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Stu Briese served as an MLA from 2007-2016 in Ste Rose and Agassiz. 

Along with being an MLA, he spent 20 years on RM of Langford council and 3 years on the board for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. 

He was also the Director, President, and Vice-president of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities. 

He was recognized for outstanding contribution to the municipal government in Manitoba by being given the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. 

He was 73-years-old. 

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Contributed by Isaac Wihak

Published: Mar 13, 2019 - 5:58 pm

Gas Prices were hovering around a dollar yesterday.

Today, they’ve jumped up to 105.9 at Co-op and 112.9 at Esso.

We’ve reached out to Dan McTeague at Gas Buddy to find out how high the prices might get.

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Contributed by Isaac Wihak

Published: Mar 13, 2019 - 2:38 pm

On Monday night around 9:45, Flin Flon RCMP responded to a vehicle-pedestrian collision on Highway 10 about a kilometre south of Flin Flon.

An investigation determined a pickup truck was travelling south when it struck a 35-year-old man from Sherridon, located three and a half hours northeast of Flin Flon, who was lying on the highway.

The 59-year-old male driver stopped and flagged down another motorist for assistance in calling 911.

The 35-year-old was then transported to a hospital in critical condition, later flown to Winnipeg, and is now in stable condition.

The Flin Flon RCMP and an RCMP Forensic Collision Reconstructionist are continuing the investigation.

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Contributed by Isaac Wihak

Published: Mar 13, 2019 - 12:15 pm

Jean-Louis Guillas is retiring as the director of the Parkland Regional Library and Dauphin Public Library in June.

He thinks it’s time for him to make a change and it’s good for institutions to have renewal.

There are a couple of important things from a regional point of view Guillas wants to reflect on.

They now manage 23 libraries across the Parkland. Guillas thinks the regional method is a strong way to manage libraries.

Other than adding branches in Rossburn, Ste Rose, and Eriksdale, this is his highlight.

“One of the big things is expansion of programming. Particularly the best known regular series is our Third Thursday Music Program which has become a real staple to people’s calendars, once a month. Just last year we attracted over 1000 people to that program.”

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Contributed by Isaac Wihak

Published: Mar 13, 2019 - 11:26 am

Roads in the RM of Lakeshore are starting to experience washouts and soft spots.

The administration is warning that residents should be cautious around any road restrictions and barricades.

Troubled spots have been marked to alert drivers.

Residents are being asked to avoid the areas if at all possible. 

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Contributed by Josh Sigurdson

Published: Mar 13, 2019 - 10:24 am

The Dauphin and District Chamber of Commerce will be hosting their Celebration Night tonight from 7-9 at the Countryfest Community Cinema.

Five awards will be given out and a great list of nominees has been given to the chamber from the public.

The five categories are, the business person of the year, legacy business, young entrepreneur of the year, and community appreciation both individually and group. 

Stephen Chychota is very excited to be showing off every nominee, as well as awarding those chosen to receive the awards.

He says everyone, in the five categories, is very deserving of recognition and it’s going to be a fun night celebrating with everyone in a fun way.

The focus is on celebrating and honouring people that are doing tremendous work. It’ll be a way to showcase the best of what’s going on in the Parkland.

There will be appetizers and drinks as well.

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Contributed by Isaac Wihak

Published: Mar 13, 2019 - 5:14 am

The City of Dauphin had small surpluses in both their General Fund and Utility Fund.

The General Fund had a surplus of $367,457.

Scott Carr says it’s even smaller when you consider that nearly half was due to project delays. A few examples he gave included a telephone system didn’t get replaced until January 2019 and some work at the Watson Art Centre is getting done in early 2019. 

There were other variances in the fund that helped the General Fund.

“We had greater than expected new construction which increased our tax base. We had some insurance rebates that were greater than expected, and a few other costs such as Dauphin Rec Services and Economic Development were under budget just due to various reasons.”

 There were some items that were over budget this year.

“The fire department had an extremely high number of calls this year which resulted in them being 42 thousand dollars over budget. We also spent more on roads and streets than budgeted. Our yard waste cleanup, specifically the spring and fall clean up, were higher than budgeted. We had an early snowfall which took down a lot of branches and the volumes for the fall clean up were very high.”

Dauphin had a relatively small Utility Fund surplus of $256,151. Project delays also helped this fund.

“We had a grinder at Lift Station One that was installed in January 2019 due to a contractor delay.”  Carr says their electronic monitoring system was delayed and is being installed this spring. “Plus we’re looking at doing a pressure management design system which was delayed that resulted in about half of the 256 thousand  dollar surplus.”

There were also a few items that offset the surplus.  “We had higher than usual water main breaks. Specifically in the fall, late fall of 2018. There were a lot of water main breaks. That generally doesn’t happen at that time of year. That meant that we were spending more on main water repairs than what was budgeted.”

The surpluses for 2018 are being transferred into reserves and used to finish off projects that were not completed last year. 

The city’s reserve fund is sitting at just over 8 million 668 thousand dollars.  Carr considers it to be above average.

You can read the 2018 Financial Analysis presented to coucnil by clicking the link. 6.b)iii) 2018 Financial Analysis (2).pdf.

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Contributed by Josh Sigurdson

Published: Mar 13, 2019 - 5:00 am

Today the Dauphin and District Chamber of Commerce held their Chamber Appreciation Luncheon.

Stephen Chychota says these luncheons are very exciting.

The luncheon just goes to show how many businesses are buying in, to what the Chamber is doing and that there are dedicated years of support.

The luncheon shows off the thriving community in this region. It also shows that the Chamber celebrates businesses that have been with them for 5, 10, even 50, and 60+ years.

After luncheon, they held their year in review which Chychota said is basically their AGM.

Chychota says this past year has been great, their events are getting bigger and better, and the Chamber continues to thrive in a very positive way.

As of right now, they don’t have anything massive to announce, they are just doing their regular programming and they are still striving to be the big voice for Parkland business.

Tomorrow night at the Countryfest Cinema, the Chamber is hosting their celebration night.

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Contributed by Isaac Wihak

Published: Mar 12, 2019 - 3:16 pm

Manitoba's children's advocate says social workers and others ignored multiple signs that  Tina Fontaine was spiralling downward and in danger.

The report, released today from the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth, says she wasn’t invited to participate in counselling after the homicide of her dad in 2011.

The 15-year-old was left homeless and at risk for sexual exploitation when she asked for help in the weeks before her body was dumped in the Red River. She was told there were no beds available.

Daphne  Penrose, the advocate, made five recommendations which she says need to be acted on quickly. Her recommendations included establishing new secure facilities for children at severe risk.

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Contributed by Josh Sigurdson

Published: Mar 12, 2019 - 1:14 pm

The Mountain View School Division approved their budget for the 2019-20 year.

It happened last night at the board's regular council meeting.

The mill rate is set at 15.63, that’s up from 15.34 last year.

The division says the impact on a home assessed at 150 thousand dollars would see an increase of $19.03.

The budget will increase by 0.84 per cent to $43,364,760.  The Special Levy approved for 2019 is $16,992,673, an increase of $455,091.

Secretary-Treasurer Bart Michaleski says it was a difficult budget process with little room for increased costs. He also says the desired goal is to channel resources to support initiatives identified in the Davison Plan. The plan focuses on literacy, numeracy, career education, mental health and safe and caring schools.

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Contributed by Josh Sigurdson

Published: Mar 12, 2019 - 12:33 pm