Wednesday, February 25, 2009

District Living

B1

Municipalities facing 1% hike in DSSAB levy

By Peggy Revell Stafff writer In a 6-4 vote, a budget of $19,851,785 for 2009 was approved by the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board last Thursday night. The overall budget increase . . . was 3.01 percent, but the municipal increase was only 1.06 percent, Finance manager Leanne Eluik told the board. That is mainly due to the increase in the unincorporated assessment, and the province is picking up a bigger share this year, she explained. I would prefer it to be a zero percent increase, but one percent, I guess, we can live with, noted Atikokan Mayor Dennis Brown, who voted to accept the budget. But while the budget passed, board members expressed concerns over the feasibility of the increases given the current economic situation. Its tough times right now, noted Emo Coun. Gary Judson, who voted against the budget. The government people dont seem to realize where the dollars are coming from and I think weve got to start realizing this, he stressed. That the guys who make the money and are paying the taxes, theyre the guys that pay all this stuff. Coun. Judson also noted that while its these people who are taking cuts, the local DSSAB has given out raises. I think thats, for lack of a better word, terrible. I dont think were concentrating enough on cutting stuff, he argued. Eluik pointed to five main reasons why the budget saw an increase for this year, including a three percent salary increase in the 2008-11 staff agreement. As well, there is one-time funding from the Ministry of Community and Social Services this year that must be matched by the DSSAB for mandatory training of Ontario Works administration staff. The DSSAB also has seen an annual increase in administrative costs for child care, which ends up being covered by the municipalities. This stems from the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, which, with the exception of a few thousand dollars back in 2004, has not increased its funding for administration, Eluik noted. While the DSSAB annually has requested more funding from the province to cover costs, she said they have been denied repeatedly with no reason given by the ministry. Thats just one . . . of the most perfect examples of integrated services, noted DSSAB CAO Donna Dittaro. I dont know how the child care services would function without an integrated system because basically the other programs that we fund pick up the costs for child care. They dont have the funds to put into administration, so the other programs have to support them. Why [is the province] not increasing it, if everything else is going up? wondered Rainy River Mayor Debbie Ewald. It seems to me that perhaps all the DSSABs should be getting together and going after this because thats way out of whack. Another increase comes from the required matching of provincial funding for land ambulance under the 50/50 cost share plan with the Ministry of Health. While the province was ready to provide an extra $155,000 on top of fixed funding for this year, the DSSAB opted to only take and match $56,000 of that to meet the actual needs, Eluik explained. Finally, the budget increase also comes from the capital funds needed for social housing units to ensure they are brought up toand maintained atappropriate standards. Eluik did note there were some cost-savings reflected in the budget, such as Phase Two of the provincial upload for the Ontario Disability Support Program, which saw the programs administration costs covered by the province. As well, 2008 saw the end of the National Child Benefit Strategy. Changes to the Ontario Works program and caseloads within the past year also have meant some cost-savings, Eluik added. [In] 2007, we saw extremely high caseloads, 2008, for whatever reason, we saw very low caseloads, she noted. [For] 2009, we sort of fit somewhere in the middle. Altogether, Eluik said the majority of the costs (62 percent) within the budget goes towards program expenses such as payment to service providers, payments to run the Please see Municipalities, B5

Once finished, this centre arbour of the new pow-wow grounds at Manitou Rapids will be able to hold about 50 drums.
Peggy Revell photo

