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.
Residents don't normally think of their bone-chilling winters as a community asset, but that's the view the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce is taking. The chamber will try to entice automobile companies to conduct extreme cold weather testing on their vehicles in the Flin Flon area. "We're always looking for something that's going to build additional business in our area," said President Doug O'Brien. Such testing may include seeing how well cars start after spending a night in the cold and how they perform in winter conditions. O'Brien said Thompson, already home to a cold weather test site for Ford Canada, has caught the eye of a pair of snowmobile manufacturers and one other automobile company looking to conduct such tests. Thompson has a special track on which vehicles are put through various winter tests, but O'Brien said he isn't sure where such a track would be established in Flin Flon if the idea came to fruition. The president noted that cold weather testing has been attempted in Alaska, but the temperature only went down to minus 20 ? not as cold as Flin Flon, and not as cold as the testers wanted. After discussing the concept at their meeting yesterday at the Friendship Centre, chamber members voted to approach local car dealerships to see if their affiliate companies would be interested. "If we don't tackle it, nothing will happen," said secretary Gordon Mitchell, adding that a handful of snowmobile companies have conducted winter tests in this region in the past. President-elect Phill Robinson added his thoughts, suggesting that winter survival gear could also be tested in the Flin Flon area. O'Brien isn't sure if the idea will get off the ground but said it is worth a shot.
