Danny Schur, an Ethelbert native who was a staunch promoter of the immigrant experience through his creative works, has died of brain cancer.

Schur was an avid composer and producer who was best known for honouring his heritage by putting the Ukrainian immigrant experience at the heart of his creations.

“I remember being 10 and praying at night thinking, ‘oh God why have You cursed me with wanting to be a composer.’ But shortly after that, thinking I really, really want to do musicals and in university, my composition teacher saying, ‘your songs really sound like Broadway songs’,” Schur told the Herald in an interview in 2000 as he was getting ready to stage his first musical, The Bridge.

Written and produced in its entirety by Schur and starring Manitoba talent such as Roblin’s Amber Fleury, The Bridge, marked Schur’s first step toward his dream of making Manitoba a centre for original musical productions.

The Bridge, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of Ukrainian settlement in Canada, was semi-autobiographical and an insiders look into the music industry.

Schur was best known for his composition and production of the musical Strike! in 2005, which told the story of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike from an immigrant’s perspective, in particular the Ukrainian community.

“People often ask me, ‘oh why did you choose to do a musical on the Winnipeg General Strike?’ Well it takes place during it, but it’s really about immigrant issues of 1919 that still apply today.”

Schur adapted Strike! for the big screen under the title Stand!, which, after many years of hard work and production, opened in September 2019 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Another noteable foray into film was Schur’s 2015 documentary, Made in Winnipeg: the Terry Sawchuk Origin Story.

During his upbringing in Ethelbert, Schur was exposed to the world of music taking piano and singing in the church choir before attending the University of Manitoba’s School of Music.

On top of his foray into the world of musicals, Schur worked with several high profile musicians and groups such as Chantal Kreviazuk, McMaster and James, and Doc Walker.

Schur received his cancer diagnosis late last year and died last Monday. He was 56 years old.

After launching the Parkland Ukrainian Family Fund with a $25,000 donation last year, Don Tarrant continued his strong support for the organization and the Ukrainian immigrants it sponsors with a further $25,000 gift last week.

When things began last March, Tarrant said the idea was that two or three families might come to the Parkland, fleeing the war in Ukraine.

That goal was realized quicky, he said, and the target was moved to 10 families. The fund is now sponsoring more than 30 families with more to come.

The group has scaled back its offer to new families but with the war now in its second year, more help is needed, Tarrant said.

“The fund still needs money to fulfill a commitment to the existing families, as well as to give some level of support to the new families arriving,” Tarrant said, explaining his motivation to make another substantial donation to the fund. “Probably the biggest component is the single mothers with children that are here. They’re going to need a bit more support beyond the 12 months. So it really was maybe geared towards shoring up the fund, as well as making sure that there is money coming in towards the unforeseen costs and helping these single mothers make it work going forward.”

The project has been a success, Tarrant said, with all of the newcomers expressing appreciation for the support and an affection for their new home. Most of the newcomers have found work and their children have settled nicely into school, Tarrant added.

“The people that are here are very, very happy to be here. They are setting down roots,” he said. “The very first ones that came in are actually making some purchases like vehicles and are looking to buy rather than rent housing. So I believe they are going to stay and I think that it’s a great use of the funds.”

And while the community has been good for the immigrants, the immigrants have been equally good for the community, Tarrant said.

“We’re looking at over 100 people that have come in. There’s places they just couldn’t fill jobs and the thing with that, business, when they can’t fill a job, then they look at starting to scale back hours. They look as possibly having to eventually shut down,” he said. “But if they start scaling back hours and people want to buy something, but they’re closed, they start to buy elsewhere out of Dauphin. So just the effect of having no people becomes very, very negative and snowballs.”

Tarrant encourages anyone who is able to continue to support the Parkland Ukrainian Family Fund with a donation.

Two federal legislators were in Dauphin last week for a conversation about crime.

Specifically, Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa MP Dan Mazier and Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Frank Caputo were in town to highlight two private member’s bills focused on bail reform.

