ECAR DELEGATION
Representatives of the Elkhorn Community Action Report (ECAR) steering committee attended the meeting to report on their plans for a new multi-use facility for the town. Steven Malcolm, Riley Brennand, Keith Orr and Tiffany Cameron described the planning that has taken place and asked for assistance and leadership from the municipality. Elkhorn District Community Center, the Royal Canadian Legion and the Elks Lodge are all occupying buildings reaching the end of their useful lives. These buildings will require extensive, expensive renovation if they are not replaced.
In November the group invited Kris Doull from the Provincial Municipal Relations, Community Development branch to attend a meeting and lead discussion of some of the alternatives for replacing these buildings. He stated that multi-use facilities are common in these situations and buildings like this are not feasible without assistance from all three levels of government. A community centre project takes about four years to complete. He said that a multiplex with an arena can take about 10 years.
Tiffany Cameron said, “We came here tonight to inform council that we are in the pre-design planning phase, to ask for your support in that and to ask you to appoint a member to the new facility steering committee,” adding, “We need some leadership to move forward.”
Coun. Val Caldwell wondered if there is a possibility of adding the museum building to the process. Reeve Canart asked what funding would be needed in the initial pre-design planning phase.
Cameron replied that to help host some meetings and conduct a survey, a good faith amount of $500 was requested from each partner.
Council agreed to appoint a member to the committee and provide continuing support to the project.
AIRPORT UPGRADE
A delegation attended the Rural Municipality of Wallace-Woodworth council meeting to present plans for the upgrade of Virden/R.J. (Bob) Andrew Field Regional Aerodrome. CAO Rhonda Stewart, Brock Andrew & Rob McDougall of Virden Airport Commission informed council of changes in the works and the progress of the project.
McDougall described plans to lengthen the runway from 4300 feet to 6000 feet and to widen the runway to 100 feet from its current 75 feet as well as resurfacing the existing runway. The four hangars that are closest to the runway are all being moved and there will be a parallel taxiway similar to a service road. Plans also include a weather system so that pilots can remotely find out the current ceiling, wind direction and velocity.
These changes will allow the strip to meet the standards required to land aircraft with a ceiling as low as 250 feet, compared to the current 500 feet. In the recent period with weeks of low cloud, the airport was unable to land planes and traffic was diverted to Brandon.
In poor weather the most critical limitations on air traffic to Virden would be losing access to medical flights. These flights are often time critical and delay can be fatal.
In season the airfield services a growing number of agricultural spray planes that are bigger than previous models. They can no longer use grass or gravel strips and the shorter runways are limiting the payload of these large machines.
Established business personnel as well as new enterprises in the region have an increasing need for good air service and the airport needs to be able to handle larger aircraft in all weather conditions. Andrew said local access to an airport allowed his company to keep their headquarters in Virden, adding, “We were able to live and breathe out of Virden for the past 20 years, because we could operate out of here. We have to go to both ends of the country spring, fall, all the time, but it worked for us.”
CAO Stewart said that the town has informed the provincial government of the plans and the estimated price tag of $8.357 million. Stewart told council, “We have asked for $4.657 million from the province. Speaking with the premier … this is definitely on their radar.” She noted that Dr. Hammell is using the airport more frequently and Dr. Fitzgerald is on a committee where he will “try to push this along.”
Scott and Brock Andrew have committed $2.5 million toward the project and the town of Virden will add a minimum of $800,000, which equates to about $250 per capita.
Reeve Clayton Canart thanked the delegation for their attendance and the information they provided saying, “I think first of all, I’d just like to tell the Andrews family, I think it's a massive thank you from our municipality.” About the request for support, he said, “We know that it's something that we will be having some form of commitment to but being completely transparent, we've been having the same discussion with Moosomin. We had already committed something [but they are] short and they're asking for more from us.”
CASINO SUPPORT REQUEST
Council received a letter of support request from the Four Bands Casino Venture for a proposed new casino. The group had approached the RM in 2017 about the possibility of building a casino near Virden. At that time there was a freeze on licencing of new casinos but that is being lifted by the provincial government and the request has been repeated. Reeve Canart said, “We need a lot more new information and discussion with them prior to offering a letter of support.”
Coun. Barb Stambuski said that a hotel at the site would be necessary for the venture to succeed. “You need some kind of guarantee that that would go through and wouldn't get stalled-out on phase one.”
It was decided that it would be advisable to have a joint meeting with the town of Virden where the casino group could make a presentation to clarify their intentions.