New pow-wow grounds taking shape

By Peggy Revell Staff writer Covered by bush less than a year ago, an area of Manitou Rapids will have been completely transformed into a new pow-wow grounds for Rainy River First Nations by this summer. Its actually a fairly big structure, said Rainy River First Nations education counsellor Marcel Horton, who also is the project co-ordinator. From the discussion thats taken place with other First Nation communities, this is pretty well going to be the colosseum of powwows, and were pretty proud of that, he added. Located at the junction of Highways 11 and 71, the facilitys seating capacity will be just under 1,500 while the centre arbour will have room for roughly 50 drums, noted Horton. There also will be amenities like showers, washrooms, change rooms, camping grounds, and space for concession booths. All the lumber being used has come from Manitou Rapids own sawmill. Construction began last May, when elders were brought to the site and traditional offerings made for a good, successful build, Horton explained. Areas of the site were cleared out, where the grandstand and arbours were to be located was built up, and gravel was trucked in for the parking area as well as for the service road thats been built all around the outside of the structure. Its estimated the structure will be finished by this May, with only some landscaping left to be completed after that. Ive actually been waiting to go on Google Earth to see what this structure looks like, an aerial shot, enthused Horton. Because from what weve been told by the architects and the people who designed this [that] this may be one of the only few seven-sided structures that there are in Ontario or Canada. Horton said the reason why they chose a seven-sided structure is because Rainy River First Nations, after a 30-year court battle, settled its land claim with the federal and provincial governments in 2005 that dated back to 1914 or 1915. What a lot of people dont realize, and a lot of our young people dont realize, is that Rainy River First Nations is pluralistic for a reason, he remarked. Its because the six other reserves that comprise Rainy River First Nations along the Rainy River, six of those reserves were forcibly removed and all moved here to Manitou. So each side of the structure will be named after, and stand in commemoration to, these original reserves, Horton said. Within the grandstand area, there will be seven rows of seating. There also are plans for an honour guard of seven poles. Thats the reason why we picked seven because youre honouring those old reserves, Horton stressed. And yet in a holistic way, youre all coming together as one to say We are Rainy River First Nations. This is who we are. Horton called the project the silver lining following the incident last year where an online video surfaced of non-native members of the Muskie girls hockey team dancing to the sounds of a powwow while holding what appeared to be liquor bottles. When that video had come out, we had a lot of our young people go to the parents, go to the schools, principals, teachers, and a lot of the young people who were offended by whats happening in the video, Horton explained. [But] they actually admitted, We dont know what it means to be First Nation. We have no clue. Thats our young people talking. And so when that video had come out, we started to look back at ourselves and say, Who are we? Who are we as First Nations people? If you dont know who you are, then what are you doing? Horton stressed. Horton explained the Rainy River First Nations chief and council (of which he is a member) started to look at previous pow-wow committees and found that elders wanted a new facility built as far back as 30 years ago. They decided that now was the time to make it happen. I mean, youre talking about my uncle and the friendly giant, [the] late Harold McGinnis, said Horton. Theyve all passed on, and when we first discussed this, its with those guys memories and those guys spirit with what were building here. The new pow-wow grounds Please see New, B5

District carpenter using skills to craft customized urns

By Ken Johnston Editor, R.R. Record In Rainy River, many people know Garry Halverson for his expert craftsmanship as a carpenter and cabinet maker. But as time goes by, more and more may know him for his new business called Wood Art by Garry. Halverson started doing scroll saw art about six or seven years ago. Along the way of his 35+ years in the carpentry business, he also has dabbled with other hobbies related to his trade. A few years ago, he saw people were making wooden urns for pet ashes. It wasnt long before he decided to make a few pet urns for sale. That morphed recently when he was looking on the Internet for a niche that no one was filling around here: customized urns for people. There was already someone making caskets in the area [someone in Barwick] but no one doing this, noted Halverson. He tossed the idea around with friends and it was not long before he had two of his friends in Rainy River asking him to make them each one. With the positive feedback from them, and others, it was not long before Halverson was looking at marketing them to the general public.

Area Masons working to help find lost kids

By Ken Johnston Editor, R.R. Record What would you do if your child went missing? You likely would call the police, but would you be ready to help them find your child as quickly and as effectively as possible? Ken McDonald of Stratton, a member of the Masonic Lodge in Emo (Manitou Lodge #631), together with members from the Rainy River and Fort Frances lodges, are spearheading efforts locally to bring the MasoniCHiP program to this area to get parents prepared in case the unimaginable ever were to happen here. MasoniCHiP stands for Masonic Child Identification Program. Its a little more than a year old in Ontario, and the program recently surpassed its 12,000th child identified. The free program utilizes special technology that takes a digital photograph, digital video, digital fingerprints, vital child information, and either a dental bite impression or an Intra Oral Swab. All the information then is burned to a CD ROM and given to the parents to keep in a safe place so that if the unthinkable were to happen, the police would have all the tools they need to attempt to find the missing child quickly. McDonald said the initiative came to light during the last Deputy Grand Masters term (Dan Johnson of Rainy River), but there was not enough time left on his watch to get it up and running here. So under the new Deputy Grand Master (Bob Cox of Atikokan), Masonic lodges in the region have been working to bring the MasoniCHiP program to their respective communities. At first, McDonald said they werent sure there was a problem here (one of the safest areas of Ontario to live). But then seeing statistics like the one that nearly 55 kids per day are reported missing in Ontario, they came to the conclusion that it could happen here. There are four of the special identification machines in Thunder Bay. McDonald said they are hoping that if theres enough interest, they will bring at least oneand perhaps moreof them to the Emo Walleye Classic on May 28-30. We need about 50 kids to make it viable, explained McDonald, noting the three lodges in Rainy River, Emo, and Fort Frances will pay the costs for the kids to be identified. He also stressed that everything is strictly confidential. We take the photos, fingerprint them, and compile the information, he explained. But once the package is done, all of it is completely erased from the machine we use. All the information then is handed to the parents in an envelope. The only thing the Masons keep is a permission slip signed by a parent or guardian giving them permission to I.D. the child. For that reason, each child must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian to have MasoniCHiP Please see Area, B5

