The Brandon Friendship Centre is holding a ceremony today to recognize Indigenous Veterans Day. A ceremony will be held at the teepee on Dennis Street and Rosser Avenue East – the park beside the 1st Street bridge. A pipe ceremony and prayers will start at 10 a.m. (weather permitting). Following the ceremony – a feast of wild meat soup, Saskatoon berries and bannock will be served at the Eagle Healing Lodge (24 Sixth St.) On Monday, November 11th, the Royal Canadian Legion Brandon No. 2 presents the annual Remembrance Day Service in Westoba Place at the Keystone Centre. Doors open at 10 a.m. with service beginning at 10:40 a.m.
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Brandon police are investigating after drugs were found inside a box of Toffifee among food items donated to Samaritan House. A client opened the chocolate box on Wednesday to find small baggies of meth and cannabis.
Samaritan says staff no longer pack hampers – they go with clients who select items from shelves inside the food bank. They now plan to increase inspections of donated items.
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A report on poverty has discovered that 1-in-4 Canadian parents cut back on their own food consumption to ensure their children had enough to eat in the past year. The Salvation Army says the high cost of groceries
has created a ‘deep crisis in the country.’ There was also a big jump in new clients accessing food banks across the country.
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This year’s winner of Brandon’s ‘Green Business Award’ is ‘Living Simply Kitchen’. The award honours local businesses that demonstrate outstanding efforts in sustainability. Living Simply Kitchen is a weekly meal prep business that sources food from local producers – and features a reusable glassware exchange program aimed at eliminating single-use packaging.
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Earlier this week, Brandon councillors approved a grant application to a provincial program that could see the city get up to $2.25-million for future road and sanitation projects. Two of those include rebuilding Richmond Avenue from 18th to 26th Streets – and putting a sanitation depot on the Keystone Centre grounds. The city can apply for up to half of the projects’ costs.
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Public hearings will be held next month for two bylaw amendments that would increase charges to Brandon developers. One would implement new rates for development cost charges for transportation and land drainage infrastructure – while the other handles charges for water and wastewater infrastructure. The rates haven’t had a major update since 2019.
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The old boards around the Brandon Sportsplex rink have been removed, and plans are now to sell them. Excavation work has also been completed so a building can be constructed to house the arena’s new ice plant.
The renovated rink is set to re-open in September 2025.
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The Manitoba legislative session ended Thursday. Among the bills passed was a ban on employers from using replacement workers during strikes or lockouts, and new rules around the sale of machetes. The biggest piece of legislation was the NDP’s budget bill which enacts tax changes. The next session is expected to start on November 19th.
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The Manitoba government is looking at strengthening a law that protects people whose intimate photos or videos are shared without their consent. Recommendations include allowing lawsuits against perpetrators for ‘threatening’ to distribute images – and another would make it easier for victims to get protection orders.
