Some Flin Flon city councillors hope to renew failed attempts to secure regional funding for recreational facilities, with one councillor pondering the future of the Whitney Forum and the mayor describing any talk of its closure as “very hypothetical.”
At council’s latest meeting, held Tuesday, Feb. 16, Coun. Ken Pawlachuk asked Reminder journalist Jonathon Naylor what council should do if forced to choose between the Whitney Forum and a necessary water-line upgrade.
When Naylor in turn asked whether council was at the point where it faced such a choice, Pawlachuk replied, “No, but in the future it will be.”
“It could be. It’s not a ‘will be,’” interjected Huntley.
Pawlachuk posed the question in reference to a recent editorial in which Naylor defended the $500,000 or so annual subsidy for the Whitney Forum.
Pawlachuk said he wished the editorial had pointed out that the arena is “a regional facility” that is “paid for by us” – the City of Flin Flon alone.
“Maybe it’s time that the regional people that use it should help us pay for it,” he said.
Coun. Colleen McKee said she hopes that people of the region can be invited to discuss recreational facilities for the purpose of “root decision making.”
“It’s not going to be ‘our facility’ and ‘their facility,’” she said. “It’s going to be our [regional] facility, and that they will be part of the decision making and the planning going forward. That’s what I would like to see.
“When I talk about inviting people to the table, I don’t think anyone wants to be told what to do and what they have to pay for. But when you invite people as part of the decision making for our recreational facilities, I think it’s a step in the right direction, because then they actually have a say.
“I think we have to…stop being so autonomous. I think we have to just sort of broaden our spectrum of caring and sharing and getting together and solving.”
Coun. Tim Babcock liked that idea but wondered about the outcome, at least in terms of the Whitney Forum.
“That’s a great statement, but how come it’s our facility until we have to talk about shutting it down?” he said. “Like, if it shuts down, it shuts down for everybody, and I know that we’ve had that conversation before. But, I don’t know, we’ve sat at that table before and I don’t see anybody [else] sitting back right now with us.”
But Huntley emphasized that no conversations around closing the Whitney Forum have taken place since he became mayor in October 2014.
“We’ve never had those discussions. I don’t know where that came from,” he said in response to Babcock. “It came from before me if you had those discussions.”
Huntley said that “right now things are operating just the way they should be” and that the idea of closing the Whitney Forum is “very hypothetical.”
He said such conversations have taken place around the Uptown Curling Club rink within the Whitney Forum building – “and that’s realistic because of the usage and everything like that.”
McKee said she certainly does not want to see the curling rink close. Huntley concurred.
While curling fees for many years covered expenses at the curling rink, that is no longer the case.
“We’re not unique in that, either,” Huntley said.
McKee said there’s been “a bit of a rejuvenation” at the Uptown Curling Club thanks to the formation of a junior curling club.
Added Pawlachuk: “It’s important for the quality of life to keep it.”
McKee said any recreational facility will cost money, “but I think it boils down to quality of life.”
“Like when we talk about running a water line or shutting down a facility, that’s a pretty tough choice in my mind because, we live here because of the things that we can access,” she said.
“I think right now we live in a time where quality of life is very important to people, probably much more than it was years ago. Before, it was all work and no play, and now young kids, they want to have a nice balance. We offer that in this community.”
Huntley said he believed he spoke for all of council when he said their desire is to maintain “the quality of life and services that we have right now” while understanding there will be “some bumps in the road going forward and we’re prepared to address them.”
Added Huntley: “The community always steps up when there’s times of trouble, and we get together and we do what’s right. And we do it as a regional community, so I’m comfortable that we’re going to be able to weather whatever comes in front of us and that we’re going to succeed going forward.”
In November 2013, the previous council went public with its proposal for a regional approach to funding recreation facilities in Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach. No agreements were reached.
Flin Flon city council’s position at the time was that recreational facilities are used regionally and should therefore be funded on a regional basis rather than being the sole responsibility of any one municipality.
The city partially addressed this disparity in 2013 when it increased user fees at the Aqua Centre for users who do not live in Flin Flon.
At the time, then-mayor George Fontaine said user fees were not council’s preferred method to glean revenue from outside residents – a funding deal with neighbouring communities was.
Some non-residents have countered that they already pay fees to access Flin Flon’s rec facilities, such as attending a Bomber game at the Whitney Forum.
