Shawn Bailey
Funding hike offers City some latitude
After freezing municipal operating grants for seven years, the Manitoba government has announced an increase in the annual basket funding it provides municipalities to help fund their operations.
And while the exact impact of the 28 per cent increase for the City of Dauphin remains to be seen, it is enough to change the conversations elected officials are having around the 2023 financial plan, mayor David Bosiak said, adding he expects the figure to be around $170,000 or $180,000.
“We were forewarned in some of our earliest meetings this year that inflation in particular, but other things were really going to impact our ability to come up with a budget so this is good news absolutely. As we were looking at this year’s budget, very preliminarily so far, costs are up and so we have to find ways to deal with that. So this announcement will certainly help,” Bosiak said. “The unfortunate part is that it probably just makes up for the lack of funding in the last six or seven years, if you calculate cost of living, even averaging at two per cent a year. It’s a nice chunk of change, but it would have been nice to have that in years previous, as well. But I’m not going to scowl and say, ‘bad Province.’ I’m very happy that they made that decision and it’ll be good for us.”
All municipalities will receive a minimum 24 per cent increase in 2023 to address inflationary impacts. With this increase of up to $47 million, the 2023 municipal operating grant will grow to $217 million from $170 million.
It is still early in the city budgetting process, Bosiak said. The capital budget has been thoroughly examined, he added and is all but set.
“It’s the operating budget that we’re still in the process of working on and I know that there were some hard decisions that were going to need to have be made if we weren’t going to consider increasing taxes,” he said. “I can’t speak for the rest of council, but it’s been very clear to us that a tax raise is likely. But now I don’t know if it’s going to be or not, or how much it will be, based on this particular announcement.”
Council is holding a planning session in early March to plot a strategy for the next four years, which will absolutely have budget implications, Bosiak said, adding he is looking forward to the process. There are other things impacting the budget which are out of council’s control such as utilities, fuel and salaries.
“But there’s some very variable costs on some of the projects we’d like to do,” Bosiak said. “And that’s where I’m hopeful that the increases in our fixed costs related to fuel and heating and those other things, that we will have some room to have some very thoughtful discussion on the things that we want to put in this year. And everything’s going to be validated, so it’s based on what the rest of council and administration believe we have to do as a city going forward.”
And the added money from the province will help the new mayor and council to makes ends meet and, hopefully, move forward on some of their plans.
“If we’re really short a lot of money, it’s not the stuff that you have to pay for that goes first, it’s all those good things that need to be trimmed,” Bosiak said, adding he is hopeful the extra dollars will help offset cost increases in areas such as fuel, snow clearing and upcoming negotiations with employee unions.
“Council, the three incumbents, the three new councillors and myself, are now going to be looking forward and saying, ‘okay, so now the province has increased its funding, maybe getting us back to a bit of an even keel, what are those things that we think are truly important for our community?’ And they will likely be in the discussion longer now than if it was a situation where we’re short, we have to raise taxes, we have to cut programs or services and we’re still looking at a deficit. So it’s going to make the decisions maybe a little bit easier, but this isn’t like winning the lottery.”
Louis Riel Day fun
The temperatures were cool but the skies were bright as large crowds gathered at Fort Dauphin Museum to celebrate Louis Riel Day, Monday.
Sponsored by the Northwest Metis Council, the day featured all sorts of fun such as dog sled rides, an opportunity to try out fat bikes and snowshoes courtesy of Northgate Trails, roasting bannock over an open fire, tug-of-war, hotdogs and hot chocolate and much more.
All of the museum buildings were also open for everyone to enjoy.
Dauphin secures new daycare spaces through federal-provincial initiative
Dauphin will receive the lion’s share of 1,670 new child-care spaces in the two phases of the ready-to-move child-care project, a $94-million total investment from the governments of Canada and Manitoba.
A total of 148 child-care spaces - the only ones announced for the Parkland - will be created in a brand new facility in the city as part of Phase 2 of the program.
The new daycare will be constructed on a piece of city-owned land which lies along Whitmore Avenue East between Lorray Manor and the Manitoba Hydro office.
When we submitted an expression of interest with the province we had to commit to two things. We had to commit to offering a piece of land and we had to commit to maintaining the building for 15 years,” Economic Development manager Martijn van Luijn said, adding a daycare operator will also have to be selected.
