Looking Back — April 18, 2023

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/04/2023 (1262 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SIXTY YEARS AGO

Southwestern Manitoba gains a new industry next month when Manitoba Timber Preserving Ltd. is scheduled to go into operation. The $45,000 forest products plant to pressure-treat poplar will employ about 10 men and will require about 1,000 cords of poplar annually. Construction will begin this week. A storage building and office will be erected three miles south of Boissevain at the junction of highways 3 and 10.

A request from the Brandon Curling Club asking the city to terminate its lease in the Wheat City Arena was received favourably by city council.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

The unemployment situation continues to improve in March as the total of jobless dropped to 608,000, down from 655,000 in the previous month, Statistics Canada reported.

If there have been any springs drier than this one, the records at Brandon Research Station don’t show it and farmers are getting worried.

FORTY YEARS AGO

A recently announced $194,000 federal grant will go a long way toward developing the new library arts centre, but it is not enough to finish the job.

The classic musical “Oliver” will kick off this year’s Mosaic Massey festival of life and learning.

The unemployment picture in Manitoba likely won’t improve for at least 10 years, a spokesman for the Federal Employment Department said.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

Brandon City Council, while sympathetic toward taxpayers who will see an increase on their 1993 tax bills, decided yesterday it would not revisit the budget to cushion the impact of a provincial tax grab. In last week’s budget, the province cut the annual property tax credit for Manitobans who make more than $27,000 from $325 to $250.

An environmental cleanup is underway at the former Sacred Heart junior high school after asbestos dust and fibres were stirred up during the demolition of the building.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

The SARS outbreak that has crippled Toronto’s health-care system may be on the verge of breaking out, in an uncontrolled fashion, into the community at large, infectious disease experts warn.

CFB Shilo’s $3.7-million medical facility will undergo its first steps of construction this week and will be three-quarters the size of the Second World War structure it’s replacing. “It’s due to the new military health reforms as well as the move of the 2nd Battalion,” says Lori Truscott of base media relations. Although Truscott says the project has been in the works for a while already, the confirmation that the base’s population will soon grow was added incentive. The 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry and their families will move from Winnipeg to Shilo in the summer of 2004. Construction of the 2,275-square-metre clinic will be kicked off with a sod-turning ceremony next week.

TEN YEARS AGO

A CFB Shilo soldier faces a sexual assault charge after a man grabbed a woman in the Brandon cemetery and exposed himself. Police say the victim did the smart thing — she scared off her assailant by screaming. “The more attention you can draw to yourself, in this case, the better,” Brandon Police Service Const. Ron Burgess said.

Restaurants and consumers will soon have to prepare themselves for a wave of changes following Tuesday’s provincial budget. While restaurant owners worry if their business will be affected by the July 1 implementation of an eight per cent retail sales tax, consumers are already feeling the brunt of increased alcohol prices.