is the main driving force of wind in our atmosphere and that it exists due to the unequal heating of the Earth’s surface.

Now, if we were to take a simple look at the Earth, this would mean that the polar regions would have high pressure because they are cold and the equatorial regions would be areas of low pressure because they are warm.

India takes the plunge, but some crop sectors remain hesitant.

May 4, 2025, could be a significant day in the history of agriculture.

On that day, Indian agriculture minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced the release of two gene-edited rice varieties.

The announcement signals to the world that India — a country of nearly 1.5 billion people — is committed to gene edited technologies and modern tools to improve crop production.

The Austin Fire Department is reminding residents that fires can start from almost anything, following a grass fire Thursday afternoon just north of Road 70N along Highway 34.

Crews were dispatched around 12:31 p.m. on May 29 to reports of a fire in a field where cattle had been wintered.

Portage la Prairie firefighters were kept extremely busy Thursday, responding to a series of emergency calls throughout the day, including multiple fires and a highway crash, all within just a few hours.

Morning basement fire in RM of Portage

The first call came in around 10:15 a.m. for a basement fire in the Rural Municipality of Portage. Crews responded quickly, managing to bring the fire under control before it could spread further. The situation was contained without injury or significant escalation.