The current lack of federal heritage policy and legislation in Canada is examined through a comparative study with two other formerly colonial Commonwealth countries, Australia and New Zealand. The full responsibility for protecting the nation’s cultural heritage has been left to individual provinces and a comparative study of policy and legislation across Canada is undertaken. The archaeological excavation at the site of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights has proven to be one of the most significant in the province of Manitoba and serves as the case study for this research. All of this comparative research aspires toward a single goal; the creation of a best practices model broadly applicable to the provinces of Canada, which aims to provide a basis for the creation of federal heritage policy and legislation in meaningful consultation with Indigenous communities. / February 2017

In southern Manitoba, there is a significant need to reintroduce diverse, ecologically sound environments to redress serious events of watershed habitat loss and accompanying landscape deterioration. Soil erosion, water pollution, and declining wildlife populations are the results of current agricultural practices and policy. The adoption of ecologically sound farming and water management practices compatible with the environmental requirements of native plant and animal communities will restore stability to the local ecosystem, diversity and interest to the landscape and a stronger sense of place for people of the region. This study describes the methods for effectively reintroducing habitat as part of a farms drainage network and the positive effect this has on soil and water conservation, both of which ultimately stimulate increased agricultural production.

The Manitoba Piping Plover Stewardship Project was initiated in 2002 to determine the status of Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus) in Manitoba and to develop a provincial management strategy that outlined provincial management goals and necessary stewardship actions. In 2002 and 2003, intensive surveys of historical and potential sites across Manitoba were conducted and measures taken to protect eggs and chicks from predation and human disturbance. With the use of fencing, signs, predator exclosures and guardian volunteers, predation and recreational disturbance were minimized sufficiently at most sites to allow for increased nest success and fledging rates. An overall apparent nest success rate of 62% and an apparent fledge rate of 1.16 fledglings/pair was achieved during this study. The study concluded that Piping Plover nest success and productivity at the majority of historical nesting sites in Manitoba is being limited by habitat availability, medium to high predation rates and recreational pressures. / October 2006

The overall purpose of this study was to better understand why youth travellers are visiting Manitoba. A web-survey was administered to visitors of the Hostelling International - Canada, Manitoba Region website. Youth leisure travellers planning to visit Manitoba were found to be between 24 and 28 years of age, mostly from Canada and Australia, not students, but educated and employed, with between $501 and $3,500 available for travel purposes. Respondents’ travel plans were found to include; travel alone or with one other person, an average stay of 5 days planned for Manitoba, travel by rented vehicle or by bus, and the use of the internet, guidebooks and family and friends as information sources prior to travel. Dominant motives for travel to Manitoba were uncovered, and relationships of Manitoba specific travel motives were found with several demographic and travel characteristics. The results of this study can be used by the Manitoba tourism sector to market Manitoba travel experiences and to emphasize how they cater to one or more dominant travel motives. This will enable them to better attract and satisfy their customers. / October 2007

Abstract “Grappling on the Grain Belt: Wrestling in Manitoba to 1931,” explores the history of wrestling in the geographic region now demarcated as Manitoba, from the pre-Confederation period to the Great Depression, with particular emphasis on the period after 1896 when the Canadian West experienced its most remarkable demographic growth. Wrestling was a frequently controversial, often divisive, but ultimately dynamic, popular, and persistent cultural form that proved adaptable to changing social conditions. Far from being ‘merely’ a sport, residents of Manitoba found greater meaning in its practice beyond the simple act of two people struggling for physical advantage on a mat, in a ring, or on a grassy field. This study examines wrestling as a social phenomenon that echoed larger, and fluid, debates over sport’s ‘proper’ purpose, expressions of masculinity, respectable public conduct, and views concerning the position of immigrant and minority communities in a predominantly Anglo-Protestant society. It likewise explores the meanings that various groups in the province, demarcated by such factors as ethnicity and occupation, attached to wrestling in the decades before the Great Depression. In doing so, it illuminates wrestling as a complex and socially-significant cultural activity which, to date, has been virtually unexplored by Canadian historians looking at the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The biology of the sub-aquatic lichen, Dermatocarpon luridum, was investigated. This lichen is sparsely distributed within the temperate climatic zones around the world, colonizing rock along watercourses that regularly experience water level fluctuations. Specimens collected from Canada and Austria were cultured using standard growth media. Brightfield microscopy was used for algal species identification, while fungal ITS, algal ITS and algal actin gene sequences were used for phylogenetic and population genetic evaluation. Results were: 1) axenic cultures of the photobiont were successful, while those of the mycobiont were not successful; 2) Diplosphaera chodatii is the photobiont associated with D. luridum var. luridum and allies, suggesting algal sharing between mycobiont species; 3) genetic diversity is high, and gene flow was high within local populations, but low between continental populations. Diplosphaera chodatii may be a keystone species contributing to the survival of D. luridum var. luridum along with other sub-aquatic, aquatic and terrestrial lichens.

