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The nomination deadline for the upcoming alumni awards is December 17th, 2021.
Nominees can be graduates of any Assiniboine campus but must be residents of the Parkland region.
Director of the ACC Parkland campus, Valerie McInnes, says these awards are a time to reflect and celebrate,
"These awards give the alumni association and the college the opportunity to showcase the hard work and talent of the outstanding alumni in our community. Although awards are given to nominated individuals, it's also a time to reflect and celebrate all of our alumni who contribute to building our communities in the parkland region."
McInnes carried on about the importance of these awards,
"Post-secondary education is a building block for strong and thriving societies, and it's important that celebrate the achievements of our graduates and share their journeys to success."
ACC could not give these awards out the last two years due to the pandemic, but Valarie says that as society gets back to some normalcy, she feels like it's time to celebrate again.
For more information about nominations, click here, or email alumni@assiniboine.net.
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The United States confirmed that Canadian travellers with mixed vaccines will be accepted when its land borders reopen to vaccinated travellers on November 8th.
Non-essential travellers crossing at a land border will be required to show proof of vaccination, and by January the same policy will apply to those deemed essential travellers.
Air travellers will also need to show proof of vaccination on arrival to the U.S., but will still need to show a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of travel prior to boarding.
The Canada-U.S. border has been closed for non-essential travel since March 2020. Canada opened its border to U.S. travellers in early August.
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Manitoba nurses finally have a deal after more than four years without a collective agreement.
Yesterday, the Manitoba Nurses Union announced its members have ratified a new contract with the province. The ratification vote took place over the course of one week, with voting closing Thursday at noon.
The union says the agreement includes a salary increase and protects nurses against excessively long work hours and standby.
Premier Kelvin Goertzen and Health Minister Audrey Gordon say the province welcomes the news of a finalized collective agreement and thank nurses who have delivered care throughout the pandemic
The Manitoba Nurses Union represents more than 12 thousand nurses across the province.
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A six-day sitting of the Manitoba Legislature has concluded, where three pieces of legislation passed.
The final stages of passing Budget 2021 were completed and this year the legislation implemented a number of tax changes that will take effect in December, including the removal of PST on haircuts.
New legislation to move people with disabilities off of employment income assistance to a new income program passed unanimously.
A private members bill to mark August 1st as Emancipation Day province-wide was also passed.
Premier Kelvin Goertzen says this day is to recognize the heritage of Manitoba’s people of African descent and the important contributions the Black community has made and continues to make to the province.
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Manitoba Beef Producers (MBP) has some upcoming virtual and in-person meetings this fall.
The meeting season is taking place from October 19th to November 9th.
Mary Paziuk, District 13 Director says MBP had to make the difficult decision to hold meetings virtually in odd-numbered districts where elections aren’t required.
“It’s just because of the concerns with COVID that there are a lot of restrictions when it comes to in-person meetings.”
Paziuk is encouraging all beef producers to join in on the meetings.
“There are two virtual meetings for producers and their families in the odd numbered districts and each meeting begins at 7 p.m., there are also several in-person meetings throughout the province for those living in even numbered districts where elections are required. Each of those meetings begin at 1 p.m.”
The district in Ste. Rose will have an in-person meeting on November 2nd at 1:00 p.m. at the Community Hall. Those interested can register for the meetings here.
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October 16th is World Food Day, and Mealshare has expanded its program to celebrate.
Audrey McNab who runs Mealshare in Manitoba says the program is now partnering with 45 Mr. Mikes locations, including the one in Dauphin.
“So the one Mr. Mikes that’s in your location goes towards the Dauphin and District Community Food Bank Society. About 70 cents of every dollar goes locally to that charity and a small portion goes to Save the Children for international meals as well.”
Feature items at Mr. Mikes will be Mealshare items, and customers can also ask to make any item a Mealshare item for a dollar.
Audrey stressed the importance of World Food Day.
