Shawn Bailey
City council sets its 2023 financial plan
After years of mill rate reductions and freezes, Dauphin residents will see an increase in their property tax bills for 2023.
Dauphin city council passed the 2023 financial plan at a special meeting, May 11, which will see the mill rate rise from 18.332, which raised $6,382,457 in 2022, to 18.937 this year, which will raise $6,827,186, representing a 6.3 per cent increase.
“It became apparent very early in the 2023 deliberation process that we could no longer provide the same level of service without needing to raise some taxes,” Mayor David Bosiak said. “So therefore for 2023 there will be a 6.3 per cent Municipal tax increase or a 3.3 per cent increase in the mill rate in order to continue to provide a consistent, if not better level of service to our residents. So those were some decisions and discussions that we’ve had to get to this particular point and I think that we’ve balanced both a need for generating revenues to support our operations and also to hold the line as best we can on, I’ll call it frivolous or any spending that is not absolutely necessary for us as a community.”
The plan also includes increased income from grants in lieu of taxes and “other” revenue for a total revenue/expenditure balance of $13,295,966.
On the expenditure side of the ledger, General Government Services will see an increase in its budget to $1,433,111 from the $1.389 million budgetted in 2022. That represents a 4.19 per cent increase driven mainly by regular staff wage increases and in-person conferences and training, community grants and appropriations of $58,000 and a Dauphin Regional Airport Authority subsidy of $98,000.
The Protective Services budget will see a six per cent overall increase to $3,754,132 in 2023, mainly due to increased RCMP costs resulting from retroactive unionization costs and wage increases. Other areas covered under the budget category include fire, emergency measures, building inspection, animal control, insect control and bylaw enforcement.
Transportation Services expenditures will increase by 7.58 per cent for 2023 to $1,945,576. The budget category includes administration and operating costs for Public Works and engineering, such as maintenance of curbs and gutters, lanes and roads, as well as general pavement repairs, crack sealing, sidewalk repairs, drainage maintenance, mowing, street cleaning, snow and ice removal, bridge maintenance, street lighting and signage.
Environmental Health will also see a slight increase of 1.64 per cent to a total of $1,030,239 to cover operations such as collection of garbage, yard waste and recycling, as well as maintenance and operation of the waste disposal grounds. Plans are to purchase more garbage and yard waste bins.
Public Health and Welfare Services again remains unchanged at $33,749 as the category consists entirely of a one-tier social assistance payment to the Province.
Environmental Development Services sees a decrease of 24.35 per cent to $222,407 as the Development Plan review nears completion. Other areas covered under the budget category include Dutch Elm Disease tree removal, Communities in Bloom, weed control and city events, such as parades and Remembrance Day services.
The Economic Development Services budget, which fluctuates depending on development, will see a sizeable increase of 30.39 per cent to $525,733 for 2023. Areas covered by the increase include economic development incentives programs for residential and commercial developments, tipping fees, spec homes and operation of the Dauphin Business Park. The category also includes Tourism related costs such as the Adventure Guide and place branding program, as well as merchandise costs, displays, the City’s website and photography and ideography expenses. Other areas include Tourism
Accommodation Tax Project and the Veterinary Services Board appropriation.
Recreation and Cultural Services will also see an increase, 7.93 per cent overall, to a total of $2,164,866. While over 86 per cent of that budget consists of operating funds for Dauphin Recreation Services, the money also includes appropriations for other facilities, such as the Watson Arts Centre, Fort Dauphin Museum, the Dauphin Rail Museum and the library. Also included is money for the Community Band and the Community Jazz Band.
Fiscal Services, which outlines capital expenditures and reserve transfers totals $13,994,146 in 2023 about $650,000 more in capital spending and transfers. Also included is the City’s portion of the Main Street South twinning project, which involves $8.15 million in borrowing.
Utility Fund
Income in the utility ledger will decrease in 2023 due mainly to less in the way of Provincial grants to $3,660,006.
