Dauphin Consumers Co-op is looking into the possibility of starting a Citizens on Patrol Program in Dauphin.

The local business had a table set up at their food store, Wednesday and Thursday, offering information to interested patrons.

Co-op asset protection/safety manager Richard Ives said the first discussion took place in early May.

“And then we heard about all the stuff going on in our community and thought that maybe we could somehow help out as a Co-op. We’re a part of the community and a big part of Dauphin. We thought that maybe this is an avenue that we could take and try and get off the ground,” he said.

Response to the initiative was light on Wednesday, but picked up the next day.

“We’re giving out lots of information today. Hopefully in the weeks to come, we get the applications back and enough interest to start a group in Dauphin. Then we can start up some training and all that,” he said.

Details of what the program will look like have yet to be worked out. Ives said they will have to work with the City of Dauphin and RCMP to determine where support is needed.

“Is it weekends? Evenings? Later mornings? And with a crew of two per vehicle and a few vehicles, hopefully, on the road at those times, just to drive around and be an extra set of eyes for the community of Dauphin,” he said, adding as soon as they have a good number of people willing to take part, they can take the next step to start the program.

About 35 people have expressed an interest in joining the program, which Ives finds encouraging. He adds there is no limit to how many people they will accept into the program.

“I think the more the merrier. It takes less pressure off everybody else and less commitment if there’s a lot more volunteers. But if we have to start small, we’ll start small and go from there,” he said.

Anyone interested in acquiring more information on the program can visit the local Co-op food store administration office and ask for Ives.

The Roblin Agricultural Society kicked off its first Fair & Rodeo weekend since 2019 Thursday evening with its popular King Farmer contest.

The competition, which featured a calcutta and nine different stations to test the skills needed on the farm these day, drew 10 competitors. 

It’s always kind of surreal to see someone from your hometown on the big screen in a movie.

Former Roblinite, Matt Mazur, is now living in Vancouver and has been working as an actor and appeared in some pretty notable films and television shows.

“I was always interested film and television, as well as theatre,” said Mazur. “After I graduated high school, I went to Calgary to study theatre along with marketing.

I fell in love with being in theatre and performing.

Did you know that the Citizens on Patrol Program (COPP) exists in Roblin??

It does and is always looking for new volunteers. If you are upset about how things may be changing in Roblin, or just want to help out your community, volunteer for COPP. Roblin is a great community with great people.

Read all about it and more in this week’s RCMP Report.

People may be sick and tired of hearing about the lack of ER service in Roblin and some feel there’s nothing that can be done about it, but one rural community is proving you can do something.
Grandview has had a long-standing history of fighting to keep health care strong in their community, whether it be recruiting physicians and nurses or rallying to keep their ambulance service local.

This past Saturday marked the third annual Remembering Kendara Memorial Walk in the tri-community. Kendara’s family started this walk to raise awareness of her case, with hopes to make it inclusive to all those who have missing and murdered Indigenous loved ones.

“This year’s walk we decided to start transitioning towards as this being a walk for missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP),” said Gloria Ballantyne-Packo. “It’s still going to be about Kendara, but we also have invited families of missing and murdered Indigenous men and boys. We had families participated for different loved ones. That was one of our biggest goals to transition the walk to include others and this year we were able to achieve it.

“It was really great because we were able to support these other families by giving them a platform to be able to have that opportunity to speak about what they’ve been going through and to know they have this community of people who understand this very kind of specific loss.”

Welcoming other families of MMIP to participate in the walk is a way for them to connect with others who have experienced the same kind of loss. It’s a different type of loss that often leaves families feeling isolated due to the fact that not everyone can related what they are experiencing and going through.

Over the weekend a fantastic group of unsung heroes in the community met with the high rail trucks during the late hours of the evening to do intake of the animals coming in from the fire zones as well as any surrenders from The Pas.

The Manitoba Animal Alliance (MAA) has been busy rescuing animals that have been left behind as a result of the forest fires that raged in Pukatawagan and Mathias Colomb First nations.

The homeless pets left behind still depend on people to provide food and water, while some of them need medical care and treatment.

