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.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Area cabin owners have thrown the ball back in Flin Flon City Council's court in the ongoing debate over whether cottagers owe the municipality financial support. In a letter to council, two cottagers' organizations call on council to list the services the city could provide to cabin owners and how much money would be expected in return. 'We believe the list should be specific and include a rationale for each service proposed,' wrote Mark Watling and Ian McKay, respective presidents of the Schist Lake / Big Island and Little Athapap cottage owners associations. They wrote that cottagers would expect such a proposal to include all non-resident users of municipal services, not just cottage owners. It was the cottagers' first organized response to council's request that they agree to provide some form of financial aide or risk being annexed by the city. Council has not formally put forth any financial figures, instead asking that cottagers do so. But the cottage associations said 'it is more appropriate that the provider or owner of the services should generate the proposal for the sale of such services.' On the issue of annexation, the associations were blunt: 'The cottage owners overwhelmingly oppose any annexation.' As they see it, 'the proposed annexation is solely to generate revenue for Flin Flon in a time of decreasing population and increasing operational and capital costs.' The letter said it has been implied that most or all services that cottagers already pay for 'would continue to be borne by the cottage owners in addition to future taxes paid to Flin Flon' if annexation occurs. See 'Inherent...' on pg.6 Continued from pg. 1 'There is an inherent unfairness for a city to annex huge areas of residents solely to generate revenue in order to lower their residents' tax burden,' it read. The associations argued that cottagers use only two 'significant' municipally funded services, recreation facilities and the Flin Flon Fire Department. 'The cottage areas purchased equipment for the Flin Flon Fire Department and have had a bill-for-service arrangement for fire fighting,' they wrote. 'We agree that the recreation facilities could be charged out at a higher rate to out of town users. If Flin Flon would do this for Creighton, Denare Beach, Pelican Narrows, etc. as well as the cottage areas, perhaps revenues would come closer to paying for operational deficits.' The associations further asserted that 'cottage communities are distinct with their choices and lifestyles.' 'They have made their own arrangements,' read the letter, 'for (a) sewage lagoon, pump outs, individual water systems, separate landfill with no garbage pickup, road maintenance, reduced snow plowing, policing through a rural (detachment) in Cranberry Portage, etc. This distinctness includes deciding to live without urban services such as delivered potable water, paved roads, sidewalks, street lighting, bus services, quick response to emergency services, etc.' Annexation would make the cottage areas part of Flin Flon, requiring cottagers to pay assessment-based property taxes just like in-town residents. In the associations' view, annexation would bring 'the probable results of severe taxation and no provisions of services.' The letter, dated Aug. 24, did not appear on the agenda at Tuesday's council meeting, but The Reminder obtained a copy from City Hall. Offered a chance to comment, Mayor George Fontaine said he and council had not had sufficient time to formulate a response but will write back to the associations. Last month, The Reminder ran an in-depth article gauging the reaction of individual cottagers to the city's talk of fees and potential annexation. A sampling of their comments: 'What about the people that are living in Creighton, in Denare? They're not paying for city services and yet they're using some of them.' _ John Munson 'I'm thinking that we're talking about two entirely different areas (cottage subdivisions and Flin Flon). They (the city) haven't really ever approached us as far as saying, 'This is what we would provide for you.' So if they're not going to give us anything, I'm really wondering how they can even think of asking for something from us.' _ Sue Lindsay 'We already pay taxes. We can't help that it's not to Flin Flon. That's just the way it is here.' _ Farley Hemmings 'A monetary sum, yeah, I got no problem there because realistically we probably should be paying something. I mean, we do use the town supplies and everything _ well, except for water and garbage, we don't have any of that out here, or fire protection.' _ Rick Jackson 'A lot of people are retired out here. They're on a fixed income. They've used a lot of their life savings to move to the lake to retire. There are many people who have said they just can't afford to (live here) if the city proceeds with what they're doing.' _ Mark Watling
