Shawn Bailey
Province celebrates local CancerCare expansion
Premier Wab Kinew was in Dauphin last week to mark the opening of a new CancerCare Manitoba (CCMB) space at the Dauphin Regional Health Centre (DRHC), which is providing an improved experience for patients and staff alike.
“Today’s announcement is about supporting this regional hospital, the health hub for this part of the Parkland region. It’s about ensuring that there’s more beds for people to be seen, more endoscopy services more CancerCare services,” Kinew said to those gathered at the Community Health Building boardroom. “But when we reduce all that to the base level and we ask ourselves what is this all about, this is about having more people in rural Manitoba - here’s our hope at the end of the day is that more people in rural Manitoba will hear those four magic words ‘you are cancer free.’ We want more families to be able to hear those words, to be able to spend more time with your loved ones and to be able to have a stronger healing journey through our health care system.”
The relocation of the hospital’s chemotherapy unit to the main floor provided the opportunity to construct a unit with five treatment bays which offer more space and more privacy, said Dr. Sri Navaratnam, president and chief executive officer of CancerCare Manitoba. The new unit also improves functionality through better nurse sight lines and enhanced medication preparation area and has two larger exam spaces.
“CancerCare Manitoba is always committed to quality and equitable care to all Manitobans, regardless of where they live or who they are. That is our promise. That is our commitment,” Navaratnam said. “So thank you for your support in making it happen.”
The new unit is already paying dividends according to front line works
“We’ve moved into this space a few weeks ago. It’s only been a few weeks, but we’ve had a lot of positive feedback from patients already, which is very encouraging,” said local physician Dr. Jason Reed, adding the number of cancer referrals to the local hospital has increase by 36 per cent since 2022. “We’re looking to further create additional inpatient and out patient capacity that won’t only benefit Dauphin, but the Parkland region as a whole.”
Improvements such as those being made at the DRHC are important, Dauphin MLA and Minister of Agriculture Ron Kostyshyn said, not only for the personal well-being of those living outside of the province’s major urban centres, but as an indication that they are not being overlooked by their government.
“People here in Dauphin and rural Manitoba work hard and deserve good quality health care that they need. Manitoba understand this,” he said. “We know how important it is to have timely, local access to health care.”
Even more capacity is coming as part of phase 2 of the renovation, which will result in a new endoscopy suite, which includes one new procedure room and six new spaces for pre-procedure preparation and post-procedure recovery. Once fully operational, up to 300 more endoscopies will be able to be performed at the DRHC annually, while also freeing up space in the facility’s operating rooms, increase surgical capacity.
Finally, phase 2 will see the addition of seven new medicine beds and two new general surgery beds on the second and third floors of the hospital and relocation of physiotherapy services from the basement to the third floor space previously occupied by the chemotherapy unit.
“We continue to look for ways to improve health care access and capacity within Prairie Mountain Health,” said the region’s CEO Brian Schoonbaert. “You can see there’s a bit of a domino effect here and it’s all great and we expect that this second phase will be done probably at the end of summer.”
Originally announced in 2021, the project had an initial budget of $5 million. The costs have since risen to $7.8 million mostly due to inflation and “ a commitment to seeing through an important investment here in the Parkland region, in the city of Dauphin,” Kinew said, adding, “our government has taken time to get things right.”
“We’re signaling to the front lines we’ve got your back, we’re going to continue leaning into investments like this one,” Kinew said. “And we are going to ensure that a strong future for health care in Manitoba includes strong rural health care in every region of the province.”
MVSD pleased to have extended bus cancellation in the rearview mirror
No one was happier than Stephen Jaddock when he learned the morning of Jan. 18 that all buses in Mountain View School Division were running.
For the previous six school days, the MVSD superintendent/CEO was dealing with the after effects of a snow storm which, for the most part, stalled the division’s transportation program from Jan. 10 to 18. Buses were back on the road in Winnipegosis and Ethelbert, Jan. 17.
