Mayor Cal Huntley’s Flin Flon roots run as deep as the massive ore bodies that have nourished the community for decades.
Both of his grandfathers came to work for HBM&S, now Hudbay, in the 1930s. And both of his parents eagerly stayed in Flin Flon to raise their own family.
At 56, Huntley himself remains enamoured with the community. Save for a couple of university stints, Flin Flon has always been his home.
After graduating from Hapnot Collegiate in 1977, Huntley got on as a summer student at the HBM&S zinc plant.
That fall he left for the University of Saskatchewan with plans to major in math and become a phys-ed teacher.
Homesick, Huntley soon returned to Flin Flon, though he would later go back to the U of S to study engineering for a time.
Back home, he was rehired by HBM&S and found himself underground. In time he ventured into the trades, earning his boilermaker and welding certificates.
Huntley was in the midst of a steamfitter apprenticeship in the mid-1990s when HBM&S offered him a position in industrial relations. He has held an office job ever since.
His reputation as a thoughtful, conscientious citizen paved the way for his election as a city councillor in 1998. By the mid-2000s, he was the subject of mayoral rumours.
When Huntley lost his council seat in 2010, some thought his career in civic politics was over.
But he resurfaced in 2014, this time as a mayoral candidate challenging the admired but controversial George Fontaine.
By just four votes, believed to be the narrowest margin in Flin Flon electoral history, Huntley prevailed. He was sworn in as mayor in November 2014.
In addition to mayor, Huntley is the senior contracts administrator for Hudbay, managing agreements with businesses that provide services to the company.
The Reminder sat down with Huntley for a one-on-one interview last week.
REMINDER: Rising property taxes and utility bills are a concern for many Flin Flonners. At the same time, the city has significant costs of its own. Is it realistic to ever expect lower taxes or utility bills?
HUNTLEY: I think in general you’re not going to expect lower taxes. What we want to see is some stability around the tax base.
There’s quite a few things in the air right now around the special levy, whether that gets approved again. That will have an indication on where we go direction-wise.
But the general strategy in principle going into 2015 is to hold the line for 2015. So we don’t expect any kind of an increase on property taxes. Could that be different for specific individuals? It could be, but I don’t see it being anything like that.
After 2015, going forward, we’re in the process of talking about and maybe developing a strategy where we would do something like incremental increases based on the Consumer Price Index, a two or three per cent increase going forward so you don’t get hit with these ginormous [increases]. But yet it takes into account how the costs of living and everything else that you do is increasing.
So you might see some marginal increases going forward after that. Exceptional circumstances could come into the mix. I don’t foresee that happening, but the strategy going forward is minimal increases based upon good business practice so you don’t get any huge surprises with regards to your taxes.
On the utilities side, we’re handcuffed on that one in that [the services] have to pay for themselves. So whatever the costs are, that’s what’s going to get divvied up and charged to the ratepayers in the city of Flin Flon.
So, could they increase? They could. Depends on the costs to operate the plants.
REMINDER: During one of the mayoral debates, you said you didn’t think Flin Flon needed a water treatment plant. What is that based on? What did you mean by that?
HUNTLEY: Hindsight’s 20/20. I think the amount of dollars that were spent on the water treatment plant – and let’s be clear, I was part of choosing the technology that was going into that plant – [it] was a large amount of dollars based upon some testing that had been done that reflected a possibility of a concern.
I think we were very close to pristine water. Because of [that] testing we spent [$15.2] million.
I think – and this is a hindsight, general comment and an opinion only – I think we might have been much better off to have spent the money replacing the pipes that the water was running through before we went and did a water treatment plant.
But we’ve got what we’ve got, and we do have a state-of-the-art plant now, and it’s put a bit of a burden on the taxpayer and the city itself given the cost for that technology and treatment plant.
But we’re in good shape going [into] the future with that plant. At some point in time we would have had to have dealt with it. I just think it could have been dealt with a little bit differently, but hindsight’s always 20/20.
REMINDER: You say the water was near pristine, but it was not meeting provincial health standards.
HUNTLEY: I can’t get into the detail because I don’t have it [right now], but the bacteria – or the chlorine interacting with the vegetation that was in the water was bringing, and maybe you know the –
REMINDER: Trihalomethanes?
HUNTLEY: Yeah…and there were certain tests in certain areas where [elevated trihalomethanes] came out, and that’s what predicated us moving forward.
But there has been no – well, and again I’m going to give you an opinion – there was no indication that any sickness or illness had ever been caused by the existing water source that we had.
Regulations change. You have to meet regulations. That’s what we did. In my opinion, the money probably could have been better spent by putting in new pipes. Maybe you don’t have the vegetation and the tests are fine. I don’t know.
REMINDER: How do you feel about the potential of nuclear waste being stored near Creighton?
HUNTLEY: I think you have to look at economic diversification for a one-industry town wherever you can.
I haven’t had the opportunity to experience the full-blown presentation around that [concept]. I have spoken with [Creighton] Mayor [Bruce] Fidler [on a] very preliminary [basis], and I’m interested. I need to get up to speed on the information that’s out there and how it could be approached.
I’m not negative towards it. I think if it’s safe and it’s a viable option, it brings in a second industry that could [offer] a long-term financial benefit to the whole region. But first and foremost we need to make sure that it is safe.
REMINDER: The public mood in Flin Flon seems neither overly optimistic nor overly pessimistic. What’s your sense? How do you feel about Flin Flon’s future?
