As a valued member of Recreation Manitoba, we deeply appreciate your ongoing support and commitment to our organization and the recreation sector in Manitoba. 

We wanted to inform you about an upcoming membership fee change. We recognize the financial limitations of our members as we work to resume normal operations as a sector post the pandemic restrictions and the current financial situation across the province. The organization has experienced the same financial limitations and has made the difficult decision to raise its membership fees effective September 1, 2024. Membership fees have remained constant over the past decade, while expenses have continued to gradually increase. The increase in fees will help ensure the organization is sustainable moving forward to serve its members and the sector.

The increase amount will be dependent on your membership type. You can see the full chart of membership fees on the membership webpage: www.recreationmb.ca/membership

We understand that any increase in fees will impact your organization as well. It is our hope that with the advanced notice and staggered roll out, it will help to minimize the direct impact. Please contact us at info@recreationmb.ca with any questions or concerns about this increase. We are happy to discuss your specific situation. 

Thank you for your continued support and involvement in Recreation Manitoba. We look forward to serving you in the coming year and working together to advance the sector.

Sincerely, 

Recreation Manitoba 

Recreation Manitoba is seeking the services of a skilled Executive Director (ED) with experience in the recreation sector. The ED will provide strong and visionary leadership within the context of a policy governed, non-profit organization with a membership base of approximately 400, and an annual operating budget of approximately $280,000. The ED will be expected to provide ‘hands-on’ assistance and support in all areas of operations, programs, and services. 

Reporting to the Board of Directors, the ED will be responsible for the organization's overall strategic and operational tasks. The ED will be a strong leader, who is prepared to develop a collaborative environment with board members, staff, volunteers, partners, and stakeholders. Successful candidates will have previous experience working in non-profit organizations, developing training workshops and events, adapting to the needs of the membership, and implementing a strategic plan to fulfill the mission and vision of the organization. 

A full job description of the role is available here

All applications must include:

● A detailed cover letter that speaks directly to what experience you have in the recreation sector and what you will bring to this position and our organization, as well as a desired salary range.

● A resume that highlights relevant education and experience, plus complete contact information.

● A minimum of three references, with contact information (phone and email). 

Application deadline: 4:00 pm CDT on Friday, October 6, 2023 

The subject line should read “Recreation Manitoba Executive Director Application” and be emailed to Courtney Bangert-Murray at court.bangert@gmail.com

Patients at Riverview Health Centre got a visit from a different kind of therapy animal Wednesday, as two miniature horses roamed the hallways and raised spirits at the Winnipeg health-care facility. Take a look.

Symatree farm, featured in the visit, will be presenting on Equine Therapy during the 2023 Therapeutic Recreation Conference. 

The team at the Rural Municipality of Hanover have been searching for a method to track, monitor and evaluate their assets especially with a number of their facilities nearing their end of life. Through their membership with Recreation Manitoba, Bronson Pritchett (Municipal Facilities Coordinator) came to learn about RFAM and the membership benefit that was available. After a few years it was clear that this task was too overwhelming for an organization to complete on their own, especially with the existing load of work staff were dealing with. Dialogue started between the RM of Hanover and the team at Marmak (parent company of RFAM) to have 2 consultants visit Hanover for a week and collect equipment inventory data for all of their recreation facilities and open spaces / grounds. During the Week of June 5th over 350 pieces of equipment were collected with a total value of $37,698,060.85.

The equipment collected had the following condition levels:

Very Good Condition: 45
Good Condition: 202
Fair Condition: 85
Poor Condition: 22
Very Poor Condition: 6

In addition, RFAM automatically developed their FCI (Facility Condition Index) Scores and a 5 Year Plan. All of Hanover's assets have an FCI Score of less than 3% (only 3% of equipment needs to be replaced) which is Very Good. However their EFCI-5 (Extended Facility Condition Index - 5 Year Forecast) Score is 24.39% which means almost a quarter of their assets need to be replaced within the next 5 years. This is an issue the RM of Hanover is aware of but now they have the data and reports to support their decisions and planning process.

CPRA has launched the Canadian Parks, Recreation and Sport Infrastructure Database, the first database specifically designed for the recreation and parks sector. Recreation Manitoba members can use this database by both entering and accessing essential facility and demographic data to better understand and convey how your facilities contribute to the health and wellbeing of your communities.