“Even in the transportation department, they’ve been hard pressed to remember if we went that many school days in a row. When you look at it, that’s a week plus a day of school. And having them spread out is one thing, but when they come at the heels of each other it’s just a cumulative effect,”
Jaddock said, adding such a long stretch without bus students in class puts a strain on the entire system.
“Usually, if you have one day or even two days where you can’t get students in, we could bounce back from that, we could work around it, get extra time on the days that the kids are in. But it’s just when there was that many in a row we just can’t make it up. It’s just gone.”
In particular, the Provincial Grade 12 English Language Arts exam was supposed to have been written during that time.
Fortunately, Jaddock said, the province has contingencies for such situations and students will be able to write a makeup exam in the future.
“It seems like every year, if we want to attract a snowstorm, it’s when we start that exam,” he said.
Throughout the extended cancellation parents were understanding with the division not receiving any significant calls or complaints. In fact, most of the concern expressed came from staff, Jaddock said.
“Our principals worried about students not having the contact time,” he said.
To help mitigate those effects, the division has taken a lesson learned during the COVID pandemic and is encouraging students to check on what lessons they are missing via an online learning platform such as Teams or ClassDojo.
“We ask that classroom teachers keep those software programs viable and have students sign up. So that when something like a prolonged absence due to buses not running, or just even one no bus day, those students can check in can see what their assignment is and can get some work done,” Jaddock said, adding throughout the period schools remained open for staff and in town students.
The division’s transportation department is guided by a policy which, among other things, outlines conditions which trigger bus cancellations.
But, Jaddock added, there is obviously more that goes into making the decision.
“All types of input that we gather on a daily basis. So it’s not just a cut and dry this is when buses run, this is when buses don’t run,” he said, adding in the case of this extended stoppage, input from the bus drivers was a major consideration.
The big problem was not the highways, but the feeder roads which were all plugged and high winds, which caused extremely poor visibility, Jaddock said,
“That made it very difficult and risky for us to send a bus out that might get halfway down the road and then hit a drift and then not be able to move.” he said. So that’s what we were basing those decisions on and more coming from the field of bus drivers who’ve been out there, who live out in the country and are saying ‘everything is snowed in. I can’t even see the road’.”
What it boils down to is safety, Jaddock said, and the well-being of students is at the centre of any decision to cancel buses.
“Believe me if we can get the buses running we want to err on that side, but we also have to err on the side of safety. We could have a bus full of students that is blocked or stuck or gone into a ditch or can’t see the road, that type of thing. So we want to make sure that we mitigate those dangers, as well,” he said. “We have to remember that we’re responsible for those students.”
Beyond extreme weather events, the division also has a temperature threshold which will trigger a transportation shutdown. But with that threshold set at -45C, temperature did not play a role in this latest round of cancellations.
“We are working and schools are working hard to make sure that students are caught up and able to get their learning done. But it was just a big sigh of relief this morning when all the buses were running,” Jaddock said.
Immigrate Parkland
Ask just about anyone responsible for staffing at any business - small, medium or large - and you are likely to hear of many difficulties in filling vacancies.
An inadequate workforce is a problem in most jurisdictions, including here in the Parkland, but a group of area municipalities have banded together to help address the problem in the area.
The City of Dauphin, RM of Dauphin, Grandview Municipality, Municipality of Gilbert Plains, Mossey River Municipality, Municipality of Ste Rose and Municipality of Roblin each provided $3,500 in seed money to run a one-year pilot project aimed at recruiting skilled workers and matching them directly with employment in the area.
Immigrate Parkland has been two years in the making, said Martijn van Luijn, City of Dauphin Economic Development manager and chair of the Parkland Immigration Committee, and with Saturday’s launch has set a goal of recruiting 40 to 50 workers in the first year.
