The Manitoba government has finalized details of its new plan to attract, train and retain veterinarians to support commercial agriculture in rural areas.

“Our government has invested in this new strategy to address the critical shortage of veterinarians providing care for commercial livestock and poultry operations in rural Manitoba,” Agriculture Minister Derek Johnson said in an announcement in Ste. Rose.

“The agricultural sector is vital to our provincial economy and we are committed to providing support to address the sector’s needs.”

The government has expanded its inter-provincial agreement with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) at the University of Saskatchewan to provide increased annual funding for the acceptance of an additional five Manitoba students beginning in 2023-24, as part of its strategy to build the province’s animal health-care capacity.

Get the full story in this week's Dauphin Herald!

The City of Dauphin’s vision and goals for the future, along with the policies that will help make them a reality, were laid out in a draft development plan presented to the public for their feedback, last week.

About 30 residents attended an open house at City Hall, Oct. 6, to review the plan and fill out a survey.

Developed in the co-operation with Urban Systems, mayor Christian Laughland said the plan represents the long-term vision for the community and is meant to guide future decision-making, ensuring development takes place efficiently and sustainably.

“It’s not a document that’s set in stone. It’s a document that is a working document, a constantly working document. It’s for councils to look at in their terms and kind of adjust to it or readjust it,” Laughland said. “Councils obviously make their strategic plans, too, so they kind of try to align the two. But basically it’s a 20-year plan, a supporting document with council’s strategic plan.”

The plan is divided into three main sections. The “Our Story” outlines Dauphin as it is today and what was heard throughout the plan process.

“Our Vision” outlines where the City would like to be in the future and six key goals to make that happen. Those main goals are Community and Innovation; Climate Leadership and Resilience; Housing and Neighbourhoods; Local Economy and Tourism; Health and Wellbeing; and Truth and Reconciliation.

Finally, “Our City Structure” outlines the physical elements of the City, how they work together, and provides guidance for how to adapt and change to support the vision.

“So there’s six main goals with a number of points on each of them of what to focus on within those goals. There is lots of examples in the document,” Laughland said. “It’s a very readable document. I get a lot of documents being on city council and there are quite a few that I’m not too excited to get into and read. But this one, bluntly, I’m pretty excited to dive deep into it.”

The plan is available online on the City’s website at www.dauphin.ca and is accompanied by a survey which will be available until Oct. 21, seeking opinions on the document.

Laughland added there is an opportunity for the plan to change based on insight in the surveys.

Work on the plan began earlier this year as required by the province under provisions of The Planning Act and the Provincial Planning Regulation.

Utilizing funding provided by the province, Urban Systems was contracted to help develop the document.

Background research began in the spring and was followed by stakeholder and community consultations this past summer, which led to the development of the draft plan presented last week.

“Urban systems does this with a number of communities and they said that we’re way ahead of where another community would normally be. This usually takes two to three years, but because staff has worked so well on this, we’re ahead of the game,” Laughland said. “But there’s an election, so that’s going to slow things down a tiny bit. The finalized plan, it’s not probably not going to be until next year.”

Once finalized, the plan will be implemented following ministerial approval.

Brian Werbiski of Rorketon poses with some sizeable vegetables that sprang from his garden this year.

Both the beet and the red potato pictured here weighed in at five pounds each and were representative of the bounty he will enjoy this fall and winter.

A full slate of candidates turned out to address a large crowd of voters at the Parkland Chamber of Commerce candidates’ forum for the City of Dauphin at the Watson Arts Centre, Sept. 28.

The evening began with councillor hopefuls introducing themselves and answering questions gathered from the public on issues such as crime, small business, infrastructure, homelessness, growth, post-secondary education and more.

The second half of the evening featured mayoralty candidates David Bosiak and Kerri Riehl facing questions from the public and each other.

The forum was live streamed on the chamber’s Facebook page and is available for viewing by those who were unable to attend.

The chamber is also hosting a forum for Rural Municipality of Dauphin candidates tonight (Oct. 4) at the Aspen Lodge in the Parkland Recreation Complex.

Dauphin City Hall has some improved curb appeal thanks to the installation of new flag poles which, for the first time, allows the city to fly the flags of the Manitoba Métis Federation and the Treaty 2 Territory Government.

The flags were raised at a special ceremony last week which, Dauphin mayor Christian Laughland said, is an example of the municipality’s desire to operate in partnership with Indigenous governments in the area.

Referring to a proclamation passed by city council at its regular meeting, Sept. 26, Laughland said, “the City of Dauphin and its employees will be observing the national date of Truth and Reconciliation previously known as the orange shirt day to provide time to reflect on the legacy of residential school system and its impact on Indigenous communities and will be flying its flags at half mast.”

For Francis Chartrand of the Northwest Métis Council, the flying of the MMF flag is a continuation of the support city council has shown as her organization increases its footprint in the community.

It speaks to the co-operation between communities and shows a willingness to work together.

“Thank you very much for everything you did for the last four years and we hope to see you around the table in the future,” Chartrand said, drawing attention to the support shown by former mayors Eric Irwin and Allen Dowhan. “I want to do a shout out to them and thank them for everything we did together.”

Representing the Government of Treaty 2 Territory, Scott Lynxleg said flying the flags is an indication of how the relationship between the City and Indigenous groups has improved in the 17 years he has lived in the community.

And he believes it will continue to improve in the future.

“If you have respect for yourself and for others. We are all the same,” Lynxleg said.

