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The Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba has a new president.
After 8 years on the board, Greg Crisanti is the president.
He doesn’t plan on making any changes to start.
“We’re just going to keep doing what we do best, putting smiles on people’s faces as they come to one of our three volunteer lead fairs, and we’re looking at putting on some new and exciting events. ”
Crisanti looks forward to making a difference by bringing agriculture education to people that aren’t aware of all the agriculture activities and events.
“Throughout all our events, education is a huge piece of it, but also the entertainment aspect of it is huge for us. If we can put smiles on people’s faces coming to our events, then the board has done their job.”
The organization puts on the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair, the Ag Ex, and the Summer Fair.
Greg Crisanti is also an owner of the Dauphin Tim Hortons.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Today is the 4th annual Habitat for Humanity Coldest Night of the Year walk.
The walk is being held to raise money for charities serving hungry, homeless, and hurting people in the community.
Chair of the Dauphin Chapter for habitat for Humanity Rodney Juba encourages people to come and show their support.
”The funds that will be generated will go towards the build of our Habitat for Humanity home. Together with the partnership of Parkland Crossing, this has been a huge success and a great idea.”
Despite the day's positive temperatures, he reminds walkers to dress for the weather conditions.
There will be refreshments and food after the walk, following a short program.
You can sign up to walk or volunteer until 5:00 by visiting their website.
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- Contributed by Tess Kovach
The Community Volunteer Income Tax Program is available for low-income individuals with simple tax situations to complete and file their income tax and benefit return.
Last year in the PMH region total money in benefits and refunds to those that used the program was 8,019,659 dollars.
24 volunteers helped out in Brandon, while 19 people volunteered in rural areas.
The program is a collaboration between community organizations and the CRA.
This program helps ensure that seniors, newcomers, students and all low-income residents maintain access to all the benefits to which they are entitled.
Individuals can get their income tax done for free if they are a person with income under 35,000 dollars, two people with income less than 45,000 dollars, or three people with income under 47,500 dollars.
In rural Manitoba, most locations that have the program will start on March 9th.
If you would like to use the program, the complete schedule can be found here.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Swan Valley School Division has proposed new changes in order to stop the shrinking student number.
They want to incorporate new programs such as a mandatory parenting course, volunteering in the community, and an urban living course.
The division is also thinking about shortening the school week to 4 days.
Superintendent of Mountain View School Division Dan Ward says that they too have recommended changes.
“Mountain View School Division did submit to the K-12 submission. We did provide the commission with some of our own recommendations. A number of school divisions did submit recommendations to the commission. Much like Swan Valley, our recommendations were well received and our board of trustees had an opportunity to meet with the commissioners back in the spring.”
Some of the recommendations included more career-based training programs as well as providing incentives to entice teachers to teach at rural school divisions.
Ward added that the changes for Swan Valley have potential when it comes to increasing the attendance.
"I've had the opportunity to read a number of the submissions including Swan Valleys. It raises some very intriguing points and I think that they're worthy of being explored."
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- Contributed by Tess Kovach
The national Wet’suwet’en blockade situation is affecting economics from coast to coast.
That doesn’t exclude the Parkland, where delayed grain shipments and dwindling supply sources for retailers have become problematic.
We asked Dan Mazier, MP for Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa, for his thoughts on the situation.
“I think there’s lots of proof that if you or I were standing out on the train track blockaded somewhere, we would be arrested immediately. Bottom line is, this is illegal activity and it’s holding up the whole country. It’s bad, and it’s all due to the government’s inaction.”
Mazier adds that he doesn’t feel that there’s an end in sight without government intervention.
“The government, we’re pressing them really hard we’ve been all week on them as far as when are they going to step up, do the responsible thing as a government, as the governing party, and really uphold the rules of the law. They are not doing that, there’s no indication that they are and this is basically, they’re endorsing illegal activity. That doesn’t bode well for anybody here in Canada.”
Mazier is surprised how quickly Manitoba has been affected by the blockade. He says on the retail side people are starting to run low on stock, especially if they expect stuff to come in by rail.
“Then there’s the whole agriculture side, the grain side, that is probably, when you look at Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa, I would say without a doubt there’s a lot of concern going on right now. I know I’ve heard lots of examples of grain contracts being backed up by 4-6 weeks. I know CN is talking about their grain plan is backed up by more than that probably right now. It’s increasing every day.”
