The Dauphin Economic Development Committee has a new identity and is ready to get back to work.

Formerly known as the Dauphin Economic Development and Tourism Board, the committee has new terms of reference passed by city council at its regular meeting, Feb. 14.

“In the past when I was in this office, and even before that when I was on the board, I always had a bit of an issue with the fact that it was called a board, not because I don’t like the word board, but because it isn’t. A board is an organization that has its own governance, its own set of rules and bylaws and documents that defines who they are. They have a budget and all that kind of stuff and this group doesn’t. They really work sort of under the wings of the two councils,” Economic Development manager Martijn van Luijn said

“And nobody ever really defined what that means and who they are. So we cleaned that up.”

In essence the role and responsibilities of the committee stay the same, van Luijn said, as a roundtable discussion group talking about economic growth and opportunities in the community.

The committee acts as eyes and ears in the community, keeping a pulse on what’s happening and providing input for consideration or review, van Luijn said. Ideas, issues, and input brought forward through the committee are taken into consideration for municipal planning and projects and shared with relevant community groups.

“And some great ideas come out of it and great projects have come out of it in the past,” he said, adding the committee has not been active recently. “This is a great opportunity to do a little bit of a refresh and a restart, but the job that this group does kind of really stays the same.”

David Bosiak has volunteered to chair the committee and is currently its only member. It is his job, van Luijn said, to recruit committee members outside of municipal representation.

The committee will have appointed representation from the city and RM of Dauphin councils and the Parkland Chamber of Commerce.

“We really want to spread the net wide. We talked long about who should be on this group, should it be representation for certain sectors or not,” van Luijn said. “And in the end, we came back to the same thing, we’re looking for good people that want to contribute to the composition. And it doesn’t really matter where you come from and who you are, as long as you have that invested interest in making Dauphin economically successful.”

Applications will be accepted until Mar. 15. Completed application forms can be emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or dropped off at City Hall, to the attention of the Economic Development manager.

For more information, call van Luijn at 204-622-3229 or or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..