While school doesn’t start up for the kids until Thursday, the school zone speed limits will back in effect beginning this long weekend.

From September 1st to June 30th, motorists driving in a school zone must slow down to 30 kilometres an hour from 8 AM to 5 PM  Monday to Friday.

Constable Sandy Deibert from the Thompson RCMP detachment explains those who don’t slow down in school zones could be issued a traffic ticket.

"The fines would be the same as if you were speeding anywhere else. For example, if you fail to slow down in a school zone, and you're still travelling at 50 kilometres an hour, you would receive a fine for $312."

"If you're speeding on top of not following the stand 50 kilometres an hour, let's say you're going 60 kilometres an hour as you enter the school zone, your fine would $442."

Deibert adds that while there is no requirement for motorists to slow down around the area of RD Parker Collegiate, she urges people to remain aware when driving around the school during peak drop-off and pick-up times.

Deibert says it’s also important for parents to practice pedestrian safety before school starts.

"For parents, I would  make sure your child is comforatble with the route you've chosen for them to get to school. I think it's important that you practice with them, leading up to the first day of school,  just so that they're comfortable, they know where they're going, they're not goning to feel like they're lost or anxious."

"Also speak to them about crossing safely. Kids are often just excited during the first couple of days of school, so they're running across the streets. We just want them to make sure they're taking a look both ways, and just slowing down."

She also encourages parents to speak with their children about not talking to strangers or getting into a vehicle that belongs to someone they don’t know while walking to and from school.

Gillam RCMP is seeking public assistance in identifying a suspect in an assault case.

On August 28, 2019, at approximately 7:30 pm, Gillam RCMP received a report of an assault at the Kettle River Motor Inn, located in Gillam, MB.

Officers attended and were advised that an unknown male was seen wandering inside the hotel in an area restricted from patrons of the bar. When the male was confronted about being in this location, he then assaulted one of the staff members and fled on foot.

The suspect is described as a Caucasian male, 6'4 - 6'6 with a slim and athletic build, blonde hair and a pony tail. ?

Anyone with information is asked to call the Gillam RCMP at 204-652-2436, call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477, or submit a secure tip online at www.manitobacrimestoppers.com.

The Gillam RCMP continue to investigate.

Last week’s Burgers to Beat MS event was a major success for our local A&W. Owner Rick Oberdorfer [Oh-ber-dorf-er] says his restaurant exceeded its goal of $1, 500. He adds that the fast food chain’s national goal of $2 million was also met, as A&W has now raised over $15 million over the past decade for the MS Society of Canada. $2 from every teen burger sold last Thursday was donated to the cause, and our local restaurant sold nearly 600 teen burgers. Oberdorfer goes on to thank the Thompson community for coming our and supporting the MS Society, and says that he hopes his restaurant can raise even more money for MS research next year.

On August 4, 2019, Thompson RCMP received a report of a single-vehicle collision which had occurred on August 2, 2019, in the community of Brochet.

Officers were advised that a pickup truck, being driven by a 41-year-old male, had been driving around the community with two female passengers seated on top of the truck cab. As the pickup truck drove over some rough terrain, one of the females was thrown from the vehicle. She was transported to hospital in Winnipeg later that day with life-threatening injuries.

On August 25, 2019, the 28-year-old female succumbed to her injuries.

RCMP have charged the driver, 41-year-old John Stanley Halkett, from Brochet, with numerous Criminal Code charges including Criminal negligence causing death, Impaired driving causing death and Dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death.

Halkett is wanted by the RCMP and is believed to have fled the community of Brochet and may currently be in Lynn Lake, Manitoba or Kinosao, Saskatchewan.

If you know the current whereabouts of Halkett, please contact the Thompson RCMP at 204-677-6911, call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477, or secure tip online at www.manitobacrimestoppers.com. Tips leading to the capture of Halkett could receive cash awards.

Thompson RCMP continue to investigate.

Rayden Seela completed his Ride for Hope last week, and raised about 45 hundred dollars for suicide prevention.

Seela biked from Winnipeg to Thompson over the course of five days in honour of his sister, who died by suicide in 2017.

All proceeds will be donated to the HOPE North Suicide Prevention Committee.

Seela talks about why he decided to team up with HOPE North.

"My councilor helped give me a few options of where the money would go and who would help me. She gave me the option of working with HOPE North,and they help out with every northern community like Nelson House and Thompson."

He adds that he is still accepting donations for suicide prevention, which can be made through his Rayden's Ride for Hope GoFundMe page.

All four major political parties will be represented in the Thompson constituency in the upcoming provincial election.

Darla Contois is the Liberal candidate in our riding. No details about her campaign platform have been made available at this time.

Contois will be up against Kelly Bindle of the Progressive Conservatives, Danielle Adams from the New Democrats, and Meagan Jemmett from the Green Party.

Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew was in Thompson this weekend to attend the local Candidate Campaign Launch event, and to outline his northern strategy.

One aspect of his northern Manitoba strategy is to repair and upgrade the operating rooms at the Thompson General Hospital, after three of the ORs were deemed unusable after sustaining water damage in June.

