The Reminder presents our choices for the top 10 local stories of 2013:
10. A Worthy Investment
The Manitoba government began massive upgrades to Frontier Collegiate in Cranberry Portage.
The $23-million undertaking includes a 57,000-sq.-ft. campus expansion and a new power mechanic shop for the high school.
“Our investments in education are building more schools, hiring more teachers and increasing opportunities for students to get the skills they need to build their future here in our great province,” said Premier Greg Selinger.
The funding will build a new 200-bed dormitory facility for Frontier students, who come to Cranberry Portage from reserves across northern Manitoba.
This will increase the high school’s capacity to about 300 students. Over 200 students from about 20 communities currently live in the dorms and attend Frontier.
The new power mechanic shop – complete with four bays and teaching spaces – will replace a smaller existing facility.
Ray Derksen, chief superintendent of Frontier School Division, welcomed the historic investment.
“Frontier Collegiate Institute has been providing quality educational opportunities for students in over 30 communities in northern Manitoba for almost 50 years,” said Derksen. “We’re extremely pleased the Manitoba government is investing in our school, so we can continue to uphold and expand this proud tradition.”
Praise also came from Grand Chief David Harper of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, which represents most northern Manitoba First Nations.
9. Happy Birthday To Us
Flin Flon celebrated a milestone that must have once seemed unthinkable for the mining town – its 80th anniversary.
A ceremony at Pioneer Square, the minting of a commemorative coin and the sealing of a time capsule helped mark the occasion.
On Aug. 18, the time capsule – the work of a volunteer committee – was sealed, fittingly enough, near the Flinty statue.
“We’re very happy to be here today with this exciting moment in Flin Flon’s history,” Brenda Russell of the volunteer organizing committee told dozens of people gathered at the museum grounds.
The capsule, a section of concrete pipe with a concrete lid, is partially buried and surrounded by limestone.
Among its 100-plus items: a window speaker from the Big Island Drive-In Theatre, souvenir coins, photos, newspapers, and sealed letters.
“Each item is unique and personal,” said Russell.
It will be another 20 years, on Flin Flon’s 100th anniversary, before anyone sees the items again.
Among those hoping to be around is Mayor George Fontaine, who contributed a sealed letter addressed to whomever his successor is in 2033.
“One of the neatest things about this time capsule...is thinking about what it’s going to be like in 20 years to see some of these mementoes and how people are going to view them 20 years later,” Mayor Fontaine said. “I’m wondering how many of the same people will be here to do that. Gee, I hope I’m one of them. It might be fun to see that stuff come up.”
8. Taxation Parity
City council got the go-ahead to proceed with a controversial service fee that will shift more of the tax burden onto Flin Flon’s least valuable homes.
But the Manitoba Municipal Board’s approval of the plan is only good for one year, 2014, meaning council would have to reapply in order to continue the fee long term.
“The Board accepts the City’s rationale for the proposed (fee) and is of the view that the proposed (fee) should be approved,” board chair William Barlow wrote in an eight-page decision.
Barlow said the board “carefully considered” all input from the city and the public, with the fee’s one-year time frame “in the forefront” of their analysis.
Mayor George Fontaine said he was “obviously pleased” with the ruling.
“We put forth our case and they considered all yay and naysayers and looked at it, and I’m pleased that they went with it,” he said.
The ruling means that in 2014, hundreds of low-end homeowners will pay up to $340 more in property taxes – and that’s assuming council maintains a level mill rate.
The hardest hit will be homes assessed in the $40,000 range.
Homes worth $35,000 will pay about $247 more in 2014. Those assessed at $60,000 will pay an extra $145, and homes worth $80,000 will be charged another $12.
Some of the tax increases on low-end homes will be covered by the Manitoba government through its property tax rebate.
Once homes surpass a market value of roughly $100,000, tax savings begin to kick in.
7. He’s One Of A Kind
In the annals of northern Manitoba medicine, there has never been anyone like Dr. Peter Kucparic.
Brainy, colourful, opinionated, analytical, with an elephant-like memory and encyclopedic knowledge of the human body, he is a giant of regional medicine.
“I don’t know if there will ever be another Peter Kucparic,” says Shonnah Hanson, one of his many loyal patients.
Such accolades poured in as Dr. Kucparic, 71, was forced to end his practice due to a long-term terminal illness.
As a young man, Dr. Kucparic enrolled in the University of Belgrade School of Medicine in the Serbian capital.
