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Intermountain Conservation and Turtle River Watershed Districts are being forced to come together.
Intermountain currently covers seven municipalities, and the merger area will cover around 15.
Jeff Thiele, the manager of Intermountain, says both are set up differently, and this is a concern as they come together.
“We’re going to have to get together and figure out how they are going to run one district that have two different mandates sort of thing, and how they are going to do all that. Because Turtle River is still going to have infrastructure to deal with. So how are they going to deal with that?”
Turtle River deal is an infrastructure district that deals with things like culverts and ditches while Intermountain focuses mostly on conservation projects.
“It doesn’t look like Intermountain is going to have to deal with the infrastructure, our way. So that will remain the same. Is Turtle River going to be able to do some of the conservation programming that we currently do in Intermountain?”
The province is forcing a merger in 2020, and they want a draft plan by this upcoming March.
Right now the province is saying the districts won’t get any extra money and stay at the current budget they are at right now.
Thiele says he knows it’s going to be a big job while planning for the future while also keeping their current projects going. But he thinks it can be done. It’ll just require a lot of work and communication.
(source: Turtle River Watershed Conservation District Facebook)
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
About 80 customers in Gilbert Plains lost natural gas service because of a leaking valve in the supply line.
The leak occurred early last night. The valve is now repaired and Manitoba Hydro service personnel have started the process of going door to door to assist affected customers with relighting any pilot lights on furnaces, hot water tanks, etc.
They will get to the remaining effected customers this morning.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Main Street South In Dauphin, between 7th ave and 8th ave, will be closed starting this morning.
The City of Dauphin is closing the street at 7:00 to install a water and sewer service.
They say it will stay closed till sometime late in the afternoon tomorrow.
The city asks that you be prepared to detour.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
A two-vehicle accident occurred on Main Street by 7-11 and Parkland Source for Sports earlier this afternoon.
We've reached out to the RCMP to find out all the details of what happened.
CKDM will have an update when more information becomes available.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
There’s a structure fire on Highway 20A just north of Ochre River.
Emergency crews are currently on scene putting out the fire.
CKDM is reaching out to emergency services to get details.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
A rotating strike by Canada Post employees is causing disruptions for mail delivery in Dauphin.
Carrie Brook, President of Dauphin-Swan River Local 722, hopes the strike and the disputes behind the strikes get resolved quickly.
“Brandon and Winnipeg are on the rotating strike as of today. so as of right now, there is very limited mail that is actually being distributed. So the movement is still there, but right now there is a little bit of disruption as there has been for the last two weeks across Canada since the start of the rotations.”
“As an employee, as a person that does this job, we don’t want to be on strike, we don’t want to have to do these things. But when you need to fight for the rights you are entitled to that are stipulated in labour code and otherwise that it’s important that we stand up for ourselves.”
The movement of mail is still there but it’s limited as much as it can be and limit the hurt on Canadians.
“This is where we stand up for ourselves, and the hope is that we don’t have to have a full strike, that’s not what the hope is. But we’ll see.”
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
The RM of Dauphin is requesting a rate increase for their rural water system.
A rate study is mandated by the Public Utilities Board to make sure the system is self-sufficient.
Chief Administrative Officer Nicole Chychota explains why they are adjusting the rates higher.
“What happened when they looked at what we had for the past two years was that for the past two years we had been incurring deficits because there was not a lot of water being used by the ratepayers. So when that happens the rates have to be adjusted to make sure we can cover the deficit that was incurred previously and make sure that we don’t have another one in the future.”
The Utility incurred an audited deficit of $1,602 in 2016, an unaudited deficit $143,455 in 2017 and anticipates a deficit for this year.
The initial proposed water rates calculated by the RM were based on a projected average quarterly water consumption of 90.92 cubic meters or 20,000 gallons per customer. The actual average quarterly water consumption from April 2017 to March 2018 was 26.36 cubic meters or 5,800 gallons per customer.
She says the board requires the utility to be financially self-efficient.
“The utility system in the RM of Dauphin is fairly small, small number of ratepayers I suppose, we have a large area that is being serviced. It’s only about 206 customers that are going to be set up after our phase two is completed here this fall.”