The bulk of that income will come through residential water sales budgeted at just over $2.3 million and sewer service charges totalling $663,273.
On the expenditure side, operation and maintenance of the water supply system accounts for the majority of expenses at just over $2 million while sewage collection and disposal accounts for another $415,145. There is also $863,026 in capital work planned, transfers to reserves in the amount of $250,000 and $83,517 in debenture debt charges.
Continued support
St. George’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church continued its strong support for the Parkland Ukrainian Family Fund with a further donation towards the group’s humanitarian efforts, undertaken in response to the war in Ukraine.
Here, from left, fund member Larry Hyrtsay looks on as St. George’s president Calvin Korman presents fund members Jim Perchaluk and Don Tarrant with a cheque for $3,200.
The money comes the proceeds of a recent fish fry hosted by the church totalling $1,450 and a return of $1,750 in rent money the fund paid to the church for use of its basement to conduct English classes for Ukrainians who have relocated to the community over the last year.
To date 35 families totalling more than 100 people have relocated to theParkland with the assistance of the fund.
Local nurses get a boost from RBC Foundation
In the midst of National Nursing Week, the health care professionals working locally have an extra reason to celebrate.
The RBC Foundation has supported continuing education for local nurses through a $10,000 donation to the Delha Cort Fund held by the Dauphin Hospital Foundation.
The fund, started by an endowment from Cort, a long-time nurse at the Dauphin hospital, encourages staff to pursue continuing education.
Priority is given to facility-related education, which can enhance an employee’s current job performance or personal development toward advancement in their health care careers.
“RBC recognizes the impact that nurses have in our health care system is unparalleled. Dedicated, committed, and always answering the call no matter the sacrifice, they are our caregivers and comforters during our deepest times of need,” said Kim Ulmer, RBC regional president for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nunavut and Western Ontario.
“We aim to give back to nurses through a donation supporting their continuing education and professional development, to refresh their skills and open more opportunities for their career options and advancement.”
The show of support comes at a critical time. Recent Statistics Canada data shows Canadian frontline healthcare workers are feeling strained and overloaded.
Last July, Statistics Canada reported 23,620 vacant nursing positions in the first quarter of 2022 - up 219 per cent from 2019 - and an all-time high of 136,800 job vacancies within the health sector throughout the first quarter of 2022.
Recent data released by Mental Health Research Canada also shows that health care workers, and nurses in particular, were profoundly impacted by the pandemic.
“Recruitment and retention of health care professionals is front and centre in Manitoba and Canada right now,” said Greg Thompson, Dauphin Hospital Foundation chairman.
“We continue to provide various levels of training support for nurses to offer even better patient care and we sincerely appreciate RBC Foundation’s contribution to our foundation, which allows us to offer even more educational opportunities.”
Held in honour of nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, National Nursing Week is designed to increase the awareness of the many contributions nursing makes to the wellbeing of Canadians.
National Nursing Week runs from May 8 to 14.
NDP talk health care for rural Manitobans
Rural health care was front and center as the Manitoba NDP unveiled its plan to repair any problems should the party form government in this fall’s general election.
NDP leader Wab Kinew unveiled the five-point plan at a news conference in Virden, last week, saying the platform, “delivers better health care and a brighter future to rural Manitoba.”
“The biggest challenge facing rural communities right now is health care,” Kinew said. “Brian Pallister and Heather Stefanson eroded rural health care for seven years, leaving rural families cut off from care and rural communities struggling to build a future. Our team is ready to fix that with common sense solutions that will deliver better health care and a brighter future for rural families and communities.”
The NDP plan would double the rural doctor recruitment fund Brian Pallister cut and bring more doctors, nurses and health care workers to rural communities, Kinew added, by addressing the closures of rural ERs and health care centres, health care staffing shortages, and dangerous wait times for emergency care.
