Shawn Bailey
Field for municipal elections filling up
The list of local candidates in the upcoming Manitoba municipal elections is growing.
In the city of Dauphin there is still just two contestants in the mayoralty race - David Bosiak and Kerri Riehl.
While several packages have been picked up and remain outstanding, those registered for the councillor vote include Jason Alf, Randy Daley, Ted Rea, Joe Houston, Michael Winter, Bev Sarkonak, Sharon Riehl and Carter Taylor-Luke.
In the Rural Municipality of Dauphin, Ernie Sirski and Tom Gibbs have registered in the race for reeve, while council papers have been filed by Jack Bremner, Ken Shewchuk, Midge Sametz, Ken Plustwa and Ron Ryz.
The race for school board trustees has yet to register a candidate although Senior Election Official Kirk Dawson says several packages have been picked up by potential candidates.
Dealership helps out
Jim Perchaluk of the Parkland Ukrainian Family Fund accepts a cheque for $1,203 from general manager Wade Thiele, while, from left, Dean Cooley, family fund committee members Don Tarrant and Larry Hrytsay, and the dealership’s Business Development manager Alyson Sametz and Marketing co-ordinator Taylor Cooley join them for the presentation.
The funds were raised at the Dauphin Ford Anniversary Barbecue held in June.
City impresses visiting Communities in Bloom judges
Dauphin put on its best face last Thursday as judges from Communities in Bloom (CiB) toured the city evaluating beautification efforts and a variety of other criteria such as environmental action, heritage conservation, tree management, landscape and plant and floral displays.
I just want to say your town looks fabulous you’re doing a really great job. Kudos to you, you’re well on your way to making this sparkle,” said Susan Ellis, national chairperson of the CiB board of directors who was judging the community along with Alex Pearl from Centerville, Ohio.
Dauphin is competing internationally this year against Ingria, Italy; Velika Polana, Slovenia; Glaslough Tidy Towns, Ireland; Lewisburg, West Virginia; and Sussex, New Brunswick.
“In order to be here in this competition you have to have been invited and there are only five other communities in the world in the international smallest category,” Ellis said.
Get the full rundown in this week's Dauphin Herald!
Retinal specialist pilot program lands in Dauphin
Ashcroft Vision Care is partnering with the province to provide advanced eye care options for Parkland residents that does not involve travel to Brandon or Winnipeg.
Health Minister Audrey Gordon was in Dauphin last week to announce a retinal specialist pilot program, which will see retinal specialists from Winnipeg travel to Dauphin once a month to deliver services normally not available in the community.
“Manitobans living in the Parkland region currently have to travel all the way to Winnipeg to access a retinal specialist and this can create an unnecessary financial burden, as well as additional stress for patients and their families,” Gordon said. “To have a specialist provide services right here at Ashcroft Vision Care will help reduce out-of-pocket expenses for these patients and families, strengthen health care in the region and ensure the same level of care closer to home.”
Retinal specialists diagnose retinal diseases and treat a wide variety of eye conditions including age-related macular degeneration, hereditary diseases of the eye, diabetic retinopathy, retinal detachment and cancers of the eye. They also treat patients who have experienced severe eye trauma.
According to Dr. Kara Vanderheyden of Ashcroft Vision Services, intravitreal anti-vegf injections are imperative to prevent permanent vision loss, as well as blindness in individuals who develop certain eye diseases such as wet macular degeneration, retinal venous occlusions and proliferative diabetic retinopathy, and can only be performed by retinal ophthalmologists.
Beginning this fall, the program will service 60 to 80 patients each month, which Vanderheyden said will make a real difference in the lives of area residents displaying “increased concern and anxiety” around the need to travel to Winnipeg for treatment. “I’d say there’s around 200 patients from this area that are traveling and there’s new ones all the time.” she said.
“At this point, I am unsure of whether or not we will be over capacity to not accommodate all the patients from this area. Not all patients have to have injections every month, so we should be able to accommodate most patients in this area from having to go to Winnipeg. That is the goal of this project.”
