Give Manitoba Tyndall stone its due, Tory MLA says

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This article was published 06/12/2023 (647 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mottled dolomitic limestone could soon join the list of Manitoba rock stars.

A private member’s bill aims to recognize the rock, which is more commonly called Tyndall stone.

A bill introduced Wednesday by Tory MLA Wayne Ewasko would designate the limestone quarried near Garson and Tyndall as the official stone of Manitoba.

Bill 201, the Manitoba Emblems Amendment Act (Provincial Stone) is up for debate Thursday morning, said Ewasko, who asked that the bill be passed before the house rises for the winter recess that afternoon.

Making Tyndall stone an official Manitoba emblem may not be a slam dunk.

“As somebody who’s coached hockey at Tyndall Park and comes to work in a Tyndall stone building, I can see the benefits of recognizing this stone,” Premier Wab Kinew said after question period.

“On the other hand, there will be important questions raised” when the bill is up for debate, he said.

“What about quartz? What about critical minerals? And what about the other important priorities we have,” said Kinew, who then dropped his joking tone.

“From an Indigenous perspective, our languages teach us that stones should be accorded the same level of thought and seriousness as animate beings,” the first First Nations premier of a province said.

“That’s the way Ojibwa works and Cree, I understand, is very similar,” said Kinew.

There’s ancient animal life in Tyndall stone, with fossilized sponges, gastropods (snails), cephalopods (relatives of squid) and trilobites, according to a Manitoba Legislative Assembly brochure. The largest fossil in the Manitoba Legislative Building’s Tyndall stone is found at the east portico, and is one metre wide and 30 centimetres high, it says.

“I’m sort of, on the one hand, saying we might be able to have fun on the day that we debate this bill,” the premier said.

“On the other hand, I think there’s some legitimate cultural and heritage points that we can make about the province of Manitoba when we talk about a private member’s bill dealing with the provincial emblems.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca