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The Dauphin Art Group is set to host their Art Show & Sale at the Watson Art Centre later this year, and have started accepting submissions from local artists.
Jo-Ann Stykalo, Dauphin Art Group President, said she hopes it'll be a great way for promising young artists to flex their creativity, and give them a chance to see their art front and centre. One big part of the sale is there's a $5 fee to submit your artwork, but not if you're 18 or under, as a way to highlight the next generation of artists.
"Well I think it's good to promote art for all ages, and the youth are the upcoming, and there's a lot of very creative and very talented artists out there, and we would just like to give them an opportunity to show their work and their talent...we're open to anything that's creative. It's not just paintings, it can be pottery, it can be crafts," said Stykalo.
Aside from the $5 submission fee for anyone over 18, the Dauphin Art Group also will take 20% commission on sold pieces, as a way to fund the other good work they do in the community, and keep them going strong.
"We take a 20% commission and it goes to the club to help pay for our expenses," said Stykalo.
Being invovled with Dauphin and the area's art community for more than 50 years, Stykalo has some very passionate feelings about the arts. To some, paintings and sculptures might be just that, paintings and sculptures, but to the artists and a lot of people, they mean so much more.
"Your inner feelings can come out, your inner artistic creations can come out, and it's just a very therapeutic thing to do," said Stykalo.
The Dauphin Art Group's Show & Sale isn't for a while: it takes place on Septmber 19th at the Watson Art Centre, and the submission deadline is September 12th. But if you're interested in creating and submitting works to the show, now's the time to start getting creative.
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- Contributed by Ian Gillingham
Dauphin RCMP are searching for a pair of suspects who stole an ATM from a business on Main Street, using a stolen UTV.
RCMP say on July 13th, at around 4:50 AM, they responded to a commercial alarm from a business on the 1400 block of Main Street in Dauphin. After arriving at the scene, officers learned that two individuals used an orange utility task vehicle to smash a window, open a door to the business by prying it open after connecting a strap to the UTV, and hooked the strap to an ATM inside the business and dragged it out.
RCMP are seeking the public's help in finding the two suspects. Their images were caputred on surveillance video. RCMP are also tracking down the UTV, which had been stolen the night before. The UTV is a 2012 Kubota RTV 900XT, with Alberta license plate UTZ62.
One suspect was wearing a black sweater with a hood, and a white Reebok triangle logo on the front. They were also wearing a dark-coloured mask covering and gloves. The other susepct was wearing a full face covering ATV helmet, with what could be a "V" or "VH" written on the side.
Dauphin RCMP ask anyone with information to contact them at 204-622-5020, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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- Contributed by Ian Gillingham
Garton's Auction Service is holding their Large Equipment Consignment Auction, from today until July 27th.
Larry Garton, Owner of Garton's Auction Service, said the name is a bit misleading. This auction features a variety of large farm equipment, and a lot of smaller items too, including livestock as small as chickens.
"There's quite a wide array of items in this sale. There are some very good combines coming in, there's tractors, there's all kinds of farm equipment, there's even livestock, horses, we've even got down to some quail and chickens this year, it's a very long mix," said Garton.
Their service is backed up a little bit because of the amount of flooding, both in their area and the areas of people submitting items for auction. Garton hopes the wide scope of this auction will help get them back on track.
"We're just pressed for time this year, with all the flooding and everything it's backed us up, and we're doing that just to try and move things through for people...we actually have some listings right now for early August that we're still working on and don't have them online yet, we'll be getting them on shortly," said Garton.
Garton said one common question he's asked is, why bother using an auction website? In his experience, around 80 to 85% of large equipment without reserve ends up sold, and smaller equipment and items often reach a 99% sale rate. Plus, contrary to popular belief, he usually sees auctioned items sell for more than most private sales.
"There seems to be a mentality out there, and expectation out there that, if I can't sell it on my own the last option is to put it on an auction sale, and we've seen just the opposite. We've seen people sell items for far lower amounts than what we're getting on the auction sales, even with the commission taken in as a factor," said Garton.
You can take a look at this auction's stock and place a bid for yourself here.
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- Contributed by Ian Gillingham
After the cancellation of Canada's National Ukrainian Festival, organizers announced they would soon be revealing details about using this year's tickets for next year's event, or requesting a refund. They have now released that information.
If you intend on rolling over your Canada's National Ukrainian Festival 2026 ticket to the 2027 event, or you'd like a refund of this year's tickets, click here to visit CNUF's website.
If you purchased your ticket over the phone or in person, you need to go to their office, or call them at 204-622-4600 to fill out the form.
You must select a refund or rollover by August 8th to qualify.
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- Contributed by Ian Gillingham
Neepawa will be buzzing on Saturday. From food and fun, to art and entertainment, there won't be a quiet corner of town. Art Fest rolls back into the community, for the fifth year.
Yvonne Sisley, Executive Director of Arts Forward in Neepawa, detailed a few of the day's events.
"Neepawa Gladstone Co-op is actually doing a free community BBQ here just outside of Arts Forward, we've got some live music going, we'll have other music going...we'll have artists painting, we have a Plein Air workshop, we've flown Perry Haddock out from B.C, he's a Canadian fine artist and he does Plein Air paintings, so he's doing a workshop," said Sisley.
Sisley said Haddock's Plein Air style will bring a lot to the workshop. She said there are both comparisons and unique differences between his work and the work of Weiming Zhao, one of Manitoba's most well-known Plein Air artists. The differences will bring a lot of new ideas to Parkland artists. Pictured below is "Elgin Park Trail", one of Haddock's Plein Air works.
Though the event is named Art Fest, it means a lot more than just art to the community. There are several events throughout the day, including Amazing Race Neepawa, which is organized by Arts Forward, and Neepawa's rescheduled Canada Day fireworks display.
"It's a great event. People get to see the art, listen to live music, have something to eat, and then we also have Amazing Race which is part of it, so right now we've got just under a hundred people registered Amazing Race," said Sisley.
In addition, parts of Art Fest are Neepawa staples year-round. Neepawa's painted benches will be done over the weekend, though some of the more detailed ones have been done already so people can see them during Art Fest.
"This will be our fifth one, and Art Fest is received very well. We have painted benches that we do throughout Neepawa, and they're all done during Art Fest. We've got a couple that have been done ahead of time, just because they were quite intricate...those benches then become part of the Neepawa Art Trail, and it's just great, it's just the collaboration between the businesses and the local artists that volunteer their time to paint the bench and what they bring to life is just absolutely amazing," said Sisley.
Sisley is already looking forward to this year's edition of Neepawa Art Fest, set for this Saturday.
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- Contributed by Ian Gillingham
Prairie Mountain Health has put out a news release detailing some of their next steps to restore basic healthcare in Dauphin in the immediate future.
Treena Slate, Prairie Mountain Health CEO, said she knows the level of communication hasn't been ideal, but there's been a lot of moving parts behind the scenes, especially working with partners in Shared Health Manitoba.
"I am personally striving to ensure that we're providing regular communication and updates to the public and to local leaders and stakeholders, at least on a weekly basis," said Slate.
The first part of Prairie Mountain Health's news release mentions ongoing inspections and assessments of the DRHC, and they're waiting on final reports to finalize timelines for major steps, including replacing components and restoring electrical and mechanical functions.
"There are many people working on the cleanup efforts there, the crawl space is still full of mud and silt, and there's still lots of working going on to clean that up and thoroughly assess that has occurred in the building...significant amount of damage and work required to analyze that damage, and to make assessments in terms to the timelines to replace what was damaged and reinstall it," said Slate.
Slate and Prairie Mountain Health recognize that Dauphin has very little healthcare capability right now. The bolstering of the Grandview and Ste. Rose Emergency Departments was designed to be a quick bandage to stop the bleeding, so to speak. Now that time has passed, Prairie Mountain Health has made some decisions on how to restore basic healthcare to Dauphin, and will have a lot more details soon.
"So we are looking at establishing a community-based diagnostic centre, where people can go and get lab work done, portable x-rays, so that is being established, and hopefully in the next few weeks we'll have more information on that, as we determine firm timelines on that...we also are examining the possibility of moving back hemodialysis closer to home, and also cancer care closer to home. So those are the things that are in the works right now, lots of effort is being put into sourcing space available that will meet the clinical needs of those programs," said Slate.
Timelines has seemed to be Prairie Mountain Health's latest buzz word - you'll find it in most of their communications from the last two weeks. Going forward, Slate said she hopes to keep residents better informed by releasing weekly updates, to make sure residents know that Prairie Mountain Health is actively working to restore healthcare in the community.
"Definitely less than a month we'll have information, we'll know for sure when we can get the community-based diagnostic centre up and running, and I don't have timelines yet for hemodialysys and chemotherapy, but we're hoping soon. Next month, I'll able to tell you a timeline on that for sure," said Slate.
The next few weeks for the Dauphin Regional Health Centre will be a waiting game. But with Prairie Mountain Health's news release, it at least shows they're working to restore the basics to Dauphin.
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- Contributed by Ian Gillingham
The lastest Manitoba Agriculture Crop Report highlights that the Northwest region has finally started to dry, following hot temperatures that started last weekend, and continued into earlier this week. Some standing water in the region has receded, and high temperatures created crusting. Moisture concerns have also subsided, with excess moisture stress appearing to have grown out of some crops. Flooding damage is still being assessed, as events were widespread across the region. Damages are also continuing to be repairs, and access to some areas is still a challenge.
