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.
One thing that often amazes people when I talk to them about being the mayor of Snow Lake is the number of things that the council doesn't have control over: The condition of the highways that surround the town; events and conditions at the campgrounds around town; even something fairly simply like the level of the water in Snow Lake is not controlled by the town. All of these things are controlled by different departments of the Manitoba provincial government. This means that we spend a lot of time talking with other people trying to get things done. But that doesn't mean that things move ahead at a speed that we are satisfied with. For example, we have met with Minister Steve Ashton, who is the NDP MLA in Thompson, on several occasions as well as having had several meetings on the phone with him or members of his staff. Minister Ashton controls a number of portfolios that are important to us in Snow Lake: Provincial highways and Crown lands among them. Even though Minister Ashton has assured me several times that we are going to have movement soon on the land sales we have requested, and that we are going to see plans for upgrading our highways, we have had little to no action from the provincial government in either of these areas. In fact, at this point, many of the provincial departments that we are dealing with are verging on what I would call dysfunctional. Many departments have had employees retire or quit whom the government has not been willing or able to replace. Waiting Other departments make decisions after months of waiting, only to change them weeks later. This has left many projects hanging in limbo. Timelines to get simple things done range into the months and years. We have worked with our own NDP Flin Flon MLA Clarence Pettersen and the Minister of Innovation, Energy and Mines David Chomiak on other issues and few of them are moving ahead either. We have even approached Stan Struthers, the minister of finance, and have written and met with Premier Greg Selinger himself, all to no avail. I have never been tied to one political party. While throughout my life I have often voted NDP, I have also voted Liberal and Conservative in different elections. At this point, I am very frustrated with Manitoba's NDP government. Whenever we meet with provincial officials, most of them repeat the same party line to us about a lack of funding for projects. I understand this. As a municipal government we operate under tight restrictions and work to be responsible with every dollar that we get. But many of the things that we need from the provincial government don't require them to spend a single dollar. We need Crown lands sales to move ahead in a timely fashion. We need them to set a clear policy direction regarding the Idle No More movement. Even now, months after the original protests, the Manitoba government has yet to issue a single statement on this important issue. We need a solid plan for upgrading provincial highways in areas of economic growth. Most of these things don't require them to spend any money, but they do require leadership and making the wheels of the provincial government actually go around. I've said it before and will repeat it again: On issues that we have control over as a council and as a staff, we have made solid progress. We have improved the way we handle our garbage. We have begun patching our roads and fixing our sidewalks. The quality of our drinking water has improved. We are planning for the future of our garbage dump and are investigating how we are going to begin renewing our local sewer and water systems. These are issues that we have direct control over and we are moving in the right direction on them. We certainly have our own issues and challenges, but we are working on solving them and moving ahead. The Manitoba government, on the other hand, seems to be doing little beyond spinning its wheels at this point. Clarence Fisher, born and raised in Snow Lake, has taught at Joseph H. Kerr School for 17 years and was acclaimed as mayor of the town in October 2010. You can e-mail him at [email protected].
