Nickel Belt News
Volume 58 Number 11
Friday, March 16, 2018
Thompson, Manitoba
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Wednesday, February 24, 2021
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Serving the Hub of the North since 1960
Volume 61 • Issue 8
21 new cases of COVID in Cross Lake Feb. 22 account for most of north’s 36 new cases
Book a way to preserve and pass on memories of growing up in Churchill
BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
Northern Manitoba reported 36 new cases of COVID-19 Feb. 22, the bulk of them in the Cross Lake/Pimicikamak health district. There were 21 new positive tests for the virus in
Cross Lake, which now has over 200 active cases after a rash of cases began popping up there a few weeks ago. There were also seven new cases reported in the Thompson/Mystery Lake health district, as well as three in The Pas/ Opaskwayak/Kelsey health
district. Two other heath districts reported two new cases each and there were two others with one new case apiece. For Manitoba as a whole there were 97 new cases of the virus identified on Monday, including 54 in the Winnipeg region. Two
more deaths were also reported and 886 Manitobans have now died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. There are 206 people hospitalized due to the virus, including 78 with active infections. Of those in hospital, 32 are in intensive care, including 14
whose infections are still considered active. There are 22 northerners in hospital, including 10 with active infections. Seven northern residents are in intensive care, including four with active infections. A Feb. 17 Perimeter Aviation flight from Garden
Hill First Nation to St. Theresa’s Point has been identified by the province as a flight with someone who has since tested positive for COVID-19 on board. The current five-day test positivity rate in Manitoba is 5.4 per cent.
City talking to user groups about possible reopening scenarios for arenas and fitness centre The City of Thompson recreation department is speaking with users of the Thompson Regional Community Centre arenas about options to restart programming while complying with current public health orders. Ways to make the TRCC fitness centre accessible while still providing adequate separation from the gym itself, which is
the site of a COVID-19 vaccination super site, are also being explored. In a Feb. 19 press release, the city said that public health orders limit indoor ice rink programming to one-on-one instruction. Only one person for each person receiving instruction can enter the facility to observe the instruction and the total number of participants can
not exceed 25 per cent of the arena’s usual capacity. The city is exploring whether the fitness centre can be isolated from the gym with a barrier or by other means, provided it does not prevent adequate ventilation, which is especially important due to a heightened risk of virus transmission when people are exerting themselves and breathing more
heavily. Because an ice plant operator must be present when the walking track in the C.A. Nesbitt is open, it will not be accessible unless the arenas themselves are reopened, the city said. The city says it will provide an update on the potential reopening once it has had a chance to receive feedback from ice users.
Design for a new pool should be ready in April or May, rec committee hears Winter Wonderland Christmas display fundraised $60,000 mittee meeting, referring to the project, Wiseman said at cent of an estimated total Stantec Architecture, which January’s recreation com- cost of $20 million for a More than two years after was awarded a contract of mittee meeting. new pool, with the city chipshutting the Norplex Pool about $1 million for the “We had great success. ping in just over $5 million. down permanently for safe- design and engineering os We raised just over $60,000 The provincial governNickel Belt News photo by Ian Graham ty reasons, the city is getting a newnorthern pool facility back in deMeulles in a matter ofwritten three-and-amenther told the city ingrowing late up, mostly in Churchill. Addictions Foundation of Manitoba director Gisele has a book about experiences closer to having a finalized September. October of last year that it half, four weeks.” BY IAN For all the harsh weather writedesign thingsis that you have I’m just bad,the right?’ notits a list very thing swallow when people say design forGRAHAM a replacement but to The expected to ‘Oh, Apart fromasthat, only was had sent ofsafe prioritized EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET have allfunding these stories gure out.by It’s pretty do butunder I jumped at it.toI that Churchill residents and the dangers of polar how it’s going to be paid to be fifinalized April or clear May Iexternal the cityand has to projects the ICIP she’s now written when get through.” need capture them that was exciting forThough is still an open question. of thisIyear and will include Isaid it’storeceived so farfor is thought the federal government and should just find somewhere bears, deMeulles said if it a book about her experienDeMeulles said she wrote my grandchildren really until the plane landed and had been viable she would “We’re still continuing to a recommendation on pos- $75,000 from the province that, once projects are ap- easier to live. ces growing up in Churchill, titled for Whispers in because they and will engineerbe lost if they started the “To say, ‘Those people have moved back to Churchwork with Stantec and we her for the design proved at the throwing federal level, siblebook, locations the pool Addictions Foundation of the Stories from the don’t.” fuel off and I realized, ‘Holy choose to live there. They ill in a heartbeat. have a meeting this week and Wind: the best ones based on Iing report. the provincial government Manitoba northern director North - Life in Churchill for She also has2019, a reputation probably sitting should just leave,’ is quite “I miss the shoreline, I with them,” said recreation the city’s wants and needs. In October council cats, it willI was provide provincial Gisele deMeulles said writ- a couple of reasons. a storyteller herself. a bomb.’” and community services The Winter Wonderland as passed a resolution seek- on funds immediately to allow simplistic. It’s quite disre- miss the rock, I miss the ing wasn’t something “I just sort of display thought, had such a varied his- planning Another thing that director Sonya Wisemanshe at Christmas lights at ing“Ian Investing in Canada and construction to spectful. If we were in the polar bears even though always she would know what, this his- tory and I would tell people her onas was the same boat in another area they’re very dangerous and the Feb.thought 16 recreation and you McCreedy Campground Infrastructure (ICIP) grant, spurred begin as quickly possible. do. this stuff in my and they would go, hard times facing Churchill I think we would scream I really miss the Hudson community services com- tory, generated somethat’s money for stories which would cover 76 per BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
“In my youth I never felt good at writing,” she said. “But when I moved to Thompson to get into the school of social work, at that point I had to write for university and realized, ‘Holy, I’m not bad at this, right?’ I certainly developed a lot of skill in university and came out of there with a very strong skill in my writing and confidence in my writing. I write very clear and that’s it. It’s there. Some people say it’s kind of blunt or direct. I don’t tend
head, it’s going to be gone ‘That’s not true, is it?’ I’d go, since the Hudson Bay Railif I don’t write it down,” she ‘Yeah it’s true.’ They’d go, way suspended operations said. “My kids are not go- ‘You didn’t do all that, did north of Gillam last spring. ing to get it if I don’t do it you? You’ve got to be really “It used to be a really and it’s something I’ve al- old.’ I was like, ‘No, actually thriving large community ways wanted my mom to I did all that before I was and it’s just dwindled down do. My mom’s an elder and 27,’ and they went ‘What?’” to such a small population Contact she’s an artist,Nelson she’s got so at 204-307-0281 Looking back, some of now,” deMeulles says. many wonderful stories be- those experiences are things Though she’s not there pruderspropertyservices@gmail.com cause she always tells her she might not do again. any longer, her parents and stories at Parks Canada in “I did some pretty bizarre her sister and other family to discuss your property needs! Churchill and I’ve always stuff like fuel hauls into the members still are. hounded her, ‘Please, just high Arctic at -35,” said “My cousin owns the put it on tape, I will write it deMeulles. “It didn’t dawn hardware store there,” she for you because your story on me until after. That was a says. is going to be lost,’ and she’s very dangerous thing to do. Because of that, never done it and I thought, Being on a plane full of fuel deMeulles finds it hard to
Yer snow gotta go!
about that so why don’t they have the option to do that? I think right now they’re feeling like they’re pawns in a political game and that’s really sad for them because I think the people of Churchill really want to thrive. They’ve built their worlds there. How would we feel if someone came to you and said, ‘I’m sorry, you have to leave your home community and we’re going to displace you somewhere else and all your loved ones and your history is gone?’”
Bay,” she says. “When I go back home, standing on the Hudson Bay looking out on the bay, it just gives you an incredible sense. You feel so small and you feel great.” Now that she’s got one book under her belt, deMeulles says she may try to produce another. “I have another book in me,” she says. “It’s a darker story, more about personal growth and struggles. Maybe in the next five years it’s something I’ll focus on doing.”