The first five months of 2025 proved to be a little busier for Dauphin Fire Department (DFD) than the same time frame in 2024, fire chief Cam Abrey told Dauphin city council at its regular meeting May 26.

Abrey said this year,  DFD has responded to 97 incidents as of May 22, an increase of 17 calls over 2024.

Abrey said the increase was due to motor vehicle collision calls doubling year-over-year and a busier spring with wildfire calls.

“Outdoor fires were exponentially raised, because it was a bit of a drier spring this year and there were a few fires that were getting away out in the RM,” Abrey said, adding there have also been three mutual aid calls in 2025 compared to one last year.

“A couple of large ones in Gilbert Plains that we went out and assisted with. But they have been here assisting us, as well. So we’re scratching each other’s backs lately this spring.”

There have been nine structure fires this year, which Abrey said is on the high side. Three of those fires in January and one in April are attributed to individuals squatting in detached garages.

Two of the nine fires are considered suspicious in nature. One was in a home in January, Abrey said, and the other was the announcer’s booth at the grass ring near Rotary Arena in February. The remaining structure fires were accidental in nature, he added.

In other areas, EMS lift assists are being monitored to determine the impact on DFD’s operations.

When it comes to covering two separate municipalities, Abrey said 13 of DFD’s responses have been to the RM of Dauphin, totalling 379 personnel hours, while 81 calls have been City and motor vehicle incidents totaling 1,352 hours. The three mutual aid calls have resulted in 88 personnel hours.

Those statistics can change quickly, Abrey added.

For the full story, read this week’s edition of the Dauphin Herald.

Dauphin city councillors marked special days with proclamations as they gathered for their regular meeting, May 12.

May 15 was proclaimed as Moose Hide Campaign Day, recognizing the  “Indigenous-led, grassroots movement of men, boys, and all Canadians standing up to end violence against women, children, and all those along the gender continuum.” Founded along the Highway of Tears in British Columbia, the Moose Hide Campaign is a  response to the injustices and violence faced by many women and children in Canada, particularly those who are Indigenous.

May 17 was proclaimed as the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia to draw attention to the 2SLGBTQI+ community and the discrimination and prejudice that is often directed at its members. The proclamation also recognizes the City of Dauphin’s support of diversity and that homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia are not welcome in the community.

Finally, May 25 to 31 was proclaimed as Access Awareness Week, highlighting the fact that  accessibility will improve the health, independence and well-being of people disabled by barriers.

Added to taxes

Councillors opted to added three outstanding receivable accounts to the tax rolls in the amount of $4,044.31. That total is comprised of $119.24 owing for quarterly garbage pickup at 18 4th Avenue SW, $2,617.43 related to 417 2nd Avenue NE for yard clean-up, tipping fees and fines for unpermitted burning and leaving a fire unattended, and a fine of $1,307.64 for two false alarms unpaid at 95 1st Avenue NE.

Councillors also voted to add an outstanding water account to the tax rolls in the amount of $463.21 owing at 210 6th Ave. NE after the previous tenant did not pay the final utility bill.

Pride

Council was informed plans for an upcoming Pride event on June 13 are progressing well with  a parade set to end in Vermillion Park, where food, activities and entertainment will cap the day. The City will show its support for the celebration by:

• proclaiming June as Pride Month at its May 26 regular meeting;
• changing its social media logos in June to reflect the Pride colours;
• posting on social media to affirm the City’s support for an inclusive and respectful community where everyone can live, work, and play in a safe and secure environment;
• flying the Pride flag at city hall from June 13 to 16;
• featuring two slides in celebration of Pride in Dauphin on the electronic sign at city hall; and
• purchasing 150 pride sunglasses to give away during the parade.

Read the full story in this weeks Dauphin Herald.

Dry spring conditions have kept Dauphin firefighters busy in recent weeks and, given the potential for serious harm, department officials are urging area residents to follow the rules around lighting fires and to use common sense before striking the match.

