Here is the second and final part of The Reminder’s one-on-one interview with Flin Flon Mayor Cal Huntley.
REMINDER: Many people think the eventual closure of 777 mine could mean a big hit in terms of city revenues. Do you need some sort of plan? It could be a big hit at once, right?
HUNTLEY: I don’t know if it’s a big hit at once. It’s certainly going to be a well-planned-out hit, and there are going to be repercussions – and whether a significant amount of it’s taken up through people eligible for retirement and staying in the community, whether it’s taken up with a significant number of employees now working in Snow Lake but living in [Flin Flon], whether it’s taken up by alternative sources [of employment] and other opportunities coming into the community, which we would like to see.
The [proposed North Central Canada Centre of Arts and Environment], if that was to take off, that would be something that could really support the new premise of sort of who we are [as a community]. I mean, to most of the locals we’re always going to be a mining town, but it’s how we present ourselves outside of our locality, outside of our region – that’s where we have to change the conversation.
We’re going to have opportunity to access the [Manitoba government’s Mining Community Reserve Fund] and different things like that, but we have to be clear on what the initiatives are and what the payoffs are going to be long-term to support us going in the right direction, so that we can mitigate any further 777 closures or the like.
I mean, we went through the [Hudbay copper] smelter closure [and] there was barely a bump in the road. And that was a significant loss of high-paying jobs in the community. We did lose some people from the community, but there were a lot of retirees who [stayed] here, lots who found alternative employment and those kinds of things.
777 could be more significant than that and probably will be, but we don’t know that yet. And so we’re going to plan. You don’t plan for the individual incident, you plan for the future going forward and how to deal with like incidences as they do occur, and I think that’s the proper strategy to move forward with.
REMINDER: Is there anything else you want to say about the long-term future of Flin Flon?
HUNTLEY: Flin Flon is going to be here forever, and I’m totally committed to Flin Flon. I’m a third-generation Flin Flonner and my family is fourth and my grandkids are fifth, so we have a huge stake in this community.
It’s going to change and we’re hoping we can influence that change, me personally through the next few years that I have a significant role in the community. And whether I have a significant role or not, I’ll always be in the background supporting whatever initiatives go on.
We’re in a unique area. We’re on the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border. We have excellent roads in and out, and access to southern Manitoba, western Canada, to the north. We’re going to be here for a very, very long time. Flin Flon is not going to disappear.
Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach are going to be focal points in northern Manitoba and northern Saskatchewan going forward. If anything, I just see our importance increasing. It just may be increasing in a different facet, whether it’s services, tourism, those kinds of things.
REMINDER: We’ve heard city councillors make comments such as, “The works and operations department submits its yearly wish list worth $12 million and we have to whittle it down to $2 million to afford it.” Are there urgent things going unpaid for because the city doesn’t have the money?
HUNTLEY: We’re like any other community. I would suggest there are things we would like to do that we’re not doing. I would suggest there may even be some things that we need to do from a risk-management point of view that we may not be doing because of the dollars not being available.
In saying that, we’re spending maintenance dollars to ensure those kinds of things keep working for the interim. But anything that absolutely needs to happen, that’s critical, we’re doing it. We have no choice.
REMINDER: What is a common misconception people have about City of Flin Flon operations?
HUNTLEY: One of the common misconceptions that people have about the city in general is that when there’s a problem and it’s perceived that the city should fix it, that the city has this big pot of money that can go and fix the problem.
The actual fact is when it’s indicated that it is a city problem and we’re responsible for it, every taxpayer in the community contributes to fix that problem with dollars from their taxes. So we don’t have a large contingency fund to fix all these problems when individuals come up with their own concerns.
REMINDER: Do you feel as mayor that you take too much flak?
HUNTLEY: No, I mean, when you’re mayor, that’s part of the job. And if you take it personally I think it could weigh on you rather heavily.
I think anybody that takes on the role of mayor knows that you can’t keep everybody happy. That’s not your job. Your job is to do the best that you can do for your community as a whole and then go forward from there, and obviously not everybody is going to be happy about the route that you pick, and you expect that. If it was too quiet, then maybe you’re not doing your job properly.
REMINDER: Your term expires in 2018. Have you decided whether you’ll seek re-election?
HUNTLEY: It’s a little early to confirm. My tendency is to believe that a two-term mayor is a good way to go if the right initiatives have been started. At the end of the day, though, it’s the citizens of the community that need to determine [that].
…I’m involved in a lot of things. …I am getting close to retirement with regards to Hudbay, and if I can give to the community, and the citizens see that we’re going in the right direction and like what they see, or don’t dislike it too much, there is a good chance that I may run again…
At the end of the day, I don’t take it personally whether I get in or don’t get in. I applaud anybody that puts their name forward to run, and I wish everybody in the community could be a councillor for six months just to understand what those hard-working people do, and basically it’s pretty much all volunteer work. Civic government is not easy, but you need it in your community.
