Rural Municipality of Alonsa

For the urban community of the same name, see Alonsa.

Alonsa is a rural municipality (RM) in the province of Manitoba, western Canada. It lies on the west side of Lake Manitoba.^[2]

Alonsa
Rural municipality
Rural Municipality of Alonsa
Location of Alonsa in Manitoba
Coordinates: 50.7996°N 98.9766°W / 50.7996; -98.9766
Country	Canada
Province	Manitoba
Region	Parkland
Incorporated as an LGD	January 1, 1945
Incorporated as a rural municipality	January 1, 1997
Government
• Reeve	Tom Anderson[1]
• Councillors	Kerry Hopfner Tim Stott Travis Turko Michael Brown Terry Dayholos Logan Dumanske
Area
• Total	2,977.50 km2 (1,149.62 sq mi)
Population  (2021)[2]
• Total	1,210
Time zone	UTC-6 (CST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
Website	rmofalonsa.com

Located within the borders of the municipality is the Indian reserve of Ebb and Flow 52, as well as the 60,000 m² (6 ha) Margaret Bruce Beach Provincial Park, located 12 km (7.5 mi) east of the town of Alonsa, on one of a series of sand ridges that extend the length of the west side lake. The park is currently under lease to a private operator but development plans include a provincial campground and day use facility.^[3]

The incorporation of Alonsa on 1 January 1945 was as a Local Government District (LGD). It received rural municipality status on 1 January 1997.

2018 Tornado

A violent high end EF4 tornado struck the municipality of Alonsa on August 3, 2018, killing 1 person.^[4] It was estimated to have been on the ground for over 20 minutes, and had a width of 800 m (2,600 feet).^[5] The tornado was originally rated EF4, but further research has suggested the windspeeds inside the tornado ranging from 317 km/h (197 miles per hour) to 450 km/h (280 miles per hour), putting it as an EF5 tornado.^[6]

Communities

• Alonsa
• Amaranth
• Bacon Ridge
• Bluff Creek
• Cayer
• Eddystone
• Harcus
• Kinosota (Manitoba House)
• Leifur
• Lonely Lake
• Moore Dale
• Portia
• Reedy Creek
• Reykjavik (Icelandic: Reykjavík)
• Shergrove
• Silver Ridge

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Alonsa had a population of 1,210 living in 492 of its 659 total private dwellings, a change of -3% from its 2016 population of 1,247. With a land area of 3,006.17 km² (1,160.69 sq mi), it had a population density of 0.4/km² (1.0/sq mi) in 2021.^[7]