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 Here is the second and final part of The Reminder's interview with Flin Flon MLA Gerard Jennissen: REMINDER: The property tax hikes in Flin Flon got a lot of attention in 2010. While it is true that city council sets the mill rate, it is also true that your government requires the mill rate to be applied to a property value that your government determines. It is also true that your government can appeal any changes to property values instituted at the local level by the Board of Revision. Do you or your government deserve any blame for the drastic tax increases residents saw this year? Is there a better system? JENNISSEN: Unfor-tunately under the old system, property assessments were only done every four years. During such a long period, property values can go up or down extensively. We have already implemented a new system under which property is assessed more frequently in order to minimize the increases or decreases. Assessments still depend on the value of your home. Some people find their property tax decreasing while others have increases Ð but the increases are connected to the increased value of the property. Certainly it is always possible that a mistake is made in any particular assessment. This is why the province enables the city to review the assessment. There is an appeal process. I am a great believer that any system can be improved Ð shortening the assessment period was a big step in that direction. REMINDER: Your government last year agreed to pay half the salary of five apprentice employees at HBMS. HudBay had profits of $112.8 million last year and has $852 million in the bank. Is it the taxpayer's job to pay for their employees? JENNISSEN: No, it's not the taxpayer's job to pay for a private corporation's employees, but that's not what is happening here. It is the government's responsibility to spend money where it will benefit Manitobans. In this case it is to create new apprenticeship opportunities in Flin Flon. Corporations may make profits, but we can't tell them what to do with their profits. I'm not sure that the details of the arrangement are exactly as you give them, but what we are doing is providing the necessary incentive to encourage them to invest in people locally. REMINDER: What is the single biggest need for Flin Flon (the city, not the riding)? Why? JENNISSEN: Health care is the single biggest issue before us and we are in the process of addressing some huge challenges there. If we didn't have the health care issue looming before us, I would say that two other significant long-term issues are the increased need for seniors housing and the need for a new swimming pool rec. complex. See 'Laws...' on pg. 12 Continued from pg. 1 REMINDER: You, as I understand it, are an avid churchgoer. Do you feel that any of the NDP's liberal social policies Ð on same-sex marriage, abortion, marijuana, euthanasia, etc. Ð conflict with your faith? If so, how do you reconcile that? JENNISSEN: There is a separation between Church and State. My personal beliefs may conflict with the larger sets of belief or the laws of the land. However, as a legislator you have to accept the laws of the land regardless of your personal beliefs. As well, my particular Christian denomination, like other denominations and other faith systems, always contain various strands of conservative and liberal thinking. In other words, no faith system is totally conservative or totally liberal Ð there is a range. In Catholicism that range spreads from pre-Vatican 2 thinking and the emphasis on the Tridentine mass to liberation theology. REMINDER: Is there any other message you would like to get out to our readers? JENNISSEN: Yes, I would like to appeal to your readers, my constituents, to work with this NRHA review committee. This is our chance to have effective change brought to our own system and put in measures which will prevent a reoccurrence down the road of the kinds of problems we are faced with now. Some people may be skeptical, but I would like to have people give this a chance. I am confident that we have good people on this committee who are capable of analyzing just what has brought us to this current impasse and to recommend which way we go from here. The committee has extensive administrative as well as northern field experience. Dr. [Brian] Postl has been active in the Children's Hospital Northern Referral and Medical clinics and as a visiting pediatrician to Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, Grand Rapids and Easterville, Manitoba. He was also previously the head of the J.A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit from 1982 to 1994, which is responsible for the delivery of medical services to many northern and remote communities. With these current issues, as in the past, it has always been my honour and privilege to work for Northern Manitobans. I will continue to work tirelessly on their behalf as long as I am able.
