Last week, our local MP Niki Ashton expressed her solidarity with the climate strikers that took to the streets across Canada and she believes that we must answer there call.

Ashton says, people in our north can no longer wait and they need a government that will take the climate crisis seriously.

The NDPs announced a New Deal for Climate Action and Good Jobs which will ensure that workers and communities in Northern Manitoba reap benefits of the clean economy of the future; the plan would also distribute Manitoba’s clean power to other provinces.

The Opaskwayak Cree Nation Oath of Office Ceremony was held in the community yesterday.

Chief Christian Sinclair and eight candidates were officially sworn in to serve the community for the next few years and people had the chance to shake hands with the winning candidates and a few prayers and speeches were made during the ceremony.

Sinclair was praised for providing a financial gain for OCN during his time as chief and for working to bring the Manitoba First Nations Police force to the community. He was re-elected as chief with a total of 998 votes.

This Monday is Orange Shirt Day and Margaret Barbour Collegiate and the Schools of the Kelsey School Division will be participating. 

Students are encouraged to wear orange shirts to show remembrance for those that didn’t survive residential school and to honour those that survived.

The date chosen for Orange Shirt Day represents the time of year when indigenous children were taken from their families and put in residential schools.

Students at Oscar Lathlin Collegiate will be taking part in a walk from the GLMC to the Arbour site at one in the afternoon to commemorate the day.

With the federal election now underway, Conservative candidate Cyara Bird is making her political debut four years earlier than expected. A life-long conservative, Bird says she was encouraged by Conservative MPs to run for public office when she was in Ottawa earlier this year.

Prior to her involvement in politics, Bird was a stay-at-home parent who currently resides in Little Black River First Nation with her husband and two daughters.

In 2013, she made the decision to run as a candidate in the 2023 federal election, but ultimately decided to run in this year’ election instead, as she felt the constituents needed her voice now.

For her platform, Bird says she wants to work on having better mental health and addictions resources up in the north, addressing crime and gang violence, and continuing mineral resource development.

A riding that typically elects either NDP or Liberal candidates, the last time the Churchill Keewatinook-Aski elected a Conservative MP was Cecil Smith in 1974.

She is running against the NDP’s Niki Ashton, Liberal Judy Klassen, the Green Party’s Ralph Mclean, and Kenneth Klyne from the People’s Party of Canada.

The federal election is less than a month away and NDP MP Niki Ashton is one again accusing the federal Liberals of failing Indigenous peoples in Northern Manitoba.

She stated that people in the north are still facing a housing crisis that has not been addressed and many are still struggling to reach health facilities outside of their communities and its a struggle for them to get the health care that they need.

The NDP’s are committed to working towards reconciliation with indigenous peoples across the country.

Terry Fox National School Run Day is tomorrow.

They are among the millions of students across Canada who join in the Terry Fox School Runs each year.  As a result, it is one of the largest fundraising events in Canadian history.

According to a list provided by the Terry Fox foundations many schools in The Pas and Area will be participating Including Joe A Ross School, and Kelsey Community School, Scott Bateman Middle School, and Oscar Lathlin Collegiate.

To donate to the Terry Fox Foundation, sponsor any student you know that is participating or go to terryfox.org.

The Tim Horton’s annual smile cookie campaign was a huge success this year locally.

Diane Sanderson from the local Tim Horton’s says they had the highest sales of smile cookies in Western Manitoba with a total of $12,500 raised.

Sanderson is very gratefully for all the hard work put into the campaign and she would like to thank everyone involved in the campaign for their hard work and contributions.

The Pas Families building a better community group will be using the funds raised to purchase new benches and picnic tables for Centennial Park and some of the funding will be used for their skate park project.

In response to the death of Kendara Ballantyne a new safe ride program was created for The Pas and area. 

The program was spearheaded by Paulene McGillivray and encouraged the Ballantyne family to get involved with the program and asked them to come up with a name for service and the name chosen was Nisiiminan Safe Rides, Nisiiminan translates to “My Little Sister. 