GIS DEPARTMENT
The GIS department’s annual report was submitted and discussed. The report, which is available on the municipal website, detailed the activities of technician Shaelyn Tanguay and technical assistant Brianna Hughes in 2023. These included routine operations like surveys and asset management as well as projects like cemetery mapping, historic flood data entry, culvert inventory data collection and land title office plan mapping. Regarding the cemetery mapping project Coun. Val Caldwell said, “A counselor from another municipality said that they've been hearing lots of what we're doing with the cemetery and people are very impressed with it.”
ELKHORN DAYCARE
Reeve Canart reported that the intended start date for construction of Elkhorn’s additional childcare facility is Mar. 13, adding that the pre-fabricated building will go up quickly. “It should go up in one to two days. And it should be completely waterproof and sealed in within a week.”
Council approved the payment to JQ Built of $195,406.56 as well as the payment to Barnes and Duncan for land surveying of $5,142.05.
Regarding the treated water supply for the Elkhorn RTM daycare, council passed a resolution requesting assistance in funding from the provincial Water Services Board.
WARD 2 SHOP CONSTRUCTION
Council approved progress payment number three to 10056830 Manitoba Ltd. of $35,495.28.
Payments were approved to Penner Lumber of $14,915.75 and $7,475.37 for the interior tin package.
ELKHORN SEASONAL CONTRACTS
Council approved contracts for summer maintenance for Elkhorn. The cemetery caretaker will be Kaylee Kyle, the campground caretaker is Linda Bajus. Jack Lewis is the village caretaker and Chris Anderson will look after the spray park.
KENTON PROPERTY SALE
Council received an offer to purchase the property at 210 Railway Ave. in Kenton with a requirement that the buyer begin construction of a home within 12 months. CAO Garth Mitchell noted, “This is a non-serviced lot but it's on a street that has services in front of it so it will be their responsibility to bring it from the mains into their property.”
TAX RECEIPTS ISSUED
The Inspire Kola community development committee is planning improvements to the town’s rink and the Harding agricultural society is making repairs to their hall. Council issued letters of support to enable tax deductible receipts for these projects.
COUNCILLOR REPORTS
Reeve Canart met with Associated Engineering, the Manitoba Water Services Board and Castle Construction regarding the planned water well upgrades. He reported that they are hoping for a mid-April start for the project.
Trans Canada West planning district is looking for an option to enable data sharing between members. After consultation with 3CTech it was determined that the most efficient solution is to have a Microsoft 365 account and a Share Point file system.
In 2024 the RM has received permit fees of $35,660 with most of that from the daycare permit fee. Total building value has been $6,093,085 so far this year.
The Wallace District Fire Board is applying for grants from the Virden Area Foundation and the Elkhorn and Area Foundation to provide radios for the Elkhorn fire station and a fire engine replacement for Virden fire station. The draft budget shows an increase due to replacement of some equipment that's expired and for damaged equipment that needs to be replaced.
In 2023 the fire department billed $61,416.96 to insurance companies for calls answered on highway incidents and received payment of $40,755.95. So far this year $9,973.74 has been billed with $5,653.16 received.
Firefighters have been called out eleven times this year, and there are 36 members on the team.
Coun. Stambuski reported on the annual meeting of the Manitoba Antique Automobile Museum in Elkhorn. Grants and community support have been used to purchase a laptop and software to allow a staff member to digitize the collection and come up with a collection management policy.
There was discussion of whether it would be better to renovate or rebuild the museum and Crane Steel will be doing an assessment of the structure.
The board would like to add three voting members. Work needs to be done on volunteer recruitment and retention. Stambuski said, “We need a good manager and we're starting to advertise outside of our area.”
Coun. Caldwell attended the Assiniboine West Watershed District annual meeting and reported that producers are taking advantage of the program that pays farmers not to drain potholes. There were no changes to the board but Lance Routledge is the new manager of the Oak River subdivision.
Student doctors spend a week in rural communities every year week and Caldwell met with economic development officers to come up with activities for the students.
Hamiota hospital is currently looking for a nurse for every other weekend and the hospital has a health care aide vacancy as well. At the Hamiota & District Health Centre, a new casual recreation worker is in place for Birch Lodge and there are five people on the list for permanent beds.
Hamiota has two full-time lab staff and three doctors currently. Dr. Brennaman is away for three weeks so a number of emergency room closures will be coming up.
A full complement of doctors for Hamiota is 4.5 physicians, a number that has not been changed for 25 years. In that time, the emergency rooms in neighbouring communities have been closed and currently the Hamiota facility actually needs six doctors. The committee will approach the Minister of Health to clarify the criteria used to determine the number of doctors listed as required.
Coun. Diana MacDonald attended a community meeting in Hamiota with Ducks Unlimited. MacDonald reported that the dam at the Pope National Wildlife Area, planned to be removed, will now be rebuilt and the wetland retained. The cost to restore the dam was originally estimated at $1 million, but that figure has been revised to $500,000, including 30 years of maintenance.
