The City of Dauphin will have up to an extra $75,000 to spend on active transportation infrastructure this year thanks to a Trails Manitoba grant.

Director of Public Works and Operations Mike VanAlstyne said the grant, secured through the rural stream of the program, is a two-to-one cost share agreement.

“So we would have to spend $150,000,” he said, adding the money will be allocated to projects planned for this year including expanding the trail system to include Assiniboine Community College (ACC) Parkland Campus “To provide access for them to a safe multi-use trail system.”

Plans are also in place to extend the First Avenue South trail to Second Street Southwest, VanAlstyne added.

The Trails Grant for Manitoba is an annual grant intended for trail associations, municipalities, or other not-for-profit groups, that have the means to provide continued stewardship of trails. The aim of the program is to provide new recreational trail opportunities which includes extending or improving existing trails, developing new trails, and addressing trail gaps and barriers. It also aims to improve the quality of an existing recreational trail network or the user’s experience including safety improvements, signage, way finding, and barriers to access. Funds can also be used for maintenance of a recreational trail network, including pruning, repairing holes, trail beautification, normal erosion/drainage repairs, clean-up, usual repairs to signage, barriers, fencing, surfacing and other maintenance tasks that are undertaken for upkeep of a trail.

Given those parameters, VanAlstyne expects the City will utilize the entire $75,000.

“We’re going to be close with our current plans. The trail will include some signage and some furnishings such as benches and maybe some planters along the way,” he said. “As well, the ACC trail will include some solar lighting and pathway lighting, because it is off the roadway, just to make it safer and more visible. It definitely allows us to add some more features.”

City council authorized the signing of the grant agreement at its Apr. 11 regular meeting.

As he drills down on the specifics, Dauphin MLA Brad Michaleski is convinced last week’s budget tabled by the Stefanson government is just what the doctor ordered as the province moves out of the shadow of the COVID pandemic.

“I haven’t had an opportunity to get right into the nuts and bolts of the budget yet. What was presented was a high altitude overview and generalization of what we’re emphasizing,” Michaleski said. “I think it was a reasonable budget. It was a steady budget. We’re focusing more money on health care. I mean probably the key word is that it’s just a steady, steady budget for this time. We’re coming out of COVID, we’re starting to open things up. So there’s nothing overly surprising and that’s probably, I think, a really good tone for this budget.”

The document, Michaleski said, focuses the province’s investments in “all the right places.”

“I think we’re still on course for health care transformation. And there’s a more significant influence on indigenous and reconciliation efforts and that sounds really good. But again it’s steady as it goes and under the circumstance that’s most likely the best at this stage of the game,” he said.

The venture capital fund announced highlight the government’s efforts to rebuild the economy, he said, adding while cuts to the education property tax were not as robust as expected, they show the government’s commitment to making life more affordable for Manitobans.

“But you know it’s still a move in the right direction and, under the circumstances, that’s probably a cautious and smart approach. But we’re still going in that direction and all these things generally in the budget make Manitoba look very attractive for the next stage post-COVID,” Michaleski said. “There’s a lot of things that are changing in the world right now and we’ve really been in line with trying to make Manitoba attractive. (The budget is) still building on this, creating this positive environment for investment.”

In particular, Michaleski would like to see that investment come into the Parkland as growing and developing the area has been his focus during his time in government.

“Not only just in economic development, but in social development and aspects of that. When you start talking about family issues, education issues, K-12, all those things are a big part of the economic environment,” he said. “Of course, I’d like to see that grow in Manitoba, and in particular I’d like to see that focused energy on the Parkland region. I’m optimistic that the government is focusing on pretty broad growth strategies and I’m quite optimistic that Dauphin and the Parkland is in that scope.”

Mountain View School Division is still not sure what its share of $7 million in recently announced funding for students with special needs will be. But whatever the division gets it will make use of, said superintendent/CEO Dan Ward.

“We’re anticipating a letter that will hopefully arrive in the next week or so that will outline our amount,” Ward said. “We are anticipating that it will likely be a sufficient amount where we can increase staffing in the area of student services.”

Ward has had conversations with the division’s student services co-ordinator about potential proposals which could be brought to the board of trustees for discussions on how it might fit into recently passed 2022-23 budget.

Ward said the funding, announced by Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko last week, is directly tied to the division’s Level 2 and Level 3 funding, which would directly support students with student-specific plans around issues such as learning challenges, learning disabilities, mental health supports or behaviour plans.

Read the FULL STORY in this week's Dauphin Herald!

Support for the Parkland Ukrainian Family Fund has been tremendous.

The fund has raised more than $100,000 in cash so far.