The new service provides safe transportation for indigenous and non indigenous woman on Fridays and Saturdays from 11:30 PM until 4AM to keep them out of potentially dangerous situations at night and on their first official week they had 13 rides and they stayed out until 5AM to ensure that one of their last rides made it home safely.

To access the service call 431-355-0438

The federal election is set for October 21^st of this year but eligible voters have the option to vote ahead of time as well.

From now until October 15^th you can cast your ballot early using a special ballot process at the Elections Canada office located across the street from Fat Boy Restaurant on Fischer Avenue.

The special ballots require voters to write the name of the candidate that they are voting for on the ballot.

Elections Canada would also like to remind voters that voter information cards should be arriving in the mail soon.

Additional information on this year’s election can be found at elections dot ca or you can call 1-800-463-6868.

Residents of The Pas are reminded that there will be a public hearing this evening at council chambers at the municipal office.

The hearing regards an application submitted by Northern Lights Paving to permit a temporary asphalt manufacturing and refining plant.

The hearing begins at 6PM.

Maple Bus Lines has announced that Pimicikamak Indigenous Nation recently became a strategic investor in growing long distance bus service in Manitoba.

This investment will allow maple bus lines to add new direct bus and charter services to Northern Manitoba communities including The Pas and Flin Flon and fill the void left when greyhound withdrew its bus service last year.

The investment will also allow the company to make investments to improve their fleet and facilities.

It is not clear when the service for The Pas and Flin Flon will be launched.

The results of the Opaskwayak Cree Nations 2019 election are in. Incumbent Chief Christian Sinclair was re-elected with a total of 998 votes.

Runners up Dale Knutson and William McGillivray received 543 and 68 votes respectively.

The 8 candidates elected for councillor positions are Sidney Ballantyne, Maureen Brown, Clarence Constant, William Lathlin, Jennifer Flett, Samantha Fidler, Edwin Jebb, and Rick Constant.

During renovations to the post office on Tuesday, some material fell onto the work floor. As a safety precaution, the post office was temporarily closed and a sign was posted to notify customers.

With the repairs completed and the air quality testing conducted, the post office re-opened yesterday. Employees have been working through any backlog that was created as a result of the closure and should be caught up today.

We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience.

These are the unofficial results for the 2019 OCN election for the candidates running for chief.

Christian Sinclair: 997
Dale Knutson: 543
William Mcgillivary: 68

Ten Northern Manitoba residents have been selected to take part in a special story telling course here in The Pas.

The National Screen Institute New Northern Voices in association with The University College of the North is a full time four week program that will allow students to create a short film based on stories developed during the training.

UCN president Doug Lauvstad says this is another great partnership that will help to grow industry capacity in Northern Manitoba.  Four of the students are from The Pas and three students are from OCN.

The program will begin on September 23^rd and students will be mentored by award winning content producers.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs presents “I’m First Nation and I Vote” tonight in partnership with MKO.

This open town hall forum will play host to the four candidates running for the Churchill-Keewatinook Aski riding in the upcoming federal election. 

It will begin at 7PM  in Thompson with participants fielding questions from the audience and those sent in via social media.

The candidates include incumbent Niki Ashton for the NDP, Cyara Bird for the Conservative Party, Judy Klassen for the Liberals and Green Party candidate, Ralph Mclean.

The forum will be live streamed on the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Facebook Page and You Tube Channel so people in The Pas and Area can ask questions via social media.

https://www.facebook.com/AssemblyMBChiefs/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjz23-aYRtfN4cQsdNz-0cA

Joe A Ross School was evacuated Yesterday  after threats of a shooting were discovered written on the wall of one of the schools washrooms.

Students were sent home for the day and two youth suspects have been identified. No charges have been laid as of news time.

Our local MP Niki Ashton spoke to Arctic Radio to talk about the issues of drug addiction in Northern Manitoba and in the rest of the country.

The NDP has called the ongoing opioid crisis a national emergency and they have been calling for a national strategy to solve the crisis.

They have been urging the Federal Government to work with provinces to ensure that there is more support readily available to save lives.