Mazier adds that there’s a concern with getting fertilizer into the community because a lot of producers didn’t have a chance to get fall fertilizer on which could be a problem if we don’t have a good spring.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Today a flag was raised in front of City hall to symbolize the 100th anniversary of Kin.
President of the Kinsmen club James Blake says that the event is taking place all across the country.
“So today is founder’s day, which marks the 100th anniversary that Kin Canada was first founded in 1920 on this day February 20th. Kin clubs throughout the country are raising flags this week in honour of our 100th anniversary and this founder’s day.”
Anyone that wants to join the Kinsmen or Kinnettes club is encouraged to reach out to a local member, or contact them on their Facebook page.
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- Contributed by Tess Kovach
Last week we reported on a structure fire in Newdale where human remains were found.
The body of one individual was transported to Winnipeg for an autopsy.
Following Tuesday’s autopsy, it was positively identified that 74-year-old Tom Bergin was the resident and lone occupant of the home, he died from smoke inhalation.
The cause of death does not appear to be suspicious.
The cause of the fire is undetermined at this time.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
On Tuesday concerned citizens gathered together for a meeting about the Dauphin jail closure.
The group has created a committee designed to fight the closure until a new facility is built.
In their first meeting, they discussed plans to provide information around the community.
Committee member Larry Budzinski says that the group has plans to attend more rallies.
“We’re looking at a campaign to develop some signage. There’s talk about supporting the major rally that’s scheduled for March 5th in Winnipeg. We’re talking about providing information in the Marketplace Mall. We want to encourage people to continue to write and express their concerns. We just want to keep this alive because we think it’s a terrible decision, it has terrible ramifications in the community.”
He adds that anyone interested in becoming involved can contact any of the committee members.
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- Contributed by Tess Kovach
On Wednesday at 7:45, the MGEU held an information picket at the Manitoba legislature building to ensure Manitobans are aware of what’s going on with the Dauphin Jail.
MGEU President, Michelle Gawronsky, says they wanted to share the information with the MLAs, justice minister, and premier as they came into work.
“It was unfortunate, both the premier and the justice minister drove through without stopping, without having enough respect for Manitobans to take the sheet of paper, get some information and talk to the correctional officers and actually, the people of Dauphin and Manitoba that were on the information picket line this morning. It was very disappointing to see that.”
Gawronsky, says over 60 people come out.
“There was enough Manitobans that showed up in support and came out this morning at 7:30 on a below 40 day that we were able to set up 3 different picket lines.”
The MGEU is having a meeting with the government to discuss what will happen with those that have jobs at the Dauphin Correctional Centre.
“We don’t have any concrete agreement on how this will affect people, where people are going to be able to move, and what jobs are going to be open. They haven’t shared with us how many open positions there are with Justice Manitoba, whether there are any jobs anywhere else in the Dauphin area, government jobs that people could be moving into. So it is disappointing again, that we have a government in place that is not looking after Manitobans, is not taking into consideration the town of Dauphin and the RM in the surrounding areas.”
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
A big announcement was made today in regards to the Manitoba Summer Games Powered by Manitoba Hydro.
The Games received a Manitoba 150 grant this year of $16,000 towards the activities and entertainment for the street festival.
Carla Wolfenden Co-chair of the Manitoba Summer Games powered by Manitoba Hydro was pleased with the amount of support the grant will provide.
“We were really excited because we know they had a lot of applications, more than they thought they would receive so we were really pleased with that amount and we’ll make sure we do a good job with it.”
Games Coordinator Alicia Zurba added that they are looking for volunteers.
If you are interested in getting involved click the link on the CKDM event calendar.
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- Contributed by Tess Kovach
UPDATE: The extreme cold warning has ended.
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Looks like we have to get through just one more day of typical Manitoba cold weather before we get an extended break from it.
An extreme cold warning issued by Environment Canada is in effect for the Dauphin-Russel-Roblin-Winnipegosis area as an arctic system that's on its way out of the prairies is leaving some pretty chilly temperatures and winds in its wake.
Temperatures hovering around -30 combined with winds capable of making it feel like -40 to -45 are expected this morning, however conditions should improve later today. The good news is that after today, the forecasted highs for the rest of the week are all near or above 0.
You can view the full warning from Environment Canada here. If you need to head out on the highways, check road conditions before you go. Also listen for the Speedy Glass road conditions report on 730 CKDM radio at 7:20 am and 3:30 pm.
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- Contributed by Alec Woolston
