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Last week the Manitoba Municipal Administrators held their conference and elected a new Vice President after their previous VP was elected as President.
Dauphin's own Nicole Chychota who is currently the Chief Administrative Officer for the R.M. of Dauphin was named the Vice President of the MMA after she was the only person nominated for the position.
Nicole said the honour of being named is incredible
You know it means a lot. As far back as we can find I‘m the first Vice President from the Parkland area to be on MMA so it’s quite the honour. It really gives me the opportunity to make connections with other levels of government. We work very closely with AMM and we have regular meetings with the Municipal Relations Department for the Province of Manitoba.
Nicole said that she looks forward to the role and working for the Parkland area.
It is a great opportunity to speak out on things that are happening specifically here as well in addition to the rest of the province. It’s nice to have that opportunity to bring our rural issues to the forefront.
She said the support she has received from everyone in the community and at work has been incredible.
I just want to thank everybody for all the support they’ve given me in this role. This is really about the people we get to work with. My staff are incredible and my council has been incredibly supportive and we couldn’t do it without all of you. I really look forward to representing Dauphin on a bigger platform.
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- Contributed by Eric Fawx
The Dauphin Community Curling Club held their first Super Bingo since 2020 this past weekend at the curling rink inside the Parkland Rec Complex.
Greg Thompson, the Curling Clubs treasurer, said there was an incredible turnout at this year’s event.
We had approximately 600 people show up to play bingo. I was really impressed with the turnout from the community both in Dauphin and the whole surrounding area. It seemed like everybody that had not played Bingo for a couple years all showed up so it was amazing.
Greg wants to thank everyone for coming out and said that the Super Bingo will be back again next year.
I would just like to say thank you to everybody who came out. I hope they all had a good time and enjoyed themselves. The Curling Club Bingo will be back again next year at approximately the same time. As a follow-up to this one the Dauphin Lions Club is going to be having a similar bingo at the end of May on May 28 and it will be in the curling rink as well.
All of the proceeds from the Super Bingo will go right back to the Curling Club to assist with everything from membership recruitment, to the junior curling programs and the capital projects at the club.
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- Contributed by Eric Fawx
The Dauphin City Council held a special council meeting tonight to discuss the City's 2022 Financial Plan. This meeting was also an opportunity for the public to bring up any concerns about the budget.
City Manager, Sharla Griffiths, gave a PowerPoint presentation breaking down the plan, some of the highlights include;
- Taxation decrease of $200,000 from 2020. It is slightly up, 1.6%, from last year. The decrease over the past two years compared to 2020 is due to the government's Federal Restart Funding for COVID relief.
- From 2020 to 2021 it dropped by $301,000.
- There is a continued level of spending on municipal infrastructures like roads, sidewalks, and water distribution.
- There are no program cuts as part of this year's budget.
- Year 2 of a multi-year project to improve drainage at the south end of Dauphin.
You can hear the full presentation of this year's budget on the City of Dauphin YouTube page here. You can see this year's financial plan from the City of Dauphin website here.
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- Contributed by Sam Brownell
The Dauphin Friendship Centre hosted seven MLAs from across the province this afternoon. Representatives from DFC shared what programs they run with the MLAs, and what the provincial funding they're given goes towards.
Friendship Centre Coordinator Jarri Thompson said they were very happy to be able to share what they do with them MLAs.
It means a lot to us that they were here to learn more about our program since we have been laying the groundwork for the indigenous in our community for over 40 years. It shows them where their funding is going, and how well it's being put to use.
Back Row: The Dauphin Friendship Centre Staff
Front Row L to R: Greg Nesbitt (Riding Mountain), Hon. Reg Helwer (Brandon West, Minister of Labour, Consumer Protection and Government Services), Hon. Jeff Wharton (Red River North, Minister of Environment, Climate and Parks), Hon. Andrew Smith (Lagimodière, Minister of Sport, Culture and Heritage), Hon. Jon Reyes (Waverley, Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Immigration), Hon. Kelvin Goertzen (Steinbach, Minister of Justice and Attorney General), and Wayne Ewasko (Lac du Bonnet, Minister of Education and Early Childhood Learning)
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- Contributed by Sam Brownell
The Provincial Government is investing over $13 million dollars in upgrades to Provincial Trunk Highway 5A. Construction is expected to begin this summer and will be completed by the end of the year.
Premier Heather Stefanson was in town for the announcement and said it was an issue that has come up the last few times she was in the area.
It was certainly one of the number one issues that came up, so making it more of a priority I think just makes sense. From an economic development standpoint, but I think from just safety and many different standpoints.
The project will run 1.7 km along PTH 5A from Whitmore Ave south to Triangle Road. The project will include;
- Surface reconstruction with the creation of a divided highway.
- All local accesses will connect to service roads and service roads connecting to PTH 5A at upgraded intersections to improve safety.
- Creating a signalized intersection at the local mall entrance.
- Adding service roads to both sides of the highway.
Mayor Christian Laughland was also at the announcement and said the City has been working on the project for over 10 years, and it's really exciting to see the project happen.
There are a lot of people that work on the south side, pedestrians that walk to work, and it's going to make things a lot safer for them as well.
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- Contributed by Sam Brownell
It was announced this morning that there was a mandatory evacuation order issued for the Peguis First Nation located about 150 kilometres north of Winnipeg after Ice jams on the Fisher River continue to drive up water levels and threaten to flood the entire community.
