Area cabin owners are urged to reject a City of Flin Flon proposal that would cost year-round cottagers $650 a year in exchange for fire protection and a guarantee they won’t join Flin Flon.
North of 54 Cottage Owners Association, which represents cabin owners in the Flin Flon area, is recommending members turn down the city’s latest offer on the grounds it is too expensive.
“There’s no indication that there’s any willingness to negotiate a real settlement that has real numbers in it that are defensible,” said Dale Powell, a director with North of 54.
Support
North of 54 recently offered the city a deal in which each year-round cottage would pay $200 a year for fire protection and to support municipal recreation services. Seasonal cottagers would have paid $50 annually just for fire service.
Fees would have gone up according to inflation in each of the 10 years of the deal. And the cost of actually fighting a fire would be recouped by the city billing the property owner’s insurance company.
More importantly for cabin owners, the agreement would have ended any attempt by Flin Flon to annex cottage country.
But the proposal did not satisfy the city, which instead asked for $650 from each year-round cottage and $250 from seasonal cottages.
“We’re beyond disappointment on this,” said Mayor George Fontaine. “There’s no difference as to whether I’m encouraged, disappointed or whatever. We’re far apart and that’s where we are.”
Fontaine said an annexation application to the province remains on the table, but he would want the process to begin after the Oct. 22 election.
“I would make sure that if we do it, we make sure that the people who have to live with it will be sitting in those [council] chairs,” said the mayor, who is seeking re-election.
Powell said the city’s rejection of the North of 54 offer means it “has probably thrown away $65,000 to $70,000 a year, which is really free money.”
He said that calculation is based on projected payments from cottagers as well as Manitoba Conservation, which would contribute dollars to protect properties within provincial parkland.
Powell said North of 54’s proposal of $200 for year-round members followed a precedent set by The Pas and its neighbouring cottagers.
In fact, he said, the offer was better than what The Pas has because the recreation portion of the fee would not be voluntary and the overall fee would rise based on the consumer price index.
But comparisons to The Pas do not carry weight with MLA Clarence Pettersen, who has advocated for a “fair agreement” between the city and cottagers.
“My argument is, this is a made-in-Flin-Flon policy,” said Pettersen, who addressed many cottagers at a meeting last week.
Concerned
Pettersen said he is deeply concerned about the lack of fire protection for cottagers and wonders whether cabin owners would be able to get fire insurance if a blaze destroys three or four cottages.
He remains optimistic that a deal can be reached.
“I still believe that we’re all Flin Flonners,” Pettersen said. “We’ve just got to work together for this agreement to come to closure.”
Despite Powell and the North of 54 negotiating committee’s dissatisfaction with it, area cottagers will decide next week whether to proceed with a vote on the city’s proposal.
“I don’t know how it’s going to go,” Powell said.
If the city’s offer is turned down, Powell said the next step for North of 54 will be to revisit talks with Cranberry Portage and Creighton about getting a fire protection deal.
Though both of those communities have already declined to enter into a formal agreement, he said he hopes there is still room for discussion.
Another possibility, Powell said, is for North of 54 to start its own fire department as has been done at the Paint Lake cottage subdivision outside Thompson.
Enforcement?
If cottagers accept the city’s offer, Powell is not completely sure how cabin owners who oppose the fee would be forced to pay.
The city has said the province will look after payment enforcement, but Powell said his information indicates it wouldn’t be that simple. North of 54, he said, has therefore asked the city to have a closer look at that question.
Powell, a Bakers Narrows resident, said he would have preferred to see a mediator hired to help bridge the gap between North of 54 and Flin Flon.
But the city was not interested in mediation even though, according to Powell, the province would have likely covered the cost.
“I don’t see any mediation happening with this kind of a distance between us,” said Fontaine.
In addition to deciding whether to vote on the city’s proposal, North of 54 will also hold an election for a new board of directors and its Sept. 10 meeting.
The City of Flin Flon withdrew fire protection from cottage areas in mid-2013 after years of subsidizing the service from its own coffers.
