Municipal Council Biographies

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Reeve
Loren Schinkel
Loren Schinkel has been the Reeve of the Rural Municipality Lac du Bonnet since being elected in the 2016 byelection. Born and raised in Lac du Bonnet, he has strong ties to the region, a long history in leadership roles, and a passion to improve and serve the place he grew up. 

Prior to being Reeve of Lac du Bonnet, Loren had a long career between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Winnipeg Police Service that spanned 30 years. 

Inspired by a high school career day during his senior year and his time as an Air Cadet, Loren began as an RCMP Constable in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, after graduating from the RCMP academy in 1978.

In 1981, he joined the WPS as a Constable and served as a general patrol officer until 1987. Between 1987-1990, he was the Constable assigned to investigate all serious crimes against persons. 

Loren spent most of the 1990s as a Detective Sergeant, first in Crimes Against Property and then on the Homicide Unit, where he investigated many high-profile cases. After that, he served as Sergeant of Uniformed Operations and Sergeant of the Major Crimes Unit. 

Loren was elected the President and CAO of the Winnipeg Police Association in 2001 — the same year he was awarded the Police Exemplary Service Medal — and held the position for three terms through 2008.

In the role, he represented 1600 police and staff members and was responsible for the management of the overall budget and long-term financial planning, negotiating contracts, dealing with human resource issues, and was the Chairperson reporting directly to the board of directors. He calls it the highlight of his career with the WPS, as it gave him the chance to understand the administrative side of policing in addition to the operational and investigative sides. 

In 2008, Loren was pegged by the Province of Manitoba to become the Coordinator of Aboriginal and Municipal Law Enforcement. Acting as the senior program coordinator, he led policing programs and policy changes related to Aboriginal and Municipal police agencies in Manitoba.

Those roles — in addition to the many boards he sat on and committees he was a member of after leaving Justice in 2011 — made a role in Municipal politics a natural fit for Loren.

In 2016, Loren made a successful run for Reeve as he wanted to use his experience to lead the administration and help it function in a better way. His main goal is to work with Council and the community to find solutions that make lives better for the residents and the region as a whole. 

Loren has been married to his wife Deb for 45 years, and was once told she deserves the Order of Canada for putting up with him. Loren and Deb have one son, Luke. Luke and his wife Chrissy both live and work in the community, he operating Copper Connection Electric and she a landscaping company. Loren and Deb are proud grandparents to Luke and Chrissy’s son, Mason.

In his time off from serving the community, you can find Loren enjoying the outdoor activities Lac du Bonnet and the surrounding area boasts as one of its biggest assets. He’s an avid outdoorsman who enjoys hunting, fishing, and spending time at his family cottage.




Deputy Reeve
Scott Jones

Deputy Reeve Scott Jones was elected in 2018, three years after falling in love with Lac du Bonnet and making the community his full-time home.

Scott has lived in Manitoba since 1998, but was born and raised in Toronto and attended the University of Wisconsin to earn a diploma in process engineering. 

Scott, now retired, has plenty of experience as a successful businessperson and owner. In 1985, he moved from Toronto to Vancouver and worked for a paint equipment supply company, helping it expand to three offices from one and to $7 million in annual sales from less than $1 million.

Finding that Winnipeg had a hole in the industrial paint equipment market, Scott struck it out on his own and established Advanced Finishing Systems in 1998. A decade later, Scott moved on from the business and sold his shares, spending time at Monarch Industries and as a consultant.

The Lac du Bonnet Community Development Corporation’s slogan “come for the weekend, stay for life,” applies in Scott’s case. After spending time at his son’s cottage at Lee River Estates and enjoying the natural environment, water, wildlife, and people immensely, he and his wife Patti decided to buy two-and-a-half acres and build a home of their own in 2015. 

Scott was inspired to run for Council because he felt the past administration was not capitalizing on the potential he saw in the community — he wants to see Lac du Bonnet blossom into Manitoba’s answer to Lake of the Woods. 

Promoting and improving the profile of the community is one of Scott’s priorities. That’s why his role as the Chairperson of the Lac du Bonnet Community Development Corporation suits him so well. 

He’s proud of how far both Council and the CDC have come since 2018. Both are comprised of progressive, proactive team players who all have the same goal, he says: to make the community more prosperous and self-sufficient, better for residents and visitors alike.