“I’ve since learned that we’re also responsible for the process, what we call the RFP process where we select the organization that is going to be running the facility.” van Luijn said the City is still waiting for clarification on a few points before it goes looking for a provider.
“Most likely our first invitation to apply would go out in existing daycares. We have four major daycares right now and they could all be very good candidates, but we haven’t talked to them about it,” van Luijn said. “We’re hoping to be able to appoint the organization very early in the process, because they need to be involved in the design. Because as you know, every daycare has their own way of doing things.”
Based on the success of the first phase of the project, the second phase was expanded to increase to an additional 1,004 spaces in 14 facilities for a project total of 1,670 new spaces, and total of 23 new centres as a whole.
The 148 spaces planned for Dauphin are much needed as the city, while preparing its application for the program, estimated the local day care shortage at approximately 240 spaces.
“That’s the number I submitted when they asked us what is your shortage. I don’t think that we were looking for that, but as a result of that we did get the highest allocated spaces from all the selected sites,” he said. “I think that’s going solve a big issue.”
New facilities approved in the second phase of the project will be built as ready-to-move structures by a builder selected by the province and are expected to be operational before the end of this year. van Luijn believes those timelines might be a little tight.
“I don’t know how quickly they’re going to be able to build all these units. We’re not in that much of a hurry. I understand this is a very urgent problem that we would like to solve right away, but we want to do it in the right way,” van Luijn said. “So if that means that we’re later on the list we’re okay with that. We just would rather do this right.”
The ready-to-move child-care project is a partnership between the governments of Canada and Manitoba, municipal governments and First Nation communities to develop new child-care facilities in less than a year in areas with a demonstrated need for child-care spaces.
The child-care spaces being developed with this investment are part of the Manitoba government’s commitment to develop 23,000 new, regulated not-for-profit child-care spaces for children under age seven across the province by 2026.
For more information about the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child-Care Agreement, early learning and child-care development supports, and child-care services in Manitoba, visit gov.mb.ca/education/childcare/.
Local dealership provides new EV charging option
Owners of electric vehicles (EV) now have another option for charging their rides thanks to Dean Cooley GM.
Referred to as a quick charger, the smart DC 50 kilowatt charger is on the FLO network and should provide about an 80 per cent charge in 20 to 30 minutes depending on the battery and the type of vehicle.
The local dealership installed the charger on its lot as part of its preparations to get started in the EV business.
“This year we’ll start to receive Silverados and Sierras, Blazers and Equinoxes,” said Dean Cooley, the principle dealer of Dean Cooley GM. “We’re just a few months away from really being able to sell a good variety of EVs.”
Cooley said the dealerships customers have been make inquiries about EVs and he does have around a dozen reservations for the vehicles when they start arriving.
“We refer to them as reservations versus sales, because at this point, I haven’t told you exactly what it’s going to cost you and I think you’d probably like to drive it before you actually pay for it,” he said.
Cooley added, however, EVs will not be the complete focus of the business.
“I think it will be a part of what we do. We don’t believe it’s going to be all what we do, but we do believe it’ll be a big part of what we do,” he said, adding EVs still have some limitations. “If you said to me, ‘hey I’m an outdoorsy guy. I’m heading to Flin Flon three times a year to go fishing or I’m hauling a 30-foot fifth wheel camper,’ I mean there’s just scenarios that this isn’t going to work.”
When it comes to running around town, heading back and forth to work and make day trips outside the area, EVs will offer an economical alternative to gas powered vehicles.
“There’s scenarios where it’s going to be perfect,” he said.
As part of its preparations for the EVs the dealership has trained its technicians on the vehicles and invested in some equipment such as a forklift for moving batteries, an oversized hoist to accommodate the weight of the vehicles, additional charges in the mechanical department and some special tooling to perform repairs.
“We are set to go,” Cooley said.
Anniversary plans coming together
As the 125th anniversary of incorporation, 2023 is a special year for the residents of the city Dauphin and Dauphin mayor David Bosiak is hoping to bring several community organizations together to plan a special celebration.
Incorporated as a village in 1898, a town in 1901 and a city in 1998, the history of the community is worth celebrating.
“It’s a big deal for us, 125 years,” Bosiak said. “We (the City of Dauphin) want to work with, and have already started to reach out to a couple of the groups - Fort Dauphin Museum, the train station museum and the arts center - to really fulfill the plans that some of them have already come up with in terms of celebrating our 125th. So there’s some really neat ideas that have been percolating and we will get that going soon.”
