Canada Post has chosen a third shot by Arctic photographer Clare Kines for a stamp in its latest From Far and Wide series.

Launched in 2018, From Far and Wide celebrates Canada’s natural beauty and vibrant cultural landscapes.

Want to know more? Check out this week’s issue.

Goose Lake High (GLH) senior students are getting ready for their upcoming drama production to finish off the year. This year’s production is being directed by GLH English, Drama and ICT teacher Bethany Brade.

Brade was the director of First Kisses, which was staged at the Life and Art Centre last June and was sold out for all three nights.

Check out this week’s paper for more.

Winter highway conditions unfortunately aren’t the only time that Manitoba drivers need to be concerned. At this time of year, there is plenty of agricultural traffic on the highways as farmers are busy trying to get work done in the fields.

Drivers must not only be cautious of the equipment, but also the debris left behind on the highway too. Heavy rains and equipment being moved from field to field along highways can pose another treacherous risk to highway conditions.

Read the rest of the story in this week’s Review.

When a child gets sick or is need of urgent medical attention, it can be a family’s worst nightmare come true. Despite the stress of dealing with a child’s medical emergency, there are some saviours out there who want to help. The Ronald McDonald House (RMH) has been providing families with sick children for 40 years now, by providing families from rural and northern Manitoba, as well as across Canada, with a place to stay, while their child is receiving medical attention.
One family in The Pas as experienced the kindness and compassion that the RMH has to offer.
“When I was pregnant with our son, Walter, my water broke in the middle of the night at 24 weeks pregnant,” said Jennifer Zolinski. “I was rushed to Winnipeg and admitted to Health Sciences Centre (HSC) and Walter was born at 25 weeks premature via emergency c-section. Walter had to spend 100 days as a patient in the NICU, and was discharged right before his due date.

For those with a green thumb, gardening season is about to take root. For the avid die-hard gardeners, many have already planted their seeds indoor and are waiting for the plants to be strong enough to transplant. While many others are eagerly awaiting for local greenhouses to open.
Hummingbird Garden Centre has been busy preparing for this year’s growing season. Much of their work is done manually ahead of time, to ensure they have a full supply in bloom.
“We start in September in terms of ordering flowers, shrubs and trees for the spring season,” said Hummingbird Garden Centre Owner and Operator Kathy Larkins. “Then in February, we get in the greenhouse and start to fill about 6,000 pots. We don’t have a pot filler, so it’s all done manually.

Young female pow wow dancers from Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) embarked on a trip of a lifetime last week as they travelled to the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Gathering of Nations Pow Wow has been running for over 40 years and is an event that allows Indigenous people from all over North American, to come together to celebrate and share their culture. The event prides itself on being a place where singers and dancers can feel confident at a pow wow competition that is fair to all.
Amongst the group that travelled from OCN to take part in the event, were mother and daughter duo, Janet and Jennelle Moore.
“This was our first time attending the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow,” said Janet. “We have attended local pow wows before, but nothing like this. This was something we wanted to go to.
“We did a lot of fundraising to do this and it was a lot of work. We had to create a plan and a budget, then we had to fundraise so the girls could go. This just didn’t happen with no effort. The parents of the girls all had to work hard and do some strict planning in order for this to happen.”

Being kind is something that not enough of us practice and with taking care of one’s mental health becoming more prominent than ever, kindness and compassion only seem like logical choices in the matter. Canadian Mental Health Week is from May 6 to 12, and the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) is launching a campaign calling on people to be kind.
“The CMHA first introduced Mental Health Week across Canada in 1951,” said CMHA Swan Valley Branch Peer Support/Public Education Coordinator Rod Seib. “Held the first full week of May, Mental Health Week provides an opportunity not only to raise awareness of mental illness but to also promote healthy ways to encourage good mental health and well-being.
“The goal is to educate as well as offer practical ways to maintain and improve our mental health and provide solutions to support recovery from mental illness. Each year a different theme for Mental Health Week is promoted.

The Dauphin Clippers rugby teams opened the season last week.

The girls opened their season with a pair of lopsided wins, beating the Swan Valley Tigers, 94-0, Apr. 30, in Swan River, before beating the Vincent Massey Vikings, 95-0, Friday in Brandon.

