The past couple days, Dauphin has had a blue tint - it's been the site of the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party's Caucus Retreat, featuring meetings with key local stakeholders, and a public engagement event on Thursday.
Greg Nesbitt, MLA for Riding Mountain, said he was excited to show his riding of Riding Mountain to the Caucus on the drive to Dauphin. He highlighted that many of the issues currently facing Dauphin are deeply affecting his riding too, like the closure of the DRHC, and agricultural damages that happened as a result of flooding earlier in the summer.
"I think so often the Government is quick to make promises, but we need to see actual boots on the ground in action to help these producers and businesses recover from this disastrous flood...[the DRHC's closure] affects people in my constituency of Riding Mountain too, because a lot of people come here for MRIs, things like that, they doctor here in Dauphin. Especially people in the northern part of my constituency like Sandy Lake, Onanole, Erickson, they come to Dauphin," said Nesbitt.
One of the most hard-hit communities across the Parkland was Swan River. Rick Wowchuk, MLA for Swan River, said though there have been a lot of negatives when it comes to infrastructure, property, and agricultural damages, there have been quite a few positives in seeing his community support each other.
"We saw a lot of neighbours helping neighbours, families standing side by side, and even strangers coming forth on the sandbagging, I recall on July 1st there were people, they were just there because they wanted to help," said Wowchuk.
Wowchuk has been critical of Premier Wab Kinew's decision to tour the Swan Valley area without any Progressive Conservatives in his entourage, saying now is the time to support the community, no matter the party.
"Regardless of what colours and stripes and values, you gotta come together as a team, and you gotta rebuild, and people wanted to see that, and unfortunately that was a decision [Premier Kinew] made," said Wowchuk.
One of the MLAs from further down the road in attendance this week was Jeff Bereza, MLA for Portage la Prairie, who formerly held the role of Agriculture Critic, and has more than 30 years of agricultural experience. On Friday, Bereza, Wowchuk, Nesbitt, and others toured Vermillion Growers, one of many Parkland producers who were impacted by flood damages.
"When you run into catastrophic events like this, not only are you affecting what's going on right here in the Parkland, but you're also dealing with people that are working here, but also down the line, like it's a trickle effect down the line," said Bereza.
Bereza said he thinks the Government's response to the flooding with improvements to AgriStability's loan programs won't give farmers much of the relief they need, and will lead to more debt.
"To just offer things like extra loans and stuff like that, farmers don't need more debt right now, they need help, and they need relief, and I think that's where the Province could be more involved...we also have to look at, how can we mitigate this the next time, is there a way to build better berms around this place," said Bereza.
In the months since flooding in the Parkland, Manitoba Agriculture has announced several enhancements to AgriStability, including implementing late participation in the program, and increases to loan maximums and guarantees.