“We’re going to have a conversation around bail reform, what that actually means and what we as legislators, as MPs can do and how Parliament works,” Mazier told the crowd before introducing Caputo, who is a member of the Standing Committee for Justice and Human Rights, as well as a former Crown prosecutor, parole officer and a former instructor at Thompson Rivers University Faculty of Law.

“So he has a wealth of knowledge.”

Crime is a problem across the country, Caputo said, and there are no easy answers.

“I’ll tell you right now we can’t fix this overnight,” he said. “Sometimes when difficult things happen in the community, when we have matters that are unsustainable . . . when the toothpaste comes out of the tube it doesn’t go back in as quickly as it came out. This is a complex problem that we’re talking about today, so I’m not going to stand before you and put my integrity on the line by saying I have all the answers because I don’t.”

Violent crime has increased by 32 per cent since 2015, Caputo said, while gang-related murders have doubled in the same time frame. And while those kinds of crime have historically been associated with large urban centres, they are becoming more common in smaller communities such as Dauphin, Caputo said.

“And that makes it difficult because number one, we’re not used to it, but number two, we don’t always have the resources or the knowledge to tackle these things,” he said.

Check this week's Dauphin Herald for more!

Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) has a new five-year Strategic Plan. The 2023-28 Strategic Plan outlines a “high-level vision” to help guide the organization in the coming years.

The strategic road map identifies PMH’s four priorities aimed at building a healthier population and creating a quality, integrated and sustainable health system.

PMH board chair Lon Cullen said the strategic plan, which officially took effect Apr. 1, is a compilation of many months of consultations, statistical analyses and both internal and external input.

“We are essentially building upon our extensive community engagement processes that assisted with the completion of our comprehensive 2019 Community Health Assessment,” Cullen said. “I thank all staff, managers, physicians, as well as our consultation groups for their input.”

PMH chief executive officer Brian Schoonbaert said the board is responsible to ensure that an adequate process has been put in place to inform the development of the strategic plan and to provide final approval.

“This is our road map of where we are, where we are going and how we will get there. It defines who we are, lists strategic goals to achieve our priorities and provides a solid foundation for decision-making,” he said. “Throughout the process, we built alignment with Manitoba’s continued provincial health system transformation and the implementation of Manitoba’s Clinical and Preventive Services Plan. Routine engagement with our board, leadership and staff is integral to take action and evaluate whether we are achieving our goals.”

The four strategic priorities listed within the new plan are:
• Positive health care experience for Manitobans with a focus on quality health services;
• Improved health system capacity, performance and accountability;
• Empowered, adaptable and high-performing workforce; and
• Strengthened fiscal sustainability and value for money.

The plan identifies several specific goals that are aligned with each strategic priority. Operational strategies will be implemented as resources allow and annual status reports will be produced to describe the health region’s progress regarding each strategic priority.

Under the positive health care experience the plan calls for:
• Engagement with clients, families,and community partners, including underserved populations, to deliver targeted services based on need;
• Increased public awareness of services;
• Improved client safety and outcomes;
• Enhanced programs and approaches to improve self-management of chronic conditions; and
• Support for quality of life and mental, physical, and spiritual wellness in all programs.

When it comes to an improved health system, the plan calls for:
• Improved access to services and reduced wait times;
• Allocation of appropriate human resources considering client needs and staff workloads;
• Facilitating access to appropriate space, equipment and technology for clients and staff;
• Improved internal and external communication and collaboration;
• Improved consistency and efficiency of regional policies, procedures, and guidelines; and
• Optimization of service delivery models and capital infrastructure.

When it comes to the region’s workforce, the strategic document outlines priorities such as:
• Expanded content, delivery methods and support for staff orientation and education;
• Development and implementation of anti-racism initiatives;
• Enhanced leadership training, mentorship opportunities and succession planning;
• Building upon recruitment and retention initiatives;
• Supporting providers to work within their full scope of practice;
• Engaging with staff as partners in improvement and change activities;
• Strengthening morale and mental well-being; and
• Reinforcing physical safety and security measures.

