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 People don't realize how perilous things are in Flin Flon right now. I'm sorry if I caught you off guard, but as much as I wish that weren't true, it is. As we recently reported, the Flin Flon Bombers organization is yet again concerned about its survival. 'It's time to either step up to the plate as a community or time to move on and let this organization go somewhere else,' team president Hank Kosar recently said in announcing low season ticket sales. I know what many of you are thinking: 'Here we go again, the Bombers might fold without more cash.' But I can assure you from my discussions over the years with past and present team board members, it's no bluff. It's never been a bluff. The Bombers are in a continual battle for existence. They face the highest operating costs in the SJHL and this past season lost $61,000. Whether you like hockey or not, the Maroon and White are a fundamental piece of Flin Flon. We simply can't lose them. Unfortunately, the Bombers have not always lived up to expectations on the ice. That has no doubt hurt attendance and interest in the club. But the Bombers accumulate expenses whether they are winning or losing. Local hockey fans, of whom there are thousands, need to remember that. If we are not there for the Bombers during the low times, we may never see the high times _ because there might no longer be a team. Things are also rather perilous for our municipal government as the costs of operating this city grow. Again, I know what many of you are thinking: 'Well they will just have to cut costs! Run the City of Flin Flon like a business!' I am the first to advocate for tighter spending. But that is only part of the equation; the city also needs new revenue streams. I recently wrote an opinion piece critical of a city proposal for a new fee on properties that would have the effect of raising the amount paid by low-end homes. My concern is that upping the costs on low-end homes risks hurting those who can least afford the higher bills _ lower-income homeowners and renters. But I don't deny that council is right to pursue new means of bolstering income. To me, their talk of potentially annexing cottage subdivisions, if done in an equitable way, makes all the sense in the world. Would annexation be entirely fair to cottage owners? Maybe, maybe not. But we must remember that the problem of 'cottage drain' _ taxpayers leaving Flin Flon to reside just outside city limits _ is essentially caused by a higher level of government. See, while the Manitoba government has gleefully opened up more and more cottage lots over the years, it has been completely oblivious to the challenges this creates for the City of Flin Flon. Statistics Canada reports that our population has shrunk over the last 15 years. No doubt it has to a good degree, but if you count the cottage areas as part of Flin Flon _ as many of us informally do _ the shrinkage (to borrow a Seinfeld term) is not nearly as dramatic. What we have is one level of government, the province, basically encouraging more and more residents to move to the lake. Another level, the city, is left to deal with the resultant loss of tax income. Which relates to another perilous situation: the support (or lack thereof) we receive from the provincial government. This past winter, the province was up to its old Flin Flon-denying ways, rejecting a funding application that could have brought us two more seniors housing complexes and a new high-end neighbourhood. It was typical of how the province treats Flin Flon, a city that has heard the word 'no' more times than a little girl (or boy, in my own personal case) asking for a pony for Christmas. So what is a mining town to do? In terms of the Bombers, hockey fans obviously need to put their money where their mouths are. In terms of city council, we need to keep an eye on how tax dollars are spent while backing sensible efforts to fortify municipal coffers. And on the treatment from the province, we must press our MLA and our Premier to stop treating us like third-rate (behind Thompson and The Pas) citizens. Perilous times call for serious action. Local Angle runs Fridays.
