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The railway crossing on Main Street in Dauphin is staying closed until the afternoon.
They expect the work will be done around one and four in the afternoon.
Road work began yesterday morning at 7 and lasted until past 8 last night.
They are repairing the railway, which includes replacing the wood and re-asphalting the area.
You’ll need to detour around until it’s finished this afternoon.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Dauphin is ranked close to the top of the recently released Manitoba Municipal Spending Watch report.
The report, from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, put Dauphin in 2nd place behind Morden.
The CFIB says not all services provided by communities are essential and governments are sometimes willing to spend taxpayers’ dollars without assurances that they are getting good value for what they pay.
Across the province, one thing they’ve noticed is that municipalities spend a lot on labour. In most communities, it’s been out of control, but according to Jonathan Alward, the Director of Provincial Affairs for Manitoba, Dauphin has been doing very well with labour costs.
“Over the last eight years from 2008 to 2015 there change in real operating spending per capita was a two per cent increase. I think that was the lowest among all cities and towns. What we’ve seen in Dauphin is that spending has actually gone down significantly since 2010 (by one per cent). At the same time, population growth has actually been on the decline as well. Over that time the population has declined by three per cent, but the city has recognized that and doing things to curb real operating spending growth.”
The city’s operating spending growth beyond the benchmark set out by the CFIB has cost Dauphin residents a combined $2.9 million over eight years. That adds up to around $371 of unnecessary spending for each of Dauphin’s 7,918 residents.
“Make no mistake. Unsustainable spending can lead to higher taxes. But in Dauphin, the council has done a great job at controlling that these last few years. Certainly, it’s something commendable.”
Alward continues, “We’re releasing the report right now because unsustainable spending has huge consequences. We estimate that over the eight years it’s been an over a billion dollar problem for Manitoba’s municipalities.”
Alward explained they released the report before the upcoming municipal elections taking place across the province in hopes that sustainable spending becomes a priority for candidates running for a position on Dauphin’s city council.
“So in a nutshell what we’ve seen in our Manitoba Municipal Spending Watch is that most communities have been growing spending unsustainably. We allow for a sustainable benchmark that includes population growth and inflation. Because as your communities grow, as the cost of goods gets more expensive, communities need to increase their spending. But what we want to make sure is that communities are spending sustainable long-term because taxes or maybe a reduction in how much they are investing in infrastructure are the consequences of communities spending unsustainably. “
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
UPDATE (12:18pm)
RCMP officers have surrounded a house in Neepawa, as they search for the fourth suspect from the shooting of an officer last night.
Around 11:45 a.m, RCMP tweeted that they were on scene at a residence in Neepawa, which is about 50 kilometres away from Onanole, where the officer was shot last night.
The RCMP say they have closed-off the area of Mountain Ave to 4th Ave between Mill St and Boundary St in Neepawa. The city is not on lockdown, but they ask that people avoid the area.
All possible RCMP resources are being utilized to bring this incident to a close.
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- Contributed by Darnell Duff
A missing man from Swan River has been found.
Christopher Todd Dufresne has been located safely.
The RCMP thanks the public, all those involved in the search and the many local volunteer searchers for their assistance.
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Original Post
A 42-year-old man is missing from Swan River.
On August 20, 2018, at 8:50 am, the Swan River RCMP received a report of the missing man. Christopher Todd Dufresne was last seen leaving his residence, located on 3rd Avenue NW in Swan River, at approximately 8:00 am on August 19.
Dufresne is described as 6’2”, 170 pounds, brown eyes, and grey hair. He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a black t-shirt.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Swan River RCMP at 204-734-4686, or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477, submit a secure tip online at www.manitobacrimestoppers.com or text “TIPMAN” plus your message to CRIMES (274637).
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Police officers in Rivers, located north of Brandon, rescued five puppies from an underground tunnel the dogs' mother had dug on Monday.
Police say they were alerted about the pups yesterday and later found one that had escaped the tunnel and was dehydrated.
They found the other four animals when they started digging.
The dogs are being cared for at the Brandon Humane Society and will eventually be put up for adoption.
You can check out some cute photos by going to the Rivers Police Service Facebook page.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Last night, the Dauphin and District Allied Arts Council held their Annual General Meeting.
