On November 9, Turtle Mountain Métis Local unveiled its newly finished monument memorializing local Métis veterans past and present.
In addition to Remembrance Day on November 11, November 8 is now officially recognized as Indigenous Veterans Day after the Manitoba government passed Bill 210, the Indigenous Veterans Day Act.
On October 29, 10 banners honouring World War One and World War Two veterans were hung up on light poles around Deloraine. The project started last spring after locals brought up the idea to Bob Carlson, president of the Deloraine Legion, having seen them in Melita.
“We drove to Melita to check them out and stopped in at the Legion there to see what was involved,” Carlson said.
Once everyone becomes used to the new parking system at Boissevain School, the hope is they will see the improvements to student safety.
People who drive around, or pick up and drop off kids at the building on the north side of town, will have seen a few changes to the area. This includes new signs, some shifts in the speed limits and a little less parking availability. According to Boissevain Principal Landon White, this was a while in coming.
On October 14, Liza Park, formerly of Deloraine, was sentenced to two years’ less a day house arrest after admitting to stealing more than $53,000 from Deloraine Minor Ball Association and Prairie Gateway Tourism in Virden.
Park, 45, pled guilty to two counts of Fraud Over $5,000 and was sentenced to two conditional sentences in the Killarney provincial court, one for 18 months and one for six months, with the total sentence ending up at two years less a day.
Although the process is not yet completed, Boissevain-Morton and the Turtle Mountain Ag Society have both committed to the intention of transferring land that can be used by the community for recreational purposes, including a new arena.
A letter of intent has been recently signed that says the Ag Society plans to sell 21.5 acres of land to the municipality on the northwest side of Boissevain, while retaining 9.3 acres. Some might say this deal has been in the works for about a decade, but this specific movement gained momentum in the spring, when the Ag Society membership voted in favour of a proposal from Boissevain-Morton. Head of
“Thank you for inviting me. It’s good to be home.”
Theoren Fleury celebrated his connection to small town Manitoba during his time at the Boissevain Legion on October 18 for the arena fundraiser. The NHL star comes from our province, and he was thrilled to come help raise money for a new rink in town, saying he had the greatest minor hockey experience any kid could have growing up in our province. Although having a great career in the highest hockey league in the world was important and was celebrated in his speech, other experiences, sometimes connected, would perhaps play a bigger role.
“It’s a sad moment, but it’s not an ending, just a new chapter,” said Reverend Brennan McCurry, Rector of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Deloraine, along with Killarney, Boissevain, and Cartwright.
The Anglican faith has been practiced in Deloraine since 1886, but like many long-standing institutions, it must change with the times and in this case that means closing the building that has been a place of worship since the 1960’s.
This fall marks the ninth year for the Half Section Fundraiser put on by the Deloraine 2000 Club.
On October 8, Andrew Bell, Darcy Nestibo, and Carson Schoonbaert took to the field in their combines to harvest a quarter section of wheat, and a quarter section of beans, grown on rented land. Calvin Bolduc, Russ McMechan, Jeremy Perriman, and Jordan Vanrobaeys were on hand to haul the harvest away and Trevor Hartel provided the grain cart. Despite the ground still being fairly soft after a bit of rain, they managed around 45 bushels per acre for beans.
First Nations artifacts collected by a family who farmed near Whitewater Lake have been returned to the people whose spirit, knowledge and stories they contain.
The family of Barry and Lois Dickson of Boissevain were part of a ceremony with the Southern Chiefs’ Organization (SCOINC) in Winnipeg on September 22. They returned 161 items to the group that were collected over decades by their parents and grandfather Earl Henderson, who farmed on the northeast and east ends of the lake, located between Boissevain and Deloraine. According to Glenn Dickson, who made the donation along with his sisters Dianne, Janet and Alison, the decision was made to keep the collection alive.
After an ongoing labour dispute between the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and the Government of Canada, CUPW has elected to strike, effective September 25, 2025. The strike was triggered after the Government of Canada announced major reforms for the organization, including ending neighbourhood mail delivery and even closing some post offices. Despite Canada Post losing $10 million per day on these services, and $448 million overall this year, it was "outraged by the attack on our postal service and workers". Because of this action, mail and parcels will not be processed or delivered, including our newspaper. Some of our local post offices (Deloraine and Boissevain) have agreed to sort local mail in the time being, however, many subscribers will not receive their paper.
In the meantime, The Recorder will be available for free on our website while this national strike continues.
Click here to view this week's paper.
We sincerely hope that this dispute can be concluded quickly.
October 7 was the day to celebrate the success of the first phase of the Boissevain School playground project before moving forward into the future.
The middle school playground went up in the summer of 2025, and has been a major and well-loved addition. One of the contributors, BASF were out for the day to present their cheque and celebrate with a barbecue. According to Heather Janssens, who chaired the playground committee with Susan Jackson, it was a big milestone.
