The Swan Valley Animal Protection League held their annual spring banquet this past weekend (April. 13) inside the Veteran’s Community Hall where they had many games and draws that people got into, along with having a great supper, courtesy of Johnny and Jenna Catering.

Dauphin Regonal Health Centre (DRHC) is set to get a bit of a facelift thanks to Tim Hortons Westman and the Smilezone Foundation.

Through their Smile Cookie campaign, Tim Hortons Westman franchisees Rhonda Pardy and Greg Crisanti are looking forward to helping provide a more welcoming atmosphere at the region’s largest health facility. The initiative aims to enhance the healing environment and the comfort of patients and their families within the health centre.

“I was introduced to Smilezone and their team after seeing the completion of a Smilezone project at the Brandon Regional Hospital,” Crisanti said.

“Witnessing the transformation to the hospital as well as the impact on both patients and staff, we knew we wanted to bring this opportunity to Dauphin.”

Smilezone Foundation is a registered children’s charity founded by Scott Bachly and Adam Graves in 2012.

The foundation’s mission is to “make tough days a little brighter” for children receiving medical treatment in hospitals and health centres across Canada.

That is accomplished by renovating existing health care spaces (such as waiting rooms, playrooms and patient rooms), over a single weekend into fun and engaging “Smilezones” to harness the uplifting power of a smile and creating a safe space where children and their families can find comfort and distraction during challenging times.

“On behalf of our foundation’s board of directors, we extend our heartfelt thanks to Tim Hortons Westman for generously sponsoring the 2024 Smilezone project at Dauphin Regional Health Centre, a partnership made possible through their Smile Cookie campaign,” Bachly said, adding medical professionals have been consulted to uniquely design Smilezones for each facility.

Find the full in depth story in this week's Dauphin Herald!

An informal workshop was held last week as a preliminary step to reimagining the first block of Second Avenue as a “creative corridor.”

Dauphin Economic Development manager Martijn van Luijn has been tasked with creating a new vision for area.

“Council has desire to assist with reviving downtown and this would be considered sort of a pilot program, how can we reimagine this street by introducing some enhancements,” van Luijn said.

A consultant from Urban Systems has been contracted to help develop a plan and used the workshop as an opportunity to present examples from other communities as a means of stimulating conversation about what might be possible in Dauphin.

Check this week's Dauphin Herald for the full story!

