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.
Flin Flon is used to living under the imposing shadow that casts itself over any one-industry town reliant on a non-renewable resource. Maybe that's why our community has sometimes resisted the urge to think big. Thankfully, with the veil of uncertainty lifting as our main employer very openly thrives, that trend is changing. Increasingly, Flin Flon is filled with optimism, a city that asks "Why not?" instead of "Why?" For proof, look no further than Flin Flon City Hall, where officials recently made headlines (well, a headline) with talk of a possible suspension foot bridge across Second Valley. This wouldn't be just any bridge, either. The approximately 210-meter cable-hoisted walkway would be the longest of its kind in the world, easily beating out Vancouver's Capilano Suspension Bridge. However feasible or likely the project is or is not, it's an exciting concept. In one shot it would provide a new recreational option and a unique tourist draw that fully exploits our northern beauty and tagline of "The City Built On Rock." Like a lot of you, the first time I heard this idea, my thought was simple: "Yeah right!" I must have still been stuck under that imposing shadow, because I didn't think there was any way this could or would happen. The world's longest suspension foot bridge? Here? Yet the more I learned and thought about it, the more I grew attached to the concept. If it's feasible and the money can be found (preferably from the higher levels of government), why not? Why not think big? Of course thinking big can - and often does - end in disappointment. Flin Flon thought big when it came to recreation, envisioning the multimillion-dollar CommunityPlex between Flin Flon and Creighton. Years later, the mountains of optimism that once surrounded the project have, for many people, dwindled to mole hills. We can't definitively say the CommunityPlex is a dead duck, but given all the time that has lapsed since it was first proposed, that's probably not an outrageous conclusion. We also thought big a couple of years ago when it came to an oriented-strand board mill in Creighton, which, depending on whom you believe, was either inches from being built or nowhere near reality. For a brief time, as the rumour mill worked its magic, residents were convinced that our days as a one-horse town were over. Hundreds of high-paying forestry jobs were on the way! As we all know, that never happened. Again our hopes were dashed. These and similar episodes over the years have been disheartening. If the potential suspension bridge project falls through, that too will be a letdown. But none of that should stop us as a community from reaching for the stars. The timing has never been better. If we're going to think big, now's the time to get started. Local Angle runs Fridays.
