For a community that hasn’t so much as flirted with another party in more than four decades, Flin Flon sure has a love-hate relationship with the NDP.
While residents have voted time and again to send a New Demcrat to the Manitoba legislature on their behalf, that hasn’t stopped many from wondering whether it’s all been for naught.
Why, the now-familiar refrain goes, can’t some of those millions of dollars pumped into The Pas and Thompson instead be diverted to northern Manitoba’s other major centre?
That may be a less relevant question this week after NDP government infrastructure investments in the Flin Flon constituency surpassed a once-unthinkable milestone for this term: $100 million.
Spent or pledged
In fact, the $60 million pledged for Snow Lake area roads brings total spent or committed infrastructure dollars in the riding to about $158 million since the 2011 election.
“I think at the moment we’re getting our fair share,” says Alex McGilvery, president of the Flin Flon NDP Constituency Association. “We’ve got to keep lobbying to make sure they actually spend the money they promised, but it looks like that’s happening, so I’m quite pleased.”
So too is Flin Flon MLA Clarence Pettersen, who has received much of the credit for the funding windfall.
“Before the last election, what did we hear? We heard ‘Thompson and The Pas, Thompson and The Pas’ all the time,” says Pettersen. “And that’s what I wanted to change. I wanted people’s attitudes to change and say, ‘You know what? We are on the map.’”
To illustrate that point, Pettersen’s office recently produced a list of infrastructure commitments made by the province since the MLA’s election.
Topping the list is $32 million for much-needed repairs and upgrading on the road from Lynn Lake, part of Pettersen’s constituency, to Thompson.
Also included is $23 million for a new residence and power mechanics facility at Frontier Collegiate in Cranberry Portage – a figure that will rise significantly given that the project is over budget.
“It really puts Cranberry on the map as being a school for northern residents,” says Pettersen.
Another $20 million – if not more – has been allotted for major upgrades and resurfacing of the stretch of Highway 10 between Flin Flon and Bakers Narrows.
“I’m very concerned about that road because with the 40-plus trucks hauling ore on a daily basis [from Snow Lake], that road is really going to be used,” says Pettersen.
A further $19.8 million is budgeted for the new Flin Flon General Hospital emergency department, with community fundraising to generate at least another $2.2 million.
About $1.1 million in provincial dollars have paid for a new vocational training centre and revamped science lab at Hapnot Collegiate.
Then came Tuesday’s announcement of $60 million for road improvements around Snow Lake.
The money includes $12 million this year to enhance safety and sightlines along a winding eight-kilometre section of Highway 39 near PR 596 east of the Snow Lake access road.
Future years will bring about $38 million to resurface some 125 kilometres of Highway 39, from Highway 10 to 24 kilometres east of Snow Lake.
Another $10 million or so will be spent to resurface about 33 kilometres of PR 392, from Highway 39 to Snow Lake.
McGilvery believes the province is “waking up” and realizing that investments need to be spread throughout the North.
“It has a lot to do with Clarence’s non-stop lobbying of people,” he says. “I don’t know another politician who has had the premier visit his constituency as often as Clarence has had Greg Selinger up here.”
Still, McGilvery knows not all residents will be satisfied.
“I think part of the issue is that the money the province is spending isn’t always the money that different people want to have spent,” he says.
For his part, Pettersen says he is proud of the funding committed to his riding.
But “that doesn’t mean that I’m done,” he adds, citing seniors’ housing as a key need for Flin Flon and other communities in his riding.