Ashton also brought up the meth crisis and its use in small communities and it has created a lot of destruction and is linked to the suicides in Northern Communities. 

Ashton added that we can’t put an end to the drug crisis unless there are supports available for people to get help with addictions.

September 19th is Election Day for Opaskwayak Cree Nation. Incumbent chief Christian Sinclair is seeking re election and Dale C Knutson  and William McGillivary are running for his position.

OCN members can vote at the Kikiwak Inns Bignell Room. The polls are open from 9AM until 8PM.

There are also 8 councillor positions and the candidates are:

Samantha Fidler

Clarence Constant

Paulene McGillivary

William Lathlin

Rick Constant

Mike D Bignell

Jennifer Flett

Sidney Ballantyne

Kerry Bignell

Edwin Jebb

and Maureen Brown

Results should be made available around 9 o clock on the evening of the 19th and CJAR radio will be on air to give updates on the results.

Russell Thorne from the Northern Health Region spoke to Arctic Radio to talk about the Get Better Together Program set to begin on October 2^nd and will run for six weeks on Wednesdays.

The program was developed by Stanford University and was coordinated by the wellness Institute out of the 7 Oaks General Hospital in Winnipeg and implemented in the North by the Northern Health Region.

It will be held at the Primary Health Care Centre at 111 Cook Avenue and the class hours are from 6:30 until 9:00 PM with breaks. Anyone living with a chronic illness as well as caregivers and family members are invited to attend.

To sign up for if you need more information call Thorne at 204-627-6419 there is no cost to attend.

Our local MP Niki Ashton visited The Pas recently as part of the NDP’s campaign launch. Ashton says we need to have a strong voice for our region at the national level as there is a lot to fight for including the housing crisis in the North and health care.      

Ashton beleives that there is a lot of wealth from Northern Manitoba that benefits many Canadians but very little of that wealth is given back to Northern Communities something Ashton says has to change.

Ashton went on to say that we need to ensure that the federal government is listening to us and not just benefitting from what Northern Manitoba produces and the wealth that comes with it.

Ashton also made a stop in Flin Flon Yesterday afternoon to talk about the underfunding and understaffing of Maternity Healthcare Services. The NDP government is committed to reopening the maternity ward in Flin Flon.

This week is smile cookie week at Tim Horton’s and proceeds raised locally will go towards The Pas Families Building a Better Community.

They will use the funds raised for benches and picnic tables for Centennial Park and remaining funding will be used for The Pas BBC’s skate park project.

Over $13,000 dollars was raised last year and the goal is to exceed that amount this year.

You can find an order form for smile cookies at thepas.com/cookies

A special gathering called remembering missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Honouring our Two Spirit Loved Ones will be held  tomorrow at the Kikiwak Inn from 10AM till 4PM.

Raven Richards Coordinator for the commemoration project said that funding was received through a commemoration fund with an objective to help families across Canada to commemorate their loved ones that they have lost through gender based violence.

The next step is to have some events to commemorate lost loved ones and the gathering will allow people to provide their input on what they would like to see at these events.

There will be a date set where they will be able to host an event and assist families in carrying out an event and the funding will be used to serve eight communities including Opakswayak Cree Nation to hold an awareness walk or another event to commemorate lost loved ones. Dates for these events have not been set.

People that attend the gathering are also asked to provide their feedback on how to honor and celebrate family members as a community and how people can be educated on issues surrounding gender based violence.

If you would like more information call Richards at 204-627-1540

The RCMP has announced that James Lee Stepanow has been located deceased. No criminality is suspected.

The Pas RCMP received a report on September 10th of a missing 46-year-old male from The Pas. Stepanow last made contact with family on September 3, 2019.

The RCMP thanks the public and the media for their assistance.

The Opaskwayak Educational Authority will be hosting a Smart Choices Responsible service certification, and Smart Choice Cannabis service certification program in The Pas.

The program is designed for those who sell alcohol or cannabis in a licensed establishment, as well as covering problem gambling awareness.

The Program is set to run Wendesday September 25^th and costs less than 40 dollars per person to register.

