The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Question: What is the single biggest challenge for city council in 2010? Mayor Therien: The biggest challenge for city council in 2010 is not necessarily any different than any other year, and that is how to pay for everything that needs to be done without unduly creating a tax burden on our citizens. We are constantly being challenged to deliver more / better / greater services to our community but at the same time keep taxes at a reasonable level. We know we have major requirements in road repairs, for example, but each of those takes a huge chunk of our budget. We could do more, but we would need to draw the money from somewhere and, again, without causing a major increase in your taxes, this proves to be hard to do. This is just one example, but I could go on and on as we are continuously being asked to spend more money on various services all the time. We would like to be able to give more money to the Flinty Committee, museum and library, for example, but we have to remain committed to a fair property tax requirement, again without overburdening our taxpayers. The same can be said for recreation. It is a huge expense to operate / maintain our infrastructure and provide these services to the public. The net result is having to ask for a greater contribution from the user groups. The challenge is to adequately balance all of these requirements, including the ones mentioned, without creating a huge tax burden to our taxpayers. * * * Question: Does Flin Flon get a fair shake from the provincial and federal governments? Mayor Therien: The easy answer to your question is no, I do not think we get a fair shake from the provincial and federal governments. If you asked that question to any municipal government, I do not think you would get any other other answer. We always think we are being shortchanged from the higher levels of governments. In reality, we have some highs and lows when dealing with the province and the feds. For example, we received the largest provincial/federal contribution to our need for a water treatment plant during last year's stimulus grants, compared to anyone else in Manitoba. The province also contributed $1 million towards soils improvement to our parks. On the low side, a couple of years ago we received $450,000 from the province for various projects when The Pas and Thompson received millions, including funding for a full campus for UCN which, of course, did not choose to come to Flin Flon. In fairness, you get some highs and some lows whenever you deal with the provincial and federal governments. The idea is to just keep going after them all the time because you never know what might happen, but you can be assured of nothing if you fail to ask. * * * Send your questions for Mayor Therien to The Reminder by phone at 687-3454, fax at 687-4473, e-mail at [email protected] or standard delivery at "Ask the Mayor," C/O The Reminder, 14 North Avenue, Flin Flon, R8A 0T2. No names are required. Ask the Mayor runs Mondays.