After a busy stretch the week before, during a time span between May 3 and 5, Dauphin Fire Department responded to six incidents, which included four calls for wild land blazes.

The first came in the afternoon of May 3 when  DFD was dispatched to a grass fire northeast of Dauphin after hydro lines came into contact with tree branches and showered sparks into the tinder dry grass below.

Just as firefighters were wrapping up that call, a mutual aid request came in from Sifton Fire Department at a yard and barn fire north of Dauphin. The two departments were working in high winds to control the fire, which was attributed to embers from a burning barrel when yet another call was received around 5 p.m. regarding a grass fire west of Dauphin off Hwy. 274.

Given everything that was going on, a mutual aid request was sent to the Gilbert Plains Fire Department, which responded with a full slate of manpower and equipment. The two departments working together limited damages from the fire, attributed to a controlled burn that outgrew the property owner’s ability to extinguish it.

That was not it for the weekend, however, as, after a call to assist paramedics in the city, fighters received another rural call for a blaze near Stony Point just after midnight.

Upon arrival, firefighters found a hay field on fire covering an area one mile wide east to west and two miles wide  north to south.

As the fire was located in a marshy area, and firefighting equipment was unable to access the area, firefighters remained on scene all night to ensure there was no threat to any structures.

It has been a difficult and stressful stretch for firefighters, that could have been much less difficult and stressful if a little more common sense had been exercised by some of those involved.

Read the full story in this week’s edition of the Dauphin Herald.

The tax bill for those living within the boundaries of Mountain View School Division will have a different look for a variety of reasons.

Presenting a draft 2025-26 budget at a public forum, Mar. 6,  MVSD secretary-treasurer Lori Slepicka indicated the division has increased its budget requirements by approximately $2.6 million from $50,816,934 last year to $53,487,961 in 2025-26.

The increase is driven mainly by increases of $2.25 million in the area of salaries and benefits, $83,000 more in nutrition grant costs, $171,434 in the area of supplies and services, a $67,991 rise in insurance costs along with $34,010 more in utility requirements and $96,237 in additional transfers.

The final budget was also impacted by a $30,883 drop in technology costs and a trustee budget decrease of $96,237.

On the revenue side of the ledger, that final budget number will be realized through provincial funding of $38,942,955, federal revenue of $19,715, municipal revenue of $12,036,950, First Nations revenue of $1,283,311, school division income of $448,580, income from private organizations of $536,450 and revenue from other sources of $220,000.

The big changes from last year involve provincial funding, which increased 31.6 per cent from last year, and the municipal portion, which is down 35.6 per cent from 2024-25.

The main reason, Slepicka said, is the introduction of the Homeowners Affordability Tax Credit (HATC) of up to $1,500, replacing the Manitoba School Tax Rebate of 50 per cent and Education Property Tax credit previously provided.

“So it shifts our revenue from our municipal revenue to our provincial revenue,” she said.

An assessment increase across the division of 16.1 per cent, to slightly more than $1.5 billion, was also highlighted with the value of farmland increasing by 23.9 per cent, residential properties by 10.9 per cent and commercial properties by 7.2 per cent.

Those increases allowed the division to lower its mill rate from 13.8697 mills in 2024 to 13.2603 mills this year.

When looking at the effect of taxation, Slepicka said, if your residential assessment increased by more than the 16.1 per cent you will see a higher tax increase and if it increased by less than 16.1 per cent, you wil see a lower tax rate.

Using an example of  a home assessed at $270,538 in 2024 and rising to $300,000 in 2025, Slepicka highlighted what those changes might mean for a homeowner.

In 2024, that homeowner would have owed school taxes totalling $1,688.59. After applying rebates and tax credits the net tax bill would have been $494.29.

This year, assuming an assessed value of $300,000, that property would have total school taxes of $1,790.14. When the HATC is applied that bill drops to $290.14, or 41.3 per cent less than the previous year.

