MLA Clarence Pettersen wants to pursue other options for the former Flin Flon Hotel after the province rejected a proposal to convert the building into a seniors’ housing complex.
Pettersen is suggesting the downtown building be used to meet accommodation needs for both UCN and the Northern Health Region.
“I think there’s a business plan if we get together with the [Northern Health Region], with UCN and with [the owner of the building], sit down, we can do something there,” said Pettersen.
The concept of utilizing the long-vacant building as a dorm for UCN and its Northern Manitoba Mining Academy dates back to at least 2011.
Pettersen could not say why provincial funding was denied to convert the building into a seniors’ housing complex.
He said the decision disappointed him but now it’s time to “fight the next fight.”
Pettersen said the lack of a tenant for the building, vacated in 1999, bothered him even before he became MLA.
“For 15 years I drive down Main Street and I look at the Flin Flon Hotel and I’m thinking, ‘You know, we should be able to do something with that and I want something in there,’” he said. “If it’s not seniors’ housing, let’s move on and try to get something else.”
As much as $1.58 million in provincial aide had been sought to convert the former hotel into a 21-suite seniors’ housing complex.
