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.
Here is the second part of The Reminder's one-on-one interview with Flin Flon Mayor Dennis Ballard. * * * Reminder: What are the common concerns you hear from residents? Mayor Ballard: You know, I hear a lot about the roads, and that's the one thing I don't have much of a comeback on. I also hear about snow removal, which is not fair. Snow removal here is done better than anywhere else. I don't know of anywhere where it's done better. Taxes, too. Everybody's got their own concern, and you hear about it. But if you said, 'What do you hear about from the most people?', roads comes to mind right away. Reminder: Do residents feel overtaxed? Mayor Ballard: Some people that I hear from do, but I think that's a general theme in Canada. I feel that way. Reminder: Could taxes not be raised to maintain community services, especially considering that Flin Flon has a high per capita wage? Mayor Ballard: Sure you can, sure you can, and we've never said to the people of Flin Flon that we won't raise taxes. We've never said that. What we felt is important is that we hold the line as far as possible, that we won't raise taxes unless we have to. So far, we really haven't had to. Sometimes you have to raise taxes. I mean, when you've got a population where the tax base is continuing to shrink and shrink and shrink while costs, of course, are going sky high, you know, it stands to reason that at some point there's a breaking point and you're going to have either more taxes or less service Ñ one or the other. So, when that time comes, yes, taxes will go up, absolutely, but by God, not until they have to, because you know, in this country, people have got enough taxes. They're saddled with taxes. We're down now, though, to where the (tax) income from the mall site might hold us up for a bit, but there may be things that we have to do that will require either increasing taxes or doing away with a service. Reminder: Do you sometimes feel powerless given that so much hinges on the levels of government higher than yours? Mayor Ballard: You're not here (at City Hall) very long before you learn that a lot of stuff, you don't have any control over. Here's an example: Still so many people think we set the taxes on your property. We set the mill rate, which is a bit of a complicated process, but the assessment on the property is what drives your taxes, and that's done by the (provincial) government. So some people will phone me and they'll say, 'How can you assess my home at this amount?' No, we don't assess it. See 'New' P.# Con't from P.# Reminder: How optimistic are you about the proposed road to connect Pukatawagan with Highway 10? And will the road come to Flin Flon? Mayor Ballard: The road will come from Pukatawagan at some point, there isn't any question in my mind about it, and it will go north from there to Nunavut and wherever else. It's only a question of where (it leads). And that's an area where I have never been able to get anything from the government. I have never received any indication about what's on their mind. When I've talked to them, I've had the distinct feeling that they've got some plans. They're not sharing them with me. So, I'm very confident there will be a road. Whether it comes to Flin Flon is anybody's guess.
