At their July 12 meeting the RM of Wallace-Woodworth council received two delegations.
Liza Park, Economic Development Officer for the Town of Virden attended the meeting to bring information about a rural training program for Licensed Practical Nurses. Assiniboine Community College (ACC) and Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) will ensure that a high standard of training is maintained for the program. The classes will accommodate 25 trainees. Recruitment is beginning immediately and priority will be given to those within 100 km of Virden.
Coun. Humphries wondered if this program could work toward national certification of graduates, as provincial certification would not be useful for someone from Moosomin. Also, he feels that people who attend the program from other areas might stay and work here.
An important requirement for this program is a building to provide classroom and office space. The building being proposed will be used for a minimum of four years and will require around $70,000 to bring it to the required standards.
Since the goal would be to retain people who come here to train, an important consideration would be the availability of appropriate housing for the trainees to live in Virden. Park wondered how the RM could help with this.
Reeve Canart replied, “We discussed it, Liza. You’re going to see some support from us.” He added that if there are more applicants than space there would have to be set criteria and priority for selection.
CELL COVERAGE
Gary Draper, a landowner from Lenore district, attended to discuss the quality of cell phone coverage, and the possibility of making use of a communication tower in the area. The tower in question has been used by Natural Resources in the past but is currently available for use. Draper requested that the RM council approach the Manitoba government and Bell to make use of this tower to increase coverage.
Draper previously contacted Bell about the possibility of using the tower, but they replied they needed 70,000 customers to activate a tower. He noted that on that basis, in rural Manitoba we may never get better cell service.
When Draper contacted MLA Greg Nesbit, he replied in an email that Bell is willing to partner with municipalities in the establishment of towers. This might also apply to unused existing towers. According to Natural Resources, the tower in question is the best site in Manitoba, covering from the valley at St. Lazare right to the American border.
Coun. Caldwell noted that when there was a similar request from around Kenton, Bell informed them that this area is considered “remote”. Draper commented “Somewhere there is going to be a mishap where we don’t have service and there is going to be a fatality.”
Coun. Stambuski stated that it is important to bring this up to government “over and over again because it can’t be based on population. They have to look at rural areas different than urban areas.” She said other provinces have challenging situations (northern Alberta and northwest Ontario) yet they have excellent cell coverage.
Reeve Canart concluded that “It’s something that we’ll follow up on because we know cell service over there is a concern. We’ll talk to the government and both Bell and Telus and let them know the tower is available from the landowner.”
