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The provincial government announced funding for women’s resource centres, but according to a Dauphin shelter director, it will not help in the Parkland.
Kari Prawdzik, the Executive Director of the Parkland Crisis Centre, says there is a difference between women’s resource centres and crisis centres. The big difference is shelters are short term residential facilities and open 24/7. Another difference is the shelters have a crisis line that can be reached at all times. The number to call in an emergency is 1-877-977-0007.
Prawdzik says Manitoba family violence shelters have not had a core funding increase in 11 years. To make matters worse, she says they are seeing an increase in the number of people who use the service. During 2017-2018 MAWS shelters provided 46,350 bed nights to women, men and children who were victims of family violence and assisted with 11,349 crisis line calls.
Shelters are being inundated with people not only experiencing interpersonal or family violence but who are also suffering from severe mental health or addiction issues.
“We personally answer all the crisis lines and often we receive calls that are outside the scope of our work. Because we don’t have the resources, we have such limited access in our areas,” said Prawdzik.
She notes the shelters are equipped to provide support for fleeing victims as well as facilitating the crisis management that is required to navigate the justice system, find housing, and provide counselling.
The lack of funding has greatly impacted shelters, especially the Parkland Crisis Centre. The centre not only helps individuals and families in Dauphin but all across the Parkland. Prawdzik says it’s tough when you don’t have the funds to support the service and the people.
“Although our funding doesn’t increase we still have to keep our skills and abilities up in order to assist clients with their ever-changing needs,” Prawdzik said. “We have less ability now, we’ve had to make cutbacks, we have limited ability to go out in the Parkland area and provide public education and outreach.”
Because they are supposed to be a safe, confidential location, they don’t have the storefronts like other agencies do. Prawdzik often says times women are not aware of the available resources.
Having services in rural areas is vital. Prawdzik notes that often women don’t want to leave their homes. If the Parkland crisis centre was not open, they probably would not be willing to travel to larger urban areas for help.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
On Thursday, students from all over the Parkland will head to Dauphin for the Robb Nash concert.
1725 high school students will pack Credit Union Place for the show.
Nash says the story all started when he was 17 years old and in a car accident, found dead on arrival without a pulse in the hospital.
The turning point in Nash’s life was when someone asked him if he believes everything happens for a reason and Nash replied with "that’s what everyone tells me".
The man proceeded to tell him that he knew the reason Nash got in the car accident: “It’s because you and your friends were going too fast on an icy road.”
That set Nash free and he realized we’re not puppets and we can make our own decisions.
Robb Nash started to play music and earned a record deal after his fourth album.
Nash says he was offered a tour to go through youth prisons, detention centers, reserves, and schools to share his message, so he ripped up the record deal to do it.
“It was supposed to be a 9-month tour and now it’s been 10 years since we’ve been on this tour and it’s grown into something massive. Originally it was me going to schools with my guitar and now we’re coming to Dauphin and they’ll be bringing in 25 schools to Credit Union Place.”
Nash has helped students all over the country. Quite often students will give him their suicide notes or send him videos destroying the note because of his impact on them.
He says the whole show is about how we all will see tragedy but what are you going to do when it happens.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
So far this year, the Dauphin Fire Department has been doing quite a lot of training. Fire chief Cam Abrey says they’ve been hosting firefighters from other areas for training exercises.
Several weekends in March, they ran a response to hazardous materials operations program. They ran two 40 hour programs which included a total of 12 Dauphin firefighters and 11 combined from Inglis, Laurier, Roblin, Sifton, Ste Rose, Grandview, and Swan River.
Dauphin firefighters, along with some firefighters from Gilbert Plains, Grandview, Laurier, Sifton, and Ste Rose are working on their level 1 and 2 programs to make their way to practical and written exams.
Every single Wednesday, Dauphin firefighters have basic training.
They typically take off July and August from training because of all the events they help out at as well as to give the members some time with their families.
Specialized training gets started back up again in September.
They are also taking a look at critical incident stress management and how they can teach firefighters resilience training when dealing with the bad calls.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Today is April 20th, commonly refered to as 4:20 by the Cannabis Culture. Even though it’s been half a year since marijuana became legal in Canada, edibles are still not available in stores, though it's been predicted they could be by October 17th.
Trevor Shewfelt, a co-host of the Reefer MEDness Podcast says a lot of people just prefer them over smoking.
“The medicinal people we’ve talked to, that’s the preferred method of taking it in. They don’t like smoking. They just prefer an edible so it’s great for them.”
