Southeast Event Centre seeks additional funds

The Southeast Event Centre will post a large 2025 deficit, and they need financial assistance from the City of Steinbach.

That’s the message that Southeast Events Group (SEG) president Grant Lazaruk and treasurer Jarett Bishop shared with council at their strategic priorities committee meeting on Tuesday.

The group is requesting $435,000 for operating funds and $442,000 for capital funding for a total of $877,000.

The pair explained that operations were originally scheduled to begin in September of 2024, then delayed to December.

New food processing funding could see more produce for rural food banks

More farm veggies will soon be on the menu more often at Manitoba food banks.

Harvest Manitoba will be upgrading its distribution and food processing centre, after receiving a $500,000 donation from Crown corporation Farm Credit Canada.

“This support is going to allow Harvest to work with our agriculture sector to make sure that we waste less food as a province, and that we get more food onto the kitchen tables of Manitobans who need it now more than ever,” president and CEO of the Winnipeg non-profit Vince Barletta told The Carillon.

The upgrades include expanding cold storage space at its processing centre in Winnipeg and creating dedicated spaces for sorting, bagging and storing larger quantities of root crops and vegetables, such as potatoes and zucchinis, he said. The charity’s industrial facility is also slated to broaden its capacity to include repackaging some donated foods safely and turning donated items, like squashes, into soups and stews for distribution, Barletta added.

Advocates raise environmental alarms over North Dakota dairy farm approvals

Environmental advocates on both sides of the border are concerned the approval of two large-scale dairy farms in North Dakota will damage the Red River and Lake Winnipeg’s water quality due to potential untreated manure runoff.

North Dakota’s Department of Environmental Quality approved a permit on Sept. 24 to build the Heberg Dairy, a 25,000- cow farm near Hillsboro, roughly 235 kilometres south of Steinbach. The state department also granted another permit in January for a separate 12,500-cow farm in Abercrombie, nearly 110 kilometres south of Hillsboro.

Both farms are owned by Minnesota-based firm Riverview LLP and are located within 2.5-kilometres from the Red River. Combined, the two farm’s cow populations nearly equal all of the dairy cows in Manitoba. In 2024, the province had 43,500 dairy cows shared between 226 farms.

James Beddome, executive director for environmental non-profit Manitoba Eco-Network, sees the potential run-off from land sprayed with the manure causing irreparable damage to the Red River and Lake Winnipeg.

Carillon Sports Second Shots: Oct. 9th edition

Featuring photos from the Eastman Selects game in Steinbach Sept. 30, the Niverville Nighthawks overtime win Oct. 1, the Zone 13 high school soccer championships in Niverville Oct. 2, SRSS football homecoming Oct. 3, a Steinbach Pistons game Oct. 3, a Hanover-Tache Junior Hockey League opening weekend game in Ste Anne Oct. 4, the La Broquerie Habs home opener Oct. 4 and the Manitoba Moose intrasquad game in Steinbach Oct. 5.

Fibre industry flexes muscles in Manitoba

For Remko Stalman, sheep shearing is more than cutting wool. It’s all about the technique.

As he grabs a sheep with a coat ready to be cut, it squirms, kicking its legs to break free. But with each buzzing pass of the shears, Stalman shifts his feet, the sheep settles and quiets. The whole process takes only three minutes to get a complete wool fleece.

“I don’t look at a shearer anymore to see how he’s shearing or how the wool comes off,” the 45-year-old told The Carillon. “To me, it’s how does he position his feet? Where does his feet go? How does the sheep lay? That’s the technique that if you can get good at it, then you’ll have good sheep.”

Stalman started raising sheep at his farm eight kilometres east of La Broquerie in 2016. His farm has now grown to 450 ewes. In 2019, Stalman decided to start shearing both his and other farms’ sheep. But during many shearings, he saw the cut wool wasted and land on burn piles because there were no use for the fleeces.

Building permits on pace to beat record

With the final quarter of the year remaining, Steinbach Mayor Earl Funk is predicting another fantastic year when it comes to building permits.

