NORTHERN ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COUNCILS April 2015 Whispering Pines INSIDE THIS ISSUE Dolly Partons’s Imagination Library Manitoba Trappers Association Thompson Fur Table Northern Healthy Foods Initiative Spring Visits Local Grow North Conferences 1 IS SOMETHING MISSING? INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Manitoba Trappers Association.…………..4 Is there something you would like to see Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library……….5 in the Whispering Pines we did not Frontier School Division………………...6-7 include? We take suggestions! Feel free NHFI Spring Visits……………………….12 to contact the office with article ideas, Grown North Regional Conferences….13-14 letters, or upcoming events that you Community Events Near You……………15 would like to advertise. We can even do classified advertisement ! NACC STAFF: HELGI EINARSSON; EASTERN CHAIRPERSON Mallory Fleming: Executive Director Email: [email protected] Miranda Crowe: NHFI Project Coordinator Email: [email protected] Tymara-Lee Mikolajek: Administrative Assistant Email: [email protected] GLEN FLETT; NORTHERN CHAIRPERSON KEN SPENCE; WESTERN CHAIRPERSON Eric Olson, Eastern Vice-Chairperson; Larry Chartrand, Western Vice-Chairperson; Harold Fleming, Western Secretary/Treasurer; Ken Spence, Western Chairperson; Helgi Einarsson, Eastern Chairperson; Reg Meade, President; Frances McIvor, Northern Vice-Chairperson; Glen Flett, Northern Chairperson; Barbara Marcyniuk, Eastern Secretary/Treasurer Regrets: Freda Parenteau, Northern Secretary/ Treasurer Northern Association of Community Councils REG MEADE PRESIDENT Hello Whispering Pines readers, I would like to welcome everyone to the Spring edition of the Whispering Pines. Thank you for taking the time to read what is taking place within our organization, and the NACC communities. ImaginationThe NACC holds many organizational positions library within other boards across Manitoba to discuss how we can help bring better services and growth to Northern Manitoba. Since December, I have attended such meetings with the University College of the North, Vale Inc, The City of Thompson and other stakeholders. We are continuing to meet with departments to discuss the resolutions and concerns that came forth at the last Annual General Meeting. January and February were busy months with many Lake Winnipeg Regulation public hearings taking place in NACC communities throughout the province, as well as the Northern and North Central Regionals that were hosted by Aboriginal and Northern Affairs in both Thompson and Winnipeg. The 45th AGM and Tradeshow plans are underway, and it will once again be held at the Canad Inn Polo Park from August 18th to 20th, 2015. I encourage you to contact the office with any suggestions of presentations that would benefit your community, and we hope for a great turnout again this year. The NACC Board of Directors and Staff wish Harvey Bostrom a very happy and healthy retirement. It’s been a pleasure working with him for so many years. On behalf of NACC, we wish you and your family a healthy and active spring, and stay tuned for our next issue of the Whispering Pines in July. HELGI EINARSSON; EASTERN CHAIRPERSON Hello everyone! Well it kind of looks like spring is here or coming slowly, the snow is just about gone or in the Southern and Western sides of the province anyways. The province will again be using the Portage Diversion to channel water into Lake Manitoba which is already high and will be effecting Lake St. Martin and Dauphin River. I would like to offer condolences to those who lost a loved one over the past year. Reg, Mallory and myself attended Harvey Bostrom, Deputy Minister of ANA’s retirement party at the legislative building and would like to wish him all the best in the future. I attended hearings in Ashern Manitoba on Manitoba Hydro licencing. I also attended ANA regionals in Winnipeg where I had seen most of the councils. I would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter and a warm and early Spring! GLEN FLETT; NORTHERN CHAIRPERSON Hi and Hello to Mayors, Councillors and Admin, Hope you all had a nice winter, I know most of us comment on how long and dreadful winter is, but hey it’s the environment we live in. It appears flooding issues will be kept to a minimum this spring. For all you trappers out there, hang in there, fur prices will hopefully go up! We are losing a good man to retirement Mr. Harvey Bostrom. I would like to wish all the folks good health and a happy Spring! KEN SPENCE; WESTERN CHAIRPERSON Hi everyone! Well spring is finally here, and I'm sure we are all happy, as the winter seemed to be long and colder then usual, especially February. I have attended all meetings on a regular basics, and we have discussed a number of interesting issues. I attended