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Although Canada’s National Ukrainian Festival has postponed its regular festivities this year, the celebration definitely lives on this weekend.
You may have seen the CNUF board members out on the parade float around town Friday afternoon.
On Saturday night, the celebration continues with the CNUF online virtual festival, starting at 7 p.m — a huge grandstand variety show, nearly 3 hours long.
You can tune in to the virtual festival at Canada’s National Ukrainian Festival Facebook page, the CNUF website, or their Youtube page.
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- Contributed by Matt Hamel
The civic holiday (Terry Fox Day) is this Monday, August 3rd – so here's a list of what's open and closed.
Liquor Mart in Dauphin
Saturday: 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Sunday: 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Monday (Terry Fox Day): 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Grocery Stores
The Dauphin Co-op grocery store will be closed on Monday, August 3.
Safeway will be open from 9 a.m. — 6 p.m. on Monday, August 3.
Ken’s No Frills is open 9 a.m. — 6 p.m.
The Dauphin Marketplace Mall
The Dauphin Marketplace Mall will be open for the civic holiday on Monday, from 9 a.m. — 6 p.m.
The Post Office
Closed on Monday for the civic holiday.
City Hall
Dauphin City Hall will be closed for the stat holiday on Monday.
Dauphin Rec
All Dauphin Rec facilities are closed for the stat holiday.
Garbage & Recycle Pick-Up
The schedule for pick-up of recycling and garbage in the City of Dauphin will not be affected by the holiday on Monday.
The Dauphin Vet Clinic
The Dauphin Vet Clinic will be closed for the holiday on Monday.
COVID Community Testing Sites
The designated COVID-19 testing sites in Brandon, Dauphin and Swan River will be operating with the following schedule for the August long weekend:
- The Brandon site (Town Centre Parkade) will be open on Saturday, August 1 from 8:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. and closed on Sunday, August 2nd.
- Dauphin (Community Health Services Building) and Swan River (Primary Care Centre) sites will be closed Saturday, August 1and Sunday, August 2.
- All three designated sites will be open on the holiday Monday, August 3 with regular hours of operation.
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- Contributed by Matt Hamel
RCMP have laid charges in connection to a homicide investigation in Portage la Prairie.
On June 24th, the remains of 27-year-old Gerhard Reimer-Wiebe were found near Baker Street in Portage.
The investigation led to the arrest of 29-year-old Kyle Evan Sinkovits from Winnipeg, and 25-year-old Jonathan Bradley Narvey from Winnipeg. Both men were charged with First Degree Murder, Forcible Confinement, and Indignity to a Dead Human Body.
The investigation is ongoing, and further information is expected in the coming weeks.
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- Contributed by Tess Kovach
Millions of people claiming the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) will be transitioned to the federal Employment Insurance (EI) program, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In an announcement Friday morning, Trudeau emphasized that “no one will be left behind” as the government winds down the CERB in the coming weeks.
Going forward, Trudeau says EI should cover everyone who is looking for work, and those who don’t qualify will be able to receive a benefit that is similar to Employment Insurance.
The prime minister says more details about the transition plan will be given by the end of August.
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- Contributed by Matt Hamel
Six new cases of COVID-19 have been identified in the province. Manitoba now has a total of 415 cases.
Two of today’s cases are in the Prairie Mountain Health region, and three are in the Interlake Health region.
Right now, Manitoba has 70 active cases, and 337 people have recovered. There are 6 people in the hospital with 5 in intensive care.
The number of deaths remains at 8.
The three testing sites in the Prairie Mountain Health region have conducted a total number of 6,247 tests, as of July 30.
The Brandon site has tested 5,098 — Dauphin has tested 818 — and the Swan River site has done 331 COVID screening tests.
Prairie Mountain Health testing sites are operating with some adjusted hours this weekend, but will be open on Monday for the stat holiday with regular hours.
For more information about the virus, click here.
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- Contributed by Tess Kovach
The bail hearing for Bowsman’s Corey Hurren has been delayed again.
Hurren is accused of ramming his truck through a gate at Rideau Hall.
He was arrested on July 2nd and faces 21 weapons charges as well as one count of threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Hurren made an appearance in an Ottawa court this morning but saw his case pushed back to August 21st.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
A salmonella outbreak in Canada has been linked to red onions shipped from the U.S.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, there have been a total of 114 cases of salmonella across 5 provinces, with 13 in Manitoba.
Sixteen people have been hospitalized and no deaths have been reported.
