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A man that was believed to be in Swan River working recently has been reported missing.
Arthur Ducharme of The Pas has not been seen by family since June 15. He was reported to have been working in the valley; however, he has not been in contact with his family, which is out of character.
He was expected to be back home in The Pas on July 20, but he has not returned and he hasn't been heard from.
If you have any information, you're asked to call The Pas RCMP at 204-627-6204
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- Contributed by Darnell Duff
A lawsuit filed against Amber Fisher last month alleges she stole more than half a million dollars from the Gilbert Plains municipality.
The lawsuit was filed on July 25 and it accuses the former CAO of breaching her contract through criminal, fraudulent, and unlawful conduct. The lawsuit alleges that between September 2020 and July 2021, Fisher made 33 transfers from the municipality's bank account to her own, with the total being about $515,000.
While nothing has been proven in court, Fisher is also accused of falsifying bank statements to hide the transfers, giving councillors non-legitimate reports that cleared her of any fraud, and making up a story that she had been the victim of a cyberattack.
Amber began working for the municipality in 2018 as a senior administrative officer before she was promoted to chief administrative officer in 2020. She was suspended in the summer of 2021 before Amber provided bank statements to the municipality's auditors in March of 2022, but they were later determined to be modified from the originals. Then in June of 2022, MNP was hired by Gilbert Plains to investigate. It was found that Fisher transferred roughly $532,000 to her personal bank account.
Fisher has reportedly repaid about $17,000; however, the municipality is suing to retrieve the rest of the funds and for general, special, and punitive damages.
The investigation continues. We have reached out to the RCMP for comment.
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- Contributed by Darnell Duff
Stoney Point Beach has been a place where people have been making memories for decades and the grand opening of the new playground ushers in a new era of fun.
As of today, August 1st, 2023, the Stoney Point Playground is officially open to the public.
MLA Brad Michaleski & Reeve Ernie SirskiCutting The Ribbon On The New Playground
The Stoney Point Playground has been in the works for a couple of years now. Its construction was pushed back for about a year due to some serious flooding at the beach.
The CAO of the RM of Dauphin Nicole Chychota noted that this project wasn't without its challenges.
"We were supposed to put it in last year, but we had flooding issues out at Stoney Point, so we were able to complete the project this year. We're happy to see it done."
Chychota also noted that this work couldn't have been done without the generous help of the staff and sponsors.
"A big thank you to all the staff and council that came out to help build it, and to the sponsors. We really couldn't have done this project without all of their support and we appreciate all of their help."
The funding for this project came from a few different sources.
The Province of Manitoba's Building Sustainable Communities Program played a large part in the funding. More Locally, Richardson Pioneer made a donation as well as personal donations from Marlene and Clinton Chute and Ron and Rob Shumka.
Reeve Ernie Sirski couldn't resist testing out this new structure for himself.
This new playground is heavily themed on Dauphin's tourism strategy, featuring its color scheme and its slogan "Adventure from here on out".
Dauphin is always creating new infrastructure for its citizens, and this playground is another step forward on Dauphin's path of growth.
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- Contributed by Michael Brossart
Manitoba's Agriculture Minister, Derek Johnson, announced some amendments to the Agricultural Crown Lands (ACL) leases and permits. They will come into effect on January 1st, 2024.
The amendments to come include:
- reducing forage lease rents over the next several years to help producers recover from drought and flood conditions in recent seasons;
- extending lease terms to a maximum of 20 years from 15 years when producers invest in forage productivity improvements;
- enabling 15-year leaseholders to transfer the remaining years of their leases to an eligible third party;
- developing a process that could enable legacy leaseholders to transfer their agricultural Crown lands to a third party by nominating the next leaseholder, if the agricultural Crown lands are not selected under Treaty Land Entitlement and do not impact Indigenous treaty rights;
- including non-profit Indigenous organizations to be eligible to hold forage leases, in addition to the bands that are already eligible; and
- formalizing the process for assessing land productivity used to determine rent to create an incentive to manage the land and invest in its productivity.
The following is a press release from the Manitoba government:
The Manitoba government is making changes to the Agricultural Crown Lands (ACL) Leases and Permits Regulation to support improving forage productivity, growing the livestock industry and advancing sustainability after receiving public feedback, Agriculture Minister Derek Johnson announced today.
“The Agricultural Crown Lands Program is meant to strengthen the livestock industry, enhance productivity and encourage growth,” said Johnson. “At the same time, the ACL Program needs to work for leaseholders and Indigenous Peoples who use these lands for traditional purposes and to exercise treaty rights. After a 45-day public comment period that included Indigenous communities and organizations, as well as stakeholders, we are revising the ACL Leases and Permits Regulation to improve the program for all who use it.”