Solar eclipses are one of those things that aren’t really as rare as they seem, as there tends to be an annular or total solar eclipse about once a year or once every couple of years or so somewhere on the globe. The feeling of them occurring once in a generation or even once in a lifetime tends to be because the Earth is such a phenomenally massive place and about 71 percent of it is covered by water.
Thus, depending on where you live and depending on your financial means or ability to travel, there very well may be quite limited opportunities when it comes to experiencing a solar eclipse, and when I had the ability and means to travel to experience a total solar eclipse – possibly the greatest celestial wonder visible by the naked eye on planet Earth – I didn’t hesitate that I needed to make this happen.
Loaded with a bag of camcorders and my travelling essentials, I set forth on a trip to Niagara Falls, Ont., that only took me out of Manitoba for barely over 48 hours for an experience that I have anticipated since 2017 – the last time a total solar eclipse crossed the North American continent – but have longed to see ever since hearing stories as a child of a solar eclipse crossing Manitoba in 1979.
As it turns out, this trip was a bundle of anticipation realized as well as plenty of disappointment. It seemed every time I struck good fortune, there was bad to follow. Really though, I’m just glad I got on all my flights and there were no unreasonable delays. I’m grateful for that.
But, I did have to sleep in my rental car the first night I was in Niagara Falls, due to the limitation of reasonably priced accommodations. My choice of viewing the solar eclipse from one of the busiest tourist areas in Canada also meant that I had to pinch my nose and tap my card when it came to paying for parking. And, it took me 45 minutes to get a burrito for lunch, standing in line just down the block from Clifton Hill. Not to mention, I missed the Blue Jays game I bought a ticket for on Monday evening because Queen Elizabeth Way on the way back to Toronto was so obscenely busy and slow. (If I had made it to downtown Toronto, instead of stopping in Mississauga where my Airbnb was, I might have been lucky enough to see part of the ninth inning, followed by more traffic on an evening that also had a Maple Leafs game scheduled.)
My bad fortune also consisted of me losing my phone in the park along Niagara Falls, with the slimmest of chances of ever getting it back, provided the perfect combination of kind souls has it in their possession and can contact me about my locked device that I happened to put into Airplane Mode minutes before I lost it.
Not to mention, the viewing location I chose also happened to have complete and consistent cloud cover for most of the day, conveniently clearing about an hour after the moon totally covered the sun.
I was in the same boat as the tens of thousands of other people who decided to visit Niagara Falls on April 8. I suppose I should be grateful that the city was not as busy as anticipated. What was projected to be an influx of nearly 1 million extra people that day only tallied to about 200,000 according to numbers reported by Niagara Parks, which still ended up being the biggest tourism draw in the area ever at one time, beating out the time tightrope walker Nik Wallenda walked across the Falls, which at the time had 130,000 watching live on location, not to mention an additional 10,000 in New York just on the other side of the water.
The Niagara Falls mayor was quoted as saying that “this was a gift that we could never afford to pay for”, showing his appreciation for the boon to the local economy that relies heavily on tourism, following the economic downfall that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As it turned out, had I driven from the airport the day before and gone north to Montreal or Sherbrooke, Que., I would have been treated to perfectly clear conditions. I wouldn’t have had a place to stay, but, let’s be honest, I slept in my car anyway.
That being said, it is difficult to describe or even depict with pictures or videos what it is like when – even when it is cloudy – the sky goes from the 9 o’clock twilight of a partial eclipse to the midnight blackness of totality within just a couple of minutes. The air gets cold, the horizon in every direction gets a sunset at once because of where the shadow stops, the sounds of night pick up for a few minutes and the energy of thousands of people all as amazed as you is overwhelming, especially when the clouds parted for a few seconds during totality and everyone was able to briefly look at our sun and moon in a way they’ve likely never seen in person before.
You can see pictures, you can see the video, but it’s different when you’re staring at it there in the sky, no safety glasses, no safety squints, the only time you are able to view the corona – or outer atmosphere – of the sun with the naked eye.
It was a moment that was so dazzling – yet incomplete as I was unable to witness the full and complete phenomenon without atmospheric obstruction – that I feel the itch to jump on another plane to catch one in the future.
But alas, if my financial situation will not allow for me to fly to Iceland or Australia or Morocco for a few days on a whim, with the chance that I might look up and see similar clouds, then I can always wait for 2044 when a total solar eclipse crosses the Rocky Mountains in August, right over one of Canada’s other major tourist meccas - Banff, Alta..
In listening to the many podcasts, YouTube videos and first-hand accounts from other community members who have seen a total solar eclipse – such as high school teacher and fellow videographer Kevin Penner, who shot a wonderful documentary about his experience in 2017 – it was expressed how much of a memorable experience to view a total solar eclipse in person and you owe it to yourself to see it if ever presented with the opportunity.
Indeed, I would have to agree, because, ultimately, the only part of my total solar eclipse experience that I was disappointed by was by how much of it I didn’t get to see.

While efforts are currently underway to bring immigrants to the Parkland to ease worker shortages, the council of the Municipality of Roblin wants to know just how big of an issue that shortage is locally.

To that end, the municipality is hosting a round-table meeting next week to determine a course of action. The meeting is set for Wednesday, April 24, at the Community Centre starting at 7:30 p.m.

Find out more in this week’s Review.

The Storyteller’s Film Festival is getting ready to showcase some Manitoba talent in the film industry, whether it be writing, directing, or acting. The interest in making films has increased and event organizers are seeing more entries comes from all over the province.
“There will be eight films at this year's Storyteller’s Film Festival,” said Storyteller’s Film Festival Organizer Cheryl Antonio. “Seven of those will be short films and one will be a feature length.
“Submissions for the festival has gone up and they have been coming from all over the province. They went up this year. Also, this year, we had two submissions from one local film maker, however, one of the films, A Conversation About Racism, is about and stars, an Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) member.”

Healthcare shortages are everywhere in Manitoba and all across Canada, but St. Anthony’s Emergency Department has been hit hard with over a 50 percent vacancy rate in their nursing staff. This led to a social media post put forward by the Manitoba Nurses Union (MNU) on behalf of the nurses working at St. Anthony’s, who are asking for help.
The post reads, “The public needs to know what is happening in St. Anthony’s Emergency Department in The Pas. We are not ok! We have a 56 percent vacancy rate with two additional nurses off injured.
“We are working with nurses who are redeployed from the medical ward and are partially ER trained, with some not trained at all to work in ER, meaning they have none of the mandatory courses to work here. Agency nurses are coming to help, but some of them have no ER qualifications, or limited ER qualifications. We need help, but shouldn’t be expected to train and mentor while working short under additional stress.

