Dawson Trail Dispatch
Celebrating Over 20 Years of Service to Our Communities!
Dog Races Highlight of Vita’s Festival
The dog sled races were a huge draw during Vita’s annual Winter Festival.
By Marianne Curtis The community of Vita seems to have found the perfect mix of events to bring out the crowds after recently hosting their second Winter Festival. The event, which launched last year, thanks to a $10,000 tourism grant, features dog sled races. This year skijoring was added to the agenda. Skijoring is when a person wearing skis, races while being pulled by two dogs. The weekend event took place
January 12, 13 and 14. While the dog sled races were a huge draw, there were plenty of activities for everyone, including hockey and cribbage tournaments, kids’ activities, maple taffy making, toboggan hill and sled rides. The evening ended with a bonfire, fireworks and a Ukrainian Malanka supper dance. Jackie Funk, one of the event organizers said the event has been successful despite the cold. The idea to host a community dog
sled race was brought to the municipality last year by a number of local sled dog owners. Several champion dog sled teams participated over the weekend, including Dave Hochman, a six time Provincial Champion and the 2008 World Champion. Rachel Courtney, the current Manitoba Champion and her husband local musher Serge Garand were among the group. The couple owns a kennel in Caliento where they train and race 58 sled dogs. The weekend coincides with the traditional celebration of Ukrainian New Years, as per the Julian calendar.
February 2018
Federal Government Supports Municipal Cannabis Revenue Sharing The numbers are in, and according to the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM), they indicate strong support amongst Manitobans for sharing of revenue from the sale of marijuana with municipalities. The AMM recently commissioned a Probe Research poll asking how much, if any, of the revenue from marijuana should be earmarked for municipalities. According to President Chris Goertzen, the AMM expects significant increases to policing and other costs to emerge from the legalization of cannabis. “We know there is some debate over where this new money should be spent,” he explained. “And we wanted to gauge how much Manitobans feel should go toward these increased costs for municipalities.” Out of 1,000 respondents, 59% indicated that municipalities should get between one-half or all of the revenue from the sale of marijuana. Only 24% of Manitobans felt municipalities should get less than one-half of the revenue, and 16% were unsure. Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FMC) President Jenny Gerbasi was also on hand to discuss cannabis revenue sharing. Late last year, the FCM advocated that one-third of the cannabis excise tax revenues flow to municipalities. In response, the Federal government agreed to release half of its share to the provinces specifically to support municipal costs. That step began a dialogue among government officials to ensure municipalities have the right tools to implement this Federal commitment from day one. Goertzen is encouraged by the results of the AMM’s poll. “These numbers show that Manitobans are concerned about the increased costs of cannabis legalization and their local government’s ability to pay for it,” he said. “This is just another example of how municipalities deserve a “fair share” of revenues, and our citizens support this.”