Finally when it comes to the fiscal side of things, the plan sets out:
• Ensuring financial management training and accountability processes are in place;
• Including financial impact analysis and opportunities for cost savings in improvement project prioritization;
• Engaging with community partners to develop shared delivery models;
• Pursuing staff input on potential efficiencies and cost savings;
• Evaluating program outcomes and return on investment; and
• Strengthening the culture of continuous improvement.

Unforeseen issues are threatening to delay the start of the Main Street South reconstruction project.

The city needs to purchase land to construct its drainage structures prior to the project kicking off, mayor David Bosiak said.

“There are still details that we still have to work on as a community to finalize a landowner agreement, which gets us ready for the actual construction, which has to be tendered really, really soon,” Bosiak said, adding he discussed the matter with Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation (MIT) Minister Doyle Piwniuk and Municipal Relations Minister Andrew Smith at the Association of Manitoba Municipalities convention, last week.

“So we’re behind the eight ball on a couple of issues related to that, but it sounded like the province was willing to discuss possibly helping.”

The original plan called for a project extending over two construction seasons with the bulk of the construction work taking place in year one and the finishing touches being added early in the second year.

“The initial plan was to have this tendered probably by now or by April, so that construction would begin in June, go through the summer and have most of the work done before freeze up in the fall,” Bosiak said. “And then have the contractors return next May or June to finish paving so that all would be complete by the summer games.”

While that remains the plan at this point, Bosiak said unless there is some movement soon, there is a chance the schedule will shift.

“We’re just risking that the final paving and painting and everything that needs to be done to finish it will probably be occurring later into spring and summer of next year. Maybe it doesn’t make us look as beautiful for the summer games, but the project is not in jeopardy. It’s just a timing thing,” he said.

Having worked for the provincial government, Bosiak understands that projects involving the province can move slowly as they work through the checks and balances to ensure no one is unfairly benefitting personally or professionally because of the contract.

“All of those checks and balances do have a tendency to slow things down. Because this is a project that involves MIT, there’s provincial jurisdiction, as well, and that is the complicated part,” he said, adding he hopes things will progress steadily now that he has been able to make the ministers aware of the situation.

“They’re saying, ‘you get your stuff done, we’ll get our stuff done and everything will be good.’”

Leave your green bins safely tucked away for the time being.

The City of Dauphin has delayed the start of the 2023 yard waste collection program for two weeks. The program is now slated to begin the week of Apr. 24.

“With the cold, most people wouldn’t have anything (to pick up), so it’s kind of a waste of resources for this first week,” director of Pubic Works and Operations Mike VanAlstyne said. “So it will pick up on Apr. 25 and we’ll resume normal collection, assuming the snow is gone by then.”

VanAlstyne added plans are coming together for the City’s annual Spring Cleanup Campaign, which is set to begin the week of May 15.

Crews will make one pass through the city starting in the Day 1 area on the waste schedule and progress through the regular four-day cycle.

Crews will only be collecting accumulated garden waste, grass clippings, leaves and shrubs and tree branches less than six inches in diameter and a maximum of eight feet in length. They must be piled parallel.

Items must be free of household waste, hazardous waste and recyclable materials. They must be in a clearly identifiable pile or packaged in biodegradable bags or boxes. Crews will not sort through the items.

The spring clean-up campaign will occur in back lanes. Those residences that do not have a back lane can place items on the boulevard near the curb. Large equipment will be used so it’s important to place the items close to the lane or curb to avoid property damage.

Yard waste bins will still be collected at the curb every two weeks. Compost material can be dropped off anytime at the Dauphin Waste Disposal site.

If you require a yard waste bin or more information, contact the City Shop at 204-622-3202.