The chief of the Peguis First Nation, Glen Hudson, spoke about the flooding in the community.
We have probably 480 some-odd homes that are completely surrounded by water and roads have been breached.
Hudson says water levels appear to be higher than during their last major flood evacuation in 2011.
Over 900 Residents that have been evacuated have been sent to hotels in nearby communities, including Selkirk, Gimli and Winnipeg.
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- Contributed by Eric Fawx
After a winter where many beekeepers experienced large losses in their beehives, producers are once again talking about opening the Canada US border to replacement packages. Manitoba Beekeepers Association held an emergency meeting last week to see how producers feel about the issue.
Right now, Canadian beekeepers have to get replacement hives from Australia, New Zealand, and Chile because of the border closure. According to Bob Podolsky, owner of Podolski Honey Farms in Ethelbert, packages from the US are much less expensive, and the bees are younger and healthier.
It's not just the honey loss that we will suffer in Canada, but how about the pollination? For instance, the pollination in Ontario alone is worth 6.3 billion dollars.
According to Podolsky, the majority of beekeepers at the meeting were in favor of opening the border.
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- Contributed by Sam Brownell
Municipal elections are taking place across Manitoba on October 26th, and Dauphin will have a new Mayor as incumbent Christian Laughland has announced he won't be running again.
The plan was just to bridge the gap between the passing of our former Mayor Al Dowhan and the municipal election. With a new son that was born about two years ago, I want to have more time for him, so I don't plan on running for Mayor in 2022.
Registration to run for Mayor and Reeve officially opened yesterday, and as of today, you can pick up a package from City Hall or the Municipality Office with information on how to register. Registration to run for council opens on June 30th.
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- Contributed by Sam Brownell
The City of Dauphin is hosting its 2022 Financial Plan Public Hearing coming up on Monday, May 2nd.
The hearing will take place at Dauphin City Hall at 5 pm and all residents are invited to attend in person.
City of Dauphin Deputy City Manager Lisa Gaudet said the event will also be live-streamed for those who can’t make it in person.
People can attend in person and we welcome that. In the last couple years we’ve had problems with that kind of format because of covid but we’re happy to welcome our residents to attend in person or they can also view it online on the City of Dauphin YouTube channel. It will be live-streamed to the YouTube channel so they can watch from home as well.
The hearing will feature all the info about this year's budget that residents need to know.
The City Manager will have a PowerPoint presentation and will be presenting the financial plan. This is the budget of the expenditures and the revenues budgeted for the year and the capital expenditures planned.
Gaudet said this is the beginning stage of the year's budget being approved for the City.
The City of Dauphin is required to present the financial plan to the public before it's approved by council. Once it's reviewed on Monday night and we receive any comments or input by the public it will then go to Council on May 9th for formal approval. The budget has to be submitted to the Province by May 15th.
If you’d like to take a look at the draft of the financial plan you can head to the City of Dauphin website here.
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- Contributed by Eric Fawx
The Dauphin Curling Club will be hosting their Super Bingo tonight at the Parkland Rec Complex in the Curling Rink.
This will be the first super bingo in Dauphin since 2020 due to the pandemic.
The doors for the event will open at 4:30 pm with the share the wealth bingo at 5:30 pm and the regular games starting at 7:30 pm
The Dauphin Curling Club Treasurer Greg Thompson said players can win up to $3,000 at the event.
In the regular games that start at 7:30, there’s a variety of different games but the minimum prize for any of the games is $200 but there is a $600 game, there are 4 $1,000 games and there’s also a $3,000 blackout at the end of the evening.
Greg also said that all the funds raised will go right back to the Curling Club.
We use it as a fundraiser for the curling club to do things like supporting junior curling, supporting membership recruitment and capital projects for the club. It’s basically a fundraiser for the curling club that we do once a year.
Cards for the bingo will go on sale at the door at 4:30 pm on Saturday and will be $5 for 3 to view, $10 for 6 to view and $15 for 9 to view and players can purchase any combination of cards that they wish to play.
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- Contributed by Eric Fawx
The province of Manitoba has announced that it's investing $1.3 Million to support the Community Safety and Well-Being (CSWB) Planning Pilot Project to develop local CSWB Plans and implement local safety priorities in 12 Manitoba communities.
Dauphin MLA Brad Michaleski said that the City of Dauphin will be one of the 12 communities receiving funding.
This funding is being directed towards the City of Dauphin. This will be a community collaborative approach and hopefully in this pilot they're going to be able to find out the local priority risks to safety and well being.
The community of Dauphin will receive a total of $110,000 for their community as part of this funding with $50,000 of the funding going to support the planning process here in Dauphin.
The remaining funding will be available for community safety actions and initiatives that the planning process identifies as local priorities.
The CSWB Planning Pilot Project aligns with The Manitoba Policing and Public Safety Strategy announced in May 2019, which identified the need to focus on communities with high rates of violence, alleviate extraneous demands on police, and enhance Community Mobilization. The Pilot will focus on twelve Manitoba communities which will include the cities of Portage la Prairie, Dauphin and Swan River.
As part of today's announcement, the Manitoba government also announced it's providing $100,000 to expand Community Mobilization to the Waywayseecappo First Nation which will connect at-risk youth and families to social services to ensure they are receiving appropriate supports and interventions.
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- Contributed by Eric Fawx