The boys lost to their season opener, 34-14, to the Crocus Plains Plainsmen. Friday’s game against the Vikings was postponed and rescheduled to May 15 in Brandon.

Raylyn Koshowski led the way against Swan Valley with three tries. Paitin Bougouin and Megan Thompson had two tries each, while Ruth Evan, Mai Maguet, Bree Walker, Alma Schlapfer, Scarlet Ruiz, Felicity Sahulka, Desiree Flower, Ashley Korney and Mila Heschuk added singles.

Thompson added five converts and Walker had two.

Scoring for Dauphin on Friday were Walker and Schlapfer with three tries each and Evans, Tanya Devos, Kiersten Vandekerkhove, Thompson, Breanna Gryba, Sahulka, Ruiz, Ruth Dandeneau and Hailey Garlinsky, all with singles.

Thompson recorded seven converts and Walker had two.

After the depth lost from last year’s roster, Clippers coach Shawn Sarkonak knew they would have an athletic squad this year.

“But would be a little more inexperienced compared to last year. But they’ve come out of the gate running, that’s for sure. It’s been amazing to watch,” he said.

The season opener against Swan Valley, Sarkonak said, was the team’s most complete game, even going back to last season, when they went 9-0.

“It was just run, catch, pass. Just running hard lines, committing defenders and passing. It was a treat to watch, really. It was not just one or two people controlling the game. It was a complete team game,” he said.

And that, he added, is what coaches look for.

“When we talk to the girls, we tell them that if you’re wanting to go higher in rugby, those high performance coaches, university coaches, they don’t look to see who does the scoring. They watch what leads up to it. What created that opportunity. They look for the skill set,” Sarkonak said. “They know that there’s finishers out there and there’s people that can go out there and score. But they really want to see the skill set. And that’s what it seems to be happening right now in these first two games.”

Owen Tyschinski and Josh Yakielashek had the Dauphin boy’s tries and Colton Miner had two converts.

Clippers coach Aaron Miner felt the Clippers went into the game a little overconfident after the John Keogh Rugby Festival, Apr. 20. in Brandon.

“The boys felt they had it won before the game even started. And we were surprised by what they brought. They obviously didn’t show all their cards at the John Keogh,” he said. “We heard some of their bigger, stronger players were at a football camp that weekend. So we weren’t totally surprised. But we were definitely surprised when they showed up with six boys in their pack that definitely outsized our pack.”

Miner feels his team needs to bulk up in the front end of the pack.

“Not to make any excuses. They played a great game and they were definitely the better team on that day. But we were missing a few or our key players. Once we get our key players back in the lineup for Monday’s rematch against Crocus, I think we’ll be okay. I think it will be a pretty even game,” he said.

Both Clippers squads hosted Crocus Plains last night in the one and only home game of the regular season.

The girls won their game, 52-0, while the boys picked up their first win of the season, beating the Plainsmen, 19-14.

Both teams will be in Souris, next Monday, to face the Sabres.

Dauphin Co-op has jumped on board as a major sponsor of the 2024 Manitoba Summer Games powered by Manitoba Hydro.

On Friday, Dauphin Co-op donated $50,000 to the games, providing a variety of in-kind support in the form of fuel and food.

This investment will help offset operational costs for more than 900 competing athletes, coaches and volunteers participating throughout the week.

Dauphin Co-op general manager Lorne Eiffert said it was an easy decision to support to the summer games.

The full details are in this week's Dauphin Herald!

Dauphin residents will once again see a slight increase in their municipal taxes this year according to budget documents presented at a public hearing, May 5.

The mill rate has been set at 19.513 for 2024, up from last year’s 18.937. The tax levy will net the City $7,276,549 this year, roughly 3.5 per cent over the 2023 take.

What that means for homeowners is an extra $71 on their tax bills

With costs increasing due to inflation, several large infrastructure underway on Main Street South, at the Buckwold Bridge and out at the sewage lagoon, council decided to act before falling behind as they have seen other municipalities do, mayor David Bosiak said.

“All of those things combined with inflation, combined with two new union contracts that were signed last year with our staff, we felt that a modest tax increase that was consistent with the rate of inflation would be manageable,” Bosiak said. “We’ve gone through a period of fairly steady, not spectacular, but steady assessment growth. For several years during that period we used just the growth in assessment to continue to do business. But council didn’t want to get into a position that other municipalities are in right now. We talked to several at AMM that are having double digit tax increases in an effort to catch up after years of no tax increases.”