Health officials are advising retailers and restaurants to avoid using or selling red onions that have been imported from the States.
The Canadian Press reports the food distributor Sysco has recalled 10- and 25-pound bags of Imperial Fresh jumbo red onions in the five provinces.
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- Contributed by Tess Kovach
Yesterday the provincial government announced the school reopening plan.
Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen announced that kindergarten to grade 8 students will be in classroom 5 days per week. He also says remote learning might be required for some high schools depending on their ability to implement public health measures. Those measures being physical distancing and the use of smaller designated groups of students. Schools and school divisions will also have some variation in physical space, equipment availability, and the number of available substitute teachers.
Mountain View School Division superintendent, Dan Ward, is happy for the clarification.
“At the end of June, the province had provided us with three possible scenarios and we spent some time planning for all three and providing some information to the public regarding our planning. So, today essentially firms up some of that planning, we’re able to look back at what we put together for our scenarios, look at the provincial direction, and put together and publish a plan that’s far more concrete than what we’ve had until now.”
School divisions in Manitoba now have until the middle of August to finalize their plans for the school year and share it with students and parents. Ward says the division intends to release some information next week.
“Not only the provincial plan itself but to share some of the work that’s happened in the division. In terms of a divisional plan, that will give parents and students more insight into what September will look like, that is going to be released no later than August the 14th.”
The division will be reviewing the plan with the school board, stakeholders, and key staff members before releasing the plan to the public.
Ward says the government’s guidelines could make things difficult for the DRCSS.
“It’s certainly going to be more challenging for our larger schools and in particular, for our largest school, the DRCSS. Our smaller schools can actually cohort in a much more straight forward fashion. The cohort maximum is 75, our cohorts in our smaller high schools will be smaller than that. But with the D-R, with a student enrollment of more than 600 students, it’s going to present its challenges. I’ve already been in touch with the high school principal at the DRCSS and we’ve communicated.”
Ward and DRCSS Principal Norm Casavant will be meeting early next week to look at the direction from the province and what that means for scheduling and programming at the DRCSS.
If you would like to take a look at the full school reopening plan, click here.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Blazers Mini Mart in Minnedosa has been closed due to a possible COVID-19 exposure.
It’s believed one of the store owners tested positive for the virus and had worked a shift on Saturday, July 25th.
A note posted at the front of the shop reads: “Closed due to possible exposure to COVID-19.”
A post in a Minnedosa Facebook group says staff closed the doors as soon as they learned the information, and health officials are contacting people who have recently come into contact with this person.
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- Contributed by Tess Kovach
Brandon Police made a drug seizure during a traffic stop this week, and say it could be one of the biggest busts in Manitoba history.
At around 1:30 in the afternoon on July 28th, a Brandon Police Officer conducted a traffic stop on Highway 1 west of the City and got involved in an unlawful transportation of liquor in a motor vehicle investigation.
During the investigation, 76 kilograms of illicit drugs were discovered in the vehicle, valued at over 3 million dollars.
Two men, aged 41 and 43, both from Ontario, were taken into custody for possession for the purpose of trafficking.
After preliminary presumptive testing, the illicit substances are believed to be 50 Kilograms of MDMA, commonly known as Ecstasy, and 26 Kilograms of a variation of substances combined with Fentanyl. The illicit drugs were packaged in 1 Kilogram quantities. These seizures are subject to further testing to confirm the identity of the substances.
While the wholesale value of the drugs is in excess of 3 million dollars, police say the street value might be up to 5 times that amount.
The two accused were in court Wednesday for a bail hearing and were subsequently remanded into custody.
Both have been charged with two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking MDMA and Fentanyl, as well as two counts of trafficking MDMA and Fentanyl.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Wait times for non-urgent diagnostic tests have grown even longer in Manitoba as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The wait time for an ultrasound at the Dauphin Regional Health Centre right now is over a year — while back in January, that wait time was only three months, according to the province's latest wait time reports.
The increased wait times are being noted across all of Manitoba’s health regions — after the province cancelled non-urgent diagnostics for a six-week period to control the spread of the virus.
Prior to the pandemic, the province had been working to reduce wait times in a number of areas, however, the COVID situation appears to set back some of that progress.
A Shared Health spokesperson explains the effort to ramp up services in May has still not been able to return operations to 100% capacity.
The spokesperson added that the Prairie Mountain Health region experienced some staff turnover in recent months, which impacted ultrasound wait times at several locations, including Dauphin.
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- Contributed by Matt Hamel