He did some more research and discovered that in Fort Frances, they bore a hole 12 inches in diameter for urns. Anything larger costs more, he noted. So Halverson went to work reducing the size of his first designs. The one I made for [a friend] is much larger, he remarked. Halverson uses mostly ash to hand make the urns. The wood all is locally cut by Bennett Drennan of the Wilson Creek area. Halverson is very selective of the wood he chooses for each urn. The planks he gets from Drennan are cut into strips, with all the knots carefully cut out. He then looks at the cup of the wood and glues them together meticulously, alternating the cups to provide for long-lasting strength and to avoid any cupping or warping. On the front of every urn there is a scroll saw picture. While hes been making some to display including tractors, moose, deer, and a rose, he did do a caboose at the request of a friend. If there is a pattern for an image, I will make it for a customer, Halverson said. In other words, a person can have a customized urn for their ashes. He said if he has the time, he can make two urns on a good day. But generally, the urn work, as well as the other items he makes for sale, gets done when he is not busy doing his main jobbuilding and Please see District, B5

Rainy River carpenter Garry Halverson showed the assembly of a moose scroll saw picture to the front panel of an urn.
Ken Johnston photo

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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

FORT FRANCES TIMES B5

Municipalities facing 1% DSSAB hike

More from B1 land ambulance program, and program services, which are considered uncontrollable. The next largest portion of our budget is staff salaries and benefits, including the paramedics, she added. And then the last, small 4.69 percent, the remaining portion of the budget is administrative costs for the programs. So thats just your overall DSSAB admin, our office supplies, the stuff we control on a daily basis. For the 2009 budget apportionment, Alberton saw an increase from $240,023.80 to $256,838.47; Dawsons increase was from $139,142.57 to $145,623.70; Emos increase was from $229,062.01 to $244,355.94; Fort Frances increase was from $1,987,603.55 to $2,008,148.64; Lake of the Woods increase was from $262,078.37 to $280,497.64; La Vallees increase was from $162,348.85 to 169,781.01; and Morleys increase was from $95,075.58 to $97,748.39. The unincorporated areas saw the largest increase (from $1,646,833.11 to $2,088,832.28). The only areas to see a decrease were Atikokan, whose share went from $842,141.86 to $742,296.19, Chapple, which saw a decrease from $351,084.21 to $278,610.33, and Rainy River, with a small decrease of $115,113.59 to $114,823.58. Chapple Coun. Peter Van Heyst expressed concerns over the increasing costs for the social housing. He also remarked that while the social housing budget report recommended putting $400,000 into reserve funds, this budget sees no money for that. In the original housing budget, $100,000 had been earmarked to go into the reserves, Eluik noted, and this money came from surplus federal and provincial funds as part of the mortgage rollover funding. We had that money in this budget to put into capital reserves, that then could be restricted to anything that would need it for the housing. But that gave us a very large increase. Municipal share would have risen to almost 14 percent, she noted. We didnt feel that was an acceptable option to bring to the board this year, so we took that reserve contribution out and we used that money to offset the municipal share. Which gives us the lower share for the housing budget. It reduces our municipal expenses by not putting it in reserves, Coun. Van Heyst agreed, But we need money next year, and the year after. Its leading us down the wrong path, I think, he warned. I dont know that its leading us down the wrong path, countered Mayor Ewald, who chairs the boards social housing committee. I think the problem has been that the work hasnt been done previously, and once we get the housing stock up to the point where its just cycle maintenance, I think its going to be a lot less expensive in the long run. While Mayor Ewald said she was concerned over the growing budget for social housing, noting that last year it had been the largest increase for municipalities from the previous year, this is why they had chosen to offset the increase municipalities would face by utilizing funds for capital repairs instead of putting it into reserve funds. It would be different if you didnt have anything to spend it on, but theres lots of things to spend this on, she stressed. Its not money thats just being thrown out willy-nilly. It is going to the good of the whole program. Also at last Thursday nights meeting, the DSSAB approved a motion to use reserve funds for renovation to the land ambulance base in Rainy River. The ambulance base in Rainy River is currently a one-bay garage, noted Morley Reeve Gary Gamsby, who chairs the land ambulance committee. This current situation means that one of the vehicles remains outside. When the ministry people came in to do a review, they identified that as an area of concernthat that second car should be inside so its ready to go in case of breakdown or an emergency, not just in Rainy River but if we need it in one of the other bases, too, he remarked. The DSSAB also approved a motion to support the Association of Municipal Emergency Medical Services of Ontarios new emergency rankings and insignia designations. The financial impact will be positive because currently, as our own EMS, we have our own insignia, and we have to buy them in small numbers because were a small service, Reeve Gamsby told the board. If this goes through, then they would be standardized across the country pretty well, he noted. Its the buying power of hundreds of thousands compared to the few hundred we need. In the long run, it will cost us a lot less money. Currently our epaulets are about $19 a pair, explained Dan McCormick, manager of Health Services for the DSSAB. By buying provincially, it will be about $3 a pair, he noted. And we havent bought any for two years knowing that this step was coming.