Herbicide applications continue where necessary stages have been reached, and timely applications are facing some challenges due to excess moisture, high temperatures, and high winds. The herbicide and fungicide application window will be further stretched by the wide range in crop stages.
Fall rye and winter wheat are headed out, and continue towards flowering stage. Spring cereals have a wide range of crop stages, from tillering to heading, and anthesis is mostly complete in both fall rye and winter wheat.
The most advanced soybean crops in the region are at R1 stage, with the rest of crops close behind. Warm temperatures have greatly helped with soybean development. Field peas are also in R1 stage. Areas that have faces constant moisture show signs of moisture stress. Canola fields range from 4 leaf stage to full flower. While some crops look healthy, some fields under excess moisture are thin, and starting to stress bolt.
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- Contributed by Ian Gillingham
In the weeks since devastating flooding within the City of Dauphin, Mayor David Bosiak and his staff have been working to determine the cause of the flooding, why it was so severe in places that normally don't see much flooding, and what can be done to prevent future flooding in those areas.
After assessments and reviews, Bosiak says the City thinks they know what happened. To make a long story short, this flood was a combination of a lot of bad luck.
"The Vermillion River, typically when it's flooding, it floods Vermillion Park. Vermillion Park fills up, the Dead River fills up, and then if the water is still rising, it generally overflows at Vermillion Park just at Wellington Crescent, the start of Wellington Crescent, and historically has flowed down River Avenue, going East...what we believe happened was a confluence of bad luck, or bad timing, in that the Vermillion River was peaking, there were some beaver dams that imploded in the National Park, we don't know if it happened before, during, or after, that added significant water addition to the rain and the runoff, and then that all inundated the community in about a three hour window," said Bosiak.
As for why the flooding was so bad around the Dauphin Regional Health Centre, Bosiak pointed toward the Buckwold Bridge on 4th Avenue. Bosiak said the bridge usually acts as a choke point when there's a lot of water flowing in the Vermillion River. That, combined with excess water in the system from heavy rainfall and runoff from Riding Mountain National Park, caused the water to go over the banks near the DRHC. Add in the stress that the City's wastewater system was already under, and you get a flooding event that nobody could have predicted.
"The water appears to have gone over the banks just a little bit north of the Hospital Proper, in behind actually the Personal Care Home...but we believe that the six or seven inches of rain we received completely overwhelmed the City's sewer system, and the combined water backing up from the river, and the sewer unable to take the volume of water, resulted in manholes backing up, and because the Hospital has a loading zone behind it that is eight to ten feet below grade, with a manhole in it, water was coming in through that manhole," said Bosiak.
With regards to the City of Dauphin's wastewater system, nothing more could have been done on that side. Not a single one of the City's lift or pumping stations failed during the event, and were continuing to handle as much water as they physically could. Considering the rarity of a flooding and rainfall event this large, and with so many external factors, Dauphin's wastewater system physically could not keep up with the demand.
"The sewer only has so much capacity, both because of the lagoon itself, the capacity of our lift stations, and actually the size of the pipes in the sewer...on average, the amount of water that's flowing through our lift stations and our pipes, in and out of Dauphin, is about 3,500 cubic metres per second. During the height of the flood, about that amount was flowing into our system, and 48,000 cubic metres were being measured flowing out. So there was almost 12 times the capacity of the system," said Bosiak.
Going forward, Bosiak and other city officials have had a lot of discussions about what can be done, both from Public Works and looking at infrastructure, to make sure flooding in important areas of the city, notably around the Dauphin Regional Health Centre, doesn't get that bad again. One big contributor to the little to no warning with this flood is that the Vermilllion River's measuring station is downstream of Dauphin, meaning there was no way to check how much water Dauphin would get beforehand. Bosiak said he'll be pushing the Province hard to have more measuring ability further up the river.
"And so we're going to be advocating to the Province since it's their jurisdiction to put up additional monitoring or measuring stations at the head of the Vermillion River, and partly downstream...we've already highlighted where we believe the water breached the banks of the Vermillion River, we know that the northeast end of our community is over 27 feet lower than the southwest end of our city, we know that the Vermillion River could possibly be dyked in certain areas," said Bosiak.
Bosiak and the City of Dauphin have been in communication with Provincial officials to discuss additional steps going forward.
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- Contributed by Ian Gillingham
Forty-year-old Jennifer Chartrand of Swan River has been charged with robbery.
Just after 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, a 70-year-old woman was withdrawing money from an ATM at a bank in Swan River. Chartrand entered the bank and grabbed some of the money from the victim's hand.
The victim followed the suspect outside and asked for the money back.