The Turtle Mountain area has long been home to the Métis people, and continues to be today. The population that has grown since four Métis men and their families settled near Lake Metigoshe has formed two locals of the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF): the Cherry Creek Local and the Turtle Mountain Local. Both are active and growing, and while Cherry Creek, with newly appointed Chair John Goodon, seems to focus on events in Boissevain and surrounding area that bring awareness to First Nations and Métis issues, Turtle Mountain Local has been putting their efforts into creating a fruitful space in nature and a place for Métis citizens to get back to the earth.
A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one’s leisure time. Nora Teetaert of Deloraine has been crocheting for many of her 95 years.
Those who have known the challenges and mysteries of Whitewater Lake will have the opportunity to experience it in a new way on October 29.
“Whitewater Lake: The Beauty and the Challenge” will have its film debut at the Boissevain Community Theatre. This is the third film created by the Turtle Mountain Souris Plains Heritage Association, working this time with Street Media in Brandon. Telling the story of the unique body of water, the picture will delve into it from many directions. David M. Neufeld of the TMSPHA said he was happy with what was produced.
The definition of the word auxiliary is to provide supplementary or additional help and support. The Melita Health Auxiliary has done just that for 70 years. The group hosted a luncheon to celebrate this milestone on September 26.
Although only 16 years old, Abigail Halloran is already an equestrian veteran as proven by her performance at the highest level last month.
An important and well-loved recreation activity for youth has returned to the Boissevain schedule after a lengthy absence.
This past week, the fall session for gymnastics began in the Arts Hall. According to Parks and Recreation Director Wendy Giesbrecht, they will be running afternoons and early evenings two days a week, Mondays and Wednesdays.
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Ahead of an important public meeting, questions are arising about a plan to redraw the wards in the Municipality of Two Borders. The public will be invited to give their views on October 16 about the proposed changes.
What happens when you bring together a group of old Centennials, Royals, Orioles, Rockets and more to a Reston golf course?
You have a lot of diamond memories, of course. This exact event happened on August 17 as former players from around the southwest region gathered for some best-ball golf, a steak supper and a lot of stories.
“It went really, really well,” said Clayton Jago, one of the organizers. “It was great to see some people who have not got together for years. I think everybody thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Jago said there were 48 golfers and ten more who joined for the supper.
The idea started with a couple of former players from Waskada. They wanted to see a reunion, but there was nowhere to hold it in their town. They called over to Reston and a few of the former players like Jago picked up the ball and ran with it. Jago said they put it together fairly quickly and tried to contact at least one person from each town, who could spread the word. They were able to host quite a fine event.
Jago said they played 18 holes of golf, but the main point was for players from different towns and teams to get together again, in a different circumstance from the old days.
“It was really about getting back in touch with people we competed against years ago. We didn’t necessarily see eye to eye on the field then. We were all competitive. Now we’re older, and we can come and laugh about it.”
He said some of the players brought pictures and there was a jersey or two. Players came from Boissevain, Deloraine, Lyleton, Waskada and Melita. Only Tilston and Souris were not represented in the area.
Jago said they concentrated on players from the late 1970’s and ‘80’s. Before that, he said, there was not a team in Reston for a while and if you go too far back, numbers start to thin. Even now, he said, there are players who have passed on.
Jago himself said he started as a 15 year old with the brand new Reston Rockets in the late 1970’s. The team, which is in the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame, played for a time in the Manitoba Senior Baseball League. He said he played well into his forties, and event played four innings in a match at the age of 53. Competition on the diamond is something, but for all players it goes a little deeper.
“We had people who played from all over the place,” he explained. “The thing about baseball is that it makes the world so small. There are lifelong friendships you make there on a team.”
Not only did they have a good reunion, they were able to raise a bit of money. Half of it went to refurbish the diamonds in town and the other to the golf club to help with an irrigation project.
There are hopes another reunion can be held in two or three years down the line. Jago said they would like to see another town pick it up, so the players can come over and help out that community. He added there was some talk of a couple of communities being interested, and if not, Reston might do it again.
“It would be nice to move it around.”
If another one is held, and there is more time to put it on, they might even be able to increase their numbers. At any rate, sharing stories, memories and laughs is important. As they were able to pull back a former Rocket who lives in Kelowna for the reunion, it obviously had a value to those participating.
“We met a lot of people along the way in baseball,” Jago stated. “It brings you back to what is really important about ball. It is not the trophies you win, it’s the people you meet and the friendships you make.”
by PAUL RAYNER, Recorder staff
With its latest success story working in the community, the Boissevain Health Care Recruitment Committee is looking to move forward into the future.
