The City of Flin Flon is looking to the Mining Community Reserve Fund to offset the repercussions of the anticipated 777 mine closure.
The City has spent the last two months working on a proposal to the Manitoba government that focuses on diversifying Flin Flon’s strengths outside of mining.
“We’re not exactly sure what the repercussions will be, specifically, but we do know there will be repercussions with high paying jobs in the community,” said Mayor Cal Huntley of the forecasted mine closure.
“We’re hoping in the time between then and now we’re going to be able to mitigate some of that the best we can, and look at ways we can diversify and enhance the strengths of some of our other services.”
The City’s proposal includes initiatives it believes will maintain the community’s viability and help with the transition once the mine closes.
“We have a tiered approach. We’re a service centre, we’re a retail centre,” said Huntley.
“We’re also a location where we’re now dealing with third and fourth generation people from industry. They’re going to live here long-term, so we need to think about housing.”
Huntley added Flin Flon’s municipal airport allows access in and out of the community, and believes there is an opportunity to use the airport to better service other heavy industry locations.
There will be a specific funding request in the proposal, but as the proposal is still a work in progress, that number is not yet available. The funding must be approved by an order-in-council to be eligible through the program.
The Mining Community Reserve Fund was created in 1970 under the Mining Tax Act. It serves to assist mining communities that are affected by partial or complete mine closures, and is funded by provincial mining tax revenues. The reserve is funded through tax collected under the Mining Tax Act. Up to six per cent of the tax collected annually is transferred into the fund. The current balance of the fund is $12.2 million, and $1.8 million was spent during the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