Shewfelt says there are a lot of positives to edibles like no smell or smoke. Dosing is one downside. If a package is labelled poorly or people aren’t paying attention, it’s easier for people to take too much, though statistics have proven it’s tough to overdose on cannabis. Cannabis overdose is not like an opioid overdose, where death is possible.
Shewfelt says that if you have trusted your dealer for a long time and they charge you a much lower price than a legal store, you might stick with what you know.
which stops many from purchasing legally.
In one of the podcasts, S2E3, they spoke with Dr. Jason Childs, an economist who said that one of the biggest problems he sees is that the black market continues to exist because the legal channels can't compete on price.
“For people to go to a new product that they are not familiar with, where some trust has been established already with the illegal market, one of the worst things you want to do as a marketer is go in at a higher price unless you have a dramatically better product.”
Shewfelt said they interviewed a patient on the Reefer MEDness podcast who is spending thousands of dollars on medical cannabis. One reason the cost is so much is because of all the taxes imposed on the medication.
But there are other things people complain about when they go buy their legal weed, like the packaging.
Shewfelt says environmentally the packaging is not the friendliest thing.
“So the government intentionally said everything should be in a childproof container. So, as a pharmacist this makes sense. But picture a bottle that you would get vitamins in and that’s what the cannabis has to be sold in. So there is a whole lot of bottle for a tiny bit of product.”
Shewfelt hopes down the road we’ll see a more childproof and less packaging intense solution, but we’re not there yet.
Pharmacists are still not allowed to sell medical cannabis in the pharmacy, which Shewfelt does not understand. He calls it a strange system where you get a prescription from a doctor, it gets sent to a licensed producer, and then they send it directly to you.
“It would make so much more sense for it to go through a pharmacy. Because a lot of these people are, frankly, sick and on a bunch of other medications and it would be a good idea for a health care professional to be involved in the making sure what you’re taking cannabis wise mixes with the other medications.”
Shewfelt says he hasn't got anything against licenced producers, but says they don’t know all the other medications people take.
You can learn everything you need to know about how legalization affects the Canadian Cannabis culture by checking out the Reefer MEDness Podcast hosted by Shewfelt and Kirk Nyquist here.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Parks Canada is setting areas of Riding Mountain National Park on fire to prevent wildfires from breaking out.
Prescribed fires reduce fuel to lessen the severity of out of control fires, release nutrients, and help keep the ecosystems in the park thriving.
The program will see fires set east of Wasagaming, around Arrowhead Trail, and along Whirlpool River.
RMNP will stay open to visitors, but some smoke will be present and visible. Staff will monitor the wind and try to ensure the smoke won’t affect publicly used areas. Some areas will be closed for a short amount of time to ensure visitors safety.
The program will run when conditions allow until May 10th.
For up-to-date information about area or facility closures and other updates on the prescribed burn, please check the park’s website at parkscanada.gc.ca/riding and Facebook page at facebook.com/RidingNP.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
A three-session program to help people deal with problematic eating behaviours will be in Dauphin.
Holly Reimer says the three dates for the craving change program are May 2nd, 9th, and 16th from 6:30-8:30 at the Dauphin Community Health Services.
Since the program is in Dauphin, PMH understands some people from farther away communities won’t be able to travel for the sessions. So through telehealth, people can participate in Ste. Rose as well.
Reimer says the first session of the Craving Change Program includes a lot of reflective activities.
“Regarding triggers for problematic eating and there’s some homework to go along with that. We teach a few different ways to think about hunger and what’s triggering problematic eating behaviours.”
In the second session, they will be talking about 10 different strategies to choose from to avoid problematic eating behaviours.
The group dynamic of the sessions will help people learn from each other.
Participants will learn how to understand why they eat the way they do, and some strategies to help deal with problematic eating behaviours. Some things people could have a problem with are what they’re eating, the amount they eat, or emotional eating when they aren’t hungry.
To register for the free program, call the toll free line, 1-877-509-7852.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
With more people on the roads for the Easter long weekend, MPI is asking for drivers to focus on road safety.
On average 1 person is killed and 70 people are injured in collisions in Manitoba over the 3 day holiday.
MPI has some safety tips for drivers this weekend.
First off, don’t drive impaired, on average 25 people are killed each year due to impaired driving.
Secondly, buckle up, a person is 40 times more likely to be killed and 5 times more likely to be seriously injured without the seat belt.
Third of all, don’t text and drive, on average 30 people are killed in a distracted driving collision yearly in Manitoba.
Finally, slow down, almost 20 people on average are killed in a speed-related collision in Manitoba.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Accessibility was the theme during a presentation at Barker School on Thursday.