Bosiak added discussions, which he described as thoughtful, were held around possibly raising the mill rate more in anticipation of capital expenditures which might surface in the future

“Council decided that we would go to our taxpayers when we know exactly what the costs of things will be and not before,” Bosiak said, adding as an example a project which might begin two years down the road, but asking for the money now and collecting interest on it until it was spent. “We thought that it was much better that the people hold on to their own money until there’s an actual need and the project is occurring, at the present time or the very near future.”

In looking to the future, Bosiak said council is philosophically committed to a tax system that is consistent with inflation

“So that we don’t get behind, just on the basic cost of things,” he said.

To that end, $1.6 million will be drawn from reserves to finance operations this year. Bosiak said it seems incongruous to ask taxpayers for more while stockpiling in reserve funds.

“We need to take money out of our piggy banks before we can ask people to take it out of theirs,” he said, adding there is, however, a balance the city should maintain in reserve. “And so last year we reduced our reserves by a couple of million dollars and we’re doing the same again this year.
“We are still maintaining our reserves slightly above the benchmark that (Finance director Scott Carr) outlined, which is equivalent to about one years’s worth of taxation. So we have about a $7.5 million line that we don’t want to get under.”

Revenue from other sources will also see a significant increase, climbing to $13,679,515 from just under $6 million last year, driven mainly by conditional provincial transfers expected to hit $7.9 million this year. Grants of $3.8 million for the Main Street South rehabilitation and $3 million for the upcoming daycare project account for the majority of the increase.

Overall, General Fund revenue for 2024 has been budgetted at $21,746,898.

On the expenditure side, all areas have seen slight increases.

The General Government Services budget is set at $1,556,173 up from $1,446,878 last year. The 8.6 per cent increase will, among other things, include regular staff wage increases and community grants and appropriations, which have risen to $74,600, up by $16,600 over last year.

The Protective Services budget has been set at $3,991,353 compared to $3,584,908 in 2023. At $3,034,015, the RCMP contract accounts for the majority of spending and the increase of 6.3 per cent.

Transportation Services will see expenditure totalling $2,049,481, up from the $1,905,366 budgetted last year, an increase of 5.34 per cent. Spending supports operating costs for public works, such as maintenance of curbs and gutters, lanes and roads.

A total of $1,058,926 has been set aside for Environmental Health Services, up slightly by 2.78 per cent from the $1,043,884 budgetted last year.

Public Health and Welfare Services also increased slightly, by 4.4 per cent from the $33,749 budgetted last year to $35,249 this year. The money spent covers the one-tier social assistance payment to Province of Manitoba and will support the Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan currently in development.

Environmental Development Services has been allotted $288,427 for 2024 compared to $179,605 last year, an increase of 29.68 per cent, which will support a Zoning Bylaw review starting soon. Expenditures also include the Dutch Elm Disease tree removal, Communities in Bloom and weed control.

The budget for Economic Development Services, at $635,977 has been set considerably higher than the actual $394,333 spent last year. It is an increase of 20.97 per cent to the budget, which fluctuates depending on development.

When it comes to Recreation and Cultural Services, the $2,254,441 budgetted this year is an increase of 4.13 per cent from the 2023 budget of $2,170,892.

While 87 per cent of expenditures make up the appropriation to Dauphin Recreation Services, the budget also supports facilities such as the Watson Arts Centre, Fort Dauphin Museum, Dauphin Rail Museum, and the Dauphin Public Library.

Finally, Fiscal Services saw a big jump to $8,186,721 this year from $148,902 because of conditional provincial grants.

Utilities

In the Utility Fund, income is projected at $3,396,096.

The bulk of that income will come through residential water sales budgeted at just over $2.3 million and sewer service charges totalling $669,029.

On the expenditure side, operation and maintenance of the water supply system accounts for the majority of expenses at just over $2.1 million, while sewage collection and disposal accounts for another $328,625.

The Utility has $623,300 in capital work planned, along with transfers to reserves in the amount of $250,000 and $83,517 in debenture debt charges.