Still under construction, the seven arbours that surround the Rainy River First Nations new pow-wow grounds also will hold seven rows of seatingenough for just under 1,500 people. The unique seven-sided structure was chosen to honour the original seven reserves within Rainy River First Nations that were forced to re-locate to Manitou Rapids in the early part of the 1900s. Peggy Revell photo

New pow-wow grounds taking shape

More from B1 coincide with other initiatives for the youth and community to regain a sense of who they are and to re-instill a pride in their First Nations culture, Horton explained. Were also getting our young people into drumming . . . theyre now putting together pow-wow regalia and theyre getting themselves ready to enter that circle, which is phenomenal, he enthused. Hopefully one day, my daughters grandchildren will dance here also. And thats what were hoping to do. Its really taken on a life of its own, this place, Horton continued. Because so many people who really had no interest in powwows, in the culture, in the ways of the old people, this is actually creating fire under a lot of our behinds because youre remembering that you have to get back to who you are in here. In the end, the new grounds will have cost roughly half-a-million dollars to build, Horton noted, all of which has been raised within the community. We had originally set up for more of a proposal driven project, but considering that the Canadian government and everything else between this fall and this winter, the proposals were either set aside or outright denied or whatever, Horton said. So, basically, it came down to good governance from our chief and council, and also very sound financial management. Those two things have actually created this. The pow-wow grounds are expected to be completed by early summer, with an opening powwow planned for the third week of June, Horton said. We feel the pow-wow grounds we have built honours the guidance our elders, both present and those that have passed on, have provided us, said Dean Wilson, manager of administration for the Rainy River First Nations. And this June, we welcome all to come and celebrate with us. Were just starting to put together our posters and distribute it among Treaty #3, northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, said Horton, adding everyone is welcome. Whoever wants to come here and celebrate, please come. Please, please come, he stressed. Because that video last year, it hurt a lot of people, but at the same time, look with what were building. This is a beautiful facility.

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Area Masons working to help find lost kids

More from B1 done. At this time, the local Masons are testing the waters to see if theres enough interest here to bring the program in. If it is overwhelming, they likely will hold it again at a later date and likely at locations elsewhere in the district. To sign up, parents should call McDonald (Emo-Stratton area) at 483-5460, Dan Johnson (Rainy River-Morson-Pinewood area) at 852-3331, or Alan Tibbetts (Fort Frances area) at 274-6687. Organizations like the Ontario Amber Alert system have complimented the Masons on this free service and how effective it is in helping police get all the vital information out as quickly as possible when a child goes missing. And the thought that it wont happen here is nonsense. Newspapers in this district received several missing persons notices from the OPP in 2008 alone. The procedure takes about 15 minutes per child, and all operators of the machine have had criminal records checks. Again, all information gathered is wiped from the machine right after the parents get the disk and vital info on paper. The first two hours after a child goes missing are the most critical, McDonald stressed. We, as Masons, hope that we can make a difference by providing parents the tools to help get their kid back.

District carpenter using skills to craft urns

More from B1 renovating area homes. Other items Halverson makes also come from other hobbies. Over the years, for instances, hes kept his eyes open for pieces of diamond willow. While most diamond willow is clear, Halverson has an affinity for chocolate brown diamond willow, which usually comes out of muskeg. He makes walking canes, lamps, and other beautiful works of art from the wood. He also does scroll saw art for walls, bird feeders, and pet urns. All of his work is available online at www.rainyriver-emall.com/ wood or people can call him at home (852-3391). Halverson has received a boost of confidence for his new customized urns from Northridge Funeral Home in Emo. I showed them to [Northridge owner] Jason [Lilly] and he gave me some ideas, and now wants to display them for sale there, he noted. Halverson said that with so many people leaning towards cremation these days, hes hopeful his new product will catch on. You never know. This could be come a good small industry for Rainy River, he remarked.

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