‘Everything fades away’: Piney officials say cell service gaps hamper emergency response

Lost fire crews, delayed emergency response times and communication black-outs.

Those were just some of the issues that Joel Grenier faced when he battled last year’s wildfires in the Rural Municipality of Piney. He places the blame on the region’s spotty cellular service.

Whenever responding to an emergency call, the Woodridge district fire chief always has cellular service in “the back of our mind.”

“As soon as we leave those areas, then everything fades away. So then we get off the grid I guess at that point,” Grenier said.

Nighthawks prepared for Centennial Cup semi-final against Toronto

A day of rest and relaxation in P.E.I. has the Niverville Nighthawks refreshed and ready to go at the Centennial Cup in Summerside.

The team took a tour around the Island May 14, before a practice just before the start of the quarterfinals the next day. Niverville earned a bye straight to the semi-finals and the right to pick their preferred time slot May 16 after finishing the preliminary round undefeated.

"It was nice to get on the water," head coach Dwight Hirst said just after practice during the first quarterfinal game of the day.

"It's nice to do something other than hockey for a day, just unplug."

Reece Gault selected in first round of USHL draft

Oakbank’s Reece Gault has done something nearly no other Manitoba Junior Hockey League player has done.

The former Steinbach Piston went to the B.C. Hockey League and actually raised his level of play. After a strong rookie campaign with Steinbach in the 2024/2025 season, where the 2007-born defenseman nabbed 37 points in 52 games, he made the trip out west, signing with Victoria.

Unlike most of the players who make the move to the BCHL, Gault thrived with the Grizzlies, leading the team in points by a defenseman with 44. He was tied for third in the league-wide scoring race among all blue-liners, leading all rookies by 18 points across the season.

He was named to the league’s all-rookie team.

Civitanova Lube fall in Italian league final

For the third consecutive season, Eric Loeppky will be bringing home a Silver medal from the Italian SuperLega play-offs.

Loeppky plays for Civitanova Lube, which finished the regular season in sixth place, but managed to put together a run to the finals, where they looked out-matched by first place Perugia. A dominant 3-0 win by the higher seeded Block Devils in game one was followed up by 3-1 wins in the second and third matches of the best-of-five final.

Perugia have dominated Italian volleyball this season, winning the Club World Championship in addition to their domestic success.

In both the second and third match of the final, Lube was able to claim the first set, before falling three straight. They had an outstanding chance to extend the series in game three, claiming a 20-14 lead in the second set, before an incredible service run from Tunisian International Wassim Ben Tara put Perugia on the path to victory.

Carillon Sports Second Shots: Centennial Cup May 12/13

Featuring photos from Niverville's preliminary round games against Canmore (12th) and Rockland (13th), Longueuil vs Greater Sudbury from May 12, Toronto vs Lonueuil and Flin Flon vs Truro from May 13.

1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: Running water on Mill Street

NOVEMBER 30, 1951—One of Steinbach’s newest streets will be the first to boast running water in every home at a cost, like the ads say, within the reach of every pocket. Cooperation, and a little foresight, has made this project on Mill Street East possible.

This portion of Mill Street from Barkman Avenue to Kroeker Avenue was opened last summer. The only residence on the street at that time was that of I.T. Wiens. Since a shallow well could not be made here, and the cost of a drilled well would run $500 to $600, the Wiens family had to make do with a cistern and purchased water.

Later, Wiens sold his property to Bob Scarrow and built a new home on the same street. Another home was built by Jack Berger, and still another by Dietrich Reimer.

The group now decided to pool their resources and have a well drilled. Before they were finished planning, they agreed to the installation of one centrally located pressure tank and trench water lines to every home. The whole project is now almost completed, awaiting only the arrival of an oversized pressure pump before the taps can be turned on.

Larocque ‘Charge’-ing into PWHL finals against Montreal

Ste Anne’s Jocelyne Larocque is back playing for a championship, as her Ottawa Charge upset Boston 3-1 to advance to the PWHL Walter Cup finals.

The Charge got a double-overtime winner from Michela Cava, who tapped home a back-door pass to set off massive celebrations from the 11,000 who were in attendance at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa in game four May 10.

“You can’t look past these moments,” head coach Carla MacLeod said after the game.

“You need to be excited, you need to be happy about the outcome… You want to take that moment and celebrate, but at the same time, it’s not lost on us, our raceboard has six wins on it. We’re just at three. There’s a lot of work yet to be done.”

Players from region selected at WHL draft

Another year brings another high draft pick from the Eastman region at the Western Hockey League draft.

