With Snowfall Warnings now in place for much of Southern and Central Manitoba, it appears sleds and toboggans will be getting more use than bikes at the beginning of Spring Break. Environment Canada has issued Snowfall Warnings for essentially all areas along and north of the Trans Canada Highway between the Saskatchewan and Ontario border.

Here in the southwest, the Melita, Virden, Souris, Brandon, Boissevain and Killarney regions are currently not within the Warning area, but we are still expecting accumulating snowfall starting tonight and lasting through Friday.

For the latest Road Report and Cancellation information, click here.

15 to 25cms is possible in the warning area, with lesser amounts south of the Number 1 highway. At this point, 5 to 10cms seems likely for the southwestern corner of the province.

Travel conditions will deteriorate starting Thursday night, and will remain poor throughout the day Friday. 

For the latest forecast details, click here.

Visibility will be significantly reduced due to heavy snowfall and localized blowing snow, as northeasterly winds gust to 70 km/h beginning tonight and continuing through Friday.

The snow will taper off Friday night, with cooler than average temperatures expected for the weekend.

School Division Boards across the province are struggling to make ends meet when it comes to the 2025-2026 budget. This has prompted increases to the special levy for education on property taxes in many communities.

The previous budget for Turtle Mountain School Division was $16, 053,337. But that number has risen by over $2 million for the 2025-2026 budget set at $18,180,452.  The Special Levy, which is the portion of property taxes that funds education, is projected to increase by 16.55% in this year's budget for Turtle Mountain.

"Each year balancing the budget is a challenge, but this year was difficult," says Wiesner.

In some ways you could say it was the perfect storm with rising maintenance costs and an increase in student population which prompted additional teaching and support staff. In addition to teacher salaries and benefits, there are additional financial obligations the school division board has, including contractual obligations for support staff and bus drivers.

"Each year balancing the budget is a challenge, but this year was difficult," says Grant Wiesner, TMSD Superintendent.

"The increase in provincial funding falls significantly short of covering the increased costs resulting from the provincial teacher collective agreement and increased staffing needs," shares Wiesner. "The Board received a 1.6% increase in funding in February, amounting to $108,621. This represents approximately one-eighth of the funding required to fully cover the increased costs associated with the teacher contract and the necessary staffing increases due to student population growth."

The Board did not anticipate the current situation, says Wiesner.  "The 1.6% increase compared to the previous year’s funding is much lower than expected, and with the rising costs that we're seeing, contractual obligations and our growing student body, it just was not making up the difference."

"We've had a number of years when school divisions couldn't tax and last year was when school divisions could start taxing again," explains Wiesner, "and the Board has always done its best to ensure that they consider the taxpayer and what our actual costs are, and how that's going to impact families with increases to the special levy.

In TMSD 82% of their budget is contractual obligations.  In addition to this the rising costs of bus fuel and maintenance, school maintenance, hydro, right down to cleaning supplies, says Wiesner, all costs have increased across the board.

"We need to maintain our school bus fleet and ensure that we're providing the best transportation service as possible,"

However, this year the TMSD Board decided to put school buses back into the budget.

For the last number of years, buses were not part of the school budget.  Wiesner says they would either purchase a bus through budget surplus dollars, or they were just maintaining their fleet as it was, without the purchase of new school buses.

"We need to maintain our school bus fleet and ensure that we're providing the best transportation service as possible, so that's been added back into the budget," he explains. "But our buses are aging, and we need to get into a system where we can upgrade a couple of buses every year, just to ensure we have the safest buses on the road."

Wiesner says TMSD's primary focus for the 2025-2026 budget is to maintain the status quo when it comes to teacher-to-pupil ratios, like other divisions are doing.

TMSD has grown significantly over the last 5 years

Five years ago, TMSD had less than 1000 students enrolled in their Killarney, Boissevain, Minto, Mayfair Colony, Can Am Colony, Holmfield Colony and Wellwood Colony Schools.  Now in 2025 their total student enrollment is close to 1200.  "So, we have grown significantly in the last 5 years," notes Wiesner.

"We want to ensure that we have our teacher to student ratios where the Board has them set," shares Wiesner. "We feel that's the best for providing a good learning experience for our students.  We also need to make sure that we're supporting students with diverse learning needs the best way we can." 

The TMSD is committed to preserving current ratios of:

• 1 teacher to 18.75 students in K-4,
• 1 teacher to 19.75 students in grades 5-8, and
• 1 teacher to 21.25 students in grades 9-12

"Our hope is that as the Province is moving to developing another funding formula for school divisions, that it will be equitable and it will meet our needs, and that again it will consider places like Turtle Mountain where our schools are growing, which is an awesome thing that we are growing," shares Wiesner. "But we also have to ensure that we have the money to pay for the costs of growing."

Please listen to more with Grant Wiesner below!

Summer staff are starting to trickle back to the International Peace Garden as they prepare for one of the most exciting seasons in the year; spring planting!

CEO Tim Chapman says some of the 8 and 9-month employees will be coming back over the next few weeks to prepare the grounds and the flower beds.