“One in Five children in Canada are food insecure. In Canada that’s about 1.5 million children. Celebrating World Food Day is very important for food security and helping our youth, not just here but internationally as well.”
World Food Day was first held on October 16th 1981.
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On the list of primarily undergraduate universities, Brandon University ranked 18th out of 19 schools.
BU's Media Director Grant Hamilton says what the magazine is looking at isn't necessarily what the university is most worried about,
"It's a pretty typical ranking for the last few years, and Maclean's collects a lot of data, and there's other rankings out there as well. How you rank really depends on the perspective that you bring to it, so the things that we're looking at, that's important to us, aren't necessarily the things that Maclean's is looking at. What we are sticking with is doing the best we can for our community and our region, that's Brandon, that's Westman, that's all of Manitoba."
Hamilton pointed out that what BU cares about most is the community and not how they stack up against the elite schools in Canada,
"The most important thing is what we can bring to our students here to our alumni here in the region and to the parents and to the faculty and the staff as well. That's what we are focused on, not necessarily on what we look like when we are ranked against the University of Toronto or McGill."
Hamilton noted that it's always interesting to see the magazine's rankings, but they don't drive the university in everyday operations.
BU was ranked 17th in 2020, moving one spot back for this year's rankings.
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The government of Manitoba has won an appeal today regarding the freezing of wages for public sector workers.
The Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled that the bill enacting a wage freeze from 2017 did not violate the workers' rights to bargain collectively.
On Wednesday, the appeals judge on the case ruled that it is not unconstitutional for a government to remove wages from the bargaining table.
The 2017 proposal called for a two-year wage freeze for government employees after their contracts expired.
The freeze followed a 0.75 percent pay raise in the third year and one percent raise in the fourth.
The labour groups that challenged this legislation say they are considering taking the case to Canada's Supreme Court.
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According to U.S. officials, the United States is set to open its land borders with Canada and Mexico early next month to vaccinated travellers.
There have been restrictions on non-essential travel since March 2020.
Under the new rules non-essential travellers will be asked about their vaccination status at land border crossings, and only those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will be let in.
Travellers who received any vaccines approved for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization will be allowed to enter. That means Canadians who received AstraZeneca will be included.
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As time winds down to the PC leadership vote, we are just weeks away from Manitoba having a new premier.
MLA Brad Michaleski took a neutral stance on who he would prefer, Heather Stefanson or Shelly Glover,
"I think both of them have very, very strong qualities, very strong candidates. When Heather announced she was running, I did support her bid to run for premier. But again, both of them are very strong candidates, and I'll work with either one of them."
Michaleski expressed excitement for Manitoba to have its first female premier,
"I think it's great, again I'll just say, both of them are extremely strong candidates, they have a lot of experience that they bring to the table as leaders, and again I think Manitoba is going to be well served by either one of these strong leaders."
When asked about the alleged PC voting scandal, Michaleski wasn't impressed with the claim from the NDP,
"The NDP likes to start stories that may have no substance whatsoever. I've seen that a lot of times, so I'll leave that in the hands of the NDP."
The PC's will choose their new leader, who will automatically become the province's new premier on October 30th.
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The board went over a variety of talking points that concern the division, including:
A follow-up was provided from the last meeting on the municipal property tax report forGrandview. The municipality last reported that it owed more than $43,000 in taxes, but an error was detected since then, and the bill has been revised to $7,300.
A skill trades and technology showcase for grade eight students in the MVSD will take place on November 5th.
Homeschooling numbers are up due to the pandemic but still relatively small compared to the rest of the province.
Manitoba public health is now permitting indoor student mask breaks for eating and drinking when students are 6 feet apart.
Effective October 18th, regular COVID tests will be taken for employees and volunteers who are not fully vaccinated.
Improved ventilation systems in schools as a part of the Safe Schools Fund.
The next MVSD board meeting is set to take place on October 25th.
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- Contributed by Noah Fuchs