the ANA Regional conference at the Holiday Inn in February. I met with a number of delegates from the Western Region and discussed some of the concerns in their communities. I brought these issues to attention of ANA reps who were there. Lack of cell phone service in our communities continues to be a major issue, I am currently working with the Community Futures office in Grandview, they have agreed to help me try and pressure MTS to provide us with cellphone service we so badly need. We have talked to many MTS reps and have spent a lot of time on the phone, it is going to be a long process but we will keep trying. The repair of highway 276 was a month late getting started, but they are working on it now and seem to be making good progress. Have a nice Spring and Happy Easter! 3 Thompson Fur Table 2014 221 Trappers Badger 0 N/A 2014 Thompson Fur Table Results Bear 1 $80.00 $80.00 Beaver 285 $18.00 $5,130.00 The Thompson Fur Table is an annual Castor 18 auction hosted in Northern Manitoba, Coyote 21 $60.00 $1,260.00 Ermine 110 $3.00 $330.00 and the only one of it’s kind held in Fisher 59 $45.00 2,655.00 North America that was established in 1979. Fox, Cross 21 $30.00 $630.00 Fox, Red 106 $30.00 $3,180.00 For more information, please contact the Fox , Silver 2 $35.00 $70.00 Manitoba Trappers Association Fox, White 36 $30.00 $1,080.00 Lynx 146 $120.00 $17,520.00 Marten 3712 $50.00 $185,600.00 Mink 297 $18.00 $5,346.00 Muskrat 232 $6.00 $1,392.00 Otter 114 $60.00 $6,840.00 Raccoon 1 $18.00 $18.00 Squirrel 33 $1.50 $50.00 Wolf 34 $160.00 $5,440.00 Wolverine 18 $160.00 $2,880 $239,421.00 Results from the Thompson Fur Table that took place in December, 2014. Congratulations! The Northern Association of Community Councils would like to congratulate Harvey Bostrom on his retirement. Harvey has served as Deputy Minister of Aboriginal and Northern Affairs since 2001, and began his career working at the NACC office after he completed University. Harvey was first elected into the Manitoba legislature in 1973, he then went on to become Minister of Cooperative Development in 1974. He has also worked as a teacher, and with the Aboriginal Affairs Secretariat. Harvey celebrated his retirement with coworkers, family and friends on March 25th. He will be greatly missed, and we wish him a happy, healthy, active retirement and the best of luck in his future endeavours. Northern Association of Community Councils Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Comes to Manitoba Communities…… On a cold afternoon in February 2010, the NACC community of Mallard joined the Imagination Library family, being the first Community Council to replicate the program in Manitoba! The program is designed to give children an early start to their learning and development, providing free age-appropriate books to encourage literacy, language and learning. The program was made available to Mallard through the local Parent/Child Coalition - South Parkland Healthy Child Coalition. Now fast forward five years later…….the Imagination Library has increased from the original 24 communities to now over 100 throughout the province! Frontier School Division has replicated in their communities in addition to Manitoba First Nation Education Resource Centre replicating in a majority of their communities as well. Some of the communities replicated to date are: Churchill Cormorant Cranberry Portage Crane River Cross Lake Falcon Lake Gillam Snow Lake Gods Lake Matheson Island Camperville Pikwitonei Rorketon Bissett Sherridon Waterhen Wabowden Thicket Portage Stevenson Island Alonsa All First Nation communities Selkirk Winkler Ochre River Dolly Parton remembers when she was young what it felt like to have no books in her home, she also remembered the very first time she saw her name on an envelope, both these events have a profound effect on her. She wanted to find some way to give back and promote literacy, something near and dear to her heart. In 1996 she created the exciting Imagination Library Program which provides free, brand new books to all children (from birth to age four) through the local mail delivery system in a replicated community. All children in a community are eligible and the books are addressed directly to the child. Children graduate from the program when they turn five. Locally, the Mallard Community Council decided to replicate the program after seeing the excitement in neighbouring communities after the children began receiving free books. Through the hard work of Noella Catcheway and Mayor/ Council the program was launched. Today, Phyllis Ewen (Mallard Council Member) can attest to the success of the program, her daughters’ received books for almost a five-year period and they began school this past year. “We had such a great experience with my girls being in the Imagination Library program.