The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
It was the announcement we all knew was coming but none of us wanted to hear. Years of anxious anticipation ended last Thursday morning when HudBay Minerals made it official Ð the Flin Flon copper smelter will close by mid-2010. That's a longer time frame than some analysts predicted, but that's little consolation to a community once again forced to travel down that capricious road of HBMS downsizing. After nearly 80 years in operation, the smelter is no longer financially viable. Even if it were, the emergence of environmentalism as a major political issue guaranteed the facility would not continue indefinitely, at least not in its current form. Calls for HBMS to upgrade or build a new, cleaner smelter Ð however feasible or unfeasible those suggestions were Ð proved uncompelling. The decision has been made. Now that the question of when the smelter will shut down has been answered, a more important query remains. That is, how many of those approximately 225 jobs being purged will translate into layoffs? The community can take some solace in the fact that HBMS managed to close its Snow Lake operations, employer of about 100 people, while laying off just nine individuals earlier this year. More than nine people lost their jobs, of course, since the company opted to replace with employees nearly 40 contractors at Trout Lake Mine. Without downplaying the difficulties for the laid-off staffers and contractors, it is fair to say that the overall repercussions of the Snow Lake move were much less severe than what many envisioned. Can HBMS duplicate such a result with the smelter? That would be ideal. The company's response to the Snow Lake closures was commendable as it offered pension windows to affected employees ready to retire. HBMS owes it to the community to again do what is reasonably possible to diminish the pain. On the government side, now is the worst time possible for Flin Flon to get the short end of the stick as it so often does. For MLA Gerard Jennissen, this means insisting that training initiatives to get the jobless back to work are not limited to mining. His government's Forestry and Mining Training and Workforce Retention Initiative is well-intentioned, but it's foolish to respond to downsizing in an industry by only equipping people to work in that same industry. For MP Niki Ashton, this means doing a better job of working with the government to make things better. In this crucial time, it's unacceptable for her to continue going along with her party's ill-considered policy of declaring a "no" vote before even reading a bill. What if that bill is going to help post-smelter Flin Flon, even if only in a small way? Ms. Ashton should take advantage of the weak position in which the Tories find themselves. They want to be seen as helping people amid economic struggles, and they've proven they're willing to dispose of their principles to do so. Of all levels of government, City Hall has the least ability to soften the possible blow of this closure. But they're not entirely powerless. More can certainly be done in the area of economic development, so why not put the city at the forefront of that movement? An economic development budget of more than $10,000 a year would be a good start. It would also be prudent to reevaluate spending. Is a water meter in every home (an item in the city's 2009 budget, but not necessarily set for this year) anyone's priority at this stage? In a perfect world the Doer government would be willing to release taxpayers from an unpopular, ill-timed agreement the city maintains was part of the deal for securing provincial funding for new water supply lines.There is a lot for everyone to think about right now. The wait to find out the impact of this latest round of cutbacks will be arduous. In the end, the efforts of industry and government will determine how this unfortunate situation plays out. * * * I will be on vacation from the end of June until July 19, so this column will be taking a break along with its author. Have a great Trout Festival! Local Angle runs Fridays.