“Right now we’ve contacted the federal government, the provincial government the Ukrainian Canadian Congress to give us a list of names and contact information of families that are wishing to come,” said Roman Panchenko, adding there are many who have fled Ukraine that have every intention of returning following the conflict.

However, the group’s priority is to fund families that intend to settle permanently in the Parkland

“So if they can identify those that are willing to come to our area with the intentions of settling permanently, then the selection committee will weed those out and make recommendations to the rest of the group, he said.

Committee member Jim Perchaluk added the group is remaining flexible, however.

“This is the first time we’ve done it and let’s just say nobody wants to settle here, but they’re looking for a place to reside for several years. Well then we certainly will review our mandate,” he said. “But our objective is to assist families, hopefully intending to reside in our community.”

Just how many families the group will be able to assist remains to be seen as donations are coming in daily and organizers really don’t know what level of support will be required.

Read the FULL STORY in this week's Dauphin Herald!

Ratepayers in the Mountain View School Division (MVSD) will see a slight reduction in their tax bills as the board of trustees passed a 2022-23 budget focused on the learner and the learning environment, with a special emphasis on the classroom.

While this year’s budget saw an increase of almost $1.5 million in provincial funding for the coming year, an increase of 6.3 per cent, things were a little complicated because a lot of the increase did not flow through the funding formula, MVSD secretary-treasurer Bart Michaleski said.

“They gave us the money in kind of one-time payments because of all the inflationary pressures we’re dealing with,” he said, citing contract settlement costs, insurance and fuel costs as some examples. “But suffice it to say they gave us a fair bit of money in the current year, 2021-22, almost $1.3 million, and then gave us a little over $1.2 million in additional one-time funding for 2022-23.”

As a result, MVSD’s budget is 3.8 per cent higher than last year at $45,458,887, an increase of $1,657,844.

“Our five-year average (increase) is about one per cent, so the budget itself is up quite a bit,” Michaleski said, adding local taxation remains the same at the direction of the province as some of the money received from the government was to offset any tax increases. “So the special levy will remain at the same dollar amount it has for a third year in a row now. Our mill rate will actually drop a little bit from 14.62 to 14.54 and that’s just because we had a little bit of a property assessment increase.”

Residential property within the division has seen a .9 per cent increase in total assessed values since 2021. With the drop in the mill rate residential property valued at $150,000 will see a decrease of $5.24 on this year’s tax bills. Farmland has seen a .3 per cent increase in total assessed values resulting in a $3.03 reduction per $150,000, while commercial property increased in value by .1 per cent resulting in a $7.57 tax reduction per $150,000.

In terms of expenditures, MVSD’s largest increase was in staffing as trustees focused on maintaining staffing levels.

“And, in fact, we actually had in budget, an increase of one teaching position and that was to support the business program at the (Dauphin) high school, the Applied Commerce program,” Michaleski said, adding there were other minor changes in staffing that really did not affect the budget. “Eighty per cent of our increase in budget, $1,375,000, is in staffing costs.”

The remaining $283,256 in increased expenditures for non-salary related budgets primarily included technology infrastructure, insurance, fuel and utilities costs.

The result is expenditures will outpace revenue by approximately $171,000 in 2022-23. It is only the second time in Michaleski’s career with the division that the board has approved a deficit budget.

“I’m not a big proponent of deficit budgeting, nor is the board,” Michaleski said.

Michaleski said the decision to run a deficit was made after meeting with the province where the division indicated the $1.3 million increase received for 2021-22 was more than what was needed, while the $1.2 million received for the coming year was not enough.

“The department basically said because every division is in the same boat with all these costs . . . if you needed more of that money in 2022-23 than in the current year just designate some of that (2021-22) money as surplus in your financial statements and carry it forward to next year and use it to offset your budget,” he said, adding the province is planning to have a new funding formula in place in 2023-24. “Based on how this new formula is supposed to work for us, it shouldn’t be an issue. So that’s why we agreed to do a deficit budget. Obviously, they’re going to have to manage things just to make sure that they can mitigate that deficit as much as they can next year.”

Board chair Floyd Martens said the transition that is occurring in education highlights that the majority of available resources are being prescribed to school divisions, providing budget revenue totals that are finite, including the dollars generated through local taxation.

MVSD worked hard to make the tough decisions on where those resources are best used, he added.

“The deliberations required to prepare and finalize the 2022-23 operating budget become increasingly more difficult as greater restrictions are placed on available funding. These restrictions impact how we can address what our communities want for their educational system,” Martens said. “We are confident in our budget decisions as they prioritize the needs of the learner and the classroom.”

