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The Municipality of Mossey River is also taking a stance against the closure of the Dauphin jail.
Reeve Ron Kostyshyn says the closing of the facility will have an impact on more than just the City of Dauphin.
“At our meeting on Monday, we anticipated that we have 5 or 6 people that are currently at the Correction Institute,” said Kostyshyn. “It’s a major economic driver for the Mossey River Municipality.”
Kostyshyn added that the closure is taking a mental toll on everyone involved.
“It’s the fear of the unknown, but obviously, a majority of the people employed there have young families,” said Kostyshyn. “When we look at the challenges over the years in the municipality about school numbers dropping, we don’t want to have more students leaving because their parents, unfortunately, are no longer employed there.”
The Mossey River Municipality is taking similar steps to try and fight the closure through a letter and call campaign, and by participating in the town hall meeting next week.
On Monday, a meeting regarding the closure of the Dauphin jail is taking place in the Aspen Lodge in the Parkland Rec Complex at 5:30 pm.
Everyone concerned about the closure is encouraged to attend the meeting.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Manitoba Justice says that awarding $75,000 to a former employee who was harassed for being gay is “unjustifiable”.
The employee known as T.M. filed with the Human Rights Commission alleging that he was the victim of harassment because of his sexual orientation, including homophobic slurs and sexually explicit comments.
Last year, a provincial adjudicator found that the province failed to provide a safe and respectful workplace for the former corrections officer, and despite being made aware of the harassment, Manitoba Justice did nothing to stop it.
The adjudicator awarded T.M. $75,000 in damages and ordered the government to conduct training on harassment and hire a respectful workplace advisor for staff at the Winnipeg youth jail.
Earlier this month, the provincial government filed an application asking the judge to reduce the amount awarded to T.M.
The Justice Department says that the adjudicator made an error in law “by awarding an unjustifiable quantum of damages for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect”.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Over 3000 collisions have occurred this month due to drivers overlooking winter road conditions, according to Manitoba Public Insurance. A total of 10,000 collisions were reported during the first three weeks of January, 2000 of those due to driving too fast for road conditions and 1,300 due to drivers following too close.
“Road conditions contribute to three times as many crashes in January, compared to the rest of the year. It’s at this time of year in particular that motorists need to make adjustments to avoid collisions. This includes keeping safe distances between vehicles, keeping windshields clear, watching for pedestrians and cyclists, and driving to conditions,” said Satvir Jatana, Vice-President, Employee and Community Engagement, Manitoba Public Insurance.
However, the number of collisions in January 2020 has remained lower than the three year average of about 18,000 with 80% of collision claims occurring in Winnipeg.
Drivers are being reminded to take precaution when driving in winter conditions by getting winter tires, leaving more space between vehicles, and checking conditions before driving.
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- Contributed by Tess Kovach
Cliff Cullen came to Dauphin on Friday to announce that the jail will be shut down.
NDP Leader Wab Kinew says this is a bad move across the board.
“You got 80 families who are going to be losing jobs in the region. That’s going to have a spillover effect in impacting a lot of other businesses. On the safety side, getting rid of this facility and not committing to something new, like a healing centre in the area, that’s going to cause more problems for safety. The overall picture for Dauphin seems to be getting a lot more difficult with news of other cuts and layoffs that have happened in the area.”
Kinew says the NDP will stand up for the people in the Dauphin, Parkland Region.
“What we’re going to do is work with the community, work with mayor and council, and other leaders to put together a new plan to build a facility like a healing centre that would be for the justice system to have a focus on rehabilitation and vocational measures. So we want to see a plan to replace these jobs, to bring these jobs back. This move is a mistake.”
The 67 inmates will have to be moved to one of six other correctional facilities in Manitoba.
The two closest facilities are the Pas and Brandon.
Kinew says that unfortunately means a lot of families won’t be able to travel and see their loved ones.
“What that means is, maybe you’ve got somebody on the edge, you’ve got somebody who’s in a facility, they still have a chance to turn their life around and make our whole community safer. But instead, without the support of family and being shipped further away from their home, it’s more likely, unfortunately, that they’re going to get into more trouble in the future.”
Overall, the main point Kinew wants to get across is that the NDP will fight to get the government to reconsider, and if they don’t they’ll have a new plan ready to get jobs back to Dauphin.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
The City of Dauphin has outlined a list of actions they are going to take to try and fight the province’s decision to close the Dauphin Correctional Centre.
At City Council on Monday, Mayor Allen Dowhan said that he had reached out to the Premier, the Provincial Justice Minister, and local MLA Brad Michaleski urging them to reverse the decision.
The City and Rural Municipality of Dauphin will facilitate a town hall meeting on Monday, February 3rd at Credit Union Place in the Aspen Lodge at 5:30.
Everyone concerned about the closure of the Dauphin Correctional Centre is encouraged to come out.
The Mayor and council are asking citizens to call or write Premier Pallister, Justice Minister Cliff Cullen, and MLA Brad Michaleski to ask for the immediate reversal of the decision.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
On the night of January 24th, Fisher Branch RCMP responded to a call of a house fire on the Peguis First Nation.
While on their way to the fire, officers were notified of a suspicious male walking down Highway 224 and appeared to be burning items and throwing them on the road.
All four people in the house were able to get out. Two were treated on the scene, and two were taken to the hospital.
Further investigation led to the arrest of the male on Highway 224. 22-year-old Danton Flett, of Peguis First Nation, was charged with Arson-Disregard for Human Life and Arson-Damage to Property. He has been remanded into custody.
The two victims sent to the hospital have since been released. The house continued to burn and is a complete loss.