He graduated in 1969 and in 1970 landed in Winnipeg to complete his post-graduate education at Grace Hospital and the Health Sciences Centre.
Dr. Kucparic headed north to Norway House in 1972, practising at a 35-bed hospital. A year later, in 1973, he came to Flin Flon.
Affectionately known as “Koochie,” Dr. Kucparic thrived on long hours as he amassed a patient load as large as it was faithful.
“He’s so brilliant, he’s so intelligent,” said long-time patient Dennis Ballard. “I once told him that I found him to be the best diagnostician I had ever seen.”
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To say the least, the closure of Dr. Kucparic’s Main Street practice left a major void in Flin Flon health care.
“When you went into Peter’s office, you were always in for an adventure,” says Hanson, recalling her many interesting, sometimes personal, conversations with him.
“It was more a friendship, in many ways.
“I don’t know if you’ll ever find another scenario like that in a doctor-patient relationship.”
6. Target: Flin Flon
With major mines under development in Snow Lake and Peru, Hudbay hopes its next big find will come closer to home.
The company is concentrating much of its exploration efforts in Flin Flon and area with the city’s lone mine, 777, due to run out in 2020.
“Our emphasis this year and over the next few years is going to be looking in Flin Flon,” Brad Lantz, vice-president of Hudbay’s Manitoba operations, told the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce in April.
“We’ve got lots of ore to mine in Snow Lake. We don’t have lots of ore in Flin Flon, so again we’re turning the focus here as hard as we can.”
Lantz said Hudbay geologists have been instructed to search the area for another large anchor mine that can make up for the production lost when 777 closes.
“We don’t want another one-, two-, -three-million-tonne mine,” he said. “We’ll take it, but we want ten to 20 (million tonnes). We need that anchor mine replacement.”
Lantz said Flin Flon-focused geophysical work this year has identified some “very good targets” that will be tested over the next few years.
“With a little luck we’ll have some positive results,” he told 35 guests gathered at the chamber’s April 18 evening meeting, held at The Unwinder.
Though sounding an optimistic tone at times, Lantz did not raise false hope.
“We look good today (in Flin Flon), but time moves by pretty quick and if we don’t have a major discovery and we’ve lost all our feed, we would have issues,” he said.
5. Coming To A Tap Near You
Flin Flon’s multimillion-dollar water treatment plant went into operation, bringing safer water to the taps of residents.
Situated near the Aqua Centre by Ross Creek, the plant – coming in at $15.2 million or more – began pumping water into homes on Aug. 20.
“This is the single biggest undertaking by the Works and Operations department that the city has ever encountered,” said Rick Bacon, the city’s director of works and operations. “The size and scope of the project are unprecedented in Flin Flon’s history.”
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The plant brought Flin Flonners drinking water that can meet all government health standards – and Bacon said people would notice the difference.
From the outside, the tan and blue treatment plant is an attractive, if overly bulky, structure spanning some 12,900 square feet. On the inside, it is an engineering marvel.
Off in one corner are two rock-solid pipes where the feeder lines from Cliff Lake, the source of Flin Flon’s drinking water, enter the building.
Early in its journey, the water is injected with a coagulant that clumps together all of the dirt and organics that the incoming H20 brings with it.
The water makes its way through a pair of towering plastic tanks before proceeding to a series of 108 pipe-shaped filter units. Inside each unit is a bundle of tiny, spaghetti-like tubes.
Forcing the water through those tubes dislodges the clumped-together waste. This muck is then regularly excreted into a concrete basin below.
4. Risk “Essentially Zero”
A drastic drop in lead levels among children reaffirmed the finding that industrial-borne metals pose virtually no health risk to Flin Flon area residents.
The reassuring news came in May with the release of the final portion of the Flin Flon Soils Study, which tested lead levels in the blood of over 100 local kids last fall.
“You can never say there’s zero risk, but it’s essentially zero,” said Elliot Sigal, a scientist with Intrinsik Environmental Sciences, the company that compiled the study.
An initial version of the study also found that toxic metals in the environment – the result of years of pollution from Hudbay’s now-defunct copper smelter – pose a negligible to low health risk.
But based on blood lead levels detected in area children in 2009, follow-up testing was recommended.
It’s not that the 2009 levels exceeded formal health guidelines, though 15 per cent of participants had levels viewed as “elevated” based on the precautionary baseline used in the study.