Countryfest organizers are looking forward to a “Return to the Hill.”

And as part of a promotional concert tour of the same name, Doc Walker and Don Amero, festival directors and organizers gathered at Selo Ukraina last week to unveil a new sign that will greet those attending Canada’s longest running country music, July 1 to 3.

The unveiling followed a relaunch of the festival lineup originally disclosed last October.

The all-Canadian bill for the July 1 to 3 festival features headliners Paul Brandt, Johnny Reid, Dallas Smith, Dean Brody and Terri Clark. They will be backed up by some first rate supporting acts including Gord Bamford, The Washboard Union, The Road Hammers, Madeline Merlo, Aaron Pritchett, The Reklaws, Chad Brownlee, Michelle Wright, Doc Walker, JoJo Mason, Hunter Brothers, Jess Moskaluke, Jade Eagleson, Tyler Joe Miller, David James, Don Amero, Clayton Bellamy and the Congregation, Nate Haller, Toque, Snake Oil, Tyler Del Pino, Kendra Kay, Jade Turner, Desiree Dorion, Shantaia, Boy Golden, Past the Perimeter, Bullrider, Ryan Keown, Melissa Livingstone, Kates Outlaw, Jake Yaadeland, Banned and Outlawed, Chris Mitchell, Brandi Yezina, Karissa Hoffart, School of Rock Winnipeg and DJ Johnny Rivex.

“We’ve been resting for a little while, I guess a couple years now so we decided to relaunch the whole lineup and add all the rest of the bands into it that we’re going to have and it went over very well,” Countryfest general manager Rob Waloschuk said.

The full story can be found in this week's Dauphin Herald!

Difficulties posed by the pandemic resulted in a surplus in both the General Operating and the Utility Fund in 2021, Dauphin city councillors were told at their regular meeting, Mar. 14.

The General Operating Fund surplus came in at $697,173. while the Utility Fund had a surplus of $143,237, director of finance Scott Carr told councillors.

“Like many other organizations, we faced a labor shortage in 2021. Unfortunately, this resulted in some work not being completed as budgeted and contributed to our 697,000 surplus,” Carr said, adding the Audit and Finance committee authorized the use of $33,198 of the surplus to pay for the overage on snow clearing in the latter months of 2021, rather than draw down the Snow and Ice Reserve.

The remaining balance of $663,975 was transferred to the General Reserve to help reduce future taxation.

Carr added there were other factors influencing the surplus such as revenue coming in $465,312 over budget.

Taxes added revenue was $41,569 more than budgeted, while income from permits was $13,657, while income at the Waste Disposal Site was $42,186 higher than budget. Federal grants also came in $432,530 more than budget, however, provincial grants were $28,567 lower than budget.

Public donations and funding revenue was also lower than expected by $92,500, while insurance and other rebates were $18,083 more than expected.

When it comes to expenditures, reserve transfers were $1,057,256 under budget, while administrative expenses were $101,312 less than expected and legislative expenses were $2,328 under budget due to two councillor vacancies in 2021.

General administration was under by $44,291, while Protective Services was $10,869 under budget and Transportation was $199,747 under budget.

Environmental Health Department came in $62,990 under budget, Public Health and Welfare Services was on budget, Environmental Development, $59,693 under budget, Community Economic Development, $169,557 under budget and Recreation and Cultural Services was $46,796 under budget. Finally, Fiscal Services, $59,020 over budget.

On the Utility side, Carr said the surplus was due to unexpected savings on replacements of water and sewer mains.

“The only area we were over budget was the purchase of oxygen at our water treatment plant as we planned to be using our new oxygen generator in June 2021, but this project was delayed and will be completed in 2022,” he said.

The full surplus was transferred to reserves, Carr added.

Overall, Utility Fund revenue was $349,710 under budget. Water and sewer revenue was $12,044 more than budget, while bulk water sales were $2,047 under budget. Additionally, provincial grants were $332,157 less than budgeted and custom work sales were $21,087 less than expected.

Reserve transfers and debenture proceeds, $342,696 under budget, while utility administration was $13,887 over budget.

Water supply expenditure were $20,602 under budget, while sewage collection costs were $12,052 less than expected and fiscal services were $673,640 under budget.

Following the transfer of the surpluses, the City’s reserve funds finished the year just $25,000 less than their opening.

“This indicates our taxation levels in 2021 were sustainable,” Carr said.