Agricultural Crown lands are parcels of land vested to Manitoba that the government leases to producers for agricultural use, including grazing, haying or annual cropping. Agricultural Crown lands are important public assets economically, environmentally and socially. Agriculturally, these Crown lands are essential to supporting and growing the livestock industry in Manitoba, and provide mitigation and adaptation to climate change, the minister noted.
Based on the public feedback, the revised ACL Leases and Permits Regulation will enable outgoing leaseholders to choose the value of improvements for compensation at either the value set out in the appraisal report or a lesser value they specify, the minister added.
The Manitoba government began to modernize the ACL program in 2017 to increase access for Indigenous, young and new farmers. It was updated significantly in 2019 to enable leases to be allocated by auction and to set rates at market-based rents.
The current amendments to the ACL Leases and Permits Regulation include:
- reducing forage lease rents over the next several years to help producers recover from drought and flood conditions in recent seasons;
- extending lease terms to a maximum of 20 years from 15 years when producers invest in forage productivity improvements;
- enabling 15-year leaseholders to transfer the remaining years of their leases to an eligible third party;
- developing a process that could enable legacy leaseholders to transfer their agricultural Crown lands to a third party by nominating the next leaseholder, if the agricultural Crown lands are not selected under Treaty Land Entitlement and do not impact Indigenous treaty rights;
- including non-profit Indigenous organizations to be eligible to hold forage leases, in addition to the bands that are already eligible; and
- formalizing the process for assessing land productivity used to determine rent to create an incentive to manage the land and invest in its productivity.
The amendments to the ACL Leases and Permits Regulation will come into force on Jan. 1, 2024.
For more information on agricultural Crown lands, visit https://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/land-management/crown-land/.
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- Contributed by Alec Woolston
The Manitoba government announced a couple of changes are coming to the way that hunters can submit samples for testing of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).
For the 2023-24 hunting season, hunters will have the option to extract and submit the testable tissue samples themselves instead of having to send in the entire head of an animal. As well, the mandatory sample submission period has been extended to 7 days from 2. This is to allow for more time to get the required samples.
The changes are being made to speed up the turnaround time for test results. Ever since the province expanded the Mandatory Sample Submission Zones in 2022, testing facilities have seen a massive uptick in samples received.
CWD was first detected in Manitoba in a male mule deer in November of 2021. Not long after, two more deer infected with the disease were detected and one of them was found near Lake Of The Prairies.
CWD is not known to be a health risk to humans but eating meat from an infected animal is not recommended.
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- Contributed by Alec Woolston
Have you ever been out driving when all of a sudden a normal-looking car comes speeding by with red and white flashing lights? It’s not an ambulance or fire truck, but it’s moving like it has somewhere to be.
While it's not something you may see often, you may come across it and you should be pulling to the right. That's because these vehicles should be treated as emergency vehicles as they are being driven by volunteer firefighters or volunteer EMS.
"These vehicles are recognized as an emergency vehicle," said Cam Abrey, Fire Chief. "The fines that you would face by not giving the right-away are very similar to those that if you pass an ambulance or fire truck as they respond to a call."
So if you do see flashing lights behind you, even if they are not coming from an emergency vehicle, the procedure is simple.
"If you notice the flashing red light or flashing red and white light, we ask you to pull over to the right so they can respond," ended Abrey.
Additionally, if you see emergency lights flashing and the speed limit is posted as 80 kilometres per hour, you must reduce your speed to 60 kilometres for hour. If you are within town limits and notice, you must reduce your speed to 40 kilometres per hour.
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- Contributed by Darnell Duff
Swan River was the place to be from Thursday to Sunday last week as the town hosted the annual Northwest Roundup & Exhibition.
Thousands of people passed through the gate and there were lots of competitors in the rodeo.
"It was a great weekend of rodeo in Swan River, we had over 13,000 people through the gates, we had 183 cowboys show up to compete", said Swan River Valley Agricultural Society President, Austen Anderson.
Anderson also mentioned that George Canyon played on thursday night to a crowd of around 700 people. Canyon also volunteered to sing "Oh, Canada" before the rodeo events on Friday. Earlier in the day on Friday, over 130 floats made their way through Swan River for the parade.
[Image - CKDM vehicle lined up at the parade]
Over 5,500 people attended the exhibition on Saturday, and on Sunday there was a huge crowd on hand for the dash-for-cash which was won by Wayne Solomon.