Taylor Robertson has begun her career at Turtle Mountain Physio, the latest student to receive sponsorship from the committee. In the community for a couple of decades now, the group can look back to playing a massive role in keeping local health care positions in the community filled, an important contribution.
Rob Adams and Ken Pringle have been a part of the committee from the beginning. Adams remembered getting the idea from a neighbouring community, and passing it on to then-Mayor Ed Anderson. In Boissevain, it started with a mandate to recruit physicians only, but later moved into other health care positions.
The main contribution of the committee is through education sponsorship. Normally, the candidate will take care of the first year of their schooling, and then the sponsorship will come into play for another year or two depending on the circumstance. The premise is a “return of service agreement”, which means the candidate would owe a year of service in a local health centre for each year of sponsorship. If things do not work out, they can pay the committee back. Mostly this has worked well for everyone involved. Adams added they also would help with relocation to Boissevain. Money for this comes from donations, including those from the Donor’s Choice campaign.
Nurses have been a big success story for the committee. Adams and Pringle began naming off people in the community they have helped in their nursing education, and most of them are still practicing in one of the health care centres in Boissevain. There have been occasional hiccups, but as Pringle said, when you looked at the number of shifts they have received over the years from these nurses, it has paid for itself over and over again.
“When we look at it,” Adams said, “we’ve helped a lot of people.”
They later moved on to sponsoring health care aides and other professionals in the field.
The newest addition is Taylor Robertson, a native of Boissevain. Merle Neufeld, owner of Turtle Mountain Physio, said the process started many years ago, when Robertson was in high school and observing at the clinic. They started talking and both realized by the time she was done school, Neufeld would be looking to slow down a little bit. She attended the University of Manitoba, and the Health Recruitment Committee helped her with $5,000 a year for two years during her Masters’ program. A member of the committee for about 10 years, he was willing to step away from the group’s decision in regards to Robertson as it would benefit his operation. Neufeld said it worked out well as he is looking for somewhat of a succession plan.
“Absolutely,” Neufeld stated. “I’ve been clear with that. This is the first step moving to retirement. It will be a number of years yet, but I think the decision was I either end my career and this shuts down or we recruit someone and it lives on.”
He said a key was that Robertson comes from the community, which makes it more likely she would come back. The new physiotherapist has been in the clinic since September 3, is completing her process in a supervised environment and Neufeld said there has been a good response to her from the community.
Pringle said expanding the parameters of the positions the committee will recruit has really worked out well for them.
“I think from a town standpoint, especially since we have expanded the spectrum of what we sponsor, there’s nobody living in the area that can say they’re not concerned about health care,” Pringle explained “Ultimately anything we can do to stabilize health care makes it harder to take portions of it away.”
Despite all the effort everyone puts in, not everything works. They did have a doctor in the pipeline, sponsored by the committee and others, who was attending university overseas. Everyone involved was happy with how events were unfolding, but it was impossible for the candidate to do his residency in Manitoba, so he ended up practicing overseas. There are challenges with nursing as they are often overworked with too many shifts, even though they cannot get full time positions. Agency nurses who travel from community to community can be helpful, but also expensive. It can be frustrating to see foreign-born health professionals having to change careers when it is too difficult to qualify in the province.
Currently, there are no students being sponsored by the recruitment committee, although there are possibilities being looked at. The facilities have a full complement of nurses for now, but one or two more would be helpful. They do need to look forward however, Pringle stated, and meet again to see what needs are.
“When this committee was created, we probably knew the challenges rural health care was facing,” Pringle said. “It’s like a car, as long as your car is running good, you don’t look at how your car is running. Our community needs to get more active again. Once the nurse situation got sorted out, and they weren’t coming to us and with Ed passing away, our committee has kind of gone to sleep a bit.”
He said they needed to look at nurses retiring, and think of the future. The committee needs to get together, reorganize, and talk to the people at the health centre to see what the needs are.
“We need to roll up our sleeves and make it the best hospital it can be.”
Neufeld agrees the committee needs to look over the horizon, particularly with changes to health care. Overall, they have done good work and can continue onward.
“I think it is quite worthwhile,” he said. “It creates that environment where we can help our health care. It is great to actually do it, to have people trained and come out the other end and work in the community.”
by PAUL RAYNER
Recorder staff
More improvements and refurbishments may be on the way for Deloraine-Winchester, this time at the municipal airport.
According to Deloraine-Winchester Airport Commission Chairman Lorne Bolduc, the group is looking into upgrading the asphalt on the runway, because it has not had any work done on it since it was installed in the early 1980’s, besides a few small repairs to particularly large dips. The 4,000-foot-long runway is starting to show its age, said Bolduc, and is full of cracks and dips, making it less than ideal for small planes taking off. On top of that, jagged edges make it difficult to clean in the winter.