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Local Angle: Provincial border has pros, cons for residents

If you’re in the market for a truly unique home, give Brian and Joan DuMoulin a ring. According to news reports, the couple’s home straddles the Canada-US border, situated partly in Stanstead, Quebec, and partly in Beebe Plain, Vermont.

If you’re in the market for a truly unique home, give Brian and Joan DuMoulin a ring.

According to news reports, the couple’s home straddles the Canada-US border, situated partly in Stanstead, Quebec, and partly in Beebe Plain, Vermont.

The DuMoulins are asking just $109,000 for their spacious residence, a relic from the 1700s when Canada was not yet a country and building houses wherever you pleased was the norm.

In some ways, Brian and Joan DuMoulin are like Flin Flon-Creighton area residents. The DuMoulins live in two countries at once; we live in two provinces at once.

The Manitoba-Saskatchewan border is a bone of contention for residents who believe Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach are essentially one community – and that operating as such would serve a common good.

Apprehension about the border often comes from the Manitoba side, where some Flin Flonners view themselves as carrying an inequitable tax burden to provide services, such as recreation, for the whole region.

That sentiment was on stark display under the previous city council, which enacted non-resident user fees at the Aqua Centre not to generate extra revenue, but to encourage surrounding communities to contribute yearly funding to the facility.

There is an argument to be made for pooling more of our resources – not just at the pool, but in general – but it hasn’t gained as much traction as proponents would like. For the most part, our three communities operate as independent entities with their own concerns and tastes.

For all of the disdain directed at the border, it certainly offers benefits to residents on both sides.

Manitoba, for example, has long enjoyed much lower electricity rates than Saskatchewan. Even with controversial rate hikes of late, Manitoba Hydro is charging 42 per cent less than SaskPower for every kilowatt hour consumed.

Forty-two per cent makes a big difference during the long, cold winters in our area. Indeed the Town of Creighton has (unsuccessfully) lobbied SaskPower to offer Manitoba-like rates to Creighton.

Car insurance is the opposite. It’s markedly lower in Saskatchewan than it is in Manitoba. Some Flin Flon residents have even been known to fabricate a residence in Saskatchewan for car insurance purposes, just to take advantage of the savings.

What about property taxes? In terms of high-end homes, Creighton and Denare Beach have lower taxes than does Flin Flon, but Flin Flon has lower taxes on low-end homes. Unlike Saskatchewan, Manitoba also offers a $700 property tax rebate.

The cost of renting a home or apartment tends to be lower in Flin Flon than in its two neighbouring communities. That’s in part a function of Manitoba’s much cheaper electricity and the property tax rebate.

Income taxes favour Saskatchewan over Manitoba, both for low-income and high-income earners, as friends and families in our area have come to learn when discussing their financial status.

On the other hand, Manitoba reportedly has lower childcare costs than its neighbour to the west.

Who wins in this border battle? Is it in your best interests to live in Flin Flon, Creighton or
Denare Beach?

That is a highly individual question that hinges on multiple factors. In many cases, whatever savings exist, in one province or the other, amount to a few hundred dollars a year – nothing worth uprooting the family over.

The provincial border may present challenges, but let’s not overlook the advantages it offers.

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