CPRA is looking for Recreation Manitoba member communities to support the project. They need your help to:

• Enter the location and basic information about your community’s facilities in the database;
• If your facilities are already in the database, ensure the location and information entered is correct.

Exciting Benefits of the Canadian Parks, Recreation and Sport Infrastructure Database:

• The Database has been pre-populated with some facility information made available through Statistics Canada.
• The simple user interface lets you easily update existing facilities and add new ones.
• You can quickly access information on key health indicators using built-in demographic data.
• A movement data layer provides you a picture of how people are using your outdoor parks and facilities hour-by-hour.
• A dashboard allows you to compare facility provision levels within your community or with communities of a similar size and profile.
• The database can be used as an indispensable tool for reports to council, budget and project planning, and feasibility studies.
• CPRA can utilize the data to illustrate the benefits of parks and recreation and advocate for additional support from the federal government on your behalf.

How to sign up and enter your facility information:

• Click here to sign up for your own account.
• Click here for video tutorials.

Register for the CPRA and ActiveXchange introductory webinar on May 18.

Questions? Please contact intelligence@ActiveXchange.ca

Susanne Moore, recently retired Recreation Director for Macdonald Headingley Recreation District, was presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (Manitoba) by Lieutenant Governor Anita Neville at a ceremony on December 19, 2022. Award recipients were nominated for their public service, dedication to others, impactful accomplishments in their community and leading by example. Susanne was nominated by MLA Myrna Driedger. 

Susanne has been a leader in Manitoba’s recreation community for over 30 years, and one of recreation’s biggest advocates, promoting recreation for its contribution to individual physical and mental health. Her career focused on building community capacity and creating a positive environment for citizens of all ages and abilities to grow and thrive. Along with providing innovative recreation programs and services to her communities, Susanne volunteered on numerous recreation initiatives that moved recreation forward in Manitoba. She was President of Recreation Connections Manitoba (now Recreation Manitoba), represented Manitoba at national level discussions, including the development of the National Framework for Recreation, and participated on many provincial committees. Susanne received the 2016 Recreation Connections Manitoba President’s Award for Outstanding Achievement for her volunteer commitment and leadership to recreation, and was the recipient of the 2017 CPRA Award of Merit for Manitoba.

Susanne’s engaging personality and professionalism as well as her tremendous wit and sense of humour contributed to her success in bringing recognition and credibility to the field of recreation. Susanne has been an influential leader and champion for recreation in her communities and municipalities as well as at a regional, provincial and national level. Not surprising that in retirement, Susanne continues to volunteer in her community!

Join us as we congratulate Susanne on this tremendous and well deserved honour of receiving the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (Manitoba).

Click on YouTube link for Presentation Ceremony (Susanne at 23:50)

Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (Manitoba) Ceremony - December 19, 2022 - YouTube

Applications are now being accepted for the 2023-24 Building Sustainable Communities program. This program supports local community development priorities led by municipal leadership and non-profit organizations with leveraged funding from other public, private and philanthropic sources and the work of local volunteers, the minister noted.

Building Sustainable Communities provides a grant contribution of 50 per cent of eligible project costs up to $75,000 and up to $300,000 for large capital projects. Eligible applicants include non-profit organizations, charitable organizations, municipalities and Northern Affairs community councils. Since its launch in 2019, the program has committed more than $57 million to support over 1,300 community-led projects and leveraged approximately $135 million from other funding sources.

Grant applications are also now being accepted for the 2023-24 Urban/Hometown Green Team program, which allows organizations to hire youth for summer jobs across Manitoba.

The Urban/Hometown Green Team program provides opportunities to support the needs of community-based organizations and young Manitobans looking for summer employment. The program includes a broad range of employment activities including recreation and camps, as well as greening and beautification initiatives, the minister said.

The grants cover 100 per cent of wage costs plus $250 per position for non-profit organizations. Municipal governments receive 50 per cent of wage costs and $125 per position on a cost-shared basis.

The deadline for applications for both programs is Jan. 16, 2023.

Click here to read the full news release 

The Canadian Parks and Recreation Association (CPRA) announced today a new $8M investment that will increase participation and retention of equity-deserving groups in recreational sport in Canada.  Entitled “Reaching Each and Every One: A Community Sport Intervention”, this major investment was made possible through CPRA’s successful application to the Government of Canada (Sport Canada) Community Sport for All Initiative.