More doctors in rural communities
The NDP plans to reinstate the rural physician recruitment fund cut by the Conservative government and then double it. More doctors in rural Manitoba will keep families healthier with better primary and emergency care, Kinew said. Restoring this fund will help recruit more doctors in rural areas, while taking the pressure off smaller communities that have been forced to fundraise for their health care, he added.
“We need to relook at the finances of the department and I think Shared Health was another layer of bureaucracy that was brought in and so let’s revisit that opportunity,” said Ron Kostyshyn, who is running for the NDP in the Dauphin constituency and attended last week’s announcement. “That’s not saying that Shared Health doesn’t have a spot, but according to my sources or what I’ve read in the paper $85 million has been allocated to Shared Health and I think we can definitely trim off some of the financial dollars and put it towards doctor recruitment.”
Shorter wait times for ambulances and better cell service
Kinew said the NDP will fill the paramedic staffing vacancies that grew under the current government by giving rural paramedics a new contract, paying them the same as Winnipeg paramedics and allowing Advanced Care Paramedics to work to their full scope of practice. Work will also be undertaken to improve cell service in rural communities so emergency calls do not get dropped.
More staff to keep rural health centres open
The NDP plans to keep ERs open by recruiting and retaining more diagnostic imaging and lab technologists by giving them a competitive deal, Kinew said, along with offering incentives to allied health professionals, nurses and nurse practitioners to work in rural communities.
“We’ve gone through some pretty big challenges, not only in Manitoba, but across Canada. But let’s move forward because with the status quo we’re moving backwards instead of forward. So what do you need? You need your doctors, you need your nurses, you need your paramedics, you need your medical experts to get this done,” Kostyshyn said.
Health technology to connect families with the best specialists
The NDP plan calls for equipping rural health care centres with technology to reduce patient transfers and connect rural families with the best specialists in the province. Kinew said the party will improve rural broadband to support this.
The care seniors need to stay healthy at home
The NDP plans to reimburse homecare workers properly for their mileage to help seniors age in place. The party will build more personal care home beds to keep seniors in their home communities and increase access to primary care in rural communities to keep seniors healthy.
The Manitoba NDP’s rural health care commitments are one part of their comprehensive plan to fix health care across the province, the local candidate said.
“We’ve all witnessed what’s transpired in the last number of years and I think the rural health care probably is the biggest sufferer in our health care system. And when we think about smaller communities such as the Grandview Hospital and the Roblin hospital and the Dauphin hospital, they all experienced some challenges,” Kostyshyn said. “So I think we need a serious, I guess, retake of what’s happened in our health care in the last number of years and I think Wab and our party have the right ideas.”
Kostyshyn added problems in the health care system are not going to be solved in the short term, but the time to start a rebuild is now.
“Definitely we need to have a revisit because we can’t continue on the path we’re on right now,” he said.
Mazier Bill on internet accountability passes in the House
Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa MP Dan Mazier took a step towards his goal of making Canadian internet suppliers more accountable with the passage of his private member’s bill in the House of Commons, last week.
Bill C-288, an Act to amend the Telecommunications Act, is meant to provide Canadians with transparent and accurate information regarding Internet speeds.
“I’ve heard so many Canadians, especially rural Canadians, tell me that they’re not getting the internet speeds they pay for,” said Mazier, who is the Conservative Shadow Minister for Rural Economic Development and Connectivity. “This is because the government has allowed internet companies to advertise speeds you may never receive.”
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On strike
Braving unseasonable weather, local members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada whose jobs were deemed nonessential, were on the picket lines last week as the union seeks a new contract with the Government of Canada.
Among other things the union is seeking wage increases and a deal on working remotely.
As the strike drags on across the country, the union is preparing to ramp up by moving picket lines to more “strategic locations.”
Schur put Ukrainian community at the forefront of his creative works
Danny Schur, an Ethelbert native who was a staunch promoter of the immigrant experience through his creative works, has died of brain cancer.
