Flin Flon’s city council received a stack of requests from a letter writing campaign courtesy of an unexpected source: a group of Grade 4 students from Ruth Betts Community School.
Council received several letters from the kids as part of a class project. Each of the letters advocated council and Mayor Cal Huntley to issue a ban on plastic bags in Flin Flon. The letters were each addressed to Huntley directly, with the students bringing scientific information and case studies into play.
“You need to ban plastic bags because they’re getting in the lakes and oceans. When the bag gets in the lake or ocean it can hurt the lake or ocean,” reads a letter from student Robert Dorion, one of over a dozen addressed to Huntley.
Huntley responded to the kids’ group by saying the issue was in discussion with the city.
“You guys are sort of like mind readers. It’s certainly not a done deal yet, but we are definitely considering that,” he said.
“That’s a major initiative for one of the committees within the city of Flin Flon, to look out at how we can do that and start to sort of look after making sure those bags aren’t blowing all over the place.”
Huntley also applauded the efforts of the students, adding he was pleased to see youth getting engaged in local politics.
“We really do appreciate when we get the youth view on some of the issues around the community. It is kind of neat that we had already been thinking about the bag issue. We will be pursuing that in the future,” Huntley said.
