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The City of Dauphin is developing a plan to install rapid charging stations for electric cars.

Steven Sobering says the plan is to have stalls installed by this summer.

“I’m working on the direct current fast chargers, as part of the city’s commitment to sustainability. The city is interested in growing the economy around sustainability and active living, and currently when we look at the greenhouse gas emissions in the province of Manitoba 30 percent of that is from the transportation sector.”

Sobering says their plan will offer stations that would allow charging a vehicle from an empty battery to full in around an hour.

Mayor Dowhan says having these stalls will help with the city’s goal of developing tourism.

“We talk about tourism all the time, but we need to have the infrastructure and the necessary sites and that for people to come. Provincial tourism is what’s happening in the industry right now, and we have a lot of it here.”

The idea is to have the largest rapid charge network in Manitoba that goes from Dauphin to Winnipeg and connect the communities in between.

“Especially with the 2020 Summer Games and the world-class mountain bike trail that we’re building we need this type of devices in our community to attract people. And also along the way, like Neepawa, Portage, etcetera. So they can see Manitoba easily, and there’s not a drawback for people to access our communities,” Dowhan said. 

The project is in the research stage, and Steve is pursuing different partners like the province, Manitoba Hydro, and other forward-thinking municipalities to help build a network.

There has been a group of Manitoba parents advocating for seatbelts on school buses.

This group advocating seatbelts on school buses is nothing new to Bart Michaleski.

In recent memory, there have been accidents bringing significant attention to school buses.

Despite school buses still being fairly safe, there are concerns.

A major concern of Michalski's is if the driver is incapacitated it could be very difficult for the students to get out of the bus.

A major pro to putting seatbelts in school buses is they could be safer when there is a collision with the bus from the side or if there is a rollover.

School bus seats are designed for capacity, so two older kids or 3 small kids can sit on a seat together.

That makes it difficult for school buses to structure where seatbelts can go.

Spending by Indigenous people, businesses and governments in Manitoba totalled more than nine billion dollars in 2016.

The data was compiled in a report from organizations representing chiefs in the north and south that looked at the impact of the Indigenous economy and of urban reserves across the province.

The report says the Indigenous economy also contributed more than two-billion dollars, or almost four percent, to Manitoba's gross domestic product.

M-K-O Grand Chief Garrison Settee says the report validates Indigenous people as important contributors to the province.

Get a head start on your camping plans this upcoming Monday.

Campground reservations are opening in Riding Mountain National Park.

Richard Dupuis says RMNP should be chosen over other campground sites because the park is a special place where you can enjoy nature at its best.

Reservations are available this early in the year because people like to plan their summers ahead of time.

Dupuis encourages all visitors to plan and reserve a campground ahead of time for the best experience.

MacKenzie Middle School has experienced a flood due to a ruptured heating line.

The heating line ruptured early in the morning on Christmas Eve.

A lot of hot water spewed out of the rupture and did quite a lot of damage in that second-floor classroom. The water made its way down into two classrooms on the main level.

One class was affected very minimally and is in use already, another will hopefully be ready next week and the second-floor classroom will be ready in 1 or 2 weeks. One class has had to temporarily move to a spare classroom while another class is currently in the library.

There is no damage estimate at this time.

You can now access the Dauphin walk-in clinic on Sundays!

Clinic Manager Benjamin, explains why they decided to operate the clinic seven days a week.

“We work closely with the hospital, and we notice an increase in the number of patients treated at the emergency at the hospital, and we thought it would be a good service for the community to have the walk-in an extra day.”

The clinic is open from 12 to 2 in the afternoon.

“We only started advertising last week, and in the period of Sunday we already had over 20 coming to the clinic, without really knowing. So we really think that it’s going to relieve the ER and be able to treat patients that are non-emergent at the walk-in.”

Opening on Sundays has been in the works for a few months and it did take some time to organize the 30 doctors, but now everything is up and running.

The average price for a gram of legal recreational marijuana costs almost twice as much as the same amount from an illegal supplier.

Statistics Canada says between October 17th, legalization day, and December 31st, a gram of pot purchased through legal channels sold for nine-dollars and 70 cents on average, while black market cannabis sold for about six-dollars and 51 cents.

The agency also notes the average amount of non-medical cannabis purchased from an illegal supplier was more than double the quantity bought from government-run stores or websites, averaging at about 17.2 grams from illegal suppliers, compared with 8.3 grams from legal outlets.

Those who responded to StatsCannabis said they purchased an average of 4.7 grams when buying at a retail outlet and an average of 9.1 grams when purchasing via mail delivery. 

For the Stats Canada report, click here.

Learn to swing dance before you head out to the Big Band Dance Night later this month.

A free dance class is taking place this Friday at the Watson Art Centre running from 7 to 9 in the evening.

Taylor Schmidt says this class can help you get ready to dance to the music performed by groups like the Dauphin Community Jazz Band.

“We’re going to use some of the music that some of the bands are going to be playing so that when you’re at the dance, you might hear that song come on and be like ‘hey that was the one!’ We kind of wanted to get people a couple weeks to practice. If a couple comes out and they’re working together, and maybe they know the names of the tunes, we can offer that too, they can just put on YouTube and do a little bit of practicing before they come out.”

All you need to get into the class at the Watson Art Centre, on Friday, is a ticket to the Big Band Dance Night.

This year the dance has music performed by the Dauphin Community Jazz Band, the Brandon Community Jazz Band, and Grace and the Wielers.

High-quality bike trails for the 2020 Manitoba Summer Games are mostly completed.

Currently, all the bush has been cleared for the trails, as well as an extra 2km of trails to have the possibility of hosting provincial and national events.

Sustainable Trails is a company that is well known for creating competitive trails in Canada.

As soon as the frost is out of the ground, that company will be finalizing the trails by building the berms and rollers and everything else needed for the trails.

The competitive trails are built to the east of the Dauphin Countryfest amphitheatre, between the upper and lower campground.

Clayton Swanton is really excited about the Co-op Central Trailhead facility. It’s the central hub.

There will be 3.5 km of family trails that start there as well. Overall, 6 km of trails have been cleared.

Reynold Roulette has been located. 

 

Original Story below:

Manitoba First Nations Police Service is asking for the public’s help in locating a 26-year-old man from Sandy Bay First Nation.

Reynold Roulette was last seen in the community on January 5th, and his last social media contact was on the 6th.

He might be in the McCreary area, but this information hasn't been confirmed.

Roulette is described as First Nations, 5 feet 6 inches, 165 lbs, slender build, with short dark hair. He was last seen wearing a black winter jacket with black and green plaid sleeves, blue jeans, and black runners.

Police are concerned for his well-being and are asking anyone with information to contact the Sandy Bay Detachment at 204-843-7700.

About 80 people attended this afternoon’s Lunch Series event hosted by the Dauphin and District Chamber of Commerce. 

“This one was a nice surprise because it’s such a close one to the holidays that it’s tough to kind of get the word out there. So it was a nice surprise to see such an interest in this one. And with the presentations, it’s no doubt that a lot of people wanted to come in and check it out.”

Stephen Chycota says all three presentations today were well received. The crowd heard about the Dauphin Neighbourhood Renewal’s Unity Project, Dauphin’s pilot Business Incubator project, and the newly developed mountain bike trails.

The next Breakfast Series takes place on Thursday the17th at the Super 8. Chycota hopes everyone can come out to that presentation. Tickets are available at the chamber office or at the chamber website.