"The challenge I've heard from many people in Thompson is that the doctors don't have the space to operate in right now. There's a back-and-forth with the insurance company and the government. The bottom line is that people are concerned not only are they loosing the OR space, but also when the ORs get renovated, that they may not be renovated to the state-of-the-art capacity."

"We'd like to see the ORs modernized, so we're going to commit to that, as well as strengthening the overall infrastructure, just so that to try and avoid having a repeat of the situation in the future."

Other health care commitments Kinew and Thompson Candidate Danielle Adams are campaigning on are making LifeFlight air ambulances public, improving the northern patient transportation program, and bringing healthcare services closer to home, such as dialysis services.

The NDP leader is also promising to using the Community Reserve Fund if elected into office.

Kinew says he’s committed to putting people back to work in northern Manitoba, and adds that using the mining reserve fund will help with increasing jobs in the industry.

Kinew adds that there is currently $11 million in the reserve fund, and is accessible for mining communities to use.

There has been some back-and-forth between the NDP and PCs on how much money is currently in the fund, and if it can be accessible if it hits below the $10 million threshold.

Other commitments in Kinew’s Northern Strategy include fixing northern highways, and working with Indigenous communities to ensure they are at the table before major projects are given the green light, reforming the child welfare system to recognize the right of Indigenous children to grow up in indigenous households, and establish a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Committee of Cabinet led by Indigenous women who will work with families to implement recommendations coming out of the National Inquiry.

The Society of Manitobans with Disabilities office in Thompson will be live streaming the Disability Matters Leaders Debate tomorrow morning.

The debate will be streamed from 10 a.m. to noon from Winnipeg, where Manitoba’s political parties will discuss the priority issues of the Disability Matters Vote campaign.

The public is welcome to attend the live stream event at the SMD office, located at 303-83 Churchill Drive, across the street from the Petro Canada gas station.

There will be a lift available for people in wheelchairs or who can’t climb the stairs, and the live stream will have live captioning and ASL interpretation.

You can also catch the live stream on the Disability Matters Vote and Barrier-Free Manitoba Facebook pages.

A Green Party candidate has been announced in Thompson for the provincial election.

Meagan Jemmett was announced as the official candidate for the Greens on Thursday.

Jemmett, grew up in Nova Scotia, and lived in Alberta and Ontario before moving to Thompson in 2017. She currently works as an attorney, and practices criminal law.

She says she joined the Greens because it was the only party offering solutions for challenges such as the climate emergency, economic inequality, and the declining quality of healthcare in the north.

Jemmett goes on to say that if elected, she would advocate for health care investments, green jobs, and environmentally sustainable infrastructure for Northern communities.

She will be taking on Kelly Bindle from the Progressive Conservatives and Danielle Adams from the New Democrats.

A&W will be having its 11th annual Burgers to Beat MS fundraiser tomorrow.

$2 from every teen burger sold on Thursday, August 22nd will go towards the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, which will be used for research and support programs.

The national goal is to raise $2 million for MS, and Rick Oberdorfer, the owner of our local A&W, says the goal for his restaurant is to collect $1, 500.

Last year, Oberdorfer’s restaurant raised over $1, 200 for the campaign.

MS is an auto-immune disease of the central nervous system that affects the brain and spinal cord, and Canada has one of the highest rates of MS in the world.

A northern Manitoba RCMP officer has been found not guilty of manslaughter for an on-duty shooting that killed a drunk driver and injured a passenger.

But a judge has convicted Const. Abram Letkeman of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

A trial in Thompson heard how Letkeman fired a dozen shots into a Jeep in 2015, killing Steven Campbell.

Campbell, who was 39, was hit at least nine times and his girlfriend was also injured.

Crown prosecutors argued that the officer made wrong and negligent choices leading up to the shooting death.

A defence lawyer said the officer thought his life was in danger because he was standing in front of the Jeep and it was moving toward him.

The inaugural Music at the Museum concert will take place tomorrow afternoon.

It will be held at the Heritage North Museum inside the Hazel Hopkins Exhibit Room from 2 PM to 3 PM.

Amy Caldwell, who works at the museum, explains what the performances will look like.

"We're going to have some acoustic perfomances at the museum. The exhibit room is nice, and it's got good acoustics. We just thought it would be a neat thing to try out, and bring some people into the museum, do something different, and have some fun!"

Caldwell adds that while the event is free to attend, donations to the museum are welcome. There will also be refreshments at the concert.

Caldwell goes on to say that they hope tomorrow's concert is a success, so that they can continue to hold it for years to come as a fundraiser moving forward.

While the provincial election won’t be until September 10th, there will be an opportunity to cast your ballot early.

Advance polling will be held at City Centre Mall from August 29th to September 5th. From Monday to Saturday, the polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., while on Sunday it will be open from noon to 6 p.m.

Additionally, there will also be advance voting at the Paint Lake Fire Hall on Tuesday, September 3rd from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Manitobans can vote at any advance polling place across the province.

