When people hear that MaryAnn Mihychuk now spends her days toiling away in northern Manitoba, they may wonder where her career took a wrong turn.
But those folks fail to understand both the rustic allure of the North and the one-time provincial mines minister’s adventuresome spirit.
“I’ve got freedom to create my own future, so I enjoy the independence,” says the bubbly Mihychuk, 58.
Through her consulting business, CR Services, Mihychuk has been working as economic development officer for the Town of Snow Lake since last year.
She spends one or two weeks a month in the northern town, where she owns a cozy home and maintains solid friendships.
Mihychuk has become the public face of efforts to grow Snow Lake as the nearby Lalor and Reed mines progress to full production.
It hasn’t gone as well as many had hoped, but some new families and businesses are relocating to the community of 800 to 900 people.
Among the projects Mihychuk, along with others, are working toward: more retail, a community pharmacy and a previously announced research centre on mine closure and remediation.
She is optimistic that Lalor and Reed are just the beginning of renewed mining in the area, but believes the provincial government must do a better job of fostering mineral development.
Mihychuk wants her former NDP colleagues to better engage First Nations, shift to online mineral staking and establish more incentives to sustain small exploration companies.
“Exploration doesn’t give you cash in your pocket right now,” she says. “But it does mean that we could have a new discovery, so it’s very important that we have a healthy exploration sector and that’s not what I see in Manitoba right now.”
When it comes to mining, Mihychuk knows what she speaks. She is trained geologist who served as Manitoba’s mines minister from 1999 to 2003.
Resigned
She resigned her MLA’s seat in 2004 to run for mayor of Winnipeg. Unfortunately for her and her supporters, she placed fourth.
Mihychuk reentered the private sector, at one point spending a couple of years as a community relations officer for Hudbay.
Now, in addition to working as Snow Lake’s economic development officer, she is vice-president of BacTech Manitoba Corp.
BacTech is the company behind Snow Lake’s planned bioleach plant, which will detoxify and extract valuable metals from mine waste.
The company had hoped to have the plant up and running by now but like many small mining-related companies has had difficulty securing sufficient capital.
Nonetheless, Mihychuk couldn’t be happier to be up north, a region that first won her heart in 1977.
That was the year she helped map an area from Churchill to Seal River for the province’s Geological Survey.
“I thought I was the luckiest person in the world to be able to do something with so much fun and also collect a paycheque,” she says.
More than 35 years later, that feeling hasn’t changed.
Former provincial mines minister and one-time Winnipeg mayoral candidate MaryAnn Mihychuk is working to grow Snow Lake.
PHOTO BY MARC JACKSON