"We're fortunate to still be growing our annuals through Saddler's Greenhouse up in Souris and that really allows us in the first early weeks to get a lot of stuff done without having to worry too much about irrigating the plants because Saddlers does an incredible job and brings the plants down to the Peace Garden towards the end of May early June, ready to go into the ground," shares Chapman.

Staff are eager to bring back their volunteer days to help with the clean-up of fall season leaves, winter wear and tear on trees and bushes and getting their buildings ready for staff and visitors.

Friday, May 2nd will be their facilities volunteer day where they have folks with a variety of skills coming in to help them get the main facilities ready.

May 30th will be their Volunteer Grounds Maintenance Day, "which is a chance where hopefully it's been a little warmer and we don't have snow on the ground, and we can start to do a little bit of the fall and winter clean up. There's usually a little bit of ice in March and April that takes down some tree limbs. So having volunteers help us kind of clean things up outside a little is very helpful," he says.

On the two Saturdays, June 14th and June 21st, the Peace Garden will be hosting their big volunteer planting days "where we welcome folks from all over to come be a part of putting those beautiful annual flowers displays actually into the dirt so that they can come back through the season  and see how those beds mature and really fill out when they hit peak bloom in late July and August."

Mother's Day is the official start to the summer season at the Peace Garden, which takes place on Sunday, May 11th this year, featuring a special lunch buffet and some wonderful surprises for visitors.

"It's always a really fun time of year to kind of kick off the season," shares Chapman. "Depending on what the weather's doing we should have a variety of our bulbs starting to bloom. And thanks to the Central Dakota Daylily Society out of Bismarck, we have about 200 new varieties of day lilies that will be making their first spring bloom in our dirt.  We planted those last year, so we're real excited to see all the color come out."

By mid-May many of the flowers and flowering crab trees will be starting to bloom and many of the cacti will be blooming as well in the Conservatory.

"With the days already being longer and the cacti enjoying their new home we already have blooms coming out, which is incredible to see, and they'll just keep taking off through the summer," he adds.

This year's theme for the outdoor gardens will be 'Peace' which has turned out to be quite timely, given everything that's going on internationally says Chapman.

"Part of that selection was just wanting to kind of ground ourselves again and what the Garden was founded on, but also after a couple years of some really intricate designs, we wanted the horticulture team to be able to do more flowy designs and maybe a little less detail, compared to especially last year when we were designing the images around the different book characters."

"So, it's going to be a really beautiful, colorful set of displays and includes some piece imagery like doves that will be worked into the design and peace signs," he adds.  "So, we really think folks will enjoy that and hopefully it also serves as another reason for folks to visit."

Albert Shingoose's long-held suspicions that his missing daughter might have been the unidentified victim of a Winnipeg serial killer have been confirmed. On Wednesday, police confirmed Ashlee Shingoose, 30, was the first woman murdered by Jeremy Skibicki in 2022.

The Steinbach Chamber of Commerce is feeling very optimistic about the provincial budget announced last week.

"It definitely did deliver positive momentum for Steinbach businesses and the City of Steinbach with some of those budget line items that were there, and I am very excited to see additional details asl they get communicated to the public," says Tracy Gromniski, president of the chamber.

Positive Payroll Tax threshold changes

One of those items includes changes to the payroll tax threshold.

The budget has lifted the point businesses start paying this specific tax to $2.5 million of annual payroll, from $2.25 million. The boundary for a second rate has also gone from $4.5 million to $5 million.

This will free up some resources for hiring, investments, wage growth and scaling opportunities, Gromniski says.

"In this day and age, you'd be surprised how many businesses are actually impacted by that payroll tax. Industries that have high-skill professionals, even some medium sized businesses are impacted by that payroll tax levy," she notes. "So it's a really positive step towards growing local economy by allowing that tax relief."

Strategic Innovation Fund investment boost

Gromniski says a $50 million investment in the Strategic Innovation Fund is also good to see.

"It's aimed to support industries and stimulate economic growth, enhance productivity, and encourage and foster job creation in Manitoba" she explains. 

The president looks forward to seeing how local businesses will tap into that funding for their internal growth, scaling and adaptation.

"Maybe implement some new technology, do some increased professional development, add additional skilled resources to their labour pool, and just overall boost their business growth," she says.

Looking for more details on infrastructure

While the payroll tax change and the Strategic Innovation Fund investment are key, she says there were some things she was hoping to see in the budget, but didn't.

That includes details on how infrastructure investments would be allocated, especially given the provincial roads that run through Steinbach.

"The only projects that were stated in the budget were the perimeter and the Highway 1 East. Getting additional details as those come out will be key for Steinbach" — for economic growth and community safety, she says.

It's not the only thing that's uncertain at this point.

U.S. economic relations remain a concern

"Everybody's trying to gain efficiency and productivity, and be as lean as possible on the spending factor, especially if they're impacted by potential trade disruptions with the U.S.," Gromniski says.

For this reason, all support and funds available through the government are essential.

She says a lot of the focus and chatter in the local business community right now is around uncertainty — but everyone is doing their best.

"When we are faced with many things we can't control, we focus and look at opportunities in things we can control," she says.

As such, many businesses are talking about the items in the provincial budget that will sustain local businesses.