It was not the news many people in the tri-community wanted to wake up to on a Monday morning, but it definitely was a shocking way to start the week. At around 4:38 a.m. on April 8, The Pas Fire Department received a call that smoke was coming from the Lido Theatre building.
The Pas Fire Department, along with their Mutual Aid partner, Opaskwayak Cree Nation Fire Department spent 17 hours battling the flames, in hopes to save the building, along with the investigation and clean-up.

Staying consistent with its election focus of fixing health care and making life more affordable for Manitobans, Wab Kinew’s NDP government released its first full budget last week.
“Six months ago, Manitobans put their trust in our government to rebuild health care and lower costs for families,” Kinew said.
“Our first budget delivers on those commitments by hiring 1,000 new health-care workers and delivering cost savings for Manitoba families with a $1,500 Homeowners Affordability Tax Credit. We’re strengthening our province’s economy, with help for you and help for those who need it most.”
As it was through the election campaign, health care dominated the province’s budget with $1 billion in new spending going directly to the front lines.
According to Kinew, the record investments in health care support a plan to hire 100 doctors, 210 nurses, 90 paramedics and 600 health care aides over the next year, along with investments to retain and train even more.
It also adds hospital and ICU beds, and opens new minor injury and illness clinics and primary care clinics, so more Manitobans can see a doctor when they need one.
“The challenge that we face in health care isn’t going to be fixed overnight,” Kinew said, adding capital funding in health care is more than doubled this year.
“But based on this document, you are going to start seeing improvements in health care this year.”
The premier noted the budget helps to take better care of seniors, invests in better health care for rural and northern communities takes action to improve cancer care in Manitoba, and will help modernize health records and bring in plastic health cards.
When it comes to affordability, an extension of the gas tax holiday through the summer leads the way in addition to providing renters and seniors with increased tax credits, expanding $10-a-day child care, providing free birth control, increasing funding for fertility treatment and providing rebates for electric vehicles.
“What we heard resoundingly is the reality and the impacts of rising costs, the difficult conversations Manitobans have been having at their kitchen tables in every part of Manitoba,” Finance Minister Adrien Sala said, commenting on the process which resulted in the budget.
“We heard about the difference the gas tax is having for people in this province, of the freedom that lower costs create for your family and we know it has meant a bit more left to put into savings at the end of the month.”
The budget also makes significant investments in community safety, agriculture, the economy and education.
“I want Manitoba to be a have province in the next decade and in order to do that you have to grow GDP per capita by about 10,000 to 12,000 dollars,” Kinew said.
“And the way we do that, the best economic plan, is an education plan.”
The work is hard, Sala added, considering the situation left by the previous government when it was removed from power by voters.
“The previous government left us with a huge mess to clean up - a historic deficit, a health-care system that’s been badly hurt by seven years of cuts, and a failure to strengthen our economy or support families who were struggling with years of rising costs,” said Sala, adding the budget charts a path to balance by the end of the NDP’s first term.
“We’re different. We’re making smart, targeted investments. We can take steps to fix health care and lower costs, and we can do it while being responsible with public money and charting a path back to balance. That’s what Manitobans can expect from our first budget.”
Budget 2024: One Future, One People, One Manitoba, is a document borne of extensive consultations and conversations, Kinew said, and is a plan which should excite every Manitoban and bring them pride.
“A huge amount of work has gone into identiying the needs, to listening to the challenges, but also hearing the opportunities that Manitobans are excited about for our future. We don’t have to agree on everything to do the big things together like fixing health care and lowering costs in this present economy,” he said, adding that in addition to unity, the theme of this budget, is about delivering more help for those who need it most.
“It’s a path forward that is built on compassion. It is built on listening to the evidence and most importantly it is built on listening to you. We are very proud to bring forward this document, so that we can continue to work together making this province such a great place. A great place to grow up and a great place to grow old.”
More budget details are available by visiting www.manitoba.ca/budget2024