The closing balance of $11,808,549 in total reserve funds is comprised of the following:
• General Reserve - $4,934,089.50;
• Machinery Reserve - $950,712.33;
• Fire Reserve - $655,384.60;
• Public Land Reserve - $743.26;
• Civic Buildings Reserve - 435,548.71;
• Water and Sewer Reserve - $1,830.960.59;
• Federal Gas Tax Reserve - $2,037,196.18;
• Recreation Facility Reserve - $447,482.40;
• Environmental Stewardship Reserve - $349,778.90;
• Snow and Ice Removal Reserve - $125,193.09; and
• Watson Arts Centre Reserve - $41,459.93.

“With inflation nearing five per cent we are already seeing much higher costs in 2022. But with over $11 million in reserves we are hopeful we can reduce the impact of this inflation by using reserves,” Carr said.
“So (2021) was a good year. 2022 has been quite a bit more expensive so far though. So we’ll see what the next nine months brings.”

Full details have yet to be released, but Lindsay Rubeniuk of 100th Meridian Immigration believes plans to wave Visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war with Russia will make it easier for them to come to Canada.

The Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant said the Canada Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel will open options for those accessing it.

“They aren’t going to really be considered refugees, even though they are forced to flee their country. They are going to come here with a visa,” Rubeniuk said. “So once they are here they can either remain as they are, because they’re authorized to be in the country, or else they can apply for a study permit or an open work permit.”

With a four month wait for inland open work permits currently, Rubeniuk hopes the federal government looks for a way to process applications faster.

“So it’s not a magic pill that you wave visa requirements and everything’s good,” she said.

Rubeniuk added there may still be a requirement to provide biometrics and with no offices doing biometrics in Ukraine at the moment she is uncertain how that might affect some refugees. It all comes down to a balancing act, Rubeniuk said, of trying to help as many people as possible while maintaining our national security.

“There might be some limitations for people if they don’t have access to what the government wants,” she said.

How much demand there is for the visas also remains to be seen. Ukrainians, she said are very loyal to their country and will have a hard time leaving. Secondly, Ukrainians, generally, have a strong connection to Europe.

“They love Germany and they love all this, all the surrounding countries. I believe it’s those that have a connection to Canada that will come here, those who already have family and friends here,” she said, “But the good news is they can get here relatively hassle free. I think that it’s really positive what’s happening.”

Mountain View School Division (MVSD) is getting set to shed face masks in its 16 schools.

Effective Mar. 15, MVSD will no longer require the use of a mask in any of its facilities.

“We are following the provincial health mandate. The province has made the decision in the last round of public health order changes that a good number of the restrictions in schools would be scaled back or wound down,” MVSD superintendent/CEO Dan Ward said. “Certainly we encourage anyone, both staff and students who are more comfortable wearing a mask to wear a mask. So it’s certainly encouraged, but it’s no longer going to be required.”

Ward said when the changes to the provincial health orders were announced, the request from the province was that school divisions align their protocols with the new provincial health orders.

“And that’s always been the case. If you look back into many of the health orders or various reasons the public school system was exempt because we had to offer programming in a safe way,” he said. “But we’ve always mirrored public health orders as closely as possible.”

The division is also winding down a number of other pandemic related requirements.

“We’re also looking at easing up on things like social distancing and cohorting although that’s going to happen a little bit more gradually as we approach the spring break,” Ward said. “As of Mar. 15 the cohorts in Kindergarten to Grade six will no longer be required and when we’re looking at the easing of the cohort restriction we’re looking at school to school. Where putting cohorts together has been fairly difficult and where it’s had an impact on programming, those are the schools we’re going to be easing up. But where cohorts are working well, we recommended that schools continue to do that, at least for the time being.”

Ward said administrators will continue to be vigilant and are encouraging staff and students to self-disclose if they become infected with COVID. The division will continue to report weekly attendance on its website.

Attendance has been improving, Ward added.

“And our number of COVID cases continues to go down,” he said. “It’s not overly surprising because it reflects what’s happening in the province. But at the same time we have to be vigilant that if things do get bad again to work with public health to bring back any mitigation measures that public health deems appropriate.”

Mountain View School Division (MVSD) is on the hunt for a new superintendent/CEO as Dan Ward is leaving the division at the end of the school year.

“I’ve taken a position with Garden Valley School Division, which starts in July. I’ll be their superintendent, effective this summer,” Ward said.

When the opportunity came up, Ward discussed the options with his family and they felt this was a good time to move.

“It was an incredibly difficult decision. I really love working for Mountain View. I have been here for seven years, four years as assistant superintendent and three years as superintendent,” he said “The people here are great and work for a very supportive board. But at the end of the day we felt it was a new opportunity and I put my application in and was selected for the position.”

Ward’s last day with MVSD is July 15.