Dauphin street fair postponed to fall as region reels from flood damage

Flooding has forced the cancellation of Dauphin’s Parkland Chamber Street Fair and Dance, adding another economic blow to a region already reeling from the loss of Canada’s National Ukrainian Festival and the evacuation of the town’s hospital.

Flooding has forced the postponement of Dauphin’s Parkland Chamber Street Fair and Dance, another blow to a region already reeling from the cancellation of Canada’s National Ukrainian Festival and the ongoing closure of the town’s hospital. Duane McMaster, treasurer of the local chamber of commerce, said organizers are now looking at holding the event in the fall instead. “We originally planned to have our event on July 30th, and we’re not going to be able to have it on that date,” McMaster said.

“We are currently trying to find another date to have it in the fall, seeing if we can salvage it.” The annual street fair draws 3,000 to 4,000 people over the course of the day to the community of about 8,500, along with visitors from surrounding areas, McMaster said. The event features a range of attractions, including vendors, entertainment, live music and an antique farm equipment display from the local agricultural heritage club.

The fair began decades ago as a kickoff party for Canada’s National Ukrainian Festival, held the Thursday before the festival’s Friday start, McMaster said. The chamber took it over roughly 25 years ago and has run it as a street fair since. “This will be the first time, probably in 50 years, that there hasn’t been an event on that Thursday before the August long weekend,” McMaster said.

The cancellation follows an announcement last week that Canada’s National Ukrainian Festival will not go ahead this year and will not be rescheduled. McMaster said a previous economic impact assessment found the festival brought $2.5 to $3 million a year in economic activity to the region. “That’s a really big blow for our community,” he said.

McMaster said the closure of Dauphin’s hospital , due to overland flood damage from extensive rainfall, was among the reasons the festival could not proceed—and also a factor in the chamber’s decision to delay the street fair rather than hold it as scheduled. “We weren’t able to come up with satisfactory plans to deal with the fact that we don’t have a working hospital in town on short notice for the July 30 event,” he said. In a statement earlier this month, Shared Health said it had detected “extensive damage to critical infrastructure” at the Dauphin Regional Health Centre, prompting its closure for an extended period while assessments and repairs are completed.

Two other regional events, Dauphin’s Country Fest and the Ag Society Fair, were able to go ahead before the most recent round of intense rain hit the area, McMaster said. About a third of homes and businesses in the community experienced some form of flooding between late June and early July, McMaster said, and some farms were cut off entirely. “There’s been farms where their farmyard was turned into an island.

They were trapped for three or four days in their yard because the roads were washed out,” he said. If the street fair cannot be rescheduled, McMaster said it would be a significant financial setback for the chamber. “It’s one of the biggest events that the chamber puts on each year, and it’s fairly significant for us as far as our budget for the year,” he said.

“If the event’s unable to happen, it’s going to be a pretty serious problem for us for this year, trying to make ends meet.” The chamber does not expect to qualify for disaster assistance and does not have event cancellation insurance, McMaster said. “We don’t really have a lot of recourse other than trying to figure out ways to make it through the year and hopefully having a successful year next year,” he said.