For more information on advance voting, visit electionsmanitoba.ca

City council has approved the land sale to allow Community School to expand their parking lot.

The School District of Mystery Lake contacted the city about the expansion last year, and requested a transfer for the land, with the city set to receive an equivalent section of land located near Burntwood School.

The city plans to use that land for its Multi Use Path project.

City Councillor Brian Lundmark says this land transfer would help with the traffic issues that occur around the school during drop-off and pick-up times.

Deputy Mayor Kathy Valentino added that the process of the city working with the school district shows that they have a great partnership, and that this is a win-win for both organizations.

The Hudson Bay Route Association held their 76th annual meeting in Flin Flon under the theme "Back On Track".

The Association is an advocacy group promoting the use of the Port of Churchill and the Hudson Bay Rail Line.

Canada’s Minister of International Trade Diversification, Jim Carr, praised the Arctic Gateway Group partnership’s role in re-opening the Port and the rail line after they closed. He said the Churchill deal would never have happened without the entrepreneurial support that came from Fairfax and AGT.

Carr also explained that it never would have happened without the strength courage and tenacity of Mayor Mike Spence, other communities up and down the line, and Indigenous leadership.

Flin Flon MLA Tom Lindsey suggested it’s time to look at not only what we ship out of the Port, but what we can bring in, adding the rail line should be expanded to connect other northern communities.

The Manitoba PCs are hosting e-town halls leading up to the provincial election.

Party Leader Brian Pallister says it's part of continuous efforts to hear from and talk to Manitobans about the issues that matter to them, as they get a chance to directly speak to him and other candidates.

The telephone town halls are being held before and during the formal writ period.

The calls will be a randomized dial out to thousands of phone numbers across the province.

The party says Pallister is also scheduled to travel over 8,000 kilometres to meet with Manitobans during the campaign.

People who wish to participate in the e-town halls can email their contact information to pcmanitoba@pcmanitoba.com.

After a prolonged manhunt, RCMP announced today that Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19, are believed to be dead.

Schmegelsky and McLeod were charged with second-degree murder in the death of Vancouver man Leonard Dyck. They were also suspects in the shooting deaths of Australian Lucas Fowler and Chynna Deese of North Carolina.

News of their deaths comes after a cross-country manhunt by the RCMP, local police forces and the Canadian military.

The pair was last confirmed to be spotted in Gillam on July 22.

RCMP said they found “several items” directly linked to the suspects along the banks of the Nelson River on Saturday.

RCMP deployed their Underwater Recovery Team, but that search ended by Monday.

This year’s recipient of the RWF Hunt Scholarship is Rishwan Dherdi.

Dherdi was presented the scholarship at today’s Thompson Chamber of Commerce meeting by chamber president Raj Thethy.

She plans to use the money to enroll in a Business Administration program, as she intends to spend the first year at UCN, and the remaining three years at the University of Winnipeg.

Dherdi says that in five years, she sees herself opening up her own business in Thompson, or pursuing a career as a charter accountant, which is an addition two years of school.

The RWF Hunt Scholarship was first established in 2002 by the city’s Chamber of Commerce for students majoring in a business-related program, and is named after the organization’s first president.

The general manager of the Ponton Service Station says there are plans in motion to rebuild the rest stop.

Audrey Ducharme explains that phase one of the new facility is complete, and that the next step is to set up the water, sewage, and gas systems.

She adds that they’re looking to adding electric vehicle charging stations at the new rest stop.

The Ponton Service Station burned last year, leaving many people traveling to and from Thompson without a rest area until Grand Rapids.

Ducharme says that not only was the destruction of the station a loss for travelers, but also Cross Lake First Nation, as 14 members of the community were employed at the facility.

While an exact date of the opening of the new station wasn’t discussed, Ducharme explains that Cross Lake is working around the clock to ensure the new service station is fully operational as soon as possible.

UPDATE: Shane Morris has been safely located.

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

Thompson RCMP is seeking the public's assistance in locating missing male.

On July 18, 2019, at approximately 9:40 am, Thompson RCMP received a report of a missing 18-year-old male from Thompson.

Shane Morris was last seen the evening of July 17, 2019, in Thompson, Manitoba. It is believed that he was in Winnipeg on July 26, 2019, however he may be headed to the Toronto, Ontario, area.

Shane Morris is 6'2”, approximately 230 lbs with dark brown eyes and a light complexion. He has short black hair but sometimes dyes it blond.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Thompson RCMP at 204-677-6909, call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477, or secure tip online at www.manitobacrimestoppers.com.

The residents of Marcel Colomb First Nation began heading home from Thompson on Wednesday.

The residents were evacuated last week due to the wildfires near their community, and the Red Cross team in the city assisted the evacuation by offering lodging, food, transportation, and other support.

After spending a week in the city, community leadership determined that it is now safe for all 144 evacuees to return to Marcel Colomb, as the roads are in good condition and power has been restored.

The response was part of an agreement between the Canadian Red Cross and the federal government to provide all disaster assistance to Manitoba First Nations.