Nutrients in the sediments of Lake Manitoba’s south basin are resuspended regularly due to its shallow, polymictic nature. In 2009 short sediment core samples were used to determine an internal available nutrient load from sediment of 17,533 tonnes total nitrogen (TN) and 167 tonnes total phosphorous (TP). Water samples were collected at the Whitemud River and Assiniboine River Diversion (ARD) to determine the N and P input to the lake, resulting in an estimate of a total point source input of 3,547 tonnes of TN and 1,130 tonnes of TP. Open water samples were collected to determine a suspended content of 9.2 tonnes of TN /km2 or and 1.7 tonnes of TP/km2. The ARD is the largest contributor of TP to the south basin. The internal sediment pool is a significant source of TN, and when the ARD does not operate, the largest input of TP to the south basin.

The aim of this project is to investigate the transmission of knowledge, and cultural values on the margins of the colonial agenda. The oral traditional accounts, and lived experience of Kéhté-yatis Charles F. Queskekapow, in the community of Kinoséwi Sípíhk [Fish River], are examined through the lens of a postcolonial Indigenous research paradigm. As a synthesis of an Indigenous perspective, and Euro-Western research methodologies, consisting of an open-ended interview approach, and the local Indigenous knowledge, the goals and objectives of this project are: 1) to determine the role of the Kéhté-yatis(ak) [Elders], 2) establish the local interpretation of Kéhté-yatis onakatamakéwina 3) to determine the impacts of colonialism had on the transmission of traditional knowledge, and culture 4) to analyze the impacts of colonization on the broader concept of community. This research locates the detrimental impacts of colonialism, the loss of identity in the historical context, and endeavors to contribute to affirmation of our cultural practices, and values in the present.

Amongst other complexities, landscape architecture is a discipline about understanding, expressing, and enhancing relationships between people and the land. This practicum focuses on revealing these relationships through cartographic concepts within self interpretation and interview, with a consciousness towards the biases that are embedded within mapped products. As maps are used on a daily basis in the discipline of landscape architecture, it should be considered a responsibility of the designer to have an understanding of the implications these tools possess. The Shell River Valley in Manitoba acted as a site of exploration with the intention of revealing human perceptions through cartographic methods of those who have relationships with the land.

The overall purpose of this study was to better understand why youth travellers are visiting Manitoba. A web-survey was administered to visitors of the Hostelling International - Canada, Manitoba Region website. Youth leisure travellers planning to visit Manitoba were found to be between 24 and 28 years of age, mostly from Canada and Australia, not students, but educated and employed, with between $501 and $3,500 available for travel purposes. Respondents’ travel plans were found to include; travel alone or with one other person, an average stay of 5 days planned for Manitoba, travel by rented vehicle or by bus, and the use of the internet, guidebooks and family and friends as information sources prior to travel. Dominant motives for travel to Manitoba were uncovered, and relationships of Manitoba specific travel motives were found with several demographic and travel characteristics. The results of this study can be used by the Manitoba tourism sector to market Manitoba travel experiences and to emphasize how they cater to one or more dominant travel motives. This will enable them to better attract and satisfy their customers.