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It’s Canadian Agricultural Safety Week.
This year’s theme is “Safe & Strong Farms”.
Manitoba Farm Safety Program says a healthy farmer is a safe farmer and a safe farmer is a strong farmer.
Canadian Ag Safety Week happens every March and is intended to educate and inspire farmers and farm families through resources and safety advice articles.
The AgSafe Ribbon Campaign is a way to declare your support and raise awareness about farm safety by wearing a burlap ribbon. Farmers are encouraged to phone Renée Simcoe at (204) 924-6018 to obtain your AgSafe Ribbons.
The FSP is also holding a free morning seminar Monday April 8th at the Portage Ex Building from 9am to noon focused on stress management, mental health and work-life balance for farmers. Pre-registration is required. Visit www.manitobafarmsafety.ca/training-events to register.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
The Mountain View School Division is having a problem with their school buses.
Bart Michaleski says the problem is with some of the engines being worn out.
The problem occurred with the company's engine technology, to deal with emissions, the engine recirculated the exhaust back through the engine to clean the emissions. In turn, it actually wore out the engines, causing them to fail.
After 2014, the company abandoned that technology.
Michaleski says the buses only have a 10-year warranty and they hope the buses will last 17 years.
The seven buses from 2012-14 are the ones in question.
Some of those buses have had their engines replaced up to 3 times now.
They will be dealing with this problem for at least the next 6 years.
Once the warranty for the engines is up, it would cost between 35000-40000 dollars.
It doesn’t make sense to pay that cost once the warranty is up so they’d likely just look into getting new buses.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Prairie Mountain Health wants to help people get their taxes done.
Low-income earners across the Parkland are encouraged to use the free Community Volunteer Income Tax Program.
Brett Turner, with PMH, says better income can improve your health.
“Because they get access to benefits that they may not get access to if they don’t file their tax return. We see people who have gone several years without filing their taxes and end up getting a substantial refund because they file their taxes and also get access to those other programs.”
Last year the average return to an individual client was around $3,441.
“It’s important for people to do their income taxes to get access to various different kinds of benefit programs. They don’t do their taxes; they don’t get access to those programs. Lots of them are based on your income. So, things like the GST credit, child tax benefit, provincial programs like rent assist, they are all based on you filing your income taxes.”
This CVITP is approved by Canada Revenue Agency and coordinated by Prairie Mountain Health. The volunteers who file your income tax and benefit return are Canada Revenue Agency trained.
There are locations all over the Parkland that people can drop off their tax forms and get everything sorted out.
In Dauphin, the North West Metis Council and the Dauphin Friendship Centre offer services year round.
Some other locations that offer drop off services include: Elbert Chartrand Friendship Centre in Swan River, Neepawa Public Library, Roblin Hospital, L.E.A.R.N. Inc. in Roblin, Rossburn Health Centre, Community Futures Parkland in Grandview, Rossburn Health Centre, Russell Community Health Services, Municipality of McCreary Office, and the Ste. Rose Primary Health Care Centre.
You can get your income tax done free through this program if you fall under one of the categories below:
- • 1 person with income under $35,000
- • 2 persons with income under $45,000
- • 3 persons with income under $47,500
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
The Start of Daylight Savings Time was yesterday.
Cliff Graydon, MLA for the Emerson constituency, is trying to end DST in Manitoba.
He’s taken this stance because people came to him and told him about a lot of negatives that come with it.
After extensive research, he’s working hard to get rid of DST.
According to Graydon, DST negatively affects the healthcare system, due to it messing up your sleep routine. Pills might not get taken when they need to as well.
He adds that MPI accidents spike, in 2014 there was a spike of 20% in the week following the switch.
Graydon says the education system gets a little messed up in the weeks following the time switch also because of sleep routine and that causes the learning to fall back a bit.
According to a poll on our Facebook page, 72% of the 354 voters think Manitoba should get rid of DST.
Graydon has a website called www.stoptheswitch.com. You can tell him your thoughts on the issue. The website will also let your local MLA know what your thoughts are.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Swan River RCMP executed three search warrants in the community of Mafeking and one in Swan River as part of Project Disentangle, resulting in cocaine, illegal cannabis, Canadian currency and drug paraphernalia being seized.
Project Disentangle ran from November 9, 2018, until February 15, 2019, and involved numerous officers from Swan River and neighbouring detachments, and RCMP Police Dog Services.
The project focused on the drug trade in the Swan Valley area.
RCMP arrested and charged the following individuals:
- 33-year-old, Jennifer Chartrand of Swan River is charged with Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking Cocaine x 2
- 24-year-old, Steven Gott of Shoal River First Nation is charged with Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking Cocaine x 3
- 29-year-old, Travis Howdle of Swan River is charged with Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking Cocaine x 5 and Possession of Property Obtained by Crime.
