It will be a smaller crew who hit the stage later this month, but ADLIB is once again planning to entertain the community in a big way.

Amateur Drama Loose in Boissevain is presenting “Smarty Pants”, written by Shelley Hoffman and Stephen Sparks at the Boissevain Community Theatre from March 19-22. According to director Brandt Bessant, all is going well.

“Oh yeah, everything is great. We got the set and everything up on the weekend,” Bessant said. “I think everyone is ready to go.”

The group started working on the play in the middle of January. They last hit the stage with “Clue”, a play of the famous board game, in the spring of 2023, a performance delayed for a couple of years due to COVID. Bessant said “Smarty Pants” is a much smaller cast effort, with four actors instead of the double figures for its predecessor.

A little extra help would give the volunteers at the Boissevain Recycling Project the boost they need to continue doing their important community work.

For over 30 years recycling has been a major effort in Boissevain-Morton. Tonnes of material have been kept out of the community’s landfill site and reused by consumers in different forms. The project, located at their plant just north of Boissevain, is still going strong.

“It’s not bad,” said Gib Beard, who along with Herman Dyck, heads up the workers, “but we could use more sorters, more help out here.”

On Wednesday, February 26, they were a couple of sorters short. Normally, they have about a dozen come out on their sorting days of Wednesday and Friday. Dyck said there have been a couple of people who had to step away for a while that they hope they could get back.

The eighth annual Taylor Renwick Memorial hockey tournament was another success with 46 participants.

“I’d like to think that each year it gets a little better. The ladies know each other from previous years and they are all excited to catch up on what’s been happening in each other’s lives,” said Vicki Renwick, Taylor’s mother.

The players welcome new faces and by the end of the weekend are adding each other on social media.

Ask anyone: farming on the prairies is not as simple as planting a seed and waiting for rain. Each farmer has to make the choice between the myriad of machinery, seeds, and procedures available and decide which combination is right for them. For Jagger Thomas, who farms and raises cattle southeast of Ninga with his wife Lora and two kids, an innovative new bit of technology has been a helpful addition to their farmstead. 

Last spring, Thomas invested in a drone to seed his cover crops. This small machine (small compared to typical farm machinery) measures eight feet wide once its four propellers are extended and can carry between 50 and 110 lbs of seed, depending on its density. It is programmed by a tablet-sized remote control, so once its flight-path is input, all a farmer has to do is press ‘go’. 

On their farm, the Thomas’ practice min-till and want as much grazing as possible to cut down on feed costs for their cattle, so planting a cover crop amongst their main crop was a no-brainer. By inter-planting forage broadleaves and grasses between the rows of grain, it allows them to reap the many benefits of cover crops like preventing topsoil erosion and weeds, depositing nutrients into the soil, and an additional and novel food source for cattle, which keeps them grazing for longer, giving them more opportunity to drop their own nutrients. 

“Our problem here in Manitoba is our short growing season,” said Thomas. “Down south, farmers can plant their main and cover crops separately, but up here we run into frost. The drone makes it possible to do in-crop applications so that our cash crop can get a jump the cover crop.”

Although President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods entering the US has been paused a month, if resurrected, they could still be a disaster for the economies on both sides of the border.

Trump announced his long awaited tariffs, and said they would hit on February 4. After phone conversations with Prime Minister Trudeau, and a few border related concessions, he agreed to pause their implementation for a month. He had done the same with Mexico earlier in the day.

A sigh of relief was audible, but paused tariffs are not cancelled tariffs and it might be something we will have to deal with again. Turtle Mountain MLA Doyle Piwniuk spoke about the situation just prior to the pause, saying he was hearing rumbles against their implementation from south of the 49th.

“I have always built up good relationships with US state legislators over the years,” Piwniuk said. “If you look at the trade maps, many of these states, 3/4 of them, their trade is mostly with Canada. Canada is their greatest trade partner. This doesn’t make sense.”