Chartrand pushed the victim, then fled. On Tuesday, Chartrand was found at a home on 1st Avenue South and was arrested without incident.
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- Contributed by Darnell Duff
The next time you get your morning cup of coffee from Tim Hortons or an ice-cold Slurpee from 7/11, don't forget to throw the cup into the recycling bin when you're done.
Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba announced that Manitobans can now start putting empty paper cups into their blue recycling bins.
Christa Rust with Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba says allowing people to put their paper cups into the recycling is a big deal.
"If you think about the coffee cups, fountain drinks, other cold paper cups, folks use a lot of those when they're out and about or ordering food in," said Rust. "Having the opportunity to add these to the accepted list is significant. Talking to a lot of folks, some people didn't know they weren't recyclable already. That's why you've likely seen a lot of them in the recycling bin already."
Previously, paper cups weren't on the accepted list of recyclables in Manitoba.
Rust says they've been difficult for recycling programs due to the plastic linings and dyes used in some cups. Recycling partners in Manitoba have since said they can be sorted with mixed paper.
When it comes to recycling stats in Dauphin, it's not a pretty picture. Since 2021, the City of Dauphin has seen a 21% decrease in residential recycling. That's 144 fewer tonnes of recyclable materials collected. In comparison, that's the weight of six humpback whales.
That's also the weight of 24 African elephants. Simply put, when you recycle, you keep plastic out of the landfills.
"If we can do our part, the lifespan of the landfills is longer. We're taking these materials and putting them into new products," ended Rust. "It's an important component for everyone to pitch in. You might think that your individual efforts aren't significant. If you look at it as a collective, it is quite substantial."
Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba has also put forth a transition plan about allowing plastic foam, like Styrofoam, into recycling. The Manitoba Government is currently reviewing that plan.
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- Contributed by Darnell Duff
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Riding Mountain MP Dan Mazier visited the Parkland to speak with residents and organizations about the various challenges they face. One of the most troubling things to him was the amount of uncertainty surrounding the Dauphin Regional Health Centre.
Yesterday, he wrote an open letter to Manitoba's Minister of Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care, Uzoma Asagwara. In the letter, he speaks on the lack of communication from Prairie Mountain Health on the future of the facility, the possibility of politcs playing a part in what should be a non-partisan issue, and the serious concerns he's heard from health care officials in the region over the past few days.
"You know, that letter went out for a reason. Like, all we're hearing right now is the province is still assessing, we're still assessing. Meanwhile, it took days, almost over a week to get the water out and start drying the [Dauphin Regional Health Centre] out, it's almost like it's an afterthought, to get the building up and running again...you go to any residence, any private business, anybody that's been flooded out, it's all hands on deck, and people [are] coming in from all over the country and all over the world here to help us out, all over the riding, except in that hospital. And that is totally unacceptable," said Mazier during an interview.
One of Mazier's top concerns is the strain the DRHC's closure is putting on an already stressed provincial healthcare system. With the closure comes the unavailability of several specialized services, including cancer care. Both diagnostic services and the emergency department are fully unavailable, meaning both patients and staff are having to travel further to receive and provide care.
"When you stop and think about this, we have doctors, we have nurses in our communities, that are being asked to go serve somewhere else, and fit in to their other places that didn't have their hospitals shut down, so what's that doing to our whole system, it just speaks to the lack of capacity and the lack of reaction," said Mazier.
In his letter, Mazier highlights serious concerns he's heard from regional healthcare professionals and residents about the lack of communication and timely information when it comes to the DRHC. In trying to book a simple visit and meeting with Prairie Mountain Health officials, Mazier and his team faced a two week delay, and were offered a Microsoft Teams meeting as opposed to an in-person visit.
Mazier said most of the people he's spoken to outside of what he called the "Healthcare Bubble" don't know the severity of the problem, in large part because of the severe lack of communication from Prairie Mountain Health and the Provincial Government.
"I thought it'd be a lot more urgency, and I'm not sensing that at all from the ministry, the Health Minister, the Government," said Mazier.
Mazier urges concerned residents, and especially healthcare professionals, to tell their stories. He said being vocal to your local MLAs and MPs is a good way to raise attention to the severity of the DRHC's closure.
"Definitely don't be scared to tell your story if you're a healthcare worker, and tell your MLA, you can go ahead and tell your MP...the more the community can push, it makes it easier for all of us elected officials to do what we need to do as well to get the Government's attention, like it needs to be a really coordinated effort," said Mazier.
In the last paragraph of his letter to Minister Asagwara, Mazier said he has called for targeted federal assistance to suppor the restoration of hospital services, but delayed responses and absent leadership have delayed the ability to support affected residents. He also commented on the lack of communication from all parts of the Provincial Government.
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- Contributed by Ian Gillingham
