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Connecting communities and businesses in the Parkland is the new initiative of Dauphin and District Chamber of Commerce.
That was the message at yesterday’s State of the District meeting held in Grandview.
Stephen Chychota, the Executive Director for the Chamber, says these events are taking place around the Parkland from now on to better engage with the whole Parkland community.
“When you can team up on stuff and not reinvent the wheel or do more than you need to because your neighbour is doing fantastic work, I think that really helps. That’s where I think the chamber can fit in, being that network and connection piece to other municipalities.”
Chychota hopes the chamber can become the place where communities and businesses in the Parkland can share ideas and help improve commerce in the whole area.
The chamber is still working on rebranding to represent the whole region instead of just mainly Dauphin, and having the meetings take place in different communities is one way of seeing this to realization.
Next year’s host community has not been announced yet.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Sometimes there are no warning signs that a person has diabetes and it’s on the rise.
Learn to reduce your risk of getting diabetes with free classes offered by Prairie Mountain Health.
The first class starts tomorrow at Dauphin Community Health Services from 1:30 to 3:30 in the afternoon and the second one is Thursday, June 28th at the same time.
Erin Stoesz, tells us what the classes cover.
“So evidence shows that people learn best from others going through a similar experience and that creates discussion in a group format. So the first class covers how diabetes works, so we’re going to talk a bit about diabetes management, control and targets. The second class in two weeks’ time covers healthy eating, exercise and the management of diabetes.”
To register, call 1-877-509-7852.
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Dauphin residents should be cautious of notices left by a company called Puretech Environmental.
They’re offering to test residential water for free, however, they’re not affiliated with the City of Dauphin in any way.
The City wants to make it clear that the drinking water produced and distributed meets or exceeds all national and provincial drinking water standards.
It’s recommended that residents look into the company very carefully before making any decisions.
If you have any questions about the City of Dauphin’s water supply, you can call the Director of Public Works and Operations at 622-3212.
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A mother and daughter from Rorketon are the lucky winners of the Neepawa Farm & Leisure Lotto 50/50.
Donna Smith and her daughter Tammy Dickson won $44,605.
Smith is excited about winning and says she buys tickets every year.
“I do buy the tickets, I bought quite a few tickets for that lottery. Simply because when it started 12 years ago it was to support the Eastview Lodge, where my husband’s grandmother was. So that’s why I started supporting it."
Total sales for the 50/50 draw were $89,210.00.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
“Dream, Girl”, a documentary with stories about entrepreneurship, is playing tomorrow evening at the Countryfest Community Cinema.
The film focuses on female entrepreneurs, the challenges they face and how they support each other.
Breann Maxwell, Community Development Coordinator with Community Futures Parkland, feels that small businesses are the backbone of this area.
“Entrepreneurship is, I would say, the backbone of communities like the ones that we find in the Parkland. All of those little mom and pop shops that everybody loves are owned by independent business owners and those are the things that really contribute to our local economy, so they’re so important to support.”
The doors open at 6:30 and there’s free childcare available on site along with refreshments.
Tickets are $10 each and are available from Community Futures Parkland or Carissa at the Economic Development Office.
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A timeframe for the MRI to be installed and operational has been given.
By the end of October this year, it should be in the Dauphin Hospital and ready to go.
Penny Gilson, CEO for Prairie Mountain Health, tells us this will help with wait times in the region.
“Well certainly we monitor our wait times for service delivery on an ongoing basis and certainly the introduction of another MRI in Prairie Mountain will help with wait times to access that type of diagnostic imaging. It certainly will provide improved access from a business prospective for the northern part of Prairie Mountain, which I know is very welcomed.”
Some cosmetic work has to be done to the room before it is ready for the machine to be installed.
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The U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum are having an impact on the Parkland.
Local manufacturer, Ritz Machine Works, relies on these goods for their products.
Michael Weedon, Director of Finance for Ritz, tells us how they are being affected.
