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.
By Jonathon Naylor For decades, the powers-that-be in Flin Flon have scratched their heads trying to come up with a secondary industry to complement mining. But what if, once upon a time, we had one and just quietly let it slip away like the breeze through our fingers? That is indeed what happened three years ago when biotech firm Prairie Plant Systems left town. Prairie Plants, you'll recall, had been growing medicinal marijuana and conducting other plant-based pharmaceutical research within the bowels of Trout Lake Mine. When Prairie Plants and Hudbay failed to agree on a lease extension in the summer of 2009, all of that ended. Thirteen full-time jobs and another seven part-time positions were gone. But more than that, Flin Flon lost the vast potential associated with a growing biopharmaceutical industry that relies on conventional and modified plants to treat mankind's ailments. With Trout Lake now shuttered and Hudbay gradually abandoning the property, it is time our leaders re-examined the mine's potential as a subterranean biopharm facility. The mine, a short drive outside city limits, already has a proven track record in this regard. Between 2001 and 2009, it produced safe marijuana for chronically ill patients across Canada. Drawing card What drew Prairie Plants to Trout Lake, and what might draw other companies in the future, is the intense security. This security is two-fold. For one, it is basically impossible for thieves to break into a facility beneath a rocky surface. Second, it is basically impossible for modified plants in such a complex to spread their traits to the general plant population. At the time of its unfortunate exit, Prairie Plants said it had invested nearly $4 million at Trout Lake. It also had hopes of expanding its growth chamber and lab to more than 50,000 sq. ft. _ bigger than a football field. Marijuana was hardly the only game in town for Prairie Plants. It has done work on a plant-derived Hepatitis C vaccine and developed a compound to treat so-called bubble boy disease using the seed of a legume. Further possibilities are limitless and the number of future jobs abundant. But Flin Flon will never know the economic benefits unless operations such as Prairie Plants can be enticed back. At the moment, Trout Lake Mine is an empty hole in the ground when it could be so much more if only the proper stakeholders came together. Are you looking for a secondary industry, city councillors, MPs, MLAs and Hudbay officials? Why not go back to the one we had but lost? Local Angle runs Fridays.