MAA has stepped in to transport these animals out of harm. The animals were making their journey on to Winnipeg where they will receive necessary medical treatments, be reconnected with owners if possible or adopted to new homes. The MAA has also been collecting donations of pet foot and kennels for the animals to send up north to feed them and have the necessary crates to transport them out of the area if needed.

Just after the long weekend, the Province signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Mosakahiken Cree Nation (MCN) and Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) that will work towards developing revenue sharing that will see up to 45 percent of revenues from timber dues.

“This is a historic day for MCN,” said MCN Chief Vincent Bercier. “We will be the first reserve to have revenue sharing as part of this agreement with the logging industry. The revenue sharing and stumpage fees will differ depending on how much logging is done in the year. It will benefit the community by giving us more opportunities for infrastructure, create jobs and just allow us to do more for our community and people.”

“In the spirit of reconciliation, this is a great first step that allows us to assert our sovereign rights as the OCN,” said OCN Chief Sidney Ballantyne.

“This revenue sharing concept has been talked bout for years with our community and to see this finally come to action gives me hope as a leader. Not only will the added revenue help with improving our services for our people, it will benefit both our community and our neighbours in MCN with added opportunities.”

Results of an Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) member survey shows municipalities are concerned about public safety issues.

According to survey data, 92 per cent of respondents noted that they are concerned about the lack of police presence throughout their communities while 90 per cent believe the province should not be able to replace municipal representatives on police boards with provincial appointees.

In addition, 84 per cent and 77 per cent of respondents noted that property crime and drug crime are likely to occur within their municipal boundaries. As well, 92 per cent of respondents also expressed concern about illicit drug use in their municipality.

“Public safety and crime prevention are top priorities for municipalities,” AMM president Kam Blight said. “Our survey results reaffirm that increased police visibility may help deter crime and make community members feel safer. Municipal officials are very frustrated with the practice of applying a catch-and-release approach to repeat offenders who are contributing to rising rates of crime in local communities. Police officers should be out on the street and in the community, rather than behind a desk filling out repetitive paperwork or waiting to testify in a courtroom.”

The survey was administered in April and 73 responses were received. The AMM was particularly interested in understanding public safety challenges throughout local communities across Manitoba.

The AMM will present the survey’s findings and initial recommendations to the provincial and federal governments while continuing to encourage all orders of government to work together to ensure greater supports are provided to municipalities.

“Moving forward, the AMM will continue to call on the provincial and federal governments to increase support for policing services in order to properly address local public safety priorities and help local governments manage increasing public safety costs,” Blight said.

For more information, a presentation summarizing the survey’s responses can be found at www.amm.mb.ca.

Close to 100 golfers hit the links at the Gilbert Plains Country Club for the annual senior mixed open, Aug. 2.

In the women’s tournament, Pearl Maksymetz’s shot an 87 to give her a one-shot victory over Marilyn Schwitzer, while Lorna Munroe finished third, three back of Maksymetz.

Karen Toderian won the first flight after carding a 118. Pam Hammett was awarded second place on a countback over Donna Campbell after they both finished with a 120.

Darren Graves carded a 75 to win the men’s tournament over runner-up Farron Genaille, who was awarded second on a countback over Kevin Boucher. They each shot a 77.

Don Hudson won the first flight on a countback over runner-up Dean McConnell and third-place finisher Glen Ross after they all finished with an 89.

Countbacks were needed for the second flight, which was won by Doug Cooke, with Murray Kalechyn in second and Darcy Boucher in third. They all shot a 93.

Cal Harrison won the third flight over Reid Birss, both of whom finished with a 95. Tom Monson was third, one shot back.

Jim Demonitgny won the fourth flight over runner-up Don Shumka and Terry Murray. They all scored a 101.

The men’s fifth flight was won by Wayne Manweiller, while John Abrams was second and Curt Pederson was third. They all shot a 108.

Genaille won the closest-to-the-hole contest on nos. 4 and 14, while Jean Sydor won on no. 9. Fred Todoruk and Pam Hammett were the closest-to-the-line winners on no. 5.