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Funding goal reached for emergency department

Project in final stages, primed for spring 2019 opening
Cheque pres
Northern Health Region CEO Helga Bryant and members of the Flin Flon Rotary Club (including past president Colleen Arnold and president Dean Grove) pose with the latest donation from the Rotary Club for the NHR’s Flin Flon emergency department project. The $50,000 donation, raised from last summer’s Rotary Air Show, will cover the remainder of the community contributions needed for the project. - PHOTO BY ERIC WESTHAVER

Flin Flon’s expanded new emergency department is inching closer to reality.

The Flin Flon Rotary Club presented a $50,000 donation to the Northern Health Region (NHR) at their meeting Dec. 6, bringing the NHR to the mark of community contributions that was required for the project.

When the project was first announced in 2014, 10 per cent of the project’s overall cost would need to be raised by charitable and community groups – around $2.2 million. The $50,000 donation puts the community contribution at that required funding goal.

“We will meet the target of the community contribution. We have done it. Flin Flon has done it,” said NHR CEO Helga Bryant, who accepted the cheque in a presentation on behalf of NHR.

“I’m really, really proud of what this community has done. When we started this, over $2 million seemed like a very daunting task. We’ve done it, in true Flin Flon fashion.”

The club has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the project, including three $25,000 donations and another $50,000 donation following the Rotary Air Show held in 2016.

Bryant thanked the Rotary Club not only for their donations, but for being a motivator for other groups to help fund the project.

“I think the other significant piece that your fundraising has accomplished is to raise the profile of this project, to raise energy in the community around the project. That has, in turn, prompted other donors to step to the plate. Your efforts have been two fold,” Bryant said to Rotary members.

While at the meeting, Bryant provided an update on the project’s progress, saying a walkthrough of the site was taking place that day to determine whether the project had hit a point of “substantial completion.”

“If that goes well, we will be at the point of taking ownership of the building, being handed over the keys,” said Bryant.

Barring any last-minute issues or concerns, the NHR can fully prepare for the opening, including staffing and equipping the new space. That part of the process is expected to take about two months, said Bryant.

“If everything goes well, our grand opening would be early March. We’ll wait for good weather,” she said, adding that provincial cabinet ministers and Premier Brian Pallister may be in attendance.

“It looks beautiful. It gives a whole different look than before and it really changes the face of that part of our city.”

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