To put on a successful event like the Northwest Roundup & Exhibition, a lot of support is needed from volunteers and businesses.
"We have a wonderful group of volunteers that work the week before the roundup and throughout the year, and we have wonderful sponsors that help us put this on", mentioned Anderson.
There is already lots of excitement for next year's exhibition, and Anderson says there are already several ideas being put forth to make the experience even better.
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- Contributed by Alec Woolston
Parks Canada says Highway 19 is completely open in Riding Mountain National Park.
The highway experienced significant damage during the severe spring weather last year but it has now been fully repaired.
The work included new culverts, replacements and repairs to exisiting culverts, and ditching and shaping of shoulders.
In late June, Parks Canada also announced the campground and other facilities at the Lake Audy campground were back open to visitors as well.
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- Contributed by Alec Woolston
The Dauphin and District Food Bank has been around since 2000 and for the past 23 years, Robin Gambler has been front and centre.
"I like helping people, I have been involved the entire time," said Gambler. "If I can help someone get a meal, that's what I want to do."
With grocery prices continuing to skyrocket, the amount of people heading to the Food Bank is also skyrocketing. Compared to last year, the number of people has doubled and this includes families and single people.
At this time, they're looking for donations of non-perishable food items. They do ask that if you do plan on donating, check the best-before date prior to dropping anything off. They're also looking for feminine hygiene products.
"Rent has to be the number one priority for people and we understand how expensive that is," said Gambler. "If we can then give them some food security, that's great."
You can drop off any donations at the Friendship Centre and they will then be taken to the Food Bank at Parkland Crossing. You can also head there and if someone is available, they will help you out.
The next intake at Parkland Crossing is Thursday from 5 to 7. You must take your Manitoba Health Card and you are eligible to receive a hamper once every four weeks.
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- Contributed by Darnell Duff
Fire crews in Winnipegosis played a role in potentially saving a life with STARS Air Ambulance.
Last night just after 5 pm The Winnipegosis fire department Was dispatched to the PR271 junction of Highway 20.
The team closed off a section of the road to prepare a safe landing space for the STARS crew.
As STARS was stabilizing their patient for travel, The Winnipegosis Fire Department also assisted by refueling the helicopter, shaving vital time off of their trip.
A huge thanks to Camperville Fire Department and Winnipegosis RCMP detachment and Winnipegosis Firefighters for assisting with traffic control.
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- Contributed by Michael Brossart
Excitement has been growing for a while, and finally, Vermillion Growers is open for production.
The 8-year-long wait came to an end with a ribbon-cutting celebration where owners, investors, and provincial dignitaries all came out in celebration.
From left to right, Minister of Agriculture Derek Johnson, Dauphin MLA Brad Michaleski, Deputy Mayor Christian Laughland, and Reeve Ernie Sirski all showed up to wish congratulations to this new industry.
Maria Deschauer, co-founder and managing director for Vermillion Growers was elated to host this event and to kick off operations.
"I'm almost speechless, and it truly almost brings me to tears because our Vermillion Grower's team has worked hard for many years for this to come to fruition. so yeah, just ecstatic. Our entire team is humming with energy, and ready for the next phase of operations"
The operational phase is no small feat either. Deschauer notes that once all the tomatoes are planted, a whopping 10 million pounds of tomatoes could be produced per growing year.
According to Deschauer, that's just the beginning as well.
"In an ideal world, we would be adding another 5 acres next year, and then another 15 acres, and then another 15 acres the following year. This is a very scalable project, and we want to scale it up as quickly as possible."
The Greenhouse is an impressive structure, featuring eco-friendly innovation from high-efficiency patterned windows, rainwater reservoirs, CO2 recyclers, and hyper-efficient watering systems capable of growing tomatoes all the way to the ceiling of the facility.
The technology doesn't stop there, as on-rail scissor lifts will be used to harvest these towering tomato behemoths, and robots will be used to assist in moving the harvest from the lifts to the sorting and packaging areas.
Vermillion is currently under contract and will be selling their tomatoes through Red Sun Farms, which you'll be able to find at the local Co-op.
As well, Vermillion is looking to grow their staff. If you have an interest in horticulture or happen to have particularly green thumbs, Vermillion Growers might be a place for you to apply.
To follow the growth of this budding industry, check out their website at Vermilliongrowers.com to stay up to date on all the juicy goings-on at Manitoba's soon-to-be biggest tomato producer.
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- Contributed by Michael Brossart
