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.
Area cabin owners want the Town of Creighton to consider providing fire protection to cottage subdivisions, arguing that the City of Flin Flon wants too much money. The North of 54 Cottage Owners Association made the request in a letter recently reviewed by Creighton town council. 'The purpose of this letter is to ask the Mayor and Council if the fire department in Creighton would be interested in discussing and considering a fire services agreement,' read the letter, signed by co-chairs Ian McKay and Mark Watling. The letter said the agreement would provide at least $30,000 a year to the town and be similar to agreements that the Town of The Pas has with its surrounding cottagers. Creighton Mayor Bruce Fidler said he was surprised to receive the letter, reviewed at his council's Aug. 28 meeting. He said he and council would be discussing the matter in the coming days. In their letter, McKay and Watling are critical of Flin Flon's asking price for fire protection: $300 a year per cottage. 'Most property owners agree that this is extremely expensive and we should be able to have an agreement similar to those at The Pas,' they wrote. See 'The' on pg. Continued from pg. The men noted that cottagers near The Pas pay between $50 and $75 a cabin each year, far below Flin Flon's asking price. McKay and Watling also summarized the current fire protection situation for cottagers. 'You are probably aware that the City of Flin Flon has terminated fire services to the cottage areas east of Flin Flon,' they wrote. 'To ensure that the cottage areas have some fire protection, the Department of Conservation and Water Stewardship has stated that they will attend (to) any fires on properties and the surrounding areas. 'However, resources staff are not trained to enter any structures that are on fire but can fight fires from outside a building or on the properties. This arrangement is available to us during the summer but services will not be available once the maintenance yards shut down for the winter period.' Flin Flon stopped responding to structural fires outside of its boundaries on July 1, ending a years-old practice. Mayor George Fontaine argued that it was a matter of fairness for Flin Flon taxpayers, who had been subsidizing fire protection for cottage subdivisions. The Town of The Pas has four separate funding agreements providing fire service to hundreds of outlying residents. The largest of these arrangements, with the Rural Municipality of Kelsey, provides fire coverage to somewhere between 400 and 500 households. The largest portion of the RM of Kelsey is Carrot Valley, southwest of The Pas. The RM also includes Wanless, a tiny village 45 kilometres north of The Pas, the furthest point to which firefighters travel. In exchange for fire protection, the RM pays The Pas a yearly fee of $30,000 _ which works out to $60 to $75 per household. The RM covers the tab from its overall tax revenue, so as is the case with other services, residents pay no direct fee to either the RM or The Pas. A second agreement sees the cottagers of Clearwater Lake Provincial Park, along with the provincial government, pay The Pas an annual fee of $28,000. The deal covers 363 cottages, meaning the deal is worth $77 per cottage. Yet cottagers themselves only pay $55 each for the service. The remaining $22 _ about $8,000 when all cottagers are factored in _ comes from Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship. A provincial spokesperson said the province 'provides funding support for fire suppression, but only in provincial parks.' The Pas also has two fire service agreements with cabin owners' associations _ Rocky Lake North Shore Cottager's Association and Rocky Lake East Shore Cottager's Association. In both cases, cottagers pay The Pas $50 per lot, per year.
