A road linking Pukatawagan and Lynn Lake with Flin Flon, expanded northern transit and more care home spaces are among the items Clarence Pettersen hopes to cross off his wish list.
The Flin Flon MLA discussed those and other issues during a candid address to the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday.
Pettersen said he agrees with a push by the mayor of Lynn Lake to build a road connecting the small community to Flin Flon some 240 km to the south.
“I really believe a road to Lynn Lake is important,” he told a dozen guests at the Friendship Centre restaurant. “I really believe that road to Lynn Lake, if it’s going to go there, should go through or go by or have a road to Pukatawagan. We have 2,500 people that live [in Pukatawagan], maybe even 3,000, that need an opportunity to come and maybe work at Hudbay or work someplace else. They need that opportunity and I think every Canadian town, whether it’s a reserve or just a town, needs that opportunity.”
Pettersen said Lynn Lake has long desired a road to Flin Flon, but former Thompson MLA Joe Borowski wanted “all the roads leading to Thompson.”
And so Lynn Lake, which as the crow flies is as close to Flin Flon as it is to Thompson, received a road link to the latter community but never the former.
Pettersen said the inclusion of Pukatawagan on the proposed road would make sense not only for the reserve, but also for Flin Flon.
“We need the reserves coming into Flin Flon to shop,” he said. “I mean, just think, if we didn’t have Pelican [Narrows] and Sandy Bay coming in, our hospital might be a clinic. And Pukatawagan comes in here four months of the year because of the winter road. That helps out big time. If we had them coming all the time, we would really be a centre of the North. Plus, all of a sudden we’ve got closer ties with the reserves then all of a sudden our population, or surrounding area, becomes larger and we can get things.”
Switching gears, Pettersen appeared visibly disappointed when asked about the concept of restoring northern Manitoba’s highway bus schedule to its former level.
“Oh God, I think that is so important,” he said. “What can I say? I’ve talked to [former transportation] Minister Steve Ashton. We don’t seem to [see] eye to eye on that.”
Greyhound once offered a much more extensive highway bus schedule in northern Manitoba than it currently does, but that ended when Pettersen’s government stopped subsidizing the bus company in mid 2012.
Reductions in Flin Flon included the elimination of the daytime bus to and from Winnipeg and the end of all passenger service between Flin Flon and Thompson.
“If we are going to make…Thompson kind of the centre of the North for [medical] specialists…well, we need a bus there,” Pettersen said. “We do have [flights] that [go] there now, but we do need a bus that goes there. To go to Thompson by bus, you’ve got to go down to Winnipeg and catch the bus back [north].”
Although the restoration of transit services has not been on the province’s priority list, he said, the government remains interested in the idea.
Pettersen said he’ll be “really pushing” for more transit, adding: “I want to make it [so] that the North is not left out. We should have the same transportation services as down south.”
On the perennial concern of Flin Flon’s seniors’ housing shortage, he said securing more units for older residents is his main goal.
Pettersen said the province is looking at replacing the abandoned government apartment complex at 4 Hemlock Drive – once home to affordable family units – with seniors’ housing, and he expected an announcement soon.
The province’s plan for 4 Hemlock was first reported by The Reminder in November 2014. At that time, Housing Minister Peter Bjornson confirmed more seniors’ units would open in Flin Flon, most likely in the form of a new or refurbished apartment at 4 Hemlock.
“Our community is getting older and I think we have to look at more facilities, but it’s not just in Flin Flon,” said Pettersen. “We have the same problem in Snow Lake – they’re an older population. And Lynn Lake.”
Flin Flon seniors have also expressed apprehension over a shortage of beds at the Personal Care Home and the Northern Lights Manor, which offer around-the-clock care.
“We’re bringing that up for sure, that we need more spaces,” Pettersen said.
He further voiced his support for a new or revamped swimming pool in Flin Flon, a concept currently being overseen by a volunteer committee.
Referencing a Reminder editorial that suggested provincial funds be diverted from rock blasting along Highway 10 to help pay for a pool, Pettersen said: “I think we can do both.”
Pettersen called the upgrades to Highway 10 between Flin Flon and Bakers Narrows a project of high importance that will save lives.
With up to 50 ore trucks travelling to Flin Flon daily from Hudbay’s Lalor and Reed mines, he said he wants the highway to be in the best shape possible.
Pettersen said he also wants the many cottagers who live outside Flin Flon to be able to travel safely to and from the community.
Yet cottagers have not been receptive to all of Pettersen’s decisions. Many of them were critical last year when he encouraged them to accept a controversial funding agreement with the City of Flin Flon.
Central to those discussions was then-mayor George Fontaine, who has since been replaced by Cal Huntley.
Pettersen said he doesn’t know if talks are still ongoing and added that neither side has asked him to get involved since Fontaine’s departure.
“I’m there if they want me,” he said.
On another contentious matter, Pettersen said he remains “close” with Premier Greg Selinger, whom he called on to resign last year before being temporarily booted from NDP caucus meetings.
“We understand each other and I didn’t want to compromise my integrity over that issue,” Pettersen said.
At one point in his address, Pettersen offered an inside look at how politics can motivate government decision-making.
“You can’t take your foot off the gas pedal” when it comes to government commitments, he said, because governments are “always looking for, ‘Hey can we switch the road budget from, let’s say, Flin Flon, you know, we need some votes in Dauphin or some place else.’”
Reiterating his plan to seek re-election in 2016, Pettersen ran down a list of the $150-million-plus he said the province has spent, or committed to spending, in the Flin Flon constituency since he became MLA four years ago.
At $20-million-plus, the Highway 10 upgrades near Flin Flon are among the big-ticket items. He also mentioned $23 million in upgrades at Frontier Collegiate in Cranberry Portage and some $20 million for a new ER at the Flin Flon General Hospital.
Pettersen said the new ER is important for reasons that include the “sensitive work environment” at Hudbay, Flin Flon’s primary employer.
“In the past there [have] been accidents [and] we do [need to] have good hospital facilities, and that’s what I’m looking forward to,” he said.
On the question of Flin Flon’s future, Pettersen cracked open a case of his trademark optimism.
“My glass is always half full,” he said. “So when I look at Flin Flon and I look at the facilities that we’re building in Flin Flon, we’re not building them for four years or till the ore runs out. We’re building it for eternity. We’re building it because, I think, the ore will never run out, okay? So we need facilities for our children. We need facilities for people that want to move here.”