- 25-year-old, Howard Leask of Swan River is charged with Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking Cocaine x 2.
- 26-year-old, Chelsea Taylor of Swan River is charged with Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking Cocaine.
- 20-year-old, Brenna Woiken-Thompson of Swan River is charged with Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking Cocaine x 2, Possession of Property Obtained by Crime.
- 27-year-old, Courtney Young of Swan River is charged with Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking Cocaine x 5.
- 26-year-old, Devon Howdle of Swan River is charged with Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking Cocaine and Possession of Property Obtained by Crime.
- 34-year-old, Allan Cote of Mafeking is charged with Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking, Possession of Property Obtained by Crime, Unauthorized Possession of a Firearm, Possessing Cannabis for the Purpose of Selling (under the Cannabis Act) and Firearms offences.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
A business in McCreary was robbed at gunpoint last Sunday.
The business on Mountain View Drive had just closed, around 8:15 pm, when a male knocked on the back door.
The employee answered the door and the male came around the corner holding a long gun. The suspect demanded money and fled with an undisclosed amount.
RCMP say the suspect left in a dark-coloured four-door car. He's described as Caucasian, around 25-years-old, 6 feet tall, and 160 lbs. He was wearing a camouflage ski mask, camouflage jacket, black gloves and was carrying a backpack.
RCMP are asking anyone with information to contact Ste. Rose du Lac RCMP at 204-447-3082 or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477, or submit a secure tip online at www.manitobacrimestoppers.com.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
The 2019-20 Budget for the Turtle River School Division has been released.
Shannon Desjardins, secretary-treasurer, says there aren’t any huge changes.
The Turtle River School Division is listening to the government’s mandate of limiting a tax increase to 2%, theirs is 1.98%.
Desjardins says even though they have a balanced budget, they are receiving .6% less provincial funding.
They have a .63% increase in both expenditures and revenue this year.
They are repurposing money from the Indigenous Academic Achievement, English as an Additional Language, and French Language Education to help fund EA’s in all schools, there will be a decrease in their IT budget, a swim program has been created, and they have removed one FTE Educational Assistant.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
At Farm Outlook 2019 the Dauphin Ag Society presented the Ron Brook Memorial Award to Don Dewar.
“It’s a real honour to have been chosen. You do what you do. And I did what I did. I was having fun. I enjoyed it and made a lot of great people.” Dewar continues, “Like I said in my talk, nothing was personal. We would argue, not yell at each other, but come pretty close. And yet you’d sit down at the end of the day and talk about something else.”
The award is very localized according to Dewar.
“You’d have to have known Ron Brook when he was on the Ag Society. He was very dedicated; he was a very giving person. He gave a lot of this time. Actually, he was working of the Dauphin Fair that year when he had a devastating heart attack. So the Ag Society decided to make this memorial award. I’m rather fortunate to have been chosen.”
Dewar says he really enjoyed being on boards, but in the past few years, he has been trying to withdraw from meetings. “I’m still on our local hemp co-op and the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance. But those don’t take me away from home very often, I'm not on the road near as much. I enjoyed it all.”
“I hope enough young people will come up. We don’t have the, I’m going to say, the organization in place that used to train people for these jobs. It’s good to see a few of them stepping up.”
Dewar says he was also fortunate to have been told he was chosen a few weeks ago.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
With winter just about over, all the snow is about to melt and that can mean flooding.
Randy Daley, the emergency coordinator for the RM and city of Dauphin, says to do a little survey where you live to avoid flooding.
Things to do include clearing your gutters, downspouts and runoff drains, remove branches and leaves that could block water flow.
He also thinks you should make sure water will have a place to run so it doesn’t pool up and flood your home or garage.
Daley says you shouldn’t wait and do as much as you can now because we don’t know how fast the snow will melt.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
The Parkland Humane Society will be renovating one of their dog rooms.
It will be modeled after their other dog room which has floor to ceiling kennels.
The renovations will allow the dogs to have a better quality of life and be more comfortable.
The renovations have been paid for from the Neighbourhood Renewal Grant and the Thomas Sill Foundation from Winnipeg.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Farm Outlook 2019 was a big success for the Dauphin Ag Society.
Boris Michaleski says everyone who came out learned a lot from the diversity of speakers.
“By the attendance throughout the whole day and the number of questions and interaction with the crowd, I think that’s a good indication that there is a lot of interest in the information that was being presented.”
The Dauphin Ag Society is already making plans for next year.
“We have one potential confirmation, and that’s Wheat Pete. He’s out of the US primarily. A number of people follow some of his commentary and hopefully, he will be able to bring an interesting perspective to agriculture.”
Michaleski says attendance was up this year, compared to 2018.
Don Dewar was given the Ron Brook Memorial Award.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