Council passed a resolution at their Tuesday meeting to accept the building permit numbers for September.

The busy month saw a total permit value granted of $17.6 million. That included $10.2 million for residential and $7.4 million for commercial, industrial, schools and churches.

That translates to 21 single and two-family units, 32 multi-family units, and an additional 33,000 square feet of commercial space.

Steinbach Minor Hockey thriving with new fundraiser

The Steinbach Millers are enjoying a strong start to their season.

Scott Reimer, who is the minor hockey board’s coach representative, reported an increase in players this season, with strong fundraising efforts to help cover costs.

This year is the second year minor hockey has gone with a more centralized fundraising plan. Instead of 12 different team fundraisers competing for dollars and attention from the public and sponsors, the organization is running one big raffle. More than 40 businesses have donated prizes or support.

“It’s been an unbelievable amount of support from the community,” Reimer said.

Indigenous elder shares pain and healing

Lorraine Daniels was only six years old when she was taken from her family and sent to a residential school.

She was torn from a loving home that included her parents and grandparents and forced into a foreign environment where she and fellow students faced systemic discrimination.

“We were punished if we got caught speaking (our language) and we were shamed,” she said. “We were shamed for the colour of our skin, for who we were as Indigenous people.”

Speaking to the standing room only crowd at the Southeast Event Centre during the launch to Orange Shirt Day on Sept. 19, Daniels broke down as she recounted the pain of those early years.

COLUMN: Eye on the Arts – SAC opens new musical theatre workshop for adults

This dynamic series is designed for adults who love and aspire to sing, act, and perform. Through interactive staging sessions and masterclasses, you’ll sharpen your stage craft, learn how to bring characters to life, and polish your vocal performance—all while supporting your fellow castmates. Bring two prepared songs, and we’ll help you get them performance-ready. Whether you’re new to the stage or returning with experience, this workshop is your chance to grow as a performer, build confidence, and create unforgettable memories.

Come join us for our four Wednesday workshops: Nov 12, Dec 10, Jan 14 and Feb 11. Sign up online or call us to register.

Cello-Piano duo Prairie Sons brings Love Letter to the Prairies concert to Steinbach

SAC is proud to bring Prairie Debut artists Prairie Sons, the acclaimed cello–piano duo of David Liam Roberts and Godwin Friesen, to the SRSS Theatre on Sunday, Nov. 2, at 7:30 p.m. Their program, A Love Letter to the Prairies, features classical composers such as Rachmaninov and Poulenc alongside more contemporary works by Canadian icons such as Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, reimagined and arranged for cello-piano duo.

Moose intrasquad game brings pro hockey to Steinbach

The roster of the Manitoba Moose took one step closer to being finalized Oct. 5, but it wasn’t in the Hockey for All Centre or even downtown at the CanadaLife Centre.

The American Hockey League affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets held their annual intrasquad game in Steinbach, at the newly opened Southeast Event Centre.

“It’s great to bring a game like this a little bit outside the city limits and give back to communities beyond just Winnipeg,” Manitoba Moose vice-president of business and hockey operations Brad Andrews said after the game.

“Obviously we get lots of minor hockey teams and school groups and whatnot from Steinbach, so it’s great for us to be able to bring the game to this beautiful new facility.”

Steinbach women create cultural group for Indigenous girls

As it is National Women’s History Month in Canada, The Carillon spoke with four extraordinary women in the Southeast who are making a difference in their communities and have done or are doing extraordinary things. Women will be profiled every week for the next four weeks.

Val Gross is a woman who loves children and who wants to make a difference. She grew up with foster siblings her whole life and knew she wanted to be a foster mother herself. She studied social work in university but felt there was too much red tape with that profession and that she would make a bigger impact in a child’s life by being a foster parent, something she’s done for the past 28 years.

She’s a mother to nine children, six of whom are Indigenous foster children. It was when her foster daughter Zammy began asking questions about her skin colour, hair colour, and wanting to look caucasian that Gross knew she had to take matters into her own hands.

“It bothered me because I realized that she needed something – a group or something – that would make her feel OK in her own skin,” she said.