“The only thing more complicated than the provincial funding formula is probably the calculation of municipal revenue,” Slepicka said, adding the calculation of the division’s Special Levy involves considering needs in two budget years.

Read the full story in this week’s edition of the Dauphin Herald.

Dauphin city council showed its support for the trend of shopping Canadian products and supporting local businesses through a proclamation at its regular meeting, Feb. 24.

The proclamation recognized that businesses, manufacturers, producers and tradespeople in the region form the backbone of our economy and  noted the recent threats of American tariffs on Canadian products could present real challenges impacting businesses.

Finally, the proclamation encouraged people to show support by choosing Canadian-made products and services, reinforcing our economy and ensuring success of local businesses.

Amyloidosis

Council proclaimed March as Amyloidosis Awareness Month in an effort to raise awareness, funding research and supporting those living with the group of diseases which occurs when an abnormal protein, known as amyloid, builds up in the tissues and organs of the body. If  left untreated, amyloidosis can result in organ failure and be fatal.

Added to taxes

Council voted to add one outstanding receivable account to taxes in the amount of $70 owing at 108 3rd Avenue NE for Permit 6020.

Renovations

Council was informed renovations in the mechanic area of the City Shop have begun. Concrete has been poured and construction is underway. The renovation will result in increased parts storage, increased office space, and document storage.

EV charger

Council was informed user reviews of the EV3 charger in the parking lot of City Hall have brought to light problems with one side of the unit. FLO has been contacted to schedule repairs.

Insurance

Council was updated on a walkthrough of the City’s insured buildings conducted by the ICT manager and safety manager with a representative out from Western Financial Group.

City staff are currently working through a list of recommendations to ensure all city buildings are in full compliance with insurance requirements.

Accounts approved

Council authorized the issuance of 110 cheques totalling $1,423,662.87 to cover outstanding accounts. Also authorized were three electronic payment totalling $24,693.54, as well as nine electronic payments in January totalling $204,311.16.

Building permits

Councillors learned there were no City of Dauphin building permits issued in January. There was one Department of Labour permit issued for work on the storage loft at the city shop valued at $34,000.

Radon agreement

Councillors authorized the city manager to sign a Radon Outreach Contribution Program agreement with Health Canada  outlining the terms of a $45,000 grant awarded in 2024 to develop and implement a local radon action plan. The grant is payable at $15,000 per year and the agreement will be in effect until Mar. 31, 2027.

Read the full story in this week’s edition of The Dauphin Herald.

Justice Minister Matt Wiebe was joined by local MLA Ron Kostyshyn in the City last week to meet stakeholders regarding the Dauphin Community Justice Centre project currently in the works

And for the two municipalities which are partners in the project, the meeting felt like a positive step forward in the process.

Both mayor David Bosiak and reeve Ernie Sirski left the meeting pleased to see the project moving forward.

“The council chamber was full with probably six or seven folks from various government departments, plus the ministers,” Bosiak said.

“We had a good hourlong discussion with the RM and us basically discussing what we would like to see in the facility.”

“The feeling that I get from it is that they’re serious about this facility and the reason I say that is because it wasn’t just the minister and our representative, the minister of Agriculture, but they had a whole bunch of other people there,” Sirski added.

“The ministers control the purse strings, but these are the people that they get stuff done.”

Bosiak said the municipalities shared their vision for the centre being more than a place to incarcerate people. Ideas about training programs and skill development, community service options and victim’s services were among the discussion.

“It was very open-ended in the sense that lots of ideas were presented and I think it was a great first step,” Bosiak said, adding there were representatives of KPMG in the room. KPMG is the firm contracted by the province to act as their consultants in the information gathering process.

The main message, Bosiak said, was that there would be no barriers to the project created by either the RM or the City.

“We want to be partners,” he said.

Sirski added there were no real specifics about the project revealed in terms of timelines

Read the full story in this weeks Dauphin Herald.