The Manitoba government will cover travel expenses for the specialists and supply costs to support the project. Ashcroft Vision Care will provide space for the retinal specialist to perform procedures in one of their clinic rooms.
“It was becoming very evident, particularly over the past two years, the financial and physical burden patients were experiencing having to travel to Winnipeg as much as once a month,” Vanderheyden said. “Doctors (Randy) Ashcroft, (Jeremy) Mills and myself are more than pleased to provide our clinic for this pilot project and facilitate in bringing this important service closer to home for many Manitobans.”
This pilot project is in alignment with Manitoba’s Clinical and Preventive Services Plan’s goal to provide care closer to home, Gordon said, adding the initiative is expected to run over the next year to evaluate its effectiveness and impact on patient care.
“We’re saying this is a pilot and the pilot will initially benefit a certain number of individuals, so that we can test demand and look at how often we need to bring those specialists in,” Gordon said. “So in the pilot it may be one day, but once the program is fully up and running it may be more.”
City ready for provincially-funded operational review
The province has opened a second intake of the Municipal Service Delivery Improvement Program and the city of Dauphin is ready to take part.
The program, which provides funding for municipalities and planning districts to find ways to improve services and find efficiencies was piloted last year, however, the timing was not right for the Dauphin to take part, city manager Sharla Griffiths said.
At the time of the program launch the city had some key positions open and some personnel who had only been on the job a short time.
“I think this is a far better time for us to take a look at this program. With staff members being present in senior management and throughout our organization, as well as coming out of the pandemic, our operations are a lot more representative of normal operations right now,” Griffiths said. “Last time this came around we had holes or very new staff, in terms of public works. (Director of Public Works and Operations) Mike VanAlstyne was very new. He was only with us for three months at the time and we thought it would be quite unfair to take a big review of that department when he hadn’t even had a chance to really get to know the department.”
By participating in the program municipalities and planning districts can apply for provincial funding to conduct service delivery reviews to identify opportunities for savings.
Delivery programs in the areas of transportation, protection, water and sewer, recreation and culture, waste management, planning and general government administration and other core services can be reviewed.
“Senior management is looking at the options and we’ll be talking about it with council at a planning and priorities committee meeting,” Griffiths said. “It’s a program that the province is funding and a consultant will be hired and paired with us who will look at the processes and the financial structure of different departments, or whatever department we asked them to look at, and we’ll review it for efficiencies and see if there’s a better or easier or more efficient ways we can do things.”
Potential savings from these initiatives will stay with the municipality and can be reallocated to other priorities in the community.
“We’re looking at something that it will be worthwhile, maybe a bigger budget line item, but we’re not sure exactly which one yet,” Griffiths said, adding she feels the City is already very efficient in its operations. “There’s always room for improvement and it’s great to have another set of eyes looking at things, to see if we can do something differently.”
In March 2021, the Manitoba government committed up to $5 million over four years to support the program.
Last year, the first intake resulted in 11 successful projects receiving more than $1.1 million.
The deadline to apply for the second intake is Sept. 5.
A big thank you to all
The Parkland Ukrainian Family Fund held a special get together, July 19, with its many volunteers and sponsored families to celebrate the success of the endeavour and express its appreciation for all of the efforts that were made to ensure that success.
The barbecue, held at Selo Ukraina that evening, honoured the many committee members, drivers, hosts and others who gave generously to ease the families’ transition into the community.
In a recap of the project Ukrainian Folk Arts Centre and Museum president Jim Perchaluk said the initiative raised more than $200,000 in cash along with immeasurable donations of materials and in-kind support, adding 100 per cent of donations were used to support the families which arrived in Dauphin from Ukraine.
Memorial dedication recognizes Dauphin’s role in allied effort
A little more than a year after he first had the idea to develop a memorial honouring Dauphin’s participation in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and the thousands of airmen who trained at two bases in the community, Al Gray is preparing to unveil the fruits of his efforts.