“Basically we’re being affected in both directions, so in response to Trump’s tariffs, Trudeau has announced retaliatory tariffs or as they call it, surtaxes, so that will affect U.S. steel and aluminum that is imported into Canada. Because we at Ritz, we source steel and aluminum from all over the world and basically our suppliers select the steel that works best for us in terms of the products we are creating for our customers and also based on price. Under Free Trade, it didn’t matter where the steel came from, as long as it met everybody’s needs. Now with these tariffs being in place, we have to be a lot more concerned about the country of origin for that steel in order to try and avoid those tariffs. ”
Ritz sources steel and aluminum from all over the world and now buyers are not sure how this will influence the market.
For now, Ritz is not too concerned with tariffs being placed on their finished product.
Weedon notes the biggest concern from all of this:
“Then we have to look at whether our customers are going to be able to tolerate any sort of price increase from us, you know in that regard as well. I guess that’s the biggest thing about this whole tariffs issue, is that it’s affecting virtually anyone in North America that has steel as raw material, or aluminum as raw material in their products, so this is a very huge issue and it’s affecting everybody.”
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The provincial government has released statistics on harassment, bullying and misconduct from civil servants.
A report details there were 12 investigations of sexual harassment, 7 of which were substantiated.
There were also 105 allegations of general harassment or bullying and 351 complaints of misconduct or attempted fraud.
This new form of tracking and reporting came after a series of complaints of groping and ticking were made against former NDP cabinet minister, Stan Struthers; none of which were dealt with.
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A week of cycling events hosted by the Dauphin Derailleurs Cycle Club to form Bike Week took place last week and wrapped up this past Sunday.
An online contest for a new bike was one of the main focuses and Susan Gamache Thiele won.
Melisa Stefaniw, with Tourism Dauphin, noticed a ton of participation online for the week.
“The week was awesome. We noticed a ton of participation online. We had the online hashtag #dauphinbikeweek and monitoring that it picked up throughout the week. We had kids of all ages participating in that, so we were really thrilled to see the community jump on the bandwagon.”
The event will be returning again next year with a week-long round of activities.
The club is currently working on developing the trails for the Manitoba 2020 Summer Games and plans to make Dauphin a cycling tourist destination.
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By the end of October, the MRI will be installed and operational in Dauphin Hospital.
This will alleviate the burden of travelling for these services and provide better health care in the Parkland and northern areas.
Brad Michaleski, local MLA, feels this service will be such a great thing to have in the Parkland.
“Just having it close by is such a convenience for a lot of the people in the Parkland and in our area instead of having to travel to Brandon or Winnipeg. A lot of times that’s a day trip or a day and a half trip and that’s hard on people, especially the elderly and people needing that care. To have that service locally is just a good news thing for everybody in the Parkland and Swan River area.”
Michaleski is happy it will be ready to go.
“I feel great. Again, the sooner we can get into the region the better. I know it’s been a very, very long time coming and so the sooner the better, so we can serve the Parkland residents that much better.”
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Youth can explore their creative side this summer with the Kids Summer Art Program through the Watson Art Centre.
The WAC wasn’t able to offer it the past few years due to a lack of funding, but finally received enough to go ahead.
Cheryl Nicholson, Administrator for the WAC, wanted to focus on arts media and techniques for this program.
“We want to keep it very arts centric and focus on a variety of arts media and techniques. We also try to incorporate some more physical activities, so they’re not sitting at a table doing art the whole time. They get to get up and move around and we provide healthy snacks midway through each session.”
It runs for six weeks and into six separate sessions starting on July 3 until August 10.
The rates are $75 weekly or $20 daily. Children ages 5 to 8 will attend from 9:30 in the morning until noon. Youth from ages 9 to 12 will go from 1:00 to 3:30 in the afternoon.
A registration day will be held on Saturday, June 23 from noon to 3:00 in the afternoon.
To sign your children up beforehand, you can call Cheryl at 638-6231.
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