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A Christmas tradition that's nearly 70 years old has once again opened its phone lines and website.
Major Jennie Derenzis with the Royal Canadian Air Force says NORAD's Santa Tracker all started with a child calling a wrong number.
"The Airforce Colonel who answered that call realized the confusion but was capable of answering the question due to what they were doing, their mission, thinking 'Hey, I have the capacity to answer this' so he had his staff confirm where Santa was, and it began the magical santa NORAD connection all these years."
Since then, you can call 1877 HI NORAD every Christmas Eve to find Santa's real-time location.
You can also go to noradsanta.org to find the real-time tracker, as well as a history of the program, online activities, and details of the Christmas celebrations around the world.
NORAD's radar and satellite arrays help them track the big man in red and secure air and sea borders 365 days a year.
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- Contributed by Michael Brossart
Applications for Manitoba's new plastic health cards will have to wait for the new year.
After delays from the postal strike, the latest timeline has health card applications delayed to mid-January.
In previous statements on social media, Premier Wab Kinew stated that these new health cards will feature artwork of the northern lights, a QR code for easy scanning and access, and a digital copy that can be saved on phones.
While the total cost is unclear, current estimates are $1.67 per card, similar to the COVID-19 cards.
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- Contributed by Michael Brossart
The province has released its Multi-year Infrastructure Investment strategy.
The report outlines planned capital investments for highway, airport, water-related and general infrastructure over the next five years.
Among the projects in the report are improvements to the intersection of Highway 5 and the Trans Canada Highway, which will see work continue on an investigation to evaluate road safety and engineering characteristics of the intersection, with a view towards designing and reconstructing it to improve safety.
17 seniors from the Dauphin area were killed and 8 others were injured at that intersection when their bus collided with a semi-truck in June of 2023.
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- Contributed by Jeff Henson
Assiniboine College is set to present its 2025 Parkland Campus Alumni Awards on February 4th.
A total of four people will be recognized that night, including Elder Phyllis Racette as the Distinguished Alumni Award winner.
The One to Watch Alumni Award will have two recipients this year - Bryn Thiele and Blessing Chukwunonso, while current Parkland Campus Learning Strategist Kristy DeSender will receive the Excellence in Education award.
A special event to recognize the winners will be held at the Watson Arts Centre.
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- Contributed by Jeff Henson
An annual tradition returns to the Watson Arts Centre tonight, as Peter Nadolny of Theatre Amisk will be doing an abridged reading of the famed Charles Dickens classic "A Christmas Carol."
"This will be the fourth year running. It is going to be held in the Fire Hall, and I read Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." There will be coffee and tea offered by Bloom and Bean as well as festive spirits. And, all of the proceeds go to the Parkland Humane Society."
The reading begins at 7 pm tonight.
The famed story recently turned 181 years old.
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- Contributed by Jeff Henson
Premier Wab Kinew has announced that they are bringing in a permanent 10 per cent cut to the fuel tax.
The permanent cut comes into effect on Jan. 1, 2025, exactly one year after the province launched its initial gas tax holiday which saw a 14-cent tax break.
The gas tax will be 12.5 cents a litre once the 10 per cent decrease takes place.
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- Contributed by Jeff Henson
Dauphin's Co-op food store continues its mission of funding great local causes.
They recently presented a cheque to Parkland Humane Society, providing $1,380 to build a quarantine shelter for incoming or ill animals.
Before this cheque was presented to Parkland Humane Society, the Society held their $1,000 shopping spree with winner Jerri Czversko.
She had 85 seconds to race through the store, grabbing everything she wanted, after winning one of Parkland Humane Society's biggest fundraisers.
On top of it all, the Food Bank picked up 18 boxes of food donated by staff and shoppers at your local Co-op.
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- Contributed by Michael Brossart
The large amount of snow that has fallen in Dauphin since November has been a challenge for City Hall and public works crews to stay on top of.
"I know that our public works crew really takes this seriously. We have had to rely a lot on some private contractors just because of the volume of snow. But the relationship with them has been very good. We also have relationships with Manitoba Infrastructure because of the new work that has been done on the south end of the highways." says Dauphin Mayor Davi Bosiak.
The Mayor also says council recently passed a motion to take up to $100,000 from Snow Removal reserves if needed to pay for services used during the 2024-25 winter season.
Bosiak adds they will not know if they need to actually pull the reserves money until they start getting bills from their contracted services.
"We have some contracted relationships with private operators. We also have those that we have to pay internally. But if it is an internal transfer of funds, we can always move that to a time that works best for us. But the city likes to pay their contractors on time and so if it is necessary to do so, we will definitely dip into our reserves to do that."
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- Contributed by Jeff Henson
The first case of Avian Flu was detected in Manitoba in domestic birds at a commercial poultry operation in Portage la Prairie.
Avian flu, also known as Type A H5N1, is a highly transmissible and usually mild disease in geese, swans, and seagulls, as well as domestic birds, such as chickens, and turkeys. It has also spread to mammals, including people.
While there have been some noted cases in the U.S. of bird-bovine transmission in some human cases, the risk to the general public is currently low, with no logged Canadian human-to-human cases.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency encourages people who work closely with livestock to wear personal protective equipment, such as goggles, masks and gloves.
Previously, cases have been detected in the province in 2022 and 2023, with minimal public risk.
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- Contributed by Michael Brossart
The City of Dauphin has announced its Holiday schedule for Waste and recycling pickup.
After normal operations on Monday and Tuesday in the day one and two areas, there will be no collection on Christmas Day or Boxing Day.
Services will resume on Friday in the Day 3 area, while Day 4 will next have their garbage collection on Monday, December 30th.
Regular waste collection will resume on January 7th.
Residents are also reminded to keep an eye out for the 2025 Waste, Recycling and Yard Waste collection sticker in this week's edition of the Parkland Shopper.
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- Contributed by Jeff Henson
With postal workers returning to work, Manitoba Hydro has announced it has resumed mailing out utility bills to its customers.
However, they are cautioning that some delays may persist as Canada Post works through the backlog of mail from the strike.
Customers waiting for their December bill can still sign up for an online account, which would make their monthly bill available electronically.
You can sign up at hydro.mb.ca/signup or by calling 1-888-624-9376.
Late payment charges have been waived for both November and December bills.
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- Contributed by Jeff Henson