“We have adopted terms of reference, have had monthly meetings, developed a new brand . . . and together with our partners, we’ve been working to build this project and to get it to launch today. So we’re ready for the next step and to start recruitment of skilled workers and bring them to the Parkland,” he said, adding the project has been supported from the beginning through strategic partnerships with Regional Connections, Rural Manitoba Economic Development Corporation and the Parkland Chamber of Commerce.
The Parkland Chamber of Commerce has been selected as the agency which will oversee Immigrate Parkland to ensure transparency and fairness in the process.
“We want every community to be part of this and for every community, every welding shop, every farm, every little mom and pop store to be able to tie into this program,” van Luijn said. “And to be able to have impartiality, the chamber of commerce actually popped up as the best agency for us to execute this program. We want to start slowly and build it up correctly and do it correctly. We’re looking forward to working with everyone in the future and we hope that in due time we can welcome many new families to our region.”
Forecasts predict the trend of labour shortages in all sectors will continue unless more skilled foreign workers are attracted to fill vacant positions. On hand for Saturday’s launch of Immigrate Parkland, Manitoba’s Minister of Labour and Immigration, Malaya Marcelino, said the Province is intrigued by the possibilities the program presents in addressing those challenges.
“(The Province of Manitoba is) just really excited that this is happening,” Marcelino said. “I hope that you are going to be able to go forward with a lot of success with this and that’s going to inspire other communities around you to say ‘wow, look what’s happenning in this region. Let’s try to replicate that’.”
Acknowledging the time and effort that was put into getting the project to this point, Marcelino said Immigrate Parkland is poised for success.
“Newcomers need their families in order to be successful. We know that newcomers need a welcoming community in order to be successful and we know that newcomers need jobs and jobs preferably in their field of study and in their experience,” she said. “When we have that kind of set up of their family, a welcoming community and jobs that they can actually succeed in, then it’s going to be a very, very good initiative and that we’re going to be seeing a lot of the things that we’re hoping for together as a community. I want to thank all of you for all the work that you put in and know that as a province we’re here to support you in this important endeavour and we’re here with you the whole way. As a new Immigration minister this actually means a lot to me as an immigrant myself. I came to this country as a young child with my parents and I know what it means to be able to come to a welcoming community and to be able to thrive and succeed and contribute to that economy and to that community. We’re going to be here for you when you need us.”
More about the program, and information needed to apply can be found at immigrateparkland.ca.
Main Street South work progresses
After all of the delays getting started, progress on the reconstruction Main Street South has been substantial.
The mild weather the area experienced up to last week allowed for excellent conditions for the contractor to construct several segments of the service road alignments along the eastern and western sides of the highway.
“Progress has been great thus far,” director of Public Works and Operations Mike VanAlstyne said. “We’re probably right on schedule. It was always intended that they would work on that, but the efficiency of the weather helped greatly with getting that in as quick as they did.”
As well as part of the drainage plan for the area, the majority of the western retention pond has been dug and the access to the eastern retention pond has been constructed off of Whitmore Avenue.
VanAlstyne expects work on the eastern pond itself to begin this week, leading to progress on another exciting project.
“The contractor will be hauling material from the east pond to Maamawi Park to begin the construction of the toboggan hill,” he said. “The plan is to start hauling material there Tuesday.”
Looking back to the drainage system, VanAlstyne expects work to begin on the construction of some of the storm sewer piping required over the next few weeks.
But, he added, things will be slowing down a bit when it comes to the highway work itself.
“Work along the highway corridor is temporarily on hold until the gas main relocation work takes place, which is expected to begin near the end of January,” VanAlstyne said, adding the gas main currently runs along the west side of the highway. “Until then there can’t be a lot of work done on the road alignments. It’s going to be slow for a couple weeks, from what we can see, but there’s lots of excavation work happening on the east pond.”
Digging out
With 20 plus centimetres of snow falling across the area over the space of a few hours last week and temperatures plummeting to below normal values, the Parkland is now firmly in the grips of winter.