RCMP along with the Office of the Fire Commissioner, continue to investigate.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Today scheduled cleaning of the Gilbert Plains Municipal water reservoirs is starting.
The 2-week process can cause low water flow and water discolouration due to the disturbance of sediment during the process.
The water will still be safe to drink, the town will be supplied with the rural water directly from the pipeline while the tanks are being cleaned.
The reservoirs will be cleaned, disinfected and tested for water quality before being put back in production.
The bulk water station in Gilbert Plains is closed until February 5th, 2020 because of the cleaning.
Residents needing treated water will have to go to Dauphin or Grandview.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Provincial Health Minister Cam Friesen said today that the province is continuing to prepare for the potential arrival of coronavirus in Manitoba.
Friesen stated that the province is ensuring that health-care providers are aware of symptoms and implementing heightened precautions to detect, isolate and test for the virus.
“There have been no reported cases of novel coronavirus to date in Manitoba and the risk remains low at this time, but we must remain vigilant,” said Friesen. “Across the health system, 911 call operators, first responders, and front-line health-care staff have the information they need to identify symptoms and ensure all precautionary infectious disease protocols are in place.”
Patients visiting hospitals with fever and respiratory symptoms who travelled in the past two weeks to Wuhan, China, will be assessed for coronavirus.
Suspected and confirmed cases of novel coronavirus are required to be reported to Manitoba’s chief provincial public health officer.
Only two Canadian cases of the virus have been confirmed. Due to precautionary reasons, two Manitoba patients with uncertain travel histories have been tested for the virus in recent days. Both tested negative for the virus and positive for the common cold.
Friesen stressed that the risk in Manitoba remains low.
“We remain hopeful that we will not see confirmed cases of the virus in our province, but we are prepared in the event it does,” said Friesen.
Ways to prevent measures include regular hands washing with soap and water.
Additional precautions include covering your mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing. Avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Manitoba Ag Days 2020 featured the new Innovation Showcase, showing off the latest and greatest in farming technology.
32 inventions competed in 7 categories including agronomics, farm safety, agribusiness solutions, ag tech, ag equipment, animal and livestock, and farm-built solutions.
The winner of the agribusiness solutions category was Combyne by Farmlead.com.
CEO of Farmlead, Brennan Turner, was happy to have won.
“It’s exciting, we love Manitoba Ag Days,” said Turner. “Especially for the reason that they promote innovation, and bring in all the innovation to one simple location for everyone to see.”
Combyne is a free online grain market place allowing farmers and grain buyers to meet, and establish possible trading relationships. Producers can call and message possible buyers from anywhere in North America through the app.
“Our mission is to make cash grain trade easy,” said Turner. “The Combyne marketplace is an easy operation to manage.”
19 of the top 20 grain buyers in North America use the platform to buy their grain, but Turner says that they don’t want to restrict who producers do business with.
Everyone using the platform has to go through a credit check to make sure they are a legitimate customer.
Turner says that there are no restrictions as to what crop producers can sell on Combyne.
Combyne is available through the apple and android app stores and on farmlead.com
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Last week’s announcement of the closure of the Dauphin Correctional Centre has sent shockwaves through the community, and Dauphin MLA Brad Michaleski says he is aware of the impact.
Michaleski stressed that his primary focus going forward is to help the affected families.
“First and foremost, the number one concern of mine right now is the job losses and the families that are affected,” said Michaleski. “This is a hard announcement for the community and the families to hear, but first and foremost, it’s the effect on the families that I'm most concerned about."
Michaleski adds that the government will do its best to keep within the rules of the collective agreement with the MGEU while relocating the corrections staff.
The reason for the closure of the jail has to do with the age of the building, says Michaleski. He added that while the courthouse and the jail both need work, the jail would take a lot to bring up to current corrections standards.
“The jail is very old, and at the end of its service life,” said Michaleski. “There is capacity available, from a provincial perspective, to relocate the inmates to other facilities. Those are two contributing factors for sure.”
While the news of the closure of the jail is quite sad, Michaleski says he is excited about the improvements that the government is making to improve economic development in the Parkland.
Right after the announcement of the jail closure, Economic Development Minister Ralph Eichler announced that the province will be hosting an economic development tour to try and connect potential investors with opportunities in the Parkland.
Michaleski also said he continues to be excited about all the improvements being made to the Dauphin Regional Health Centre, including the recent announcement of expanded dialysis care in the Parkland.
“There are a lot of positive things that we’re doing,” said Michaleski. “I know this is a difficult decision for the community to hear, but all we can do is move forward and ensure that the employees and the families are looked after the best that we can.”
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
On the morning of January 19th, Dauphin RCMP responded to a report of a man being held against his will.
A 40-year-old male, from Valley River, was being held against his will at a residence on Buchanon Avenue, where he had been assaulted numerous times over a brief period of time on the night of the 18th. He added that the 4 suspects who assaulted him also stole his truck.
The victim was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Police arrested 4 people in relation to the incident, two of which were remanded in custody, and two were released for a future court date.
21-year-old Samuel Flatfoot, from Dauphin, has been charged with Aggravated Assault, Forcible Confinement, Robbery, and Possession of Property Obtained by Crime, and Disguised with Intent to Commit an Offense.
19-year-old Kayla Nepinak, also from Dauphin, has been charged with Aggravated Assault, Forcible Confinement, Robbery, and Possession of Property Obtained by Crime.
A 32-year-old woman from Dauphin and a 40-year-old woman from Valley River are scheduled to be in Dauphin court on April 7th, where they will face charges of Aggravated Assault, Forcible Confinement, Robbery, and Possession of Property Obtained by Crime.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