Dauphin city councillors and senior administrators attended the Association of Manitoba Municipalities Spring Convention in Winnipeg, last week.

And even if they got nothing else out of the event, the Conference served to reinforce the idea that Dauphin is not alone in the challenges it is facing.

“There was some interesting comments regarding some of the big issues facing all of the communities,” Dauphin mayor David Bosiak said, adding the Cities Caucus meetings served to drive that point home.

“Every community is dealing with the issues that we are - homelessness, addictions, mental health challenges, health shortfalls, crime and community safety variables and factors. So it was, I guess, reassuring in one sense that we’re not having problems that other communities aren’t, but also troubling on the other side that all of us collectively are having these issues.”

Crime in particular was highlighted as not only a local or provincial problem, but an international one, Bosiak said, in a plenary address from former Winnipeg Police Service chief turned international safety consultant, Devon Clunis.

“He said the world is in a rough place. He’s doing police consulting all over the world and this isn’t just a North America or Canadian problem, it’s happening everywhere,” Bosiak said, adding Clunis pointed to a general change in societal values. “Eight police officers killed on duty in Canada already this year. You hope it’s an anomaly, but he’s saying, no, it unfortunately appears to be a trend.”

Along that theme, Bosiak was able to meet one-on-one with Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen to discuss some of the specific crime and justice initiatives the province is implementing and how they impact Dauphin.

“We reinforced the challenges we have with the RCMP,” Bosiak said. “We also were able to talk about the Community Wellness and Safety Plan that, again, has been delayed for another couple of weeks in terms of an announcement.”

Meetings were also held with Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Doyle Piwniuk and Minister of Municipal Relations Andrew Smith.

“These meetings that we had were to introduce myself to some of the ministers, but also the province is spending a lot of money all over the province on water and wastewater and sewer and other infrastructure projects, so it was more of a, ‘what about us?’ presentation. That, I think, went relatively well,” Bosiak said adding he also had chance encounters with MLAs Rick Wowchuk, Eileen Clarke and Cliff Cullen. For Bosiak, the first session of the conference proved to be the most interesting. That session featured Premier Heather Stefanson, NDP leader Wab Kinew and Liberal leader Dugald Lamont in the first leader’s debate of the election year.

Coming out in election mode and pitching their plans should they form government, the three leaders also answered questions formulated by the AMM through its regional meetings held with municipalities around the province.

“So they talked about the crime, about homelessness, about the poverty initiatives that the province is trying to institute. So it was interesting to see the different perspectives,” he said, adding Lamont gave those present something to think about. “Lamont had, I think, a fairly appealing point of view. He said,“you’ve trusted these guys for the last 30 or 40 years alternately, and if you really want change in the province, what about us?”

The real highlight of the debate for Dauphin, Bosiak said, came when Kinew, unsolicited, said his party, if elected, would build a healing centre in Dauphin.

“I had heard rumours that they were figuring out when and how they would announce it. There was conjecture that maybe the Conservatives might even announce something leading up to the election, too, but we hadn’t heard anything official,” Bosiak said, adding Kinew was speaking about infrastructure at the time.

“And then he said, ‘we will ensure that there is a healing center in Dauphin.’ All of us in our section, we sat up, we looked at each other went, ‘well there it is, it’s now on the public record.’ And whether people follow up on it or not, it was stated in the room, publicly on stage.”

All in all, Bosiak was pleased with the time spent at the convention. It is especially beneficial for the newer members of council to interact with their peers from around the province, he said.

“I chatted with Thompson’s mayor and I talked with Brandon’s mayor and had a chat with Winkler’s mayor and Selkirk’s mayor and the Portage mayor. So the networking opportunities are probably the biggest thing,” Bosiak said. “And just to get a sense when you’re sitting in a room and someone says, ‘this is our issue or this is our concern,’ and you go, ‘yeah it’s kind of related to us,’ or, and I’ll be honest, in most of the cases we’re going. ‘oh it’s not as bad in Dauphin.’ As bad as some of the things are for some people, it’s not as bad as it is in some other places.”