As winter begins giving way to spring, the focus of city officials turns to budgetting.

And, while the process began late last year with meetings to identify priorities and explore opportunities, now is the time to work on the finishing touches.

“We’ve got some direction for 2025 that we’re working on costing and looking at the logistics of how to make that work,” City manager Sharla Griffiths said.

Mayor David Bosiak added more information is needed before numbers can be finalized.

“We’re still waiting on a couple of responses from the other levels of government on some applications we’ve made, which will basically determine the scale and scope of some of the work that we want to do,” he said.

“We think we’re on target. We haven’t yet gotten into the nuts and bolts of final costing for of some of the things, because as projects are still developing you get estimated costs. Then when you go to tender then you get the actual cost. So we’re still fine-tuning a few of those things and I know senior managers are still working on a couple of the finer details.”

Three key priority projects have been identified by council for this year. 2025 will see continued development of the Craft District on Second Avenue Northwest, growing the development Reserve Fund created through a bylaw passed at council’s last regular meeting and expanding the active transportation network to tie in the west end of the city.

Read the full story in this week’s edition of the Dauphin Herald.

After some concern that they may be headed for a deficit in the Utility Fund in 2024, City administration is breathing a little easier these days.

At a regular council meeting last November, city manager Sharla Griffiths informed councillors the fund was trending toward a deficit, due mainly to a delay in a rate study application to the Public Utilities Board (PUB)  seeking increased sewer and water rates.

The City requested the water rate review as a result of inflationary pressures. While the last review included a built-in inflation factor, it only covered a set number of years. After that time there was no mechanism for the City to increase rates further, Griffiths said, adding there were no increases in 2023 or 2024.

The City applied to the PUB in September 2023, anticipating they would have new rates in place by October 2024 in time for last quarter billing.

When that did not happen, with the capital budget mostly completed for the year, there was not much time to make adjustments to make up for the shortfall.

Now, as administration is finalizing the numbers for 2024, it appears the threat has passed.

“We did realize a couple of cost savings and so there’s not a threat of a deficit,” Griffiths said.

“We’re just evaluating how much of a surplus we have in our general fund and I believe we’re also in a small, a modest surplus for utility.”

Those numbers are yet to be finalized, audited and presented for council approval.

New water and sewer rates were approved mid-month this past December and were applied to the utility in the first quarter of 2025.

As of Jan. 1, the minimum quarterly charge for 5/8-inch standard household connection increased to  $89.59 from the current $79.12, a 13.2 per cent rise. That minimum will rise further to $92.96 on July 1, and to $95.39 on Jan. 1, 2026.

Additionally, water and sewer used over the minimum will be billed at $3.44 per cubic metre instead of $3.04 per cubic metre, again, a 13.2 per cent increase. Those rates will increase to $3.59 and $3.67 per cubic metre on July 1, and Jan. 1, 2026, respectively.

The new rates will be reflected in the first quarter billing in April.

The new rate structure is for the short term, given the lagoon expansion project looming. Once construction costs are firmed up and operating estimates are determined, the City will ask for another rate review to ensure the utility is a strong position to finance the project.

Earlier this month city council gave first readings to a bylaw allowing for the borrowing of $4,692,500 to help finance the lagoon expansion to be repayed through utility surcharges. A further $4,692,500 will be borrowed for the project and paid back through taxation.

It is going to be a bit of a homecoming for Nicole Chychota when she assumes her new position of chief administrative officer for the City of Portage la Prairie later this spring.

The Rural Municipality of Dauphin announced last week that Chychota would be leaving its municipal administration team to take the city manager role in Portage.

“Portage is my home originally, from a long time ago and I found out that Nathan Peto, the city manager at the time, was moving on. I thought this was a really great opportunity and just one that I had to take a shot at,” Chychota said.

“Honestly it was an incredibly difficult decision to leave this community. It has been home for a really long time. We love it dearly here and it’s really sad to be moving on.”

