Mayor Cal Huntley is reacting favourably to Hudbay’s plans for Flin Flon.
As The Reminder reported last week, the company says it plans to retain its Flin Flon metallurgical plant while continuing exploration initiatives in the region.
Asked for comment, Huntley said Flin Flon must “deal with the reality of what’s going to take place in five years.” At that point, 777 mine is expected to close.
“But I don’t think that reality is as scary as everybody is trying to make it,” added the mayor, speaking at the Tuesday, May 24 council meeting.
Huntley mentioned Hudbay’s preference for lower provincial tax rates on outside concentrate brought into Manitoba for processing to, as the mayor put it, “keep the metallurgical plant going until we do find another mine.”
Huntley further referenced the potential of different gold streams at Lalor mine and the possibility of the company reopening the former New Britannia mine gold mill in Snow Lake.
“[If] we have a new [gold] processing plant, then all of a sudden there’s a different view that we can take going forward around our exploration as well,” he said.
Huntley said metallurgical plants can be “there forever” as long as there is feed and the necessary upgrades.
Hudbay’s metallurgical plant employs about half of its Flin Flon-Snow Lake workforce. 777 mine employs about 20 per cent of that workforce, and sources say a significant number of 777 workers are at or approaching retirement age.
New Chief
Council announced that the city has hired a new fire chief in Chad Cooper, who started the job this week.
“We’re really excited to be adding him to our management team,” said Coun. Tim Babcock.
Cooper, who hails from Lethbridge, Alberta, replaces Jim Petrie, who retired earlier this month after nearly 17 years with the fire department.
Cooper was unavailable for comment as of press time but planned to speak to The Reminder at length later in the week.
Clean-up
Huntley defended council’s decision to reinstate the spring clean-up campaign, which sees city workers remove piles of garbage and debris from residential properties.
A concerned resident appeared before council to ask why a program that was eliminated as a cost-cutting measure has been brought back.
Huntley said there had been internal debate within council about whether to revive the initiative.
“We drove around the community. We’ve all had different views of the community,” he said. “In some respects there are people that can’t get out to the dump, that don’t have a truck to get out to the dump, and we want to try and facilitate to make it easier to clean up our community.”
Coun. Bill Hanson added that even when the previous council eliminated the once-annual program, there was talk of bringing it back periodically.
Prior to this year, the spring clean-up last took place in 2012.
Committee Progress
Huntley shared some of the progress being made by a regional economic development committee comprised of officials from Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach.
“We’re starting to put together the pieces that will help it to be a little bit more formalized,” he said of the group, which held its second meeting on May 20. “It really is exciting. There’s a lot of energy around the table and I think it’s really going to broaden our opportunities to open the box, so to speak, and look at things we maybe hadn’t looked at before, and we’ll do it jointly. Once we start doing something like that jointly, who knows what else comes out of that with regards to synergies and good ways to do business.”
Huntley said the idea for the committee did not come from the Tri-Council initiative recently established in and around The Pas, but from Creighton mayor Bruce Fidler.
He also spoke encouragingly of a recent meeting that brought together municipalities and organizations from across the region in Cranberry Portage.
“It really pumps you up when you start hearing some of the things that are going on,” Huntley said.
Panel By-law
Council granted final approval to a by-law that gives elected officials the authority to declare animals dangerous and decide whether they should be euthanized.
The by-law, which is now in force, calls for the mayor to appoint a panel of three councillors to have the final say on controversial matters involving pets.
There are two scenarios under which issues would go to the panel: if the city’s animal licence inspector determines a matter to be controversial, or if a matter involves an animal bite and a panel decision is requested by either the animal’s owner or the complainant.
The by-law gives two examples of issues the panel would deal with: a decision to declare an animal dangerous, meaning owners have to meet certain criteria in owning the animal, or an order to euthanize an animal.
Under the previous by-law, the unelected animal licence inspector alone made such decisions.