Developer Gerry Wieler, left, and Dauphin Church of Christ Community Minister Wayne Olson, second from right, show off one of the new affordable housing units for rent on the Parkland Crossing grounds.

The development includes four units which each measure 625 square feet and rent for $825 per month, including heat and water. The building utilized state-of-the-art construction materials and techniques, with the modular and walls and shed-style roof made up of five inches of foam insulation sandwiched between two pieces of sheet metal. Plans are to construct three more of the four-suite units, as well as two fourplexes of bachelor suites once funding is secured.

Parkland Crossing executive director Jamie Harvey said the project would have never gotten off the ground if it were not for $420,000 of funding provided to the project by the City of Dauphin.

Firefighters from around the Parkland and beyond were treated to some specialized training this past weekend thanks to the Dauphin Fire Department and the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic (WFPS).

In separate sessions over the weekend, instructors from the Winnipeg service walked 80 participants through a scientific and evidentiary based firefighting curriculum which addressed both theoretical and practical approaches to modern firefighting. It provided attendees with the knowledge and practical skills required for sound decision-making regarding strategies and tactics on an ever-evolving and dynamic fire ground, Dauphin fire chief Cam Abrey said.

A lot has changed with residential home construction in the last 30 or 40 years, he said, adding there are many more combustibles involved and flames simply do not act the same as they used to.

“We’re making our homes so much more airtight than they used to be, as well, so there’s a higher potential of flashover and backdraft as dangers to firefighters that are arriving on scene,” Abrey said. “So where a structure used to last they said 15 to 20 minutes before you had structural failure of a floor collapse or a roof collapse, we’re now looking at five minutes.”

The training offered on the weekend also included an occupational hygiene component, which provides knowledge surrounding exposure to carcinogens at fire scenes and limiting the after effects.

“We know that firefighters are 25 per cent more susceptible to developing a cancer than the general public, because of the carcinogens that we’re encountering, the asbestos and everything else that was filling up homes as we’re in there battling the fire,” Abrey said, adding while firefighters have respiratory protection and protective clothing they wear while working, that same equipment can cause problems.

“If you’re not maintaining the stuff properly those carcinogens are soaking into the turnout gear that we wear and then the next time you put it on it’s that skin-to-cloth exposure that’s happening.”

The Winnipeg service is a leader in North America when it comes to training their members on the subject and Abrey learned about the information at the national fire chiefs conference in Ottawa, last year from WFPS district chief Jack Robertson, who was one of the instructors locally this weekend.

“For him to take this initiative, not only looking at Winnipeg Fire, but wanting to expand to all departments across the province, that’s pretty significant,” Abrey said, adding it is the type of information that is just not practical to provide to firefighters getting their Level 1 and 2 certifications.

Dauphin, he said, has made an investment in two sets of gear for every firefighter and commercial washing equipment.

“It’s not a normal washing machine, it’s a very large industrial one. It’s actually an extractor that we’ve been using for a number of years,” Abrey said, adding the department has policies in place around occupational hygiene. “We tell our firefighters you come back from an incident you’re going to wash your gear.”

It is an opportunity a lot of smaller departments do not have, Abrey said, making it all that more important to open the workshop up to a wide area.

Firefighters attended not only from the local Riding Mountain Mutual Aid District, but also from departments in the West Region Tribal Council, Clearwater Training District, Swan Valley Mutual Aid District, Lake Winnipegosis Mutual Aid District, South Central Mutual Aid District and West Central Mutual Aid District.

Abrey knew there would be a good response to the invitation.

“It’s a common thing in emergency services that if you ever stop training, then you shouldn’t be in it,” he said. “Hopefully, (participants) go back to their home department and share the information that they got this weekend with everybody else to whet their appetite. And let’s get more through this training eventually.”