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After paying the highest ambulance fees in the country three years ago, the government has gradually lowered the price.

In 2016, ambulance fees were at 500 dollars, then dropped to $425 in 2017, then again to $340 last year.

The new price of 250 dollars is in effect today.

The fees are being reduced to help Manitoba’s ageing population.

Since 2016, the Manitoba government has been working to develop a 24-7 paramedic workforce better equipped to handle daily challenges.

This includes giving the paramedic profession the right to self-regulate under the Regulated Health Professions Act, working to enact recommendations made in the 2013 EMS System Review that, when complete, will ensure response time targets are achieved and paramedics are able to work to their full scope of practice, funding to hire 95 additional full-time rural paramedics to reduce the reliance on on-call staffing positions, and issuing a request for proposals to purchase 65 new ambulances that will represent a refresh of approximately one-third of the province’s overall fleet when the sale is completed.

The government encourages Manitobans to call for a paramedic to access high-quality, reliable health care in an emergency rather than drive themselves to a local hospital.

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A carbon tax took effect yesterday in provinces that refused to impose their own emissions pricing.

The starting rate adds 4.4 cents to the price of a litre of gas and also drives up the cost of propane, butane and aviation fuel.

Premier Brian Pallister says the new federal carbon tax is taking effect at a time of uncertainty for many people concerned about trade or higher mortgage rates.

Residents will get rebates on their income tax returns. The rebates start at 128 dollars annually, and vary between provinces and increase for people with spouses or dependents at home. 

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Now that it’s springtime, you might be looking ahead to a project for the summer.

That project could be a deck, which you can learn how to make at a workshop put on by Co-op at the DRCSS.

Stephen Bunka, building division manager with the Dauphin Co-op, says the April 8th and 15th workshops are a continuation of one another.

You’ll learn how to lay out floor joints, how to measure and square out a deck, basically just how to build a deck from the ground up.

Bunka says these skills are important to know because a lot of the skills are basic and would allow someone to change up their yard.

He says people should go to the workshop even if they’re not planning on building a deck because it’ll give them a better understanding of construction in general.

It’s a two-part workshop so people can learn and then apply what they learn.

To register for the free workshop, call 638-6006.

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BellMTS is ending their CDMA service, and that's putting a lot of pressure on emergency services in the Mossey River Municipality.

Reeve Ron Kostyshyn says the cell phones volunteer firefighters have relied on are becoming useless.

“The Fork River Fire Department, presently the firemen use their cell phones to communicate and in the event of an emergency situation. Now  with the proposed dismantling of the flip phones the challenges are what other forms of device will they be able to get in to.”

The fleetnet system is one option but has not been installed in the municipality yet. Emergency services can also use pagers but are also unreliable.

Kostyshyn says if they invest in the fleetnet system, it will be a major financial hit to the municipality.

“I’m not sure how capable they are in out designated area. But as far as taxpayers of the Mossey River Municipality if we’re to get additional phones for our fire department, we’re looking at a cost of approximately four thousand dollars minimum.”

The Fork River Fire Department has 22 volunteer firefighters who live all over the municipality. 

BellMTS says CDMA is the older 3rd generation (3G) wireless technology that is being replaced by Bell’s latest 4G LTE network, which now covers 97% of the Manitoba population.

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The carbon tax is coming into effect on Monday.

The tax will cause the price of gas to rise by 4.6 cents per litre to about 120.9.

Dan McTeague with Gas Buddy says for farmers as long as they’re doing work on their farms the carbon tax won’t have a huge impact.

McTeague says it will be disruptive and the tax has an intention of getting you out of your vehicle, but will it work?

“No, because the efficiency we see in vehicles is coming because of jurisdictions like the United States that have better emissions on new vehicles without the need to tax the consumer. Smart regulations are the way to go as opposed to hitting consumers."

By 2022 we will be paying an additional 11 almost 12 cents for the carbon tax without additional taxes. Those that use diesel will be paying even more for the carbon tax.

Due to the GST in Manitoba, we could be paying closer to 14 cents from the carbon tax by 2022.

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Tonight is Earth Hour.

From 8:30 to 9:30 Manitobans are encouraged to think about how they can support the environment and make a difference.

“Manitoba continues to support ideas and projects that reduce energy consumption and increase awareness of the importance of taking steps to reduce our environmental footprint,” Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires announced yesterday.  “Participating in Earth Hour by turning off your lights for one hour tomorrow is easy, free and sends a powerful message that when we all work together, we can accomplish great things.”

Everyone who participates turns off their lights for an hour to conserve energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and raise awareness about environmental issues.

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William Barker is being recognized in Canada Post’s ‘Canadians in Flight’ stamp collection.

He is part of a five-stamp set that celebrates legendary examples of Canadian ingenuity, technological prowess and courage in civilian and military aviation.

Jim Phillips, the Director of Stamps Services at Canada Post, describes what’s on the Barker stamp.