And for the City of Dauphin, winter means one very important thing. Snow clearing is the main function of the Public Works Department throughout the season and with last week’s weather event, crews jumped on the task of clearing the community’s roadways and sidewalks.
When major snowfalls occur the focus of clearing efforts fall on priority areas, such as the downtown core and clearing of urban highways.
“And the life and safety stuff. The hospital and that sort of stuff,” director of Public Works and Operations Mike VanAlstyne said. “Once we finished priority routes and the highway stuff, then we are doing streets so that the furthest anyone would have to go to get to a plowed road would be about 75 metres.”
Where that clearing of residential streets begins is dependent, VanAlstyne added.
“It just depends on what day of the week it is. If it’s garbage day somewhere, we try to go elsewhere so that we’re not moving around bins and whatever else,” he said. “And then we methodically go throughout the city.”
The city has been running clearing operations around the clock on 12 hour shifts and will continue to do so until the all streets are cleared, VanAlstyne said. When it comes to an event of this magnitude, cleanup should take around 72 hours, he added, assuming everything goes smoothly in terms of staff staying healthy and equipment not breaking down.
And in many cases, other city operations draw staff away from snow clearing.
“We still have to operate our landfill and we need an operator there who is trained to be compliant with our regulations and our license.” VanAlstyne said. “So we’re kind of juggling staff to make it work.”
In the end, VanAlstyne expects the price tag for that 72 hours of work to be average for a citywide cleanup, somewhere between $40,000 and $50,000.
“It really depends on what we end up with and what day of the week, because when you go into Saturday and Sunday all a sudden we’re paying double time on everything,” he said.
“It’ll be 50,000 by the time we remove extra snow because of how much we’ve had to pile.”
Prior to the weekend, all streets had been plowed and work shifted to clearing avenues, as well as removing the windrows from Main Street and the city centre. After plowing is finished and crews have had some time to recover from the long hours, they will finish off the cleanup by lowering some of the big snowbanks throughout the city to improve visibility.
The priority, VanAlstyne said is getting the snow off the streets and people need to be patient while public works crews put the finishing touches on the clean up.
“It’s all a matter of trying to do the best we can with what we’ve got,” he said, adding many city residents do not realize how good they have it when it comes to snow clearing. “We provide a higher level of service - a level of service that’s just outrageously high for the citizens of the city,” VanAlstyne said. “And it would be a lot worse if they were anywhere else I can almost guarantee that.”
Province moving quickly to improve safety at deadly intersection
The Province of Manitoba is committed to improving the safety of the intersection which claimed the lives of 17 Dauphin area seniors last June.
That was the message shared by Premier Wab Kinew and Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor, who were in Dauphin to meet with families and survivors of the collision at the intersection of PTHs 5 and 1 near Carberry.
“Minister’s (Dauphin MLA and Manitoba Agriculture minister Ron) Kostyshyn, Naylor and myself, along with our political and technical staff had the honour to sit down with the family members of folks that we lost in this province in this terrible, tragic accident,” Kinew said, adding they were joined by accident survivors first responders and community leaders.
“I want to acknowledge all of these people, first and foremost in the generosity of their spirit to come and sit with us today and to relive some very difficult times that they’ve been through. “For the family members and to the survivors, I want to acknowledge that we cannot make things right, or make you whole, but we are going to work our hardest to ensure that something like this does not happen again.”
Armed with the findings of a road safety review undertaken one week following the accident, Kinew and Naylor also announced the next steps for the intersection, including a $12 million investment to provide medium-term solutions to public safety concerns.
“This collision will be remembered as a tragic event that profoundly affected many Manitobans and beyond,” said Naylor. “While we cannot undo the pain these families are experiencing, we are committed to taking steps to improve safety at this intersection for the future.”
The Province is moving forward with a functional design study based on the third-party in-service road safety review, which includes recommendations of the three safest options to improve the intersection.