Set for Aug. 27, the Airport Memorial 80 unveiling will take place in two parts, Gray said.
“We’ll be meeting at the cemetery at about 10:30 in the morning and we will be unveiling a commemorative plaque listing the names of the 15 airmen that lie at rest at Riverside Cemetery. They are 15 of the 49 that were killed here while training,” Gray said “As well, at the cemetery we will be dedicating two granite benches, one in the old veterans section where the airmen are buried and one in the new veterans section.”
Later in the day people will gather at the airport for a ceremony which will begin at 1 p.m., last for approximately 30 minutes and will culminate with the unveiling of the monuments.
“We are flanking the Barker Monument with two five-foot-by-three-foot pieces of granite. They will give the history of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan, they will give the history of the two air schools. And on the rear of both is going to be a list of the 29 airmen that were killed in service at the south airport at the service flight training school, and the 20 airmen that were killed at the bombing and gunnery school,” Gray said, adding the two schools trained 9,000 of the 131,000 airmen trained as part of the plan.
“That’s what we are doing to commemorate and memorialize Dauphin’s and Paulson’s role in the air training plan.”
Following the dedication, Gray has a special treat planned as three vintage military aircraft will be on hand courtesy of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Brandon.
The Harvard, Tiger Moth and Cornell aircraft will sit on the apron for the public to inspect and will offer rides to those wanting the complete historic experience.
The cost of the flight for the Harvard is $400 while the Tiger Moth and Cornell are each $280, Gray said, adding those flying must also purchase a $30 museum membership which covers the flight insurance.
The fees are simply cost recovery and a tax deductible receipt will be issued, Gray said.
“These flights have to be pre-booked. They want at least four flights per aircraft booked and I’ve currently got four of the 12 flights a booked,” he said, adding he hopes to further include the aircraft in the days events by way of a low level flyover during the morning dedication at the cemetery. “These pilots are seasoned, well-practiced pilots. What they do is they fly these as the dedicated pilots and they fly these aircraft around to all sorts of air shows throughout the summer.”
The flights will begin at 10 a.m., however, the planes will remain on the ground during the airport ceremony.
Anyone interested in booking a flight can email Gray at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
“We’re going to encourage people to bring their lawn chairs because there’s only going to be a finite amount of seating available. If they want to bring their lawn chairs and set them up on the grass that’s fine,” Gray said, adding he is hoping for good weather. “It’s a mist or shine event. If there’s a torrential rainfall we do not have an alternate day. It’s going to be that day or not at all. The monuments are going to be there they may end up going without an official unveiling.
“This is definitely something that we’re really hoping is going to fly.”
Off to camp
Visitors to the local Tim Horton’s last Wednesday had the opportunity to help send some youths from underserved communities to a Tims Camp.
On that day 100 per cent of proceeds from the sale of hot and iced coffee supported the initiative.
As well, the public had and opportunity to support Tim Hortons Foundation Camps by purchasing a Camp Day bracelet for $2 or a pair of red and white camp-themed socks for $5.
The local restaurant also maximized its fund-raising efforts by selling raffle tickets and offering to wash the windshields of vehicles in the drive-through lane.
Camp Day has raised over $225 million in its 30-year history and has helped Tim Hortons Foundation Camps support more than 300,000 youth between the ages of 12 to 16 through a multi-year camp-based program.
Market time
Dauphin Farmer’s Market got a late start to the season this past week, although participation by vendors was minimal, with only two booths set up.
Market co-ordinator Joyce Huska says although she was expecting more vendors for opening day, the weather as of late has market gardens well behind schedule.
Anyone interested in joining the group as a vendor can contact Huska at 204-548-2244.
The market will run every Friday in the parking lot across from the Dauphin Active Living Centre until Sept. 25.
Fabulous finds for furry friends
Parkland Humane Society secured some much-needed funding through a two-day Garage Sale and Barbecue, Friday and Saturday.
The popular annual sale saw people enjoy a hamburger, chips and drink combo while they searched through a huge inventory of goods, hoping to find a special treasure.