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.
It's not a pretty picture in Leaf Rapids, the small town north of Thompson whose primary employer, HBMS's Ruttan Mine, shut down in the spring of 2002. Dozens of vacant homes are now on the auction block after the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) was unsuccessful in attempts to find buyers. The community had secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in assistance from HBMS and the Manitoba government to maintain and try to sell the close to 150 empty homes. Now some 55 of the homes have reportedly gone unsold, prompting the CMHC to auction the homes for its Web site. Leaf Rapids has lost about 30 per cent of its population since the mine closed. The town had 1,309 residents at the start of 2002. That number was down to about 600 by the fall of that year and now reportedly sits at about 400. The mine closure put some 300 people out of work.