Those options include median widening, the construction of a roundabout or the construction of a restricted crossing U-turn (RCUT) intersection and the province has committed to choosing the best option for improvements to the intersection, said Naylor. It will engage the public in the near future as part of the functional design process to gather information and feedback around the project.
“The functional design piece would be expected to take about six to nine months. That does include at least three consultation steps with the community, as well as other users of the highway,” she said.
It is expected construction of intersection changes could begin in the latter part of 2025 with completion by the end of 2026.
Ultimately, an interchange or overpass is the safest option for the intersection and will be part of a long-term solution when traffic volumes require such a major expenditure, estimated at more than $100 million, Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure officials said.
In addition to releasing the report and outlining next steps to increase safety, Kinew announced the Manitoba government will provide financial support for community efforts to commemorate those involved in this tragedy.
“As you move forward to memorialize and commemorate the people that we lost and to remember this terrible tragedy, we will be there to support you,” Kinew said, adding the provincial government will leave it to the community to design any tribute. “We will help find the resources and we will deliver the funding to ensure that an appropriate memorial here in Dauphin, as well as a fitting tribute at the site near Carberry will be a part of Manitoba’s future.”
Following the collision on June 15, 2023, Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure (MTI) developed a road safety strategy to identify immediate and long-term safety improvements at the Provincial Trunk Highway (PTH) 1 and PTH 5 intersection.
Get the full story in this week's Dauphin Herald!
The meat of the matter
Linda Turko from McCreary laid seige to the Dauphin Consumers Co-op meat counter as she power shopped through her three minutes as the winner of the Parkland Humane Society’s Co-op Shopping Spree lottery.
When the smoke cleared Turko put through $865.12 worth of meat through the till without a vegetable in sight.
Other draw winners included Amanda Balak, who won a $200 Co-op gift card, and Ina Clouson, who took home a $100 Co-op gift card.
But it wasn’t all over in three minutes as the PHS also took home a prize with Co-op donating a shopping cart full of pet food and supplies for use at the local shelter.
Taking down a part of local history, piece by piece
A hallmark of Dauphin’s history is coming down and it couldn’t be in better hands.
Troy Angus of The Den is currently on site at the Lt. Col W.G. (Billy) Barker VC Airport dismantling one of the hangars originally erected as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan’s #10 Air Service Flying Training School, which operated locally from 1941 to 1945.
The Den, based in Pierson, Man., is a supplier of authentic barnwood sourced from rural resources. The business sprang from Angus’ reverence for old structures, their stories and the resources they provide.
“Authentic barnwood that’s my business. We’re just into sourcing, salvaging and reclaiming of antique wood,” Angus said, adding he uses those resources, and his expertise, to supply the do-it-yourself market. “And that’s what will lead us to buildings like this wherever they are. It’s the experience, it’s the adventure.”
When it became obvious the building, a portion of which was collapsed, had to come down, its owner approached Angus after learning about his business through media reports on projects such as the dismantling of The Lake of the Woods Milling Company grain elevator in Elva, Man., which stood for 125 years.
“In his research he came across our website and contacted me and from there, we worked through a deal to make this actually happen,” Angus said. “It was getting into pretty rough shape.”
In fact, when he first saw the building, there was a 9,000-square foot section which had collapsed.
Given that, some might think that bringing in some heavy machinery, demolishing the structure and hauling it to the landfill might be the easiest solution to disposing of them.
In Angus’s opinion, however, such an approach would almost be criminal. In his mind, deconstruction is the only way to go.
“You just can’t get (wood like) this, so that’s why. It’s a limited supply,” Angus said. “We’re trying to save every board.”
Angus has been on site since early December, cleaning up the collapsed section of the building and getting ready to begin the process of bringing the structure down, piece by piece.
“I wanted it to look good from the highway at the very least, because there was just stuff everywhere,” he said.
