u/Doog5

Thinking about buying a cabin and curious what the communities/vibes are like around popular spots like LOTW, Falcon, West Hawk, Gimli, etc.

Feels like every area has its own personality and type of cabin people. What are the stereotypes/reputations for each?

Also any suggestions on actual areas would be great!

To MP Ben Carr,

Let me get straight to the point:

I really like the Winnipeg Richardson International Airport.

To clarify, I am one of the rare individuals that proudly likes airports in general. Airports are the literal embodiment of a transitional space, and this weirdness about them becomes very apparent the moment you remove the airplanes from them. Sure, I'm in Calgary drinking a margarita at Chili's at 9 in the morning; but am I really in Calgary, and is it really even 9 in the morning? For who is it 9 AM? The me that departed on this trip? The me that will arrive at my destination? It is neither 9 AM where I am from or where I am going. This isn't even mentioning the fact that the environment I now find myself surrounded by shares absolutely no characteristic with the city of Calgary. On a short trip to Vancouver, I must first enter a physical building that serves as a pocket dimension outside of space and time. Airports feel completely detached from the city of their origin because they are embassies for the nation of Those On A Journey. Put less romantically, airports don't feel like they belong somewhere because airports belong to everyone.

Airports are where some of your earliest "great" memories are made; where your mom and dad made sure you had your boarding pass and passport ready. My wife and I went through airports recently when we went to Guyana this last spring break to see her extended family whom she had not seen in 13 years. Airports are what you pass through as you race across the country to see if you can say goodbye to someone you love before they die.

For 90% of Canadians, airports are for when it matters.

I misspoke.

I really, really like the Winnipeg Richardson International Airport.

I love how small it is and how efficiently it is designed. It is a straight line, on which it would be impossible to not find your gate. I love its natural lighting during the day, and I love how inviting it feels once past security as if you are simply walking to your bus station on your daily commute. I love how humble the arrival floor is. It's not trying to kick you out the door the moment you touch down- it's letting you breathe and hug those you missed for a brief moment. I, like many, love our airport because it's perfect. We love it because it's human, and because its purpose extends past mere profit.

Privatization of Winnipeg's airport won't make it more perfect. It will only introduce corporate greed and surcharges into the rawest, most intimate chapters of our lives in an effort to make quick cash.

I hope that when your government goes to vote on it that you vote against the privatization of Winnipeg's airport, and keep it the pride of our city it already is.

For your consideration,

• A Winnipegger You Represent

The only potash mine in Manitoba plans to begin commercial production next month after nearly two decades of development.

The $30-million facility near Harrowby, a tiny hamlet in the western Manitoba municipality of Russell-Binscarth, will begin producing and stockpiling the agricultural fertilizer in June, said Daymon Guillas, president of the Potash and Agri Development Corporation of Manitoba.

The company is commonly referred to as PADCOM.

The commercial production caps off a 19-year effort by the privately owned company — commonly referred to as PADCOM — to plan, finance and build a potash mine in the face of considerable skepticism within the mineral-extraction industry.

"We're the no-name brand. We're not miners. Lots of people laughed at us and said it couldn't be done," Guillas said Thursday in an interview from Asessippi, Man.

"There's a project in Saskatchewan that is name brand. They spent $300 million, and they haven't produced anything yet. We spent $30 million, and we're producing."

The Harrowby facility, first envisioned in 2007, extracts potash from below the surface without excavating the massive caverns associated with the largest of Saskatchewan's potash mines.

Instead, the Manitoba facility uses a process called solution mining. Brine heated to 40 C is poured into wells, where the warm, salty water dissolves the potash in the surrounding rock.

The potash-saturated solution is pumped to the surface and then cooled in outdoor ponds, allowing potash to crystallize back into a solid substance.

Guillas said the company initially installed a mechanical cooling process that did not produce enough potash for the company to become profitable. With the help of Saskatchewan potash-industry expertise, the company switched to outdoor cooling ponds, which it tested out earlier this year.

Guillas said the new cooling system, which required the company to obtain a new environmental licence, was the final technological obstacle the company had to overcome.

The company also faced a fiscal crunch this past winter, when a $77-million financing deal with a Dubai-based investment firm fell apart, requiring the company to seek more cash from its silent Canadian investors, he said.

"Our potash is Canadian-owned, not foreign-owned. Nobody can tell us what to do with our potash," Guillas said.

The company has one administrative hurdle left to clear. It must complete a mine-closure plan, which Guillas described as an operating manual for all aspects of the mine.