“His Victoria Order of Cross, being the only one in this field. You’ve got some schematics of the plane that he was famous for flying, the Sopwith Camel. You’ve got Royal Airforce insignia, the famous red, blue, and white. Then you have a great shot of Captain Barker, and it’s all kind of in sepia tones, which is in keeping with the rest of the set of stamps.”

Phillips recommends getting a set soon, as they only printed a limited number.

“I’d love for them to collect them. But I’d love for them to just know about it and to buy some and to use it on their mail. They’re meant to be used. They are all permanent rate. Buy them now they are good forever at the domestic rate. They could send them to friends, or aviation buffs, or even just family and say ‘hey look what just happened, look who came from my town who’s is on a stamp.’ They might learn something about the other ones they might not have known about.”

His team did a lot of research to develop the stamps. Barker flew more than 900 combat hours between 1916 and 1918 and is credited with 50 victories over enemy aircraft. He remains the most decorated member of the military in the history of Canada and the British Empire.

The stamps are available in a booklet of 10, with two of each design, and a gummed mini-pane of five.

The collection features four others including:

1. C.H. “Punch” Dickins who logged more than 1.6 million kilometres flying over northern Canada
2. The Avro CF-105 Arrow interceptor, which could fly at more than twice the speed of sound.
3. Elizabeth “Elsie” MacGill, who was the first woman in Canada to receive a degree in electrical engineering, and first in the world to hold a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering and to work as a professional aircraft designer, and
4. The Lazair, a family of twin-engine, high-wing ultralight monoplanes designed by Dale Kramer of Port Colborne, Ontario. Manufactured as kits in Canada between 1979 and 1985, the Lazair is still considered one of the best light aircraft ever made.

The stamps are available at canadapost.ca and at postal outlets across Canada.

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Road Restrictions In the RM of Dauphin are in effect starting on Monday.

People who cause excessive damage to roads may face fines to pay for reconstruction or repair of excessive damage.

The Patrol Officer will be watching all roads within the boundaries of the RM starting on April 1st.

If you have any questions regarding the Road Restrictions you can phone the Municipal Office at 204-638-4531.

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120 million dollars is being invested into Manitoba’s rail infrastructure in 2019 by CN.

The money is from CN’s 2019 capital investment of 3.9 billion dollars focused on enabling growth from all commodity segments, including consumer goods, grain, agricultural, forest, and energy products for all of their customers, safely and efficiently.

Manitoba will use the investment for expansion projects and maintenance.

There are two expansion projects, a new train passing siding near Nourse, east of Winnipeg and just over 10 km of double track near Exira, west of Portage la Prairie.

The money for maintenance is to replace more than 56 kilometres of rail, install about 59 thousand new railroad ties, rebuild 13 road crossings, and do maintenance work on bridges, culverts, signal systems, and other track infrastructure.

In Manitoba over the last 5 years, 700 million dollars has been invested.

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Trees along Highway 10 are being cut down in Riding Mountain National Park as part of a long-term project dating back to 1990.

What’s going on now is part of a three-year program to reduce the risk of wildfires close to Wasagaming.

Reade Tereck, the fire management officer, explains what people see when they drive through the park. 

“We removed about a hectare of plantation this year in two locations. Both close to the compound road and Ta-Wa-Pit Drive. They’ll notice some  logs yarded out that we’re going to be using for firewood for the park.”

The trees are being limbed, bucked into 12-foot lengths, and then put through a wood splitter to make firewood.

Tereck says the trees were planted initially either as part of the former milling or to make the park look good for visitors.

The white spruce plantations were originally planted on native grasslands between 1940 and 1960. They were also planted very close together.

“The project really has two benefits of removing high-density plantations, that’s highly flammable, and would be very hard for us to work on if there was a fire within it. So it gets rid of the fuel loader around the townsite. But it also allows us to restore some of these grasslands.”

In areas where Parks Canada finished clearing white spruce, they see a good uptake from natural seed sources that were under the plantations.

They are restoring prairie ecosystems, like this, to an ecologically healthy state, expanding a rare and unique ecosystem in western Canada.

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Manitoba Public Insurance customers using pre-authorized credit card payments will no longer be able to use that kind of payment starting May 24th.

MPI media relations coordinator Brian Smiley says there are a number of reasons for making this decision.

The change will save MPI about 2 million dollars a year, and because of security concerns for the customer.

The money will be saved because they were looking to upgrade the system which would have cost 2.5 million dollars, they will also save money from credit card fees and other fees associated with credit cards.

Affected customers have a few options, they can make arrangements through their financial institution to do pre-authorized payments through their bank, they can make payments through MPI’s four pay plan which includes quarterly payments, or customers can make a one-time payment for the year.

Customers will be able to use their credit card to make payments, but they'll have to go to an Autopac agent, or go to MPI’s website on payment functions.

Those affected by the change will be notified in early April.

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