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: Is the city prepared for an emergency similar to the one that faced Cranberry Portage during the recent forest fire? Is there a plan in place to evacuate people if need be? Who is in charge? Mayor Therien: Good question and the answer is yes, we have an emergency plan of which we had already implemented steps during the Cranberry Portage situation. The initial part of the plan calls for us to relay to the public that there is a possibility of a crisis and to listen to the local radio station for updates. We communicated this via the local paper and our web site. This is as far as the public saw of the plan, but we did go deeper. The next step is to remain in contact with those from Emergency Measures and Manitoba Conservation to receive constant updates of the fire situations around Flin Flon. When the call was made to evacuate the Sourdough Bay area, we were on the phone constantly. The situation corrected itself in our favour and, as such, going to a further level did not have to happen. Your answer as to who would be in charge in an emergency situation such as this would be me. I get to make the ultimate call; however, I can assure you it would not be made until it was deemed absolutely necessary. Further to this past situation, I would like to thank Mark (Kolt), our management team and our administration staff for going the extra mile to ensure if we had to further enact our plan, we would have been more than ready to do so. * * * Question: Does city council approve or disapprove of the NOR-MAN Regional Health Authority opening its own clinic inside the hospital? Why or why not? Should the city not take a position on such matters that are decided by government and impact our community? Mayor Therien: Ultimately, if Flin Flon were to lose the clinic altogether, council would definitely be in a position to argue, but we are not losing a clinic. It is being relocated and, for me, this changes the situation to just a business deal, and I am not sure what we would actually argue about. I am disappointed that something could not be worked out with the RHA and the owner of the clinic. This is not the first time we have seen things happen that have had a negative affect on certain businesses. When the mall came in with Walmart, Extra Foods and Canadian Tire, we saw a tremendous negative change to the uptown business community. Businesses closed, downsized or changed direction in what they were offering. This was a fact of life at the time. As of today, the uptown business community appears to be healthy, complete with new businesses replacing those that shut down. Things change and change has a habit of coming out positive. Why can we not assume this will also? * * * 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, MB, R8A 0T2. No names are required. Ask the Mayor runs Mondays.
