Most of Flin Flon’s city council took part in the recent Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) general meeting in Winnipeg, spreading news and information about the community to political figures from across the province.
Mayor Cal Huntley, five of six city councillors, chief administrative officer Glenna Daschuk and treasurer Lyn Brown all headed to Winnipeg earlier this month in an attempt to bring northern issues to the forefront. Meetings with several key provincial cabinet ministers were included with the event.
“I think the conference went really well. We met with quite a few ministers,” said Huntley.
“There was good input. It looked like, on some things, we may see some activity. Roads and bridges, base taxes – it sounded like something could be coming down the pipe there. It was positive.”
“I think it’s critical that we are in their face. They need to know what we’re going through here and I think this council has been very good at getting our faces out there, networking, those kinds of things. It’s critically important,” added councillor Colleen McKee.
Issues that Huntley has prioritized for some time, including mineral development and base tax discussions, were up for discussion.
“They understand where we’re coming from. They gave us some indication that there may be some resolution to some of this. That has to happen. They’re very familiar with Flin Flon and I think we’ve generated a very positive relationship,” he said.
“They understand that we have issues, but we’re willing to work on solutions. We’re not asking other people to just solve it for us. We’ll see how it pays off at the end of the day, but I feel it was well worth going to.”
One more piece of news came from outside the province. The City of Flin Flon became a full voting member of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) after meeting up with a delegation from SUMA during the event.
“We had supper with the president and one of the executives and we had a really good discussion. We got back in our registration and we now have voting rights,” said Huntley.
Council’s coverage area includes the portion of Flin Flon situated across the Saskatchewan border, where more than 200 people live.
“I feel we should have [been involved in SUMA] all along anyways, just because we’re also representing the Saskatchewan side of our community. We’re certainly big enough as a community in Saskatchewan, so that went very well. If you can build relationships like that, there’s no reason borders should get in the way. We’ve got to get Manitoba and Saskatchewan governments in the same kind of conversations and not let the borders get in the way in a region like ours,” said Huntley.