Towards the end of the meeting, some power positions on the board of directors got switched around. Michelle Nyquist stepped down as President, moving into the Past President role. Adriene Luke, who was the Past President moved into the Vice President position. Yvonne Lillie, who was the vice president, was promoted to the president of the board of directors for the 2018-19 year.
The arts council had a very successful 2017-18 year compared to the 2016-17 year, making much more money this past year. Yvonne Lillie has plans to make more money this next year.
“We also have a new project being developed by one of our members. It’s providing things that people can purchase things that have art from our local people put onto these things. There are phone cases, shirts, leggings, notebooks, cards and all these things. That’s going to be new.”
Terra Matthews stayed on as secretary and Mark Tiefenbach will continue as Treasurer.
Seven out of the nine General Board Members from 2017-18 are staying for 2018-19.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
The City of Dauphin has applied for only one project in the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
Under the Green Infrastructure Grant, the city has submitted their expression of interest to upgrade the city’s lagoons.
City hall considers Dauphin’s lagoon upgrades the priority at this time and that’s why it was the sole project listed.
Sharla Griffiths, the Assistant City Manager, says there needs to be more capacity which means the lagoon needs to increase in size. An engineering report shows that the project will cost about $13 million.
They sent it in before the August 10th deadline.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
The hail storms from August 3rd and 4th was very damaging. An estimated 1600 vehicles have had claims made on them.
Brian Smiley, an MPI media relations coordinator, gave a more detailed analysis of the damages done.
“More than 300 claims were opened in the Dauphin area alone, nearly 300 in Gilbert Plains.”
MPI has looked at about 60 percent of the vehicles with claims from the hail storm. Since MPI is still looking at the vehicles damaged during the storm, no total damage cost has been released.
If anyone still needs to make a claim they can call the MPI Contact Centre at (204) 985-7000.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Next week groups around Dauphin have the opportunity to get new members or participants.
Dauphin Rec’s Health and Leisure Mart is taking place next Wednesday and Thursday.
It’s a one-stop shop for families to find extracurricular activities and allows them to wander through the curling rink and see that groups interest them.
Tamara Kolida the Programs & Promotions Coordinator for the rec centre encourages groups around town to register for a table.
“It just brings awareness to your group and they use it too as a signup night. So instead of organizing their own signup nights, it’s kind of 30 different groups doing their sign-ups that day. So it’s easy on families as well because they just get to go there, it’s a one-stop shop. You can register your entire family for all of their activities in just one visit. Instead of just contacting five or six different groups. Everyone is there that night to kinda make everyone’s lives little easier.”
Kolida shares what kinds of groups have already signed up for the event.
“So we have a variety of groups. Like up to 30, I think. Kind of varying from your typical Dauphin Minor Hockey, Skate Dauphin, to dance groups, Ukrainian dance groups, and then more of the arts, so like the Watson Art Centre, and the library.” She continues, “you can walk through, get some information on what they can offer you.”
You still have time to register your group for the Health and Leisure Mart next week. Give Tamara a call at 204-622-3157 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to request a table.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
The City of Dauphin has changed some administration names.
During Monday's city council meeting the council approved the change from Chief Administrative Officer to City Manager.
With the change that means Deputy City Manager is also in effect.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
The City of Dauphin has to figure out how to pay for already budgeted road projects after the province cut back on an important program.
The province is reducing the Manitoba Road Improvement Program which the city had expected to receive $225,000. In total Dauphin is getting $107,840 through the program for the Johnson Street Reconstruction project.
It was announced late in the construction season, on August 15th, that the province would be giving less than expected. The city had become accustomed to repairing major road projects with this fund for the past several years. There are also rumours that the MRIP grant will be eliminated altogether next year, although no formal announcement has been made yet. Dauphin had grown used to completing nearly one million dollars worth of infrastructure work annually, but without the MRIP grand, keeping the same level of spending in years to come is unsustainable.
They are now looking at using the surplus Gas Tax reserve to offset lost funds for the 2018 road projects. Some of the other projects included the work on Jackson Street.
Dauphin isn’t the only community in Manitoba that is dealing with cuts as many other communities are dealing with the same problem.
The Association of Manitoba Municipalities is planning to lobby the provincial government to keep the funding at the previous allocation and keep it separate from the federal Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