One of Scott’s biggest passions is classic cars, obvious to anyone who’s seen him cruising around in two of his most prized possessions — a navy blue 1932 Chevy Coupe and a four-door hardtop 1957 Bel Air. The Bel Air was made the same month and year he was born, which indicates to Scott they were meant to be together. 

Building cars is a Jones family affair: he and his sons Stephen and Taylor have restored two from the ground up: a 1954 Ford Pickup and 1966 Mustang Coupe. Stephen and Taylor both live in Winnipeg but the Ford and Mustang both stay in Lac du Bonnet as part of Scott’s seven-car fleet.

Scott calls Patti, to whom he’s been married for 48 years, his best friend and a domestic goddess. She’s told him “no more cars,” and he’s promised to listen. 

Scott and Patti are proud grandparents to Stephen’s two children, Brooke and Brody. The pair of grandkids call him “Grumpa” because he always gives them a hard time when they come over and eat all his cookies. 

Brooke and Brody also help “Grumpa” harvest his garden. Jars of Scott’s homemade salsa — which he makes with his homegrown tomatoes, peppers, and onions — are always a hot commodity in the neighbourhood. 

Like many others in the community, Scott makes the most of the outdoors, and enjoys ATVing, boating, fishing, jet-skiing, hunting, and snowmobiling. He’s happy to be able to share most of those activities with his grandkids almost every weekend.




Councillor
Grant Hein

Grant Hein is either the coolest or the hottest man in Lac du Bonnet, depending on the season. In addition to being a Councillor, he is the owner of Heritage Heating and Cooling and has more than 40 years of experience as a heating and refrigeration technician. 

Grant was born and raised in Transcona, before it was a part of Winnipeg. He went to university for a few years but decided it wasn’t for him and opted to learn the trade he still practices today.

Grant’s mother always thought he should be an accountant and he tried to listen to her, spending a few years with CGA. He was then a partner in a Winnipeg air conditioning and heating company that they later sold to Lennox. 

After spending 10 years with Lennox’s Service Experts division on the corporate side, he established Heritage Heating and Cooling in 2006. Heritage has won a number of awards, including Lennox Dealer of the Year and a Better Business Bureau Torch Award.

Growing up, Grant spent a lot of time in Lake of the Woods, but hated the drive. 26 years ago, Grant’s “very best friend” — fellow Councillor Darrell Scheirich — invited him up for the May Long Weekend. Grant fell in love with the area and has been a part of the community ever since, becoming a permanent resident about seven years ago after relocating from East Selkirk.

In East Selkirk, Grant got a taste of municipal politics and enjoyed being an engaged citizen as a member of many different community groups. 

Grant was motivated to run for RM Council after feeling uncomfortable with the direction and decisions of the past administration. As part of a Council he describes as far more progressive, Grant strives to communicate openly with all community members and listen to their concerns. Positive feedback from ratepayers has given him confidence Council has moved in the right direction.

Grant and his wife Heather — who is a special-needs teacher in Whitemouth and spent more than 20 years at Ecole Edward Schreyer School at Beausejour — will be married for 40 years this year. 

Grant and Heather have two children of whom they are quite proud: their son Dustin works with Grant at Heritage and their daughter Taylor is a home care dispatcher for Interlake Regional East Health Authority. Taylor and her husband have given Grant and Heather their first grandchild: Braydon, soon to be two. Grant says being a grandpa has been awesome so far.

Heather and Taylor have a long-time shared passion for showing and riding horses. While Grant isn’t so much into equine activities, he is into just about anything with a motor, gas tank, and key. 

He has been an avid snowmobiler — and even a snowmobile track race announcer — for decades, and early in their marriage, Heather had to pick up the hobby or else she knew she wouldn’t see her husband for six months out of the year. He enjoys jet-skiing and quadding in his side-by-side as well.




Councillor
Rob Doyle

Rob Doyle can help make your home better in a myriad of ways. In addition to being a Councillor dedicated to making a difference in the community he now calls home, he is a  customer service and sales representative at Home Hardware in Town. He may have helped you with a municipal issue, but also helped you choose the perfect paint for your DIY project.

Rob is a long-time lover of politics. He recalls having a passion for it ever since handing out buttons for a municipal campaign when he was just a young lad. He’s also worked on provincial and federal election campaigns. 