HUNTLEY: I think Flin Flon’s got a bright future. We realize that we’re a mining town and we are a one-industry town, that we’re in a very prolific area for mining.
Hudbay’s been here since 1927, operating since 1927. They’re dealing with a fixed mine life right now with 777, but they’ve actively put dollars, significant dollars, towards exploration in our area, and I’m comfortable that given the expertise and everything that they have over there that we’ll be able to extend that life and move forward until [a] significant [discovery] comes around again.
But when you mention the nuclear [waste], we need to be looking for diversification. We always need to do that, and it has to be a realistic diversification.
If, six years from now Hudbay shut down, nobody can dispute that Flin Flon becomes a totally different community. And that’s the [reality] of a mining [community].
Now do I think that’s going to happen? Absolutely not. I’m comfortable that we’re going to go on into the future for a long period of time. I mean, I live here, my plans are to stay here. My kids for the time being live here…and Flin Flon’s a wonderful place to live…
So I think Flin Flon should be positive. I think we’re not different than very many other communities with our infrastructure problems. That’s a national problem. That’s not just a Flin Flon problem, so there’s some question and answers that have to come from the federal government and the provincial government on how we’re going to look after these things.
But I think we should be positive about Flin Flon. I’m positive about Flin Flon.
REMINDER: That said, I don’t think a lot of people think Hudbay is going to close in six years or anything like that, nor do you, but the concern is, what happens with 777 potentially closing in 2021? What would Flin Flon look like in that situation? We would still have our plant here, but we would have one less mine.
HUNTLEY: Well obviously with regards to people that work at the plant, if 777 was to close that’s 300 less jobs directly related to mining. And all the support that goes towards that.
That would be a significant hit to the community, and from a business plan perspective with Hudbay, I don’t know how that impacts the metal-lurgical plants.
As you know, we don’t produce copper anode anymore, and it goes out as copper concentrate.
If we don’t have the feed for the zinc plant? I don’t know. There’s business decisions that HB [Hudbay] would have to make based around that.
But if there’s not a significant mine in this area, it does lead to some interesting questions as to what Hudbay looks like, but those are probably best asked of Hudbay.
REMINDER: You’ve said that you have a lot in common with former mayor George Fontaine. As mayor, how are you similar to and different from Fontaine?
HUNTLEY: I have the utmost respect for George. I think the concerns that George was dealing with are very [much] the same as – I’ve inherited those problems. And I didn’t foresee any significant change in the issues.
My approach is just a little bit different. We all have different personalities and my personality is more around building relationships, engaging people, that kind of a thing, and George had his own individual personality. And he is a well respected, and should be a well respected, member of the community that led the community [and] I think he did a very good job.
I didn’t agree with the strategies of mayor and council on occasion, but they were approaching difficult problems and I wasn’t sitting there then, so I’m not sure what my decisions would have been or how they would have influenced [outcomes].
All I can do is, going forward – my personality is a little bit different and my approach is a little bit different.
REMINDER: You were a city councillor from 1998 to 2010 and elected mayor in 2014. Was it nice to have a break from politics and did that break help give you perspective as mayor?
HUNTLEY: I did have a break from politics, but it’s really funny. The community is a funny place. For a good portion of that time, I would still get asked questions and I’d have to say, “Well, you know I’m not on council anymore?” “You’re not?!” And it was quite humourous…
Quite a few of my colleagues went forward on council and I have good personal relationships as well as professional relationships with them, so I always sort of had my finger on the pulse. And I wouldn’t have run for mayor if I didn’t.
So I never really took a break. I guess I took a deep breath, is what I did.
But I was approached by quite a few people to run again. Now, not necessarily for mayor, but they really wanted me to run again.
And I know the difficulties that the previous council and mayor had gone through and were going through. I decided that if I was going to get involved again and get involved in the concerns that were out there, that I wanted to do it from a leadership perspective. I wanted to approach it from a different perspective than I had on council before as a councillor.
And so that’s why I threw my name in. I had talked to George before doing it, because George encouraged me to run for council, he really did. And I was disappointed when I didn’t make it onto council the last time because I had looked forward to working with George.
But when I decided to run again I told George, “You know, I may run, but if I do, I think I’m going to take a run at mayor. And he…certainly encouraged that…
And I have to admit, I was a bit surprised when I did actually beat the incumbent, by four votes and only four votes, so it was a very narrow margin. It could very easily have went either way.
But I was up to the task. I was prepared for it…and let’s hope we can have a very positive four years moving forward.
It’s funny, though, just as soon as you get into the role, the first wrinkle pops up that you never expected, which would be Rick [Bacon, director of works and operations] leaving.
And those things happen all the time. You want to settle in and get down to work and now you’re trying to fill a key role within the city, and before we get down to moving forward we have to make sure that the status quo is there and we get the day to day covered.
It’s going to be a real interesting four years. I’m looking forward to it. And I hope after the four years we can sit down and have a chat about what’s changed, what’s got better, what the mood of the community is.
When you said initially that the mood of the community was neither optimistic nor pessimistic, given that I’ve only been in the role for several months, I take that as a positive sign because going into the election, there seemed to be a lot of pessimism going on.
So if we’ve come to a neutrality point of view in that short period of time, maybe the signals are, you know, things are progressing the way that they should be.
We’re not going to see a change in the community makeup around character overnight, but if we’re at a neutral point right now and we can keep being positive about moving forward, being businesslike in our approach to the issues that come forward to us and have the ability to properly lobby and have representation from the provincial government so we get our fair due, that’s what we can hope for to begin with.
The second part of this interview will appear Friday.