A hide tanning course will be running from Monday till Friday next week as O-E-A has partnered with Cree Nation tribal health to bring you this program.

A Chainsaw safety certificate training program will also be coming up October 3rd and 4^th; the program costs 150 dollars and is open to OCN Members

To get involved with this or other educational programs hosted by O-E-A you can call 204-627-7181.

Amanda Lathlin, of the NDP will represent The Pas-Kameesak riding, as the area’s MLA.

Lathlin walked away with 57.2% of the vote. A total of 3,054 residents cast their ballot across 49 polls in favour of the NDP incumbent.

PC candidate Ron Evans had 24.8% of the vote, the Green Party’s Ralph McLean had 14.6% of the vote and the liberals Ken Brandt had 3.3% of the vote.

A total of 5,336 people got out to vote in The Pas Kameesak riding

With the provincial election over, Manitobans won’t get a rest, the federal election campaign kicks off today.

Suicide is the 7^th most common cause of death amongst Canadian males, and the second leading cause of death for young males between the age of 15 to 24.

Tomorrow is World Suicide Prevention Day, the Beatrice Wilson health center will be hosting a walk and vigil in the community tomorrow.

The walk will be starting at the health center at 11:00am and finishing at the Gordon Lathlin memorial center.

The vigil will take place in the evening, at 7:30pm, also at the health center.

Every day, an average of 10 Canadians die from suicide. Know the signs. Canadian suicide prevention services are available at 1-833-456-4566.

Yesterday 1029 CJAR hosted the electoral candidates’ forum. Amanda Lathlin from the NDP, Ralph McLean from the Green Party, and Ron Evans from the Progressive Conservatives joined us in studio.

The candidates debated the importance of issues such as health care, education, mental health for are youth, good jobs, and fair wages.

NDP candidate, Amanda Lathlin, says she wants to bring forward solution to work with governments at all level.

Green Party Candidate Ralph McLean says he is running for a stronger north.

And PC Candidate Ron Evans says his experience can help bring people, business and organizations together to make things happen.

The provincial election will be taking place on September 10^th.

If you’re man enough to walk a mile in her shoes, the time has come to register for this year’s annual event hosted by The Pas Aurora House.

To register for this year’s event you can pick up forms by calling 623-7427

The walk will take place Wednesday September 25^th at 6pm at the Otinika mall

Youth often find it hard to reach out via phone, that’s why crisis text lines are open across Canada from 5pm till 1am, text 45645, and crisis workers will text you back immediately. emergency crisis phone lines are always open at 523-5497.

The Pas Committee for women in crisis is currently looking for members. If you would like to join, their next general meeting will be held at Good Thymes Restaurant, Tuesday September 17^th, at 6:30pm.

Tonight the Kelsey rec and wellness center will host their annual parade of programs.

The event will take place from 6 until 9 pm this evening and will show case a variety of different community groups, organizations, and activities taking place throughout the year.

The Pas Road Runners will be taking registration for their upcoming session, and for other young swimmers you can check out the Winton pools weekend and after school swim programs.

Come and see all that The Pas and area has to offer, or contact Kelsey Recreation 627-1134.

Jimmy the Janitor will be in town with an upcoming fundraiser in support of The Pas and Area Animal Shelter.

The show is good clean comedy geared to anyone 10 years of age or older.

Since opening the animal shelter has seen numerous animals brought through its doors.

Tickets are $30 and can be purchesed at Klean All, Shanes in the Otinika, and through the animal shelter.

For adoption information, or how to donate, contact The Pas and Animal are Shelter.

The grand opening Ceremony for The Pas’ new spray park was held last Thursday at Centennial Park. Davide Novo the president of The Pas Families Building a Better Community gave a short speech and handed the spray parks key over The Pas mayor Herb Jacques.
Jacques says that having community projects like this helps with community pride and he looks forward to having his grandson play at the spray park next summer.
The Pas Families BBC has worked for a long time to make this project a reality.
After the ceremony the kids had a chance to play in the spray park and enjoy some free pizza.