Rob was born and raised in British Columbia, but lived in Southern California and Northern Alberta before moving to Ontario. 

In Ontario, Rob made a successful run for Council in Ear Falls (a lakeside township north of Vermillion Bay) and served there between 2006 and 2010. He thoroughly enjoyed the role, as he says small-town and municipal politicians are uniquely positioned to shape their communities for the better.

Three-and-a-half years ago, Rob met his wife Stacie through a mutual friend. He was working at Home Hardware in Red Lake, Ontario, at the time, but a couple of visits to Lac du Bonnet was enough to convince him to move to Manitoba. In September, 2016, He did just as the Lac du Bonnet slogan says to do: “come for the weekend, stay for life.” 

The people of Lac du Bonnet are simply amazing, he says, and he loves the direct contact he has with the public both as Councillor and as a Home Hardware employee. Rob firmly believes there isn’t a better place to live.

His past experience on Ear Lake’s Council — and his feeling that a lot of Lac du Bonnet’s potential was untapped by the past administration — led Rob to throw his hat in the ring for Councillor in 2018. He was obviously successful and now works to further Lac du Bonnet’s profile as a great bedroom community and getaway destination.  

Rob has a sixteen-year-old son Owen from a previous relationship and two “bonus children” —he doesn’t care for the term step-child — with Stacie: Joseph and Charlotte (they’re better known as Joe and Charlie.) He’s honoured that he can help shape Lac du Bonnet for them and for young people like them in the community.

Although Rob is a self-professed workaholic, he enjoys watching movies — any genre, from comedies to thriller, action to horror — and playing video games — anything from PlayStation 4 games (he even has an Oculus Rift VR headset) to retro titles on the original Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo, and Sega Dreamcast.




Councillor
Darrell Scheirich

Darrell Scheirich made a successful Council run in 2018 after seeing an opportunity to help move the RM ahead in a positive manner. With him, he brought a hard-working sensibility and wide breadth of experience.

Darrell was born in Regina, but moved to Winnipeg at age five after his father, who worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway, was transferred.

Growing up in Transcona around the many railyards, he was destined to follow in his father’s (and grandfather’s) footsteps. Darrell worked for CP for 40 years and in those four decades, he shouldered a number of different front-line and management positions, including a heavy equipment operator, on-track machinist, road builder, number-one foreman, and supervisor.

Being a councillor is a post-retirement endeavour for Darrell, who left the hustle and bustle of the rail industry behind in 2013. He enjoyed his vocation as each day brought new and different challenges, but working outside during snowstorms or fixing snapped rails in minus 40 are parts of the job he doesn’t miss very much.

Darrel has lived in Lac du Bonnet full-time since 2005, when he relocated from Selkirk. He loved the community and all it offered so much that he was willing to add time onto his daily commute into Winnipeg for the final eight years of his career with CP.

However, Darryl’s connections to the area go back much further than 15 years.

Darrell and his wife Marilyn have been married since 1980 and celebrated their 40th anniversary in June. They met in Lac du Bonnet in 1975, when a then-21-year Darryl was driving down the road, spotted Marilyn walking and offered her a lift. The rest is history, as they say.

Darrell and Marilyn have two children, daughter Darilyn and son Johnathan. Darilyn is a real estate broker out of Oak Bank, while Johnathan is a press operator. 

Darilyn and Johnathan both have two children. Darrell spends nearly every weekend with his grandchildren, and his double lot right on the Lake is the perfect spot for him to entertain them.

Darrell’s love for the community is best summed up by how he and Marilyn operated in the 1990s. When he and Marilyn bought their first cottage together in 1993, they’d actually split their vacation time so their kids could spend two months in Lac du Bonnet instead of one.

Darrell is an outdoorsman through and through and enjoys golfing, fishing, deer hunting, jet-skiing, quadding, and snowmobiling. He used to curl, but his knees told him to stop. He’s more of a hot-weather activity fan, anyway, and often spends whole summer days outside. Rarely a day goes by that he doesn’t take his jet ski out.

As a Councillor, Darrell says two priorities of his are working to ensure economic development continues and working to ensure there are jobs available for young people so they stay in the community. He’d like to see Lac du Bonnet become a “mini-Kenora.”