Schur was an avid composer and producer who was best known for honouring his heritage by putting the Ukrainian immigrant experience at the heart of his creations.
“I remember being 10 and praying at night thinking, ‘oh God why have You cursed me with wanting to be a composer.’ But shortly after that, thinking I really, really want to do musicals and in university, my composition teacher saying, ‘your songs really sound like Broadway songs’,” Schur told the Herald in an interview in 2000 as he was getting ready to stage his first musical, The Bridge.
Written and produced in its entirety by Schur and starring Manitoba talent such as Roblin’s Amber Fleury, The Bridge, marked Schur’s first step toward his dream of making Manitoba a centre for original musical productions.
The Bridge, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of Ukrainian settlement in Canada, was semi-autobiographical and an insiders look into the music industry.
Schur was best known for his composition and production of the musical Strike! in 2005, which told the story of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike from an immigrant’s perspective, in particular the Ukrainian community.
“People often ask me, ‘oh why did you choose to do a musical on the Winnipeg General Strike?’ Well it takes place during it, but it’s really about immigrant issues of 1919 that still apply today.”
Schur adapted Strike! for the big screen under the title Stand!, which, after many years of hard work and production, opened in September 2019 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Another noteable foray into film was Schur’s 2015 documentary, Made in Winnipeg: the Terry Sawchuk Origin Story.
During his upbringing in Ethelbert, Schur was exposed to the world of music taking piano and singing in the church choir before attending the University of Manitoba’s School of Music.
On top of his foray into the world of musicals, Schur worked with several high profile musicians and groups such as Chantal Kreviazuk, McMaster and James, and Doc Walker.
Schur received his cancer diagnosis late last year and died last Monday. He was 56 years old.
Parkland Ukrainian Family Fund gets a boost from founder
After launching the Parkland Ukrainian Family Fund with a $25,000 donation last year, Don Tarrant continued his strong support for the organization and the Ukrainian immigrants it sponsors with a further $25,000 gift last week.
When things began last March, Tarrant said the idea was that two or three families might come to the Parkland, fleeing the war in Ukraine.
That goal was realized quicky, he said, and the target was moved to 10 families. The fund is now sponsoring more than 30 families with more to come.
The group has scaled back its offer to new families but with the war now in its second year, more help is needed, Tarrant said.
“The fund still needs money to fulfill a commitment to the existing families, as well as to give some level of support to the new families arriving,” Tarrant said, explaining his motivation to make another substantial donation to the fund. “Probably the biggest component is the single mothers with children that are here. They’re going to need a bit more support beyond the 12 months. So it really was maybe geared towards shoring up the fund, as well as making sure that there is money coming in towards the unforeseen costs and helping these single mothers make it work going forward.”
The project has been a success, Tarrant said, with all of the newcomers expressing appreciation for the support and an affection for their new home. Most of the newcomers have found work and their children have settled nicely into school, Tarrant added.
“The people that are here are very, very happy to be here. They are setting down roots,” he said. “The very first ones that came in are actually making some purchases like vehicles and are looking to buy rather than rent housing. So I believe they are going to stay and I think that it’s a great use of the funds.”
And while the community has been good for the immigrants, the immigrants have been equally good for the community, Tarrant said.
“We’re looking at over 100 people that have come in. There’s places they just couldn’t fill jobs and the thing with that, business, when they can’t fill a job, then they look at starting to scale back hours. They look as possibly having to eventually shut down,” he said. “But if they start scaling back hours and people want to buy something, but they’re closed, they start to buy elsewhere out of Dauphin. So just the effect of having no people becomes very, very negative and snowballs.”
Tarrant encourages anyone who is able to continue to support the Parkland Ukrainian Family Fund with a donation.
MPs gather residents for a conversation on crime
Two federal legislators were in Dauphin last week for a conversation about crime.