The Harrowby facility is permitted by the province to produce 250,000 tonnes of potash a year. Guillas said he expects the mine to produce somewhere around 30,000 to 35,000 tonnes during its first fiscal year, which concludes at the end of April 2027.

"We get profitable at 15,000," he said.

The mine should be able to scale to 250,000 tonnes by 2028-29 and then expand over a series of years to one million tonnes per year, if the financing is available, Guillas said.

To place that in context, Saskatchewan — the world's largest potash producer — produces 25 million tonnes of the mineral per year.

Most of the company's potash is destined for the export market. The company hopes to reach Europe and South America by using the Hudson Bay Railway and the Port of Churchill.

"We can go to Churchill and back in six days, so it's a short train ride," Guillas said. "So, the Port of Churchill lets us get product to a port and to a vessel in a very affordable way."

Arctic Gateway Group, which runs the northern Manitoba railway and port, said it has the capacity to carry the volume of potash the company initially expects to produce and load it onto ships at Churchill.

"AGG recently added 30,000 tonnes of new bulk storage capacity at the port, which could be used for potash storage," company president Chris Avery said in a statement.

Avery said the port will need more handling facilities to handle larger volumes of potash from PADCOM and the much larger potash mines in Saskatchewan. Arctic Gateway will also need to upgrade the railway to handle heavier loads.

"We believe there is a strong long-term case for Churchill to play an expanded role in getting western Canadian potash to international markets," Avery said.

Guillas said the company is also looking at other rail routes but has not completed the logistics for export shipments if Churchill is not ready.

"We have markets. We have lots of markets, but we don't have a path yet for that," Guillas said.

In the meantime, the company is simply looking forward to commercial production. So is the provincial government, which stands to collect somewhere in the vicinity of $8 million a year in royalties once the mine produces 250,000 tonnes a year.

"We look forward to PADCOM becoming commercially operational and to begin delivering economic benefits for all Manitobans this year," Manitoba Business and Mining Minister Jamie Moses said in a statement.

All it took was 19 years to get here, Guillas said.

"You don't need to be a brand-name mining company to do it. You just have to have the guts and the patience to do it."

WATCH | Potash mine set to begin production in June: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7193601

Felt intrigued to hear more nightmare neighbour stories from Winnipeg. I was reading a few in the comments of a recent post, and thought it would be nice to air out some grievances or share those unbelievable wild stories!
Edit: any type of neighbour and it can also be funny! If the person has notable health issues etc, obvious identifying-personal details.. let’s leave that typa stuff out.

I had an older neighbour (single man) who would buy a large volume of terrible cars, junk parts and trailers from the Auto Auction and attempt to sell them from his driveway. There was a plethora of other odd and discerning behaviour but he started to get increasingly protective over the cars as he truly thought they were of extremely high value (he literally never sold anything and they were not collectable). He didn’t like that our evergreen tree was dropping pinecones near his cars/driveway. When I was home alone one night and went out to move the garbage bins, he surprised me (F) in my garage yammering on about how the pinecones caused ‘severe and irreparable damage to his assets’, and how he hated the tree. I told him he could cut down the tree himself and my BF and I had no issues with anything that needed to be removed (healthy nice tree but whatever)… and he dead ass asked me to start cutting the tree down myself right away??? I was like… get out of my garage and laughed at his insanity, but kept a close eye as I didn’t want things to escalate. He then tried to hire an unlicensed underaged kid from some community group to cut down this massive (over 100ft tree) by himself with no harness/safety equipment. My BF and I immediately said hell no to this idea and decided to assist by hiring a licensed arborist. The neighbour agreed to this and was elated we were working with him. My BF and I were going out of town and the arborist agreed to show up as we were leaving, he would go to the neighbours and collect cash payment for the job as we couldn’t stick around. As my BF and I are on the road, we get a call from the arborist… he saw the neighbour outside on the day of the tree take down, approached him about the deal and the neighbour said he would go inside to get the cash. I kid you not… THE NEIGHBOUR BARRICADED HIMSELF INSIDE HIS HOUSE, BLARING LOUD MUSIC, AND REFUSED TO PAY THE ARBORIST AND DIDN’T COME OUT!!!! Anyways, this was laughable. Arborist didn’t come back.. tree didn’t get taken down.. He then tried to sell his house using a handwritten sign on a fence for several years… it worked shockingly.. an investor bought it and 4 days after he moved out, the house ~mysteriously burned down.
Now we have no neighbour.

The End.

I realize the end sounds like neighbour died maybe??? (He didn’t) I also did not burn down the house… but definitely was not mad about it.