While there are plenty of initiatives in the NDP government’s first budget to make all Manitobans smile, there is extra reason for rural Manitobans, to be optimistic, says Dauphin MLA and Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn.
Budget 2024 invests in rural families, Kostyshyn said, giving young farmers a fighting chance by lowering their upfront costs, freezing Crown lands and investing $200,000 to reopen two Manitoba Agriculture Services Corporation (MASC) centres.
An investment of $146.9 million will made be made toward Business Risk Management Programs including AgriInsurance, AgriStability, AgriInvest and Wildlife Damage Compensation, including increased funding for the Livestock Predation Prevention Strategy.
“We’ve been hearing a lot of challenges from producers with animal predation. So we’re working on some increased funding to address the predation problem that exists in our Parkland area,” Kostyshyn said.
The budget also provides $135,000 for implementation of a veterinary strategy to help address a shortage of veterinary professionals in Manitoba and makes investments at Assiniboine Community College to support sustainable horticultural practices.
Another highlight for Kostyshyn is a planned increase in the loan amount eligible for the Young Farmer Rebate.
“We increased the lending limits through MASC from a $200,000 limit to $300,000. Plus that provides a 10 per cent rebate based on age of individuals,” he said.
“So I think that really makes things interesting.”
Kostyshyn is also particularly proud of work advancing on the Crown Lands file.
“I talk about that a lot. We’re going to continue to have that 55 per cent discount for this year and we’re massaging the changes that were made,” he said.
“There is definitely going to be some good news in the future. We’re still working on the Crown lands policies and procedures.”
When it comes to his constituency in particular, Kostyshyn is pleased that the Community Justice Centre promised for Dauphin at the kickoff of the election campaign last fall, is included as a budget line item.
Work this year, he said, will include scoping, designing and consulting to ensure the centre provides culturally appropriate supports and vocational training when people are ready to turn their lives around.
“The design of the blueprints, the pre-engineering, everything has to be done,” he said.
“And whether we’re going to have shovels in the ground this fall or this winter . . . definitely by the following year we’ll have some action going, for sure.”
Finally, a lifting of the seven-year freeze on municipal funding will give communities an opportunity to thrive and grow with sustainable annual funding increases and key investments in water and wastewater treatment.
All of the rural-specific initiatives come in addition to the overall themes of healing health care, improved affordability and unity, Kostyshyn said, and come despite the government dealing with a $2 billion deficit and rising costs of work left undone by the previous government.
“It’s one of these things that you just assume you don’t have to deal with it, but reality set in is that it’s a $1.9 billion deficit. Historically, that’s the largest in the province of Manitoba of a new government taking over from a previous government,” he said.
“It’s one of those give and take, you know the Robin Hood scenario, but we have to get our house in order. I think we’ve done great things based on our budget and estimated a balanced budget approach in our four-year term. I feel very confident that we’ll meet those targets.
“It’s going to take a lot of work and it’s going to take a lot of partnerships and understanding with the taxpayers of the province of Manitoba. Based on our budget that was delivered, I think we’ve done a lot of things over and above what people anticipated were going to be done.”
Budget 2024’s other rural investments include:
• over $22 million in the expansion and improvement of medical transportation services across the province;
• restoring the Rural Doctor Recruitment Fund;
• expanding the nurse float pool to allow nurses to work at multiple health-care facilities throughout rural and northern Manitoba;
• training and creating positions for advanced care paramedics to work in rural and northern Manitoba;
• continuing to support innovative health delivery with nurse practitioners through QDoc;
• providing for rural capital investments such as the design of a new Eriksdale Emergency Room;
• constructing a new personal care home in Lac du Bonnet;
• increasing policing grants by $13.7 million for rural and urban communities;
• investing more than $4 million more in new, annual and sustainable funding for sport and cultural organizations;
• building the Lorette arena;
• investing $635 million in capital projects for the health sector, which includes a one-time investment of $110 million for health system capacity expansion including a new hospital, the Neepawa Regional Health Centre, a new Portage Regional Health Centre, a Community Service building and new beds for the Boundary Trails Health Centre and a Western Manitoba Cancer Centre expansion;
• providing a historic $24 million, a $4-million increase, to support the Manitoba Water Services Board for the development of safe, affordable, and sustainable water and waste-water infrastructure in rural municipalities;
• providing a $730,000 increase to support the Urban and Hometown Green Teams, which provides funding to non-profit organizations, education authorities, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) councils and municipal governments that create summer jobs for youth aged 15 to 29;
• investing $1.2 million to implement a new public libraries funding model;
• increasing funding by $1.1 million for Integrated Youth Services, which brings total support to $3.2 million, a 52 per cent increase from last year, which co-locates mental health supports, addictions services, primary care, cultural and spiritual care, social services, and housing resources for youth aged 12 to 29;
• funding to finish construction of new schools in Morden and Steinbach; and
• investing $5.3 million in funding for ATV Manitoba and Snoman for off-road trail maintenance, safety and rehabilitation to make trails more accessible.