Dauphin council to discuss possibility of public memorial for crash victims

Dauphin city council is expected to discuss whether a public memorial will be held for the victims of the Trans-Canada Highway at a meeting on Monday.

According to Dauphin Mayor David Bosiak, council has a regular meeting tomorrow, which will include some special agenda items relating the crash, which killed 15 people and sent 10 others to the hospital.

He said they will discuss the possibility of some kind of public memorial.

“We’ve been reaching out to the different groups that have been working with us, providing all of the support, to see what they’re hearing because we don’t want to do what’s not necessary,” Bosiak said.

“We don’t want to create anything that may not be needed, but we want to be responsive.”

The mayor added the city will also determine whether to continue the support centre at Credit Union Place or to transition to a smaller space.

He noted that many people are finding their own support systems, but the city just wanted to ensure there was a place for those who didn’t know where to go.

“It seems like we have more support than we need right now, which is hard to say given that I don’t know what the need is,” he said.

“That’s the unique thing here. I think that a lot of people are grieving individually when they’re with their families.”

Bosiak said it’s been hard to try to give people the information they need without sharing any news that he can’t confirm. He added it’s also difficult to not fully know what the residents really need,

“There’s been no external or obvious outcry for help,” he said.

“We know that people are troubled by this…but as municipality our responsibility is the people and it seems right now the majority of them are getting the supports they need.”

UNCONFIRMED IDENTITIES

Officials have yet to identify those who were killed in the crash.

Randy Daley, a councillor with the City of Dauphin, said this must people difficult for people as they don’t yet have all the information.

“Even arranging funerals will be difficult because it’s going to take a long time to identify people,” he said.

“Everybody’s just kind of sitting and wondering what’s next.”

He added the community is dealing with a lot of loss.

”That’s a lot of experience lost, it’s a lot of great people. These folks were volunteers, they were connected to the community, so we don’t even know how big the loss will be,” Daley said.

On Monday at noon, Premier Heather Stefanson, Shared Health’s Lanette Siragusa and the Manitoba RCMP’s Supt. Rob Lasson will be speaking to the public about the crash.