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.
Jonathon Naylor Editor City Hall will bring in about $8 less per resident as a result of Flin Flon's latest population plummet. Annual per-capita funding from the Manitoba government will go down by $43,622 due to the loss of 231 Manitoba residents. Including the Saskatchewan portion of Flin Flon, which lost 13 residents, that works out to a decline of $7.80 per citizen. And it's possible the city will lose further dollars in two years if Ottawa's gas-tax agreement with municipalities is renewed and takes population decreases into account. But it is too early for the city to speculate how much gas-tax cash could disappear. Current gas-tax funding for municipalities is based on previous census figures. The latest census, released last month, showed that Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach collectively lost 364 citizens between 2006 and 2011. Their combined population now stands at 7,759. But the figure may be misleading since numerous people continue to move to outlying cottages, meaning they are still essentially residents but are not part of a particular community. Subdivisions Pinning down dependable census figures for cottage subdivisions is difficult, but anecdotal evidence suggests the lake area population is on the rise as more lots are opened up and developed. As the largest of the three communities, Flin Flon _ the Manitoba and Saskatchewan portions combined _ was hit the hardest by the census decline, down by 244 residents (4.2 per cent) to 5,592. Across the border, Creighton fared far better, losing just four residents (0.3 per cent) to bring its population, down to 1,498. The census found that Denare Beach lost 116 residents (15 per cent), down to 669 people. As of press time, it was not clear how Denare Beach's finances will be impacted by the decline. Elsewhere in the region, Snow Lake's population dropped by 114 people (13.6 per cent) to 723, while Cranberry Portage went down 87 (13.2 per cent) to 572.