Ile des Chenes’ Nixon Gaudet was the first name from the region selected, as the Kamloops Blazers made the pick in the second round.

Gaudet suited up for the Eastman Selects AAA U15 team this year, lighting up the scoresheet. Across 32 regular season games, he nabbed 80 points, chipping in with 25 playoff points across 11 playoff games. He scored four goals in a losing effort in game four of the league finals, as the Selects fell to Brandon.

Kamloops had four picks in the first two rounds at the 2026 WHL draft and made 10 selections across the two-day event.

Nighthawks remain undefeated at Centennial with barnburner 7-6 win over Rockland

The Niverville Nighthawks didn't make it look easy, but they remained undefeated at the Centennial Cup, beating Central Canada Hockey League champions Rockland Nationals 7-6 in their final game of the preliminary round May 13 in Summerside P.E.I.

The game meant nothing in the table for both teams with Rockland unable to make the playoffs with any result and Niverville clinching top spot in their group thanks to a win over Alberta champions Canmore yesterday.

Nighthawks head coach Dwight Hirst said after the game it was a 1980s-style game between Calgary and Edmonton in the NHL and wasn't about to take many lessons from the game

"There was a little bit too much cheat in the game, there was too much not caring, too much complacency I would say," Hirst said.

COLUMN: The Carillon Flashback December 24, 1954 – J.R. Friesen house becomes Invalid Home staff residence

Another familiar landmark along Steinbach’s Main Street is gone. The Friesen residence, situated under the big maples next to the family’s Ford dealership, has been moved to a new location on Hanover Street, where it will be used to house the staff of the Invalid Home.

Built in 1916 by J.R. Friesen, this spacious home was one of the very first in town to boast hot and cold running water, plumbing facilities and steam heating. The contractor was John M. Penner, who now lives at Greenland. Plumbing and heating were installed by C.F. Friesen, now retired in Steinbach.

Total cost of the 30-foot by 30-foot, full two storey structure, was $5,000.

When the moving crew began to put the building on wheels, they found a house that was still built with the main floor of solid lumber planks rather than floor joists with spaces in between. Sixty-ton jacks almost failed to lift the structure from its foundation.

High-flying Steinbach Arts Council throws fundraising gala to boost support

Steinbach Arts Council executive director David Klassen spoke at the non-profit’s May 1 fundraising gala. Klassen called the event the charity’s most important fundraiser. SAC expects to see 2,300 program registrations, triple its pre-pandemic numbers. Klassen said the arts council is considered one of Canada’s largest arts organizations, leading the nation in per capita programming, with half of the budget of similar programs elsewhere.

Jobs and trade minister shares economic update at chamber summit in Steinbach

During the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce’s economic summit in Steinbach on May 1, Minister of Business, Mining, Trade and Job Creation Jamie Moses shared some of the changes to the economy and initiatives the government has undertaken since last fall when it launched its economic development strategy.

“I also want to say that every person’s success in our province is really important to us as a government. We understand that the challenges we’re facing, both to grow your individual business, to support the different regions of our province, only gets more challenging when we see the national framework of competitiveness, international conflicts when it comes to trade and tariffs…” he said.

“As well as when we look at global conflicts, which restrict supply chains, make things more expensive, put pressure on Manitobans and put pressure on businesses as well. And so we spend a lot of time as a government in understanding how we can support business communities through all of these broad challenges.”

Moses highlighted certain government initiatives, such as doubling the export support program funding so businesses can reach new markets, having a trade envoy in Washington, creating a $50 million trade growth investment financing program (TGIF), doubling funding for the export support program, taking the PST off of manufacturing equipment, building trade ties with Mexico while also looking to reach markets in Asia and India, and signing an interprovincial trade agreement in November 2025.

Nighthawks fly into Centennial Cup semi-finals

The Niverville Nighthawks chances of winning the Centennial Cup took a massive step forward May 12 in Summerside, P.E.I.

Across the modern history of the tournament, no team has lifted the championship trophy without first winning their five-team group and earning a bye straight to the semi-finals. The Manitoba Junior Hockey League-winning Nighthawks did just that a day before their final game, defeating Alberta champions Canmore 6-4 to move to 3-0 with eight points, four points ahead of any team with games left to be played.

"It's huge for the program, it's huge for the families, it's huge for the MJHL to have a team represented in the semi-finals," head coach Dwight Hirst said after the game.

Team captain Adam Vigfusson stepped up, netting a hat trick for his team to give them a early second period 4-1 lead they managed to hold through a late Canmore surge. He got the game going with a bang, converting on a two-on-one pass from line-mate Hayden Wheddon.