The clean up has resulted in some piles of quality wood he hopes to vend locally.
“It was sort of a slow start to clean up that collapse site and get ourselves ready. And out of the collapse site is what we’re ready to set up, a small wood market on site. We have wood on the ground that we’re hoping will satisfy the local wood market for do-it-yourself type stuff,” Angus said. “This is where the seed money is coming from to make this thing happen.”
There is some quality wood in the building, Angus added. In fact, he can identify where the wood originated based on milling marks he has found. The wood used in the hangar came from the now closed Youbou sawmill, which was situated on the shores of Lake Cowichan in British Columbia.
“I can say for sure that is where wood came from,” he said.
And milling marks aside, Angus is learning about the history of the building virtually everyday through the stories of locals visiting the site.
“I call the gate the story gate because if I leave that open I’ve got stories coming in,” he said. “Someone will pull in and be like ‘hey did you know in 1941’ and out come some facts.”
But there is not a lot of time to talk as Angus hopes to have the project wrapped up in four-to-six months, meaning things at the site will be quite busy. Especially since there is a learning curve to this sort of project, as every one is different, Angus added.
“The roof is kind of the conundrum here. We have got 14 plans, we’ve just got to get them down into one. There’s so many ways that it can be done,” he said. “There’s 91 sections of the roof left. Once we get into the 15th or so, it should be clockwork. So we’ll just go piece by piece.”
Angus is currently working solo, but will be joined by his partner and one other employee when things kick into full gear, with the possibility that other workers could be added and subtracted as needed.
“We’ve talked with the job banks looking at some people that maybe haven’t worked for years to come out here, give them something to do and some pocket money, and maybe something on their resume. I can be a reference for them, or my partner. This is a short-term project, so maybe we can kind of light a fire and help someone. But we’ll just go day by day on that,” he said. “Anything more, the skilled stuff, special talents, we’ll just bring that in as we need. There’s just a small core of three of us and then the rest are kind of auxiliary. We’re going to try and be as lean as possible, that’s the only way to make this profitable.”
And nothing will go to waste, Angus added, as he has already been offering as firewood pallets of material that is not suitable for anything else.
“And what I’ve asked is just a donation. I don’t care how much it is. If you like my story give me a lot, if you don’t give me a little,” he said, adding those proceeds will be used to dispose of the things which cannot be recycled such as the asphalt and tarpaper from the roof.
In the end just how profitable things become is very much up in the air.
“We don’t know until it’s down and in stacks. I mean you can guess all you want, but there’s a lot of things that can happen and a lot of risk trying to take this apart,” Angus said. “So whatever we get, we get and we’ll know when the dust settles.”
A look back at the headlines from 2023
2023 is a year that will be looked back on by many as a difficult one from a global perspective. While good news grabbed its share of the headlines, the year was marred by major armed conflicts, unprecedented weather events and natural disasters, all of which exacted a tremendous toll of lost lives, destroyed property and damaged infrastructure.
In Dauphin, as it was everywhere, we had our share of good and bad news throughout the past year.
Here is a recap of some the people and the events which made local headlines in 2023.
January
Dauphin Regional Health Authority welcomed its first baby of the year early on with Major Donald Franklin Beardy arriving at 5:18 a.m., Jan. 1.
Dauphin and District Community Foundation hit a special milestone when it added a $4.75 million sticker to its thermometer at the corner of Main Street and First Avenue North.
Public Works and Operations director Mike VanAlstyne had to go back to city council for more money after the purchase price of a new, previously ordered garbage truck jumped by more than $74,000. Council approved the increased expenditure.
Manitoba’s Independent Investigation Unit launched a probe following the death of a 29-year-old man after an interaction with RCMP in Ste. Rose du Lac.