But at the same time Chychota is looking forward to the new challenges and experience that will come from heading up the administration team in Manitoba’s eighth largest city.

“Portage is a really great city and they’ve really led the way in a lot of avenues. They’re very innovative, collaborative and they’re doing work that is well respected at the federal level,” she said.

“Dauphin is a really special place and, like I said, it was not an easy decision to leave. We are truly going to miss everything about this community.

“It’s just one of those once in a-lifetime opportunities for me.”

Reeve Ernie Sirski said council is sorry to see Chychota go.

“She’s done a great job for the municipality in the last over seven years and we’re going to miss her. She’s a very efficient and knowledgeable individual and she’s done a lot for this municipality as far as I’m concerned,” Sirski said.

“She’s made sure that we’ve had enough money to keep operating in an efficient manner. We haven’t had any surprises on the budget side like Winnipeg and Brandon had this last couple of years. Through it all we’ve had the equipment, the personnel and the money to keep operating so, in my opinion, she’s done a great job and we’re going to miss her.”

Sirski added the search is already underway for Chychota’s replacement with the position being advertised locally, provincially and nationally.

“It’s pretty hard to limit this to just Manitoba. These people that come into these kind of positions are pretty mobile and we’re hoping that we have some good candidates come forward, from not just Manitoba, but throughout Canada,” he said.

“So the process is started and now it’s a question of who comes forward.”

Chychota’s last day with the RM of Dauphin is Mar. 25 and she begins her duties in Portage, Mar. 31.

Although he is hopeful the search for a new CAO is a quick one, Sirski is doubtful Chychota’s replacement will be in place prior to her departure.

For her part, Chychota is hoping to leave the RM in good hands.

“I’m hoping we’ll find an amazing person to come in and lead this municipality. It truly has been a really great place to work,” Chychota said.

“We have amazing staff, a great council and anyone would be lucky to work here.”

Funding for Manitoba schools will increase by $67 million for the 2025-26 school year.

Background information concerning the announcement, made last week by Manitoba’s new education minister Tracy Schmidt, shows increases will vary between one per cent and almost 10 per cent for individual divisions, with the inclusion of federal nutrition funding.

For Mountain View School Division (MVSD) that means a 6.5 per cent bump to $28.1 million in provincial operating support for the coming year.

MVSD secretary-treasurer Lori Slepicka said while the announcement did not include major changes to the way support is calculated, the division did receive a much needed increase in provincial funding.

“They did continue with some of their what they call one-time funding amounts,” Slepicka said.

“So probably our biggest increase within that area were under a line that they call wage and enrollment growth redistribution. We haven’t seen a huge amount of enrolment growth so that’s just kind of a catch line for all the school divisions. So it definitely helps with the salary increases, with the contractual obligations, for sure. We also got a small amount of an increase for the nutrition program funding.”

Slepicka added while this year’s announcement does not provide all of the predicability and stability school divisions have been asking for, there were some positive steps towards that goal.

“We’re on the formula guarantee now, as well, so what that means is that your formula support won’t decrease from the prior year,” Slepicka said.

“So we have that amount which when your enrollment fluctuates or decreases a little bit, unless it takes you out of that formula guarantee, it really doesn’t really affect your formula support.”

The province says “incremental” changes to the funding formula for school divisions are being made.

“This includes calculating funding based on the best of the last three years of enrollment,” Schmidt said.

“In addition, we will be reconstituting the stakeholder advisory committee on school funding to identify further opportunities to improve the way education is funded in our province going forward.”

A complete overhaul of the funding model was announced by the former Progressive Conservative government, but was not pursued by the current administration, at least when it comes to this year’s announcement.

Schmidt vowed, however, to continue dialogue with school divisions, staff, and families to “provide stable and predictable funding” for schools. The system as it exists, with a reliance on property taxes, can make it harder for divisions in poorer areas to raise adequate funding, she said.

Read the full story in this week’s edition of the Dauphin Herald.