Dauphin MLA Brad Michaleski, other provincial government officials, and representatives from the Mountain View School Division were at the school to talk about the improvements recently done to the building.
A full-sized elevator was just one part of the 1.47 million dollars in upgrades. Other improvements included barrier-free washrooms that made the amenities easier for staff and students.
Donna Davidson, the superintendent and CEO for Mountain View School Division, says it’s important to maintain and upgrade their facilities so that they can serve the students of today but also children in the future. She notes that that is an efficient way to use taxpayers’ dollars.
“There’s evidence that indicates that if children are educated in facilities that are safe and healthy, their outcomes are better,” said Davidson. She goes on to explain how some consider schools as the third teacher. It’s not just the physical building but also how the teacher structures their classroom, where they put the desks and how they use that physical space.
She says at one time they might not have any students who require an elevator, but during the year there are always cases where temporary injuries occur, and students need to use crutches or a wheelchair.
She also mentioned that the elevator is beneficial for parents and other members of the community to be able to access all parts of the building. One example included parent-teacher interviews where parents who struggled with stairs were unable or struggled to get to the second or third floor because of the lack of accessibility.
“It’s a big part of the community. Barker School has been around for a long time, lots of families have gone through these facilities,” said MLA Brad Michaleski. “Accessibility is a great addition.”
The full-sized elevator is replacing a stair lift. The old system took a long time to use and only allowed one student to use it at a time. Davidson explains that you had to strap in and then slowly elevate to the top. With the elevator, students can now be wheeled in and brought to all four stops, including the basement.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Today at city hall, the Riding Mountain UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve is in Dauphin for a stewardship water day.
Zebra mussels and blue-green algae bloom are the two major threats to water in the biosphere reserve and that’s the focus of the meeting at city hall.
Jim Irwin, chair of the Riding Mountain UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, says the Red River, Lake Winnipeg, and Cedar Lake are under the threat of zebra mussels.
Some of the lakes in the area have heavy algae blooms as well. The toxic blue-green algae bloom is the concern.
The problem with these invasive species is how easily they can spread unknowingly. Part of the discussion today is how people and groups can take action to keep the waters clean.
Making the public aware of the two threats goes a long way to stop the transfer of the invasive species.
In Manitoba, it is the law that you have to dry out watercraft and water-related equipment so the veligers, which are zebra mussel larva, die. That law is to clean, drain, dry and dispose of any unwanted bait and worms. By law, if you are coming out of contaminated or invaded areas you have to decontaminate.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
The two men involved in the armed robbery at the Beach Road Service on Sandy Bay First Nation haven’t been found yet.
The incident occurred late in the evening on Monday, April 15th, at 11:06.
Entering from the back of the store, the two men pointed firearms at the two employees and proceeded to leave with cash and cigarettes, they used an ATV to escape.
Manitoba First Nations Police Service is asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the suspects who are considered armed and dangerous.
If you have information on who the two men could be, call the MFNP Sandy Bay Detachment at 1-204-843-7705, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
MacKenzie Middle School is getting major upgrades to a 60-year old wing of the building including a roof replacement.
The provincial government is investing $57.5 million into 59 infrastructure renewal projects across the province.
A comprehensive renewal at MacKenzie Middle School will see at least $4 million in upgrades.
Donna Davidson, the superintendent and chief executive officer for Mountain View School Division, says these upgrades are necessary to support MVSD's mission to create learning environments that are inclusive and safe for all students. She says this is done “so they can participate actively in all aspects of school life and reach their full potential.”
“It’s important to just keep maintaining. It’s an ongoing responsibility of the government and it’s great to see the commitment that’s going into the schools in the Dauphin region,” said MLA Brad Michaleski. “Regular maintenance, these things are significant additions because the accessibility issues haven’t been addressed and now they are.”
It will also see a new mechanical heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system and a foundation upgrade.
To improve accessibility, a new link will connect the second-storey wing to the main building and two accessible washrooms will be installed.
“That’s what we want to have, an environment where kids are able to make their way, and everybody, to make their way around the schools and use all the facilities,” said MLA Brad Michaleski.
“Our ongoing investment in school infrastructure will strengthen buildings and improve accessibility so that Manitoba students can receive a quality education for generations to come,” said Education and Training Minister Kelvin Goertzen in a media release.
Davidson notes, “It’s critical that we continue to maintain our infrastructure. We can’t be continually replacing schools if we don’t maintain them.”
Construction is slated to begin this summer.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