“So what happens is that when we first set it up the Water Services Boars, are the experts, who helped determine what the water rates are going to be based on what they expect would be normal water consumption. So over the last two years, they found that the water usage per household has just been a lot less than what was anticipated, which is why we incurred the deficit.”
The current rates are set at a minimum quarterly charge of $76.25 and they are requesting a minimum quarterly charge of $123.05.
Chychota says, for the most part, the quarterly minimum went up by about 50 dollars and that most customers will be minimally impacted.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Thousands of visitors attended this year’s Manitoba Ag Ex in Brandon.
There was close to 1300 head of livestock through the Keystone Centre during the four-day event.
Ross Jermey, owner of Spruce Ridge Stock Farms in Ashern, was at the show, he says business was good.
“We go to quite a few shows in the course of a year and this show here has been one of the better shows, in terms of spectators through the barns. We’ve had read cattle people coming through the barns and looking at the cattle. We’ve actually been able to do quite a bit of business here in the stalls."
Manitoba Ag Ex Co-Chair Dallas Johnson says that four or five years ago the show had 300 head of cattle and now they hosted close to 800 head.
“It’s been a great show, there’s lots of cattle,” Jermey said. “We had the National Angus show here and there was, I believe, 200 head here just for the Angus show alone. It was just a great show. We’ve had cattle from all over western Canada here and it was very competitive.”
Organizers say they had exhibitors from as far as Quebec and British Colombia.
The Manitoba Superhorse had a successful show and sale with over 30 thousand dollars in cash and prizes awarded.
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Don’t miss out on today's Market Fest at Selo Hall.
Teresa Zabiaka, a board member of the Selo Ukraina, says there is lot’s to check out this year.
“It’s a good way to do some Christmas shopping because there are all kinds of people selling their wares for Christmas presents and that.” She continues, “we offer a nice rainbow auction. Lots and lots of prises this year. if anybody wants to win any prizes, they can come to buy tickets for the raffle.”
This year they are fundraising for a new stove for the hall.
“We are a hall that we rent out. We have a bunch of smaller stoves, so we’re looking for a big commercial stove to be able to accommodate some of the big do’s that we have for weddings and things like that.”
The 14th annual event costs 3 dollars to get in.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Manitoba has had a poor history of managing fisheries dating back several decades.
The Manitoba Wildlife Federation and several other angling related organizations have made some recommendations to the minister of sustainable development to help fix fisheries in Manitoba.
Just like Lake Winnipeg our local lakes have faced a dropping Walleye population. The large Walleye population has dropped by 85 percent since 2012 and it could get worse.
Brian Kotak, managing director of the Manitoba Wildlife Federation, explains what dropping fish populations will do.
“The farther we drive the fish stocks down, the more we risk not only the commercial fishery itself but we also risk the economic spinoffs and benefits of the angling fishery.”
Just from the past two years, there was $221 million in direct spending by anglers, adding $102 million to the province’s GDP, $44 million in wages, supporting more than 1,500 person-years of employment, and contributing $52 million in taxes. That’s all from Walleye in Lake Winnipeg.
Kotak wants people that are concerned to get in contact with their MLA, so they know the importance of angling in the province.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Highway 19 in Riding Mountain National Park is being rehabilitated.
The first of the two-phase project starts today and will continue until December 14th.
Phase one will involve clearing trees in the ditches and the replacement of 23 culverts along the corridor. As necessary, the road will be re-graded or widened and culverts added or replaced.
The whole rehabilitation project will improve the safety and reliability of road infrastructure, improve ditches and drainage, and offer safe vehicle access through the East Gate.
Parks Canada is committing approximately $3 million to the project.
Road restrictions will be implemented during the construction period. Weight restrictions of 6006 lbs or 2730 kg gross vehicle weight will be enforced on Highway 19 within the boundaries of Riding Mountain National Park. As an approximate guide, the largest vehicle allowed would be an empty three-quarter ton truck or a loaded half-ton truck.
Travellers should be prepared for a construction zone and occasional delays of up to 20 minutes.
Phase two of the project will begin in 2019 and continue until spring 2020. More details on this portion of the project will be shared closer to the commencement of the work.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
