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The Manitoba government announced plans to support victims of domestic violence, increase the number of personal care home beds, and advancing the construction of the Lake Manitoba Outlet.

The speech from the throne at the legislature took place this afternoon at 1:30.

Other priorities for the government this year include:

  • bringing forward a new Referendum Act to restore the rights of Manitobans to vote on major tax increases, and provide a framework for calling and conducting a referendum;
  • implementing a plan to reduce wait times for procedures such as joint replacement, cataracts and diagnostic imaging;
  • bringing forward regulations to better plan the use of water resources and enhance drainage, conserve wetlands and store water within local watershed districts;
  • launching the Commission on Kindergarten to Grade 12 Education and conducting the first in-depth review of Manitoba’s child education system in decades;
  • developing Manitoba’s first ever provincial Clinical and Preventive Services Plan;
  • delivering a renewed Travel Manitoba tourism strategy;
  • supporting seniors by constructing 1,200 additional personal care home beds by 2025;
  • helping keep children and families together and bringing forward legislative changes to The Child and Family Services Act and The Child and Family Services Authorities Act;
  • improving accountability for results in the justice system and beginning in 2019, reporting annually on key measures such as recidivism rates, time to disposition of offences and custody counts;
  • introducing an Immediate Roadside Prohibition Program to allow police to address lower-level alcohol-related cases more quickly using administrative penalties;
  • bringing forward legislative amendments to allow the safe testing of autonomous vehicles on provincial roads.

The Help Yourself to Stay Warm and Well Campaign allows people to get warm winter clothes for free.

Prairie Mountain Health leaves out clothes on the community health parking lot fence.

This campaign runs until Friday this week.

Dianne Maydaniuk, Prairie Mountain Health Worker, says this is the second year they’ve done the campaign.

The campaign is running because they have noticed a lot of people needing warmer clothes in Dauphin.

They have collected over 200 articles of clothing for the campaign and more donations are on the way.

In just over a week another Alert Ready emergency test message is planned to be sent to most people’s phones.

The test of Canada’s emergency alerting system is scheduled to go off at 1:55 in the afternoon next Wednesday.

The test message will be on cable and satellite TV, radio, web feeds and compatible wireless devices. It’s important to note that not all Manitobans will receive the emergency alert test message on their wireless device.

You might not get an alert for a couple of reasons including device compatibility, connection to an LTE network, cell tower coverage and individual device software and settings.

The Canadian-Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission requires that 50 percent of new devices available for sale in Canada must be compatible with Alert Ready. This requirement increases to 100 percent by April 2019.

Over time, more devices will become compatible and more Manitobans will be able to receive emergency alerts on their wireless device.

This will be the second test of the Alert Ready system in Manitoba this year. The first one happened during Emergency Preparedness Week back in May.

Mountain View School Division held its pre-budget meeting last night and a variety of topics were brought up.

Among those topics were mental health, career cruising, the need for partnerships within our communities, and of course, the budget. 

Leifa Misko, Board Chair for MVSD said they're just guessing for now, but early indications are that the school division is looking at another decrease in funding from the provincial government.

She says that now they will start budget deliberations, and a public announcement can be expected for early March, when public input on the budget will be taken. She also says they plan to do "something different" this year, but can't say yet what that is.

Whitmore School won 10 thousand dollars in the Aviva Community Fund contest.

The contest has been a big boost to their fundraising efforts for a new play structure, but they still have more to go.

“We’re really happy about it. It’s really important to our school because our current play structure is condemned. It is not up to code so it’s going to be ripped down. So the goal is to put up a new play structure and so we would need to raise about 100 thousand dollars in order to do that.”

Melissa Ferland says they have raised 75 thousand dollars for the project so far.

The next session of the 41st Manitoba legislature begins this afternoon.

Local MLA Brad Michaleski will be there as the Lieutenant Governor reads the speech from the throne.

“We’re ready for it we’ve had two years of progress; we’ve made a lot of good progress. The end of the session was last Thursday, and we accomplished a lot in the last session in terms of better legislation.”

Ceremonies beginning at 1:30 this afternoon.

“This upcoming session is going to be exciting, and we’re going to keep moving forward making Manitoba the best, most improved province in Canada.”

A 62-year-old woman from Swan River is dead after colliding with a minivan last night at the Keld Intersection, west of Dauphin.

The 62-year-old was driving eastbound when she crossed the centre line and collided with a westbound minivan, being driven by a 16-year-old male from Ashville.

The female driver was pronounced deceased at the scene and the 16-year-old male was transported to the hospital with minor injuries.

Officers believe both drivers were wearing their seatbelts and that alcohol was not a factor in the collision.

Police continue to investigate.

Hopes for an end to postal service disruptions have been dashed again, with striking workers rejecting a call from Canada Post for a ``cooling off'' period accompanied by mediated talks.

Earlier today the Crown corporation said it would agree to a request from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers for another round of mediation, but only if striking workers end their rotating walkouts.

This move was aimed at getting union members to put down their picket signs over the holidays. 

In a statement, CUP-W national president Mike Palecek says the proposal asks members to go back to work at the heaviest and most stressful time of year under conditions that effectively have some employees working without compensation.

The construction of Dairy Queen is coming along.

The outer shell has been pretty much completed and there has been a minor problem with the paving, due to the weather.

The interior set up will be starting right away.

Eric Rochefort, Dairy Queen Franchise Developer for Eastern and Northern Canada says the goal is to still be open sometime in February.

Groups around Dauphin are encouraged to enter a float for this weekend’s Knights of Columbus Christmas Parade of Light

“We’ve had as high as, I think, 56 entries. That’s a pretty good parade for Dauphin. This year we’re down in numbers. I was talking to Ernie the other day, and he said that we were down quite a ways.”

Lloyd Hudson reminds groups that you want to join in, registration is open until the parade gets going at 5:30 on Saturday.

“Just a gentle reminder to people that it is a community activity that brings the spirit to town.”

Hudson is encouraging everyone to come out for the evening where Santa will be there.

“We’re having the tree lighting ceremony the same night."

There's no entry fee, so to enter your float or group, or for more information, call Ernie Safronetz at 204-638-8547.

There was an accident around the Keld intersection on Highway Five, west of Dauphin. Uncomfirmed reports say that one person has died as a result of the accident.

We have reached out to the RCMP for details.