Specifically, Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa MP Dan Mazier and Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Frank Caputo were in town to highlight two private member’s bills focused on bail reform.
“We’re going to have a conversation around bail reform, what that actually means and what we as legislators, as MPs can do and how Parliament works,” Mazier told the crowd before introducing Caputo, who is a member of the Standing Committee for Justice and Human Rights, as well as a former Crown prosecutor, parole officer and a former instructor at Thompson Rivers University Faculty of Law.
“So he has a wealth of knowledge.”
Crime is a problem across the country, Caputo said, and there are no easy answers.
“I’ll tell you right now we can’t fix this overnight,” he said. “Sometimes when difficult things happen in the community, when we have matters that are unsustainable . . . when the toothpaste comes out of the tube it doesn’t go back in as quickly as it came out. This is a complex problem that we’re talking about today, so I’m not going to stand before you and put my integrity on the line by saying I have all the answers because I don’t.”
Violent crime has increased by 32 per cent since 2015, Caputo said, while gang-related murders have doubled in the same time frame. And while those kinds of crime have historically been associated with large urban centres, they are becoming more common in smaller communities such as Dauphin, Caputo said.
“And that makes it difficult because number one, we’re not used to it, but number two, we don’t always have the resources or the knowledge to tackle these things,” he said.
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Agreement clears way for development
For the three parties involved, there is hope the signing of a special document Apr. 14 at Dauphin City Hall is a milestone in a long, prosperous and respectful relationship.
Minegoziibe Anishinabe (Pine Creek First Nation), Ka Ka Kwe Ke Je Ong (Ebb and Flow First Nation) and the City of Dauphin entered into a Municipal Development and Services Agreement centered on Anishinaabe Aki, a piece of land located on Main Street South in Dauphin.
The agreement outlines the services the city will provide for a fee to the land and clears the way for the parcel to receive reserve status through the Addition to Reserve process.
“It’s certainly a milestone in this process where we re-establish ourselves as the original people in this territory and partake in some of the economic opportunities that present when we decide to work together in a peaceful way,” said Minegoziibe Anishinabe Chief Derek Nepinak, “We are the safe keepers of the treaty. The Treaty 2 and 4 people that are represented here in the room, we will work to maintain that harmony and that peace that we agreed to many, many, many generations ago. I believe that this agreement is an expression of that commitment. This is the living treaty that we’re talking about now and I believe that there’s prosperity on the horizon for all of us. I think it is going to benefit everybody once this land is converted. The city is going to prosper, we’re going to bring new prosperity to our communities together and the treaty will move forward for the next generations in that way. So today is a milestone. It’s not so much the pen to paper that counts, it’s the spirit that we take from this and it’s the spirit that we work within as we move forward in the development of the site.”
Discussions surrounding the agreement began in December 2019 and Ka Ka Kwe Ke Je Ong Chief Wayne Desjarlais said the process, as well as the Addition to Reserve process, has been a positive one.
“I think it’s been positive throughout for everybody that’s involved, the two First Nations and the City of Dauphin. You know we’ve had issues with many different topics throughout our lives, but with reconciliation, it’s very important that we work with the towns and cities, the urban areas that we’re joined to,” Desjarlais said, adding the two First Nations will be signing papers with the government in Winnipeg in the near future to finalize the Addition to Reserve process.
“Obviously, before we can do Additions to Reserve, we need to make sure that everybody’s on board including the municipality, the City of Dauphin. So this service agreement affirms that everyone’s on board, which is a major hurdle for a lot of processes,” Nepinak added “I’m very happy that everybody’s in line and we can now get this across the finish line.”
Dauphin mayor David Bosiak said it is an honour to be a signatory to the agreement, but he credits past municipal leaders and City staff for forging this important new partnership.
“I personally believe very strongly in relationships and relationship building and I think that this first historic step for us as a City in developing these new relationships with your two communities are truly instrumental in us moving forward for our current generation, but for the future,” he said.
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