A group of Parkland residents were presented Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medals. Receiving the honour were Kay Slobodzian, Michelle Mazurkewich, Tony Safronetz, Bev Harvey, Carole Shankaruk, Alex Lytwyn, Al Gray, Rodney Juba, Brian Damsgaard and Jim Perchaluk.
City council slightly changed the makeup of the local RCMP detachment removing an officer assigned to the Crime Reduction Enforcement Support Team (CREST) and reassigned them to general policing duties.
February
A review of Dauphin Fire Department operations began as part of the province’s Municipal Services Delivery Improvement Plan. The work, done in partnership with a third-party consultant, aimed to find operational improvements which did not raise taxes or reduce front line services.
Read the full year review in this week's Dauphin Herald!
City invites RM to increase its recreation funding
Dauphin city council has identified recreation as one of its priorities. And with discussions concerning the 2024 financial plan well underway, the City is hoping it’s partners at the Rural Municipality of Dauphin join them in addressing a longstanding funding shortfall to the system.
The Dauphin Joint Recreation Commission was formed in 1992 through an agreement, based on population, which called for 78 per cent of recreation funding to be provided by the City, with 22 per cent coming from the RM.
In 2017, the RM of Dauphin pulled out of the original agreement, which over the years, mayor David Bosiak said, has resulted in about a cumulative $650,000 shortfall in recreation funding.
“We’re talking to them and we’re inviting them to revisit the original funding agreement when the DJRC was formed in 1992. We’re just asking them to consider that,” Bosiak said.
That is not to say the RM has not contributed to recreation over the years. Intially the council of the day set the contribution at $250,000 and it has increased annually with cost of living adjustments with this year’s funding expected to be around $300,000.
RM of Dauphin reeve Ernie Sirski said recreation is a topic of discussion at his council table and it is a subject the RM takes seriously.
“Recreation is important, not just for the City of Dauphin, it’s important to our citizens, as well, and that’s why we’ve continued to fund them. It’s not at the level that it was in 2017, but we’ve continued to fund it and we’ve continued to allow for inflation in that funding so it’s not as if we’ve been stagnant in our total funding,” Sirski said.
“We still contribute to the capital x, to the repairs and maintenance. That’s a nonissue. It’s the operating procedures that we’re talking about. “What it boils down to is, is this where we stay? If no, then, where are we going to go going forward? That’s the issue and we haven’t come to that conclusion yet.”
The RM has requested information on Dauphin Recreation Services operations and will take the time needed to digest that information. The cutback was put in place by a previous council, Sirski said, and the current council is working to understand why that decision was made.
As a result, he is unsure of when RM council will make a final decision on the City’s request.
“It’s not going to happen this year. We’ve got one more meeting this year and we’re going through all the information that we’ve been provided. It’s such a big file that we have to give it due diligence,” he said. “What we’re looking at is usage. We’re looking at who uses the facility and we’re trying to get a feel of all aspects of the organization.”
Even so there will be around a $100,000 shortfall in programming money in the DRS’ nearly $2 million budget this year, Bosiak said, adding he would like to see the RM reconsider its level of participation in the system, hopefully getting back to the original agreement, which would ease the burden on urban taxpayers.
“Because, in addition to contributing our 78 per cent of operating capital based on the rec commission’s annual budgets, we’ve also, since 2017, made up a majority of that RM shortfall,” he said. “It’s really crimped the rec commission’s ability to operate the way they’d like to. To provide recreation services for all citizens and to provide a lot of free or easily accessible recreation opportunities for our citizens.”
As the community’s recreation director at the time of the DJRC’s formation, and having worked 11 years as a private recreation consultant, Bosiak confidently calls the existing agreement “very, very fair.”
“We were viewed by many in the province and the provincial government at the time, as the best recreation commission in Manitoba, because of that relationship,” he said. “I saw how many communities constantly struggled when they were trying to negotiate municipal partnerships. Some based on taxation, some based on land, some based on other agreements that were very, very difficult to determine. It caused annual angst and discussion. So we had a great situation.”