In answer to a request from the City of Dauphin’s Protective Services Committee, a new, high-resolution surveillance system has been installed at the D-Town Plaza Skatepark.

“The skate park cameras have been on the radar for a long time and now they have finally come to fruition,” said mayor Christian Laughland, adding the 4k camera provides views with a quality image, “People can go to the City of Dauphin website and view it there. It uploads a new picture every 60 seconds which is great.”

The system, Laughland said, will also allow the city to provide high-resolution video footage to the RCMP at their request.

“But it’s not just for crime, it’s a tourism thing, too,” Laughland said,

“There’s lots of places where you can go online and look and see a webcam and you can see what the weather is like. You can see how the community looks and stuff like that. So I mean I think it goes beyond crime.”

However, crime is one of the major focusses of the camera and Laughland encourages anyone who sees suspicious activity while viewing the pictures to contact Dauphin RCMP at 204-622-5020 for non emergencies and 911 or 204-622-5050 in an emergency situation.

Laughland added if the camera proves a successful as it first appears to be, there is a possibility to expand locations.

“It’s up in the air right now, but this has gotten a lot of good reactions by the public when the City posted about it on Facebook recently. A lot of people were fans of it, so that’s good to see,” he said. “We can’t go out putting cameras everywhere, but maybe some hot spots. It’s possible down the road for sure.”

Anyone wanting to check out the live conditions of the D-Town Plaza Skatepark can visit dauphin.ca/p/dauphin-skatepark.

Less than ideal weather may have delayed the start of the construction season for the City of Dauphin, but everything is on track to complete the 2022 capital plan.

The budget included provisions for reconstruction of Crocus Bay and a section of 10th Avenue Southwest from Main Street to First Street. Resurfacing projects include Elm Street from Poplar Avenue to Oak Avenue and Tulip Crescent. Milling and overlaying was also planned for a section of Second Street Northeast from First Avenue to Fourth Avenue.

Finally, construction of a back lane in the west end between King Street and West Street will be completed at a cost of $23,000.

Get a full rundown in this week's Dauphin Herald!

Three young intrepid wanderers plot their next move as they attempt to find their way through a maze cut into a corn field north of Dauphin over the weekend.

Kaiden, Adalyn and Scarlett Jolicoeur joined their parents at Secord’s Corn Maze and Market Garden for a fun afternoon of fun, hiking, finding hidden treasures in the corn and learning about wildlife which can be found in the area.

To avoid over crowding and make the maze experience more fun for everyone, participation is by appointment only.

Appointments can be made by calling or texting to 204-647-2656.

The Dauphin Derailleurs Cycle Club (DDCC) is capitalizing on some recent donations to move forward its goal of providing healthy opportunities in the community that focus on physical activity and mental well-being.

DDCC’s Bike Hub Project has launched thanks to a $5,000 grant from Prairie Mountain Health’s Healthy Together Now program and matching donations from Johnston and Company, Accent Chartered Professional Accountants and the Dauphin Veterinary Clinic.

“Our request for that funding was to establish a bike program for people that may not have access to bikes,” DDCC chair Brenda Gregory said, adding the $20,000 was used to purchase 12 fat bikes and 12 helmets as the foundation of the project.

The plan is to make the bikes available to the community to learn about cycling and experience area trails, guided rides and workshops.

The bikes will also be used by youth that would like to be part of the Kids of Mud program, but do not have access to, or the means to purchase a bike on their own.

“We’re going to stick with the primary objectives of still ensuring that people who may not have access to bikes will have access to them,” Gregory said, adding it is intended that the Bike Hub program will run year round and give people the opportunity to try biking in all types of climates. “So there’ll be two components to the program. It will be for people that want to rent them up at Northgate trails and it will be for people who may not have the ability to get up to Northgate, but want to either learn how to ride a bike or ride a bike in town. So we would give access to groups that are maybe a little more marginalized and don’t have the funds. So we would balance that between rentals and free programming.”

The vision of the DDCC is to facilitate a positive and inclusive cycling culture that promotes a lifestyle of wellness and a connection to nature. The Bike Hub is the perfect vehicle to promote that, Gregory said, adding biking is a life skill and sport that can be used for fun, transportation and employment.

Get the FULL STORY in this week's Dauphin Herald!

With the registration period now closed the Oct. 26 municipal and school board election is coming into focus.

And when it comes to the City of Dauphin council race that means a crowded ballot.

Last week, prior to the end of the nomination period, 16 candidates had registered their intention to seek a council seat, senior election official Kirk Dawson said, adding candidates still have a limited amount of time to drop out of the race.

Currently the six council seats are being contested by Jason Alf, Randy Daley, Steve Sobering, Sharon Riehl, Carter Taylor-Luke, Ted Rea, Michael Winter, Joseph Houston, Kathy Bellemare, Rodney Juba, Patti Eilers, Devin Shtykalo, Christian Laughland, Bev Sarkonak, Ken Tarrant and Tamara Michelle.

The mayor’s race will officially feature two candidates in David Bosiak and Kerri Riehl,

Over in the Rural Municipality of Dauphin the reeve’s chair is being sought by two candidates in Ernie Sirski and Tom Gibbs.

RM voters will have some choices to make when it comes to filling the council table with Todd Boguski, David Johnson, John Bremner, Ken Shewchuk, Midge Sametz, Ken Plustwa, Ron Ryz, Jarri Thompson and Wilf Katchurowski all seeking a seat.

In terms of the race for school board trustees, only one candidate had returned their nomination papers as of last week, Floyd Martens in Ward 1 Roblin.