It’s just that the levels were what Sigal called “a little bit higher than we would have liked.”
The follow-up blood tests, undertaken in the fall of 2012, showed a dramatic decline of lead across geographical, age and gender categories.
A total of 118 children, ranging in age from less than one year to six years, were tested. On the whole, blood lead levels were about half of what they were in 2009.
The decline followed industrial and community efforts to limit lead exposure, but Sigal said the biggest development was the June 2010 closure of the copper smelter.
3. A Growing Possibility
Creighton got one step closer to storing Canada’s nuclear waste, moving into a new phase of a selection process that will involve intense geological study and public consultation.
In recognition of its work so far, Creighton also received $400,000 from the Nuclear Waste Management Organization to spend on community projects.
“Creighton is looking forward to continuing its participation in the NWMO site selection process,” said Mayor Bruce Fidler. “The next phase of work will involve much more detailed technical and social studies and will see an enhanced level of engagement within our own community and with our neighbours.”
Creighton is now among 17 Canadian communities in the running to potentially store nuclear waste deep underground – and the only one outside of Ontario.
Research to date has not confirmed whether Creighton, or any other community, is a suitable location. No community has formally declared a willingness to host the project, only to learn more about it.
Creighton’s advancement means the town will undergo aerial surveys and, eventually, borehole drilling to further assess its geology.
“Up until now, all of the work has been desktop work – we haven’t had any boots in the field,” said NWMO spokesperson Michael Krizanc.
NWMO will also conduct broader consultations with Creighton, Flin Flon and neighbouring communities, including First Nations, to gauge public sentiment.
2. They’re On Their Own
Flin Flon firefighters were ordered to stay within city boundaries as of July 1, leaving hundreds of area cottagers on their own in the event of a blaze.
The bold move came after cottage reps rejected a proposal that would have seen the city charge every road-accessible cabin $300 per year for fire protection.
Mayor George Fontaine argued the decision was about fairness for Flin Flon taxpayers, who had been subsidizing fire service for cottage subdivisions that pay no taxes to the city.
“We want $300 per cottage for firefighting and the simple fact is that once people agree that it’s worth $300 for firefighting, then we’ll have an agreement,” he said. “Until then, we don’t have one.”
Ian McKay, co-chair of the North of 54 Cottage Owners Association, which represents area cottagers, said the group had hoped the city would extend the July 1 deadline to improve the chances of a deal.
The Manitoba government said it would battle cabin blazes “wherever possible,” but its seasonal capabilities are severely limited in comparison to those of the Flin Flon firefighters.
The Town of Creighton said it would help with fires if resources are available and 911 needs the help, but cottagers are warned not to count on this option.
A number of cottagers, meanwhile, took to maintaining their own fire pumps.
Later in the year, Fontaine said the city is open to negotiating with individual cottage neighbourhoods, backtracking from its initial ‘all or nothing’ position.
1. A Troubling Conflict
Tensions between First Nations and industry have been growing across Canada in recent years. In 2013, the trend reached the Flin Flon region.
Protesters from Pukatawagan’s Mathias Colomb Cree Nation claimed their territorial rights had been violated and demanded Hudbay halt its Lalor and Reed mines.
“Mathias Colomb Cree Nation has issued stop work orders to the province of Manitoba and Hudbay for two mines operating on our unceded traditional territories,” Chief Arlen Dumas wrote in an April news release, “until both parties acknowledge our ownership interest in the lands and resources and obtain our consent before extracting our resources.”
Neither the province nor Hudbay adhered to the orders, with two Dumas-led blockades at Lalor prompting the company to get a court injunction against further protests on its property.
Hudbay invited Dumas to participate a new ministerial advisory council that is bringing mining, government and First Nations officials together to discuss areas of common interest.
Not only did Dumas decide not to take part, he and some other First Nations leaders vowed to fight on to achieve desired concessions from the mining industry and the province.
Late in the year, Derek Nepinak, the province’s top chief, warned that no new mines will open in Manitoba without First Nations consent.
As 2013 drew to a close, there were far more questions than answers as to how the two sides will move forward cooperatively.
Brad Lantz, vice-president of Hudbay’s Manitoba Business Unit (left), presented Mayor George Fontaine with a framed photo of the pouring of the last ingot at the now-defunct copper smelter. The gift helped Flin Flon mark its 80th anniversary.
FILE PHOTO
