The pace of government can be a slow one.
There are few current local issues that better exemplify this than the seemingly ill-fated building at
4 Hemlock Drive, and the ill regard for the people who could be using it.
The non-descript building has been the subject of multiple political promises in unfulfilled attempts to serve two different demographics by two provincial governments over the span of nearly six years.
The building was deemed to be beyond repair back in 2012, but now, nearing the end of 2017, it still stands, waiting for someone, anyone, to tear it down, rebuild, and turn the site into something
Flin Flon can use.
It’s a saga that has been hashed out on these pages time and time again – there has, after all, been ample time to discuss it – but in case you missed it, here are the proverbial Coles Notes: the building existed as low-income housing until it was evacuated in 2012 over safety concerns. Over the next two years, provincial officials under then-premier Greg Selinger maintained that low-income housing would be rebuilt either in the existing location or elsewhere in town. At one point, construction was expected to begin in 2013, but that plan fell through. By 2014, low-income units were off the table entirely, and by 2015 there was a shiny new idea to build a seniors’ apartment complex on the site. In 2016, when Manitoba elected a PC government, the government indicated it would follow through with the promised seniors’ housing. Later that year, the project was listed as “under review.” Today, the project is listed as “deferred.”
The latest chapter in the saga was a meeting between Manitoba Housing and the City of Flin Flon earlier this month, in which Manitoba Housing floated the idea of exploring other options for the building. What those other options are is unclear – Manitoba Housing remains tight-lipped about future plans for the building, but says more details will be available in the new year.
To borrow a phrase from MLA Tom Lindsey, it seems as though Manitoba Housing is “coming up with a plan to have a plan.”
Mayor Cal Huntley has said that anything that happens with the building would be a benefit to the community, but there is an expectation from the City that the provincial government will make good on its previous promise.
Here’s hoping. Lack of seniors’ housing is a local issue. Lack of low-income housing is a local issue. Flin Flon needs both. It has been promised both. It has received neither.
Earlier this year, local landlords gathered with community stakeholders over coffee to discuss barriers that homeless and low-income residents face trying to find permanent shelter. There are several, but the most prevalent one is the city’s next-to-no vacancy rate and lack of available low-income housing. Winter is here, and people who could be using that once-promised low-income housing are out of luck.
Flin Flon is home to generations of former mine employees who want to retire and grow old here. They paid their dues in an industry that, according to the Mining Association of Manitoba, contributed nearly $650 million to provincial and municipal governments between 2007 and 2013. It’s borderline insulting to think that the needs of those people have been largely forgotten and cast aside by the provincial government in the communities they have lived and worked, communities that have been a boon to the province.
A new year is upon us. Residents in need of seniors’ housing can only hope the provincial government resolves to keep its promise.