Written with files from Kenton Dyck

Ted Falk is running again for the Conservative seat in Provencher. Not only is Falk personally looking to win a 5th consecutive election, but he is also hoping for a return to power, rather than serving in opposition as he has been doing for the last decade. 

Falk first became the Member of Parliament for Provencher back in 2013, when he won a by-election, taking 58 per cent of the votes. He then served in government for two years until the Conservatives were defeated by the Liberals in 2015. Though the Conservatives lost that election, Falk was victorious. He would go on to win subsequent elections in 2019 and 2021. 

With Canadians going to the polls on April 28th, Falk says it was not a difficult decision to let his name stand for re-election.

"I always anticipated running under the leadership of Pierre Poilievre," says Falk. "I am really a strong believer in his leadership, his vision for Canada."

Falk says if re-elected, he will continue to focus his attention on family friendly policies. He says their leader announced this week that if elected, the Conservatives will remove the GST from the construction of new homes which cost less than $1.3 million. Falk says this could save some families up to $65,000.

"I see that as a priority for Provencher constituents that they want to find a way to get into affordable housing," says Falk. "There's a tremendous need for families to get into their own single family dwellings, and I think that's important."

Falk says his priorities have not changed much since being first elected back in 2013. Those priorities have included focusing on family values, being good stewards of our national finances and making sure that Canadians can still enjoy living in our free country. 

Falk says he will also work for farmers. Coming from a very farming central area, Falk says government needs to make sure that farmers are looked after and that they have access to markets. 

"That's something where this Liberal government has failed miserably," says Falk. "And as Conservatives we're going to be focused on making sure that our farmers have trade options and market access that they need to sell the goods that we produce here in Canada." 

Falk says quite simply, his priority is to continue to represent the values and ideas of Provencher constituents. He says constituents have been saying loud and clear that as a country we have lost a decade under the current Liberal government and that it is time for change.  

Falk says for the Conservatives to be victorious on April 28th, they must be able to properly communicate to Canadians that Poilievre is a leader who can be trusted.

"He's not a globalist elitist like Mark Carney, but he is an individual that has focused his whole career on Canada as a country and making Canada freer, making Canada more prosperous, making sure that we have good trade options when it comes to our natural resources and the things that we produce here in Canada," says Falk. "He's been very focused on making sure that Canadians pay less in taxes and that they prosper more as families."

Falk says that in order for Canada to put this trade war with the United States in the rearview mirror, Canadians must elect a Conservative government. He notes President Trump has made it very clear that he would prefer to deal with Mark Carney.

"(Trump) wants to make sure that he doesn't have to put up with a strong principled individual like Pierre," adds Falk. "I think if Canadians elect Pierre Poilievre to be the next Prime Minister of Canada, we're going to see a strong principled person that can run a tough negotiation with the Americans and actually restore the Americans to the position that we had them before, one where we have a mutually beneficial trade agreement that works well for both countries."

According to Falk, Canada's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has slipped to the lowest of the G7 nations. He says our country needs to figure out ways to be more productive and to produce more things here in Canada and to expand our trading partnerships. 

"I'm looking forward to meeting the constituents around Provencher as we're out there putting signs and knocking on doors and attending community events," says Falk. "And just hearing what their concerns are and I'm really looking forward to representing them for another term in Ottawa." 

Southeast Manitobans are getting a little taste of summer, as the Hanover Agricultural Society (HAS) announces the headliner for its annual Ag Fair.

This year, Canadian Country hit, Ryan Langdon will be swinging by for a performance on Aug. 16, that will not easily be forgotten, says Brenda Levesque with the society.

"He hasn't really been out to this area yet, so we want to bring some new Canadian talent that we haven't maybe seen," she says. "He's a great, solid country artist. He's had numerous Top 40 Canadian Country hits, and he has 14 million career streams, so we really lucked out that he was available."

Langdon's supporting act is the Sean Taylor Band, which originates in Manitoba.

As the concert wraps up, fireworks will go off, Levesque says.

Tickets to the show are $30 each, with children under 5-years-old being free.

She notes there should be something available at the fair for everyone, as it celebrates its 79th year.

"We love a vibe where everyone feels welcome. We have space if you want to dance, if you want to bring your lawn chair and sit, you can sit on the grass, we have our grandstands — whatever your vibe is, we've got you covered," she says, adding VIP tables will also be available.

Thursday and Friday of the fair will also feature bull riding, a pancake breakfast Friday morning, and an outdoor movie that evening.

Saturday will offer a full day at the fair, with the Manitoba Mud Mafia coming to do ATV mud races, cultural performances in the afternoon, an arm wrestling competition, and family fun zone.

"All of the good stuff that we usually have," Levesque says. "Our goal (is) family fun for everyone."

It takes quite a bit of effort to pull the fair together, she says, with eight board members, two staff, and a handful of core volunteers planning year 'round.

"Then we have, of course, the wonderful community that comes and volunteers, but it is non-stop," she says. "We meet constantly, we're talking almost everyday of the year almost."

Find more details about the fair as they come at hanoverag.com.

Written with files from Carly Koop