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: Does the city have, or is it lobbying for, a community adjustment plan ahead of the smelter closure? Mayor Therien: It was shortly after the initial announcement of the closing of the smelter that the city, along with Hudbay, met with then-mines minister Jim Rondeau and his staff to discuss what we could do to lessen the impact of the closure to the communities involved. As it was shortly after the announcement, we were looking at a larger number of layoffs, which could be reduced depending on a number of factors. Since we are getting very close to the closure date, we have seen the layoff numbers decrease significantly, which will, very much, lessen the impact. However it still appears that layoffs will occur, which is unfortunate, to say the least. Part of the discussion with Minister Rondeau centred around possible retraining of those laid off. It also included discussion around a possible mining school in Flin Flon. Your question centred around a community adjustment plan and whether we have lobbied for it with the provincial government. The answer is yes, but since we do not have clear numbers as yet, the extent of the plan has yet to be determined. * * * Question: Where could/should Flin Flon/Creighton/Denare Beach work more closely together? Mayor Therien: This has been an ongoing issue for quite some time now. Since we have many duplicated services, most of which cost the taxpayers a huge amount of money, you would think we could see some improvement in this area. The logical thing is to look at the duplicate services such as protective services. Do we really need two RCMP detachments covering our area or would we be better served by having a combined force, which should reduce the number of officers required not to mention the cost to run two buildings. Is the provincial boundary really an issue here, as each office reports to a different depot? Is there really a need to have separate fire departments, especially in Flin Flon and Creighton? Not that it may be a bad thing to have all this fire protection equipment around (let us not forget that Hudbay has a fire department and all the equipment as well), but all this equipment costs huge dollars to purchase, let alone maintain. Without going into too much detail, we should be looking at a combined landfill instead of running three. As our existing sites get fuller as the years go by, I believe it is in the best interest of our environment to seriously look at a regional landfill. There are other areas to look at as well, but I believe we need to try to reduce the financial impact to our taxpayers as best we can without compromising the services we deliver. * * * Send your questions for Mayor Therien to The Reminder by phone at 687-3454, fax at 687-4473, e-mail at news@ffdailyreminder 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.