The collaborative effort aligns with Bosiak’s message of everyone pulling in the same direction for the common good.
“I really think that getting these organizations to work a little bit more closely together will be really good for them and good for us, as well, as a community,” he said. “The real positive thing is all of the groups that we’ve engaged with have a willingness to have these discussions."
"These groups are all functioning effectively, have great volunteer engagement and are really meeting a lot of the outcomes that they’ve sort of posted or projected for themselves. And that’s just good for all of us, so we’re really working on that kind of a philosophy of what’s good for one is likely good for all.”
Dauphin Derailleurs Cycle Club making the most of grant dollars
Dauphin Derailleurs Cycle Club is using a recent windfall from the federal government to improve the visitor experience at Northgate Trails.
The group recently received $212,000 from Prairie Economic Development.
“It was a form of economic development for rural communities. That’s probably why we got it,” Derailleurs president Brenda Gregory said.
This latest round of money will be used to make four of the river crossings on the trail more permanent. As well, lighting has been installed in the timber frame shelter at the trailhead and a fieldstone fireplace will be constructed in that structure in the near future. Finally, a sea can the group purchased to secure its equipment will be given a facelift to make it fit more seamlessly into the environment of the facility.
The Derailleurs applied for the grant last June but did not receive notice their application was successful until after Christmas. With the money needing to be spent before the end of March, timelines were tight. However, the government did provide the group a lifeline, Gregory said.
“Even though we were given very little notice about the approval, they did consider bills that we had paid retroactive to the awarding of the grant,” Gregory said, adding there was no shortage of places to spend the money. “We’ve always got plans. You dream and you hope that you’re going to be able to execute. But we don’t know, because, at this point in time, we don’t have a steady revenue source.”
Despite that, the group has been extremely successful at building a world class facility in a short time frame, mostly through grants.
“It’s a board initiative. It is really a team effort,” Gregory said, adding when one person finds a grant and runs it past the rest of the board for input and advice before finalizing the application. One board member in particular has been instrumental in securing substantial dollars for the group.
“Mel Stefaniw has obtained two large grants for us equivalent to over half a million dollars. So we’re very grateful for her.”
Gregory added the group has benefitted greatly through support from the community at large by way of volunteer labour and contractors willing to perform work at minimal cost.
“In that regard we’ve been very lucky. The stars have completely aligned for us,” she said.
With the infrastructure they now have in place, the Derailleurs are starting to shift their focus towards programming.
“That’s one area where we haven’t really focused, most of all because we couldn’t. We weren’t allowed to have people gather, even in the outdoors in the initial stages of COVID,” Gregory said, adding the group has welcomed new board members David Bosiak and J.L. Guillas and has contracted
Decipher Wilderness Experiences to provide programming.
“So there will be more of a focus on programs, particularly with children and youth,” Gregory said. “We have things we want to do, targeted at Indigenous youth, as well. So lots of things that are cooking.”
Heritage Day Fair returning to Dauphin Market Place Mall
The Heritage Day Fair is making its return to Dauphin Market Place Mall, Feb. 17 and 18.
Organizing committee member, Don White said it nice to be back after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
And with 13 organizations participating to celebrate the history of the Parkland, there will be plenty to see, White added.
For example, those attending the free event can expect to see Manitoba’s winning entry into the 1967 Centennial Voyageur Canoe Pageant, the Pierre Radisson, courtesy of Fort Dauphin Museum. All aspects of the area’s history will be highlighted, White added, noting the Negrych Homestead and the history of the Dauphin Fire Department are popular topics among fairgoers.
The displays will be set up in the former Ardene’s location, which has allowed organizers to run the fair over two days.
“It’s two days so we can lock the door and everything’s secure,” White said, adding the move to two days was a positive one as it was a lot of work for the exhibitors to pack up their displays and head to the mall for a one-day event.
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First 100 days in office have been positive for new mayor, council
Dauphin’s new city council is through the first 100 days of its mandate and for freshman mayor David Bosiak, the last three-plus months in office has confirmed a lot of what he expected heading in, but there have been a few surprises along the way.