Click here to Apply 

This funding will allow CPRA to support community-led projects that remove barriers and increase participation rates in recreational sport for underrepresented groups, in particular, Black, Indigenous, racially diverse, 2SLGBTQQIA+, low-income and newcomer populations, and people living with disabilities.

Effective immediately, eligible organizations can apply for grants up to $50,000 that address barriers to sport via CPRA’s “Reaching Each and Every One: A Community Sport Intervention”.  For more information on eligibility, timelines, and how to apply, please visit: cpra.ca

Click here to read the full news release 

The Columbus Blue Jackets is the first National Hockey League (NHL) team to choose the natural refrigerant CO₂ (R744) for its arena refrigeration. CIMCO Refrigeration (CIMCO) will support the Blue Jackets in upgrading their outdated HFC-22 (R22) system in 2023, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and paving the way for sustainability within the league and throughout the industry.

CIMCO, Canada's largest industrial refrigeration contractor, has installed more than 100 CO₂ arena systems since 2012 and is confident that this is the best solution for the Ohio (U.S.)-based NHL team’s home – Nationwide Arena. Initially, an HFO blend was considered but the CO₂ solution offered significant cost reductions and removed the risk of future refrigerant phase downs associated with synthetic refrigerants. 

“We wanted to provide Nationwide with a long-term solution,” explained Brad Wilkins, US Recreation Project Team Lead at CIMCO Refrigeration. “With the current state of synthetic refrigerant blends, you cannot make long-term promises.”

“After extensive research in a solution for our 22-year-old plant, we determined the smartest choice was a CO₂ solution that CIMCO proposed,” explained Derek Smith, General Manager at Nationwide Arena. “Having a future-proof, efficient, sustainable refrigeration installation that will last for the next 30 years is very important to us. With ever-changing regulations in the industry, we were not interested in having to trouble ourselves with having to find another solution in the coming years. CO₂ has had a longstanding reputation in Europe for decades and we are excited to be the first NHL team to implement a CO₂ plant partnering with CIMCO.”

The Blue Jacket’s farm club, the Cleveland Monsters, already uses a CO₂refrigeration system, with great success.

CO₂ Offers Superior Performance

CO₂ stands out in terms of performance. Superior quality ice under any circumstance is crucial for NHL arenas, often leaving operators at the edge of their seats during large games with increased (and unpredictable) heat load demand. The CO₂ solution provides a very fast way to bring the ice temperature down to meet the performance requirements when it is needed. This particular system will also have full redundancy built in to ensure operators do not ever have to worry about their ice.

“The NHL is all about high performance and this is a high-performance system that will give them the best ice quality for many years to come,” said David Fauser, Director of Sales at CIMCO Refrigeration. “We are confident that we will exceed expectations on this project.”

The Columbus Blue Jacket’s arena will be served by two 200 TR (703 kW) packaged trans critical CO₂ systems with full (100%) redundancy. For the majority season, only one system is needed but both can be deployed as needed in warmer months.

The project will commence during May 2023 with practical completion scheduled for September 2023.

CIMCO Brings CO₂ to Winter Olympics

This is not CIMCO’s first game in the big leagues with CO₂. They were also recently involved in bringing transcritical CO₂refrigeration to the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China in 2022. As part of a four-party consortium, CIMCO consulted on the 1,000 TR (3,517 kW) CO₂ system installed for the speed skating oval. >>Read more

About CIMCO Refrigeration

CIMCO Refrigeration Inc. (cimcorefrigeration.com), headquartered in Toronto, Canada, specializes in the engineering, design, manufacture, installation, and service of industrial, process cooling, and recreational refrigeration systems. For more than 100 years, CIMCO’s leadership and unparalleled research, development, and manufacturing programs have put it at the forefront of industry advancements and technological breakthroughs.

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF MEMBERS

NOTICE is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Members of Recreation Connection Manitoba, operating as Recreation Manitoba (the Corporation) is called for and will be held electronically via Zoom videoconferencing on the16thday of June, 2022, at 10:00 am (CT)for the following purposes:

1. To receive the audited financial statements of the Corporation for the financial year ended March 31, 2021;
2. To elect Directors of the Corporation;
3. To appoint the Auditors of the Corporation for the ensuing year;
4. To consider and, if amenable, approve bylaw amendments;
5. To transact such other business as may properly be brought before the meeting.

For further information, please download the 2022 AGM Package at www.recreationmb.ca which will be available after September 9th