Piwniuk said one of the issues is in Ottawa. With Trudeau saying he will resign, and proroguing the House of Commons while the Liberal Party looks for a new leader, the ship is rudderless. As he said, a lame duck government at the same time Trump is pushing his agenda aggressively, is a “perfect storm” to cause problems.

Ninga may be a small community, but it has always had a big heart. While fewer than 45 people live there, around 70 kids and their families come to town every Thursday evening to participate in Ninga Rec Hockey, a recreational hockey organization that brings in kids from the surrounding area including Killarney, Boissevain, and Deloraine.

Since 1994, the organization has been giving kids the opportunity to play community hockey no matter their family situation. While “official” minor hockey organizations remain popular, rec leagues like the one in Ninga can offer team sports to kids and families who might not be able to fulfill the time or financial commitment. For instance, while Ninga Rec Hockey still has a registration fee, its season starts in January rather than October, and only has one practice per week. They host and travel to games and tournaments, too, but only on the weekends. 

It is rare but it does happen when a capital project comes in under budget. The new aquatic centre in Deloraine-Winchester is a good example.

In 2021, structural issues at the former pool were identified by the Public Health Inspector and confirmed by an engineering assessment. The Municipality of Deloraine-Winchester Council was informed it was not just the pool structure itself that needed major repairs but also all the drains, pipes and infrastructure. Based on this, Council determined repairs were not feasible, as they would be estimated to cost at least $1,000,000. The pool was closed in interest of public safety.

Council considered several options in selecting a design to replace the existing pool and consulted with Western Recreation & Development Inc. Many features were reused including the dressing room and office building. The budget was set at $2,200,000.

The Local Improvement District to be taxed was all properties including otherwise exempt properties within the Municipality of Deloraine-Winchester.

Members of the Turtle Mountain Nordic ski club are saying, “That’s more like it!”

The 2024/25 season is a little more what cross-country ski enthusiasts are after. The snow in the mountain, and across the province, is fairly heavy and that makes for good conditions. Compare that to the previous season, where snow was surprisingly scarce and melted when it came. In the case of Boissevain-based Turtle Mountain Nordic, it meant cancelling their main event of the year. This time around, said Casey Guenther of the club, the situation is very different.

“We had great snow to start the year,” Guenther stated. “The conditions are way better than last year, and the (Turtle Mountain Provincial) Parks staff has done a great job on the trails again, keeping them in shape.”

Although having some high profile challenges lately, water fluoridation still has support by professionals in the dental care field.

The addition of fluoride to water has been a part of Canada since about 1946, with different rates across the country. Although there have always been some skeptics, the issue has come more to the fore in the last few years. Most recently, the election of Donald Trump to a second presidential term has seen the rise of Robert Kennedy Jr. to the ranks of his advisors. Water fluoridation has come under fire from Kennedy, who has shown very strong contrarian opinions on health care topics.

In November, municipal council representing suburbs in Montreal decided to stop putting fluoride in the water in parts of the West Island due to a petition supposedly supported by Kennedy.

Fluoride is the ionic form of fluorine, a very abundant element in nature, which is actually found in some water. Studies in the 1930’s and ‘40’s looked at the benefits and drawbacks of fluoride in drinking water, finding too high a level could cause fluorosis, discolouration and sometimes damage to teeth, but a lower level to be beneficial in preventing cavities. After running tests in some cities, fluoridation became a part of North American public drinking water, and was later added to toothpaste around 1956.

As our society grows more multicultural, it allows us the privilege of learning about other cultures and to share our own. While conflicts may have driven newcomers from their homes, settling in Boissevain and the surrounding area has allowed them to take a breath and have a safe, happy holiday season. Many newcomers to the area come from Ukraine or Eritrea, which are both countries where folks celebrate Orthodox Christmas on January 7. This is because the Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar, which puts the birth of Jesus Christ on these dates. Much like Canadians, traditions vary by region.