“Some of the things that I anticipated, or expected, are absolutely as I thought,” Bosiak said, citing the quality of the people employed by the City as an example. “Staff at city hall, at the shop, at the water treatment plant are all doing a great job. They’re stellar employees and I think the City is very fortunate to have such a combination of enthusiastic, dedicated and experienced staff members. That’s been very, very clear to me and other members of council, how competent the staff is.”
Associated with that realization is one of surprises, a pleasant one, that surfaced for Bosiak.
“I’m surprised a little bit by actually how much preparation staff does for the mayor and members of council,” he said. “I was anticipating having to be doing more homework to be ready for having council meetings and other committee meetings and the homework is pretty simple in that we are so well prepared.”
That support has allowed Bosiak and new councillors Randy Daley, Ted Rea and Steve Sobering to settle quickly into their roles and get up to speed with returning councillors Christian Laughland, Kathy Bellemare and Devin Shtykalo.
“I’m very pleased, generally, with the tone and tenor of council. They all seem to be on a the same page, or a very similar page, that we all have, I think, very similar outlooks on what we expect and why we ran for election and are on municipal council,” Bosiak said.
That has allowed council and City staff to advance one of Bosiak’s priorities heading into his tenure as mayor, looking at the structure of committees the City is involved with and gauging the work being done by those committees.
“Sort of doing a bit of a check, a sense of, is this an appropriate level of City involvement. Should there be more, should there be less,” he said. “And in those situations where we fund external agencies, I’ve asked council to really look carefully at, are we funding these organizations to the appropriate level? Meaning might some need more funding from the City based on what they’re doing and what they’re trying to accomplish, and might some needed a lower level of funding based on what they are supposed to be doing and what they may actually be doing?”
As they attend meetings, councillors are bringing reports back to council as a whole.
“And we’re having very thoughtful discussions on that,” Bosiak said.
In terms of getting council better organized, a planning session is set for early March during which a facilitator experienced in municipal governance will spend a half day with councillors and the City’s senior management team.
“Just to help us understand how do we incorporate the next four years of what each of us thought we could do as we got elected and bring that to some sort of fruition,” Bosiak said.
Tempering those expectations are plans and projects put in place by previous councils that the current edition of City government must fulfill. Bosiak did not fully appreciate the amount of work that was already on the table and quickly came to realize council needs to allow staff to continue to work on those projects.
“That does have an impact on what we intended to do in our first year of our mandate,” Bosiak said. “But we have our own objectives to put into place for the three years, so that’s one thing that we’ll be talking about.”
Going forward, a focus will be on the City’s relationships with other levels of government. In particular, Bosiak would like to maintain and hopefully improve Dauphin’s relationship with the provincial government, an important relationship given the major infrastructure projects the province is helping fund in the city.
However, those efforts have been hampered by recent resignations and restructuring at the cabinet level, he said.
“I was hopeful that we could have more of an ongoing dialogue with the provincial government and we’re attempting to do that from the City’s end and it’s just been a little bit slower than I was hoping,” Bosiak said.
For the most part, however, Bosiak’s time since the Oct. 26, 2022, municipal election has gone pretty much as he thought and he is looking forward to the remainder of his four years in the mayor’s chair.
“We’re just busy doing the regular business of municipal government,” he said. “There is lots of positive stuff, mostly positive stuff and it’s been a pretty decent first hundred days.”
Thank you
The Dauphin Derailleurs Cycle Club held an appreciation for its donors and supporters at the Selo Ukraina Hall, Feb. 3.
More than 200 people attended to learn a little more about the club’s history and its future plans.
Major sponsors, landowner partners, funders and volunteers that assisted with the development of the Northgate Trails system were recognized throughout the evening, interspersed with short films from the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival, as well as some locally-produced content.
Dauphin Fire Department operations under review
A review of Dauphin Fire Department (DFD) operations in the search of efficiencies is underway as part of the Municipal Services Delivery Improvement Plan.
The program, which was introduced by the provincial government in 2021, provides municipalities and planning districts with financial support to complete value-for-money service delivery reviews of programs and services searching for improvement which do not raise taxes or reduce front line services.
The work is done in consultation with a third-party consultant and the three-year program is fully funded by the Province to a maximum of $120,000 per project.
The Dauphin Fire Department, with support of the City and the RM of Dauphin, applied to the program during the second intake in 2022 and was awarded funding up to $120,000. Exchange Chartered Professional Accountants LLP was assigned as the consultant to perform an organizational study and operations review of the department.
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