Fewer than 20 of them would go on to university, by her estimate, but many of the others still had a viable career plan.
“Lots of people would try to get on at HBM&S because back then they would hire you, most people, right out of high school,” McKee recalls.
At the time, HBM&S, now part of Hudbay, needed to hire a significant percentage of its applicants to meet the needs of its mines and processing operations in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake area.
Some of McKee’s peers applied for summer jobs as soon as they turned 18. If they were still in high school, they applied after class and would often have a job waiting for them right after graduation.
“Summer jobs, a lot of times back then, would work into [permanent] jobs,” she says. “If you did a good job, they would just keep you on.”
McKee herself wanted a job at HBM&S, but because her birthday was on July 1 – days after graduation – all of the summer positions were filled by the time she turned 18. Career-wise, she would have to turn to other opportunities.
McKee was born and raised in Flin Flon. In 1977, she and her single-parent family were living in the Aspen Grove apartments – the “low rentals,” as they’re known – until they could afford their own home.
Growing up in government housing in a relatively affluent city gave her a different perspective than most of her peers.
“Back then, divorce wasn’t common. Now most families are single-parent families or blended families, but with us, there was a handful [who lived at] the low rentals,” McKee says. “It was neat because we were all in the same boat. We all kind of supported each other and…we grew up with a different sort of appreciation. We had one bike and…everyone, it seemed, had a lot more than we did.”
In the winter, she and her friends would often venture to the outdoor skating rink then situated near McIsaac School.
“Us as girls, we would get kicked off of the rink all the time by the boys because they always played hockey,” McKee says. “It was just a fun place. There was always an adult that would stoke the fire in the warm-up shack. There always seemed to be someone looking after it.”
She would also spend time with friends at Green Street’s Happy Apple Confectionery, formerly Parkview Confectionery (and much later, Doe Doe’s Pizza and Subs).
“It was a candy store with a couple of tables for a coffee shop. You could get drinks,” says McKee. “They had a counter so you could order your candy. We all hung out there; it was the hangout.”
She recalls how Flin Flon was “quite designated” by subdivisions – Birchview, Willowvale and Uptown among them – with each area having its own ball team. Unorganized soccer was also popular.
As McKee grew into adolescence, she was part of the first grade 9 class at the new (and still current) McIsaac School, which had been built around the old
Willowvale School.
The old section of Willowvale School had been slated for demolition, but it was destroyed by fire in the summer of 1979 before wrecking crews got to it. McKee and others watched the building go up in smoke.
Interestingly, McKee had also witnessed – and participated in – the destruction of another long-standing Flin Flon school.
She had attended Birchview School, across the street from Johnny’s Confectionery on Green Street, in junior high. Since Birchview was slated to be torn down after her final year, students were invited to mistreat the building as they saw fit.
“We got to just demolish it,” McKee says. “The last day of school, we got to go in there and wreck things and write on the walls.”
“It was actually kind of fun,” she adds with a laugh.
As a teenager, McKee landed her first job as a dispatcher for Kelly’s Cab. Seated at a wooden box, she spent two hours every Sunday answering calls in a small office the taxi company rented within the Royal Hotel.
She recalls things would “get ugly real fast” if a particular cabbie was not paid his fare, as tended to happen. Today,
Flin Flon has a reputation for safety and serenity; back then, McKee notes, “It could be a rough place.”
After graduating from Hapnot in 1981, McKee headed off to Winnipeg to take general studies at the University of Manitoba. After one year, she had to move back to Flin Flon because her family could not afford another year of school.
Flin Flon had a lively party scene during this time, with McKee a frequent participant.
“The ’Flon was the place to go,” she says, referring to the bar located in the lower level of the now-defunct Flin Flon Hotel.
As often happens when people and alcohol interact, things tended to get out of hand at The ’Flon.
“If you ever wanted to see a fight, you just had to park your car at 12:30 at night [outside the bar] and there would be a fight,” McKee says.
Amid the revelry, the culture of
Flin Flon was changing thanks to newcomers arriving from faraway places to fill positions at HBM&S.
“[There] seemed to be a whole influx of people from Britain and Newfoundland that came in around that time,” recalls McKee.
By the mid-1980s, McKee and other residents were seeing many technological advances take hold.
The advent of the VCR saw multiple convenience stores and other businesses offer video cassettes for rent. McKee’s family’s first VCR was a big, bulky machine purchased from Mike’s Hi-Fi on Main Street.
“It was fascinating because this isn’t something that we could ever do before. Like, pause a movie? What?” she says. “If you got up to make popcorn and something was on TV, you missed it. There was no rewind or stuff like that, you just missed it and hoped to see it again.”
McKee and her family also purchased a “big,
horkin’ video camera” they used to capture family memories.
World events far removed from Flin Flon could still have a local impact. After the April 1986 Chernobyl radiation disaster in the Soviet Union, some residents worried whether the anticipated health impacts would
reach Flin Flon.
McKee, who was pregnant with her first child at the time, was concerned – for nothing, as it thankfully turned out.
“There was just a lack of understanding,” she says. “I don’t think back then we had a full comprehension of sort of the lengths of it and how it would [have an] affect.”
Trout Lake Mine
Of all the mines that HBM&S (now part of Hudbay) has operated over the decades, few enjoyed as much longevity or notoriety as Trout Lake mine.
Granges Exploration Ltd. discovered the Trout Lake ore body in 1976 under the waters of Embury Lake, known locally as Trout Lake.
A joint venture consisting of Granges, HBM&S, Manitoba Mineral Resources Ltd. and Outokumpu Oyi formed to develop and mine the property.
With HBM&S as the mine operator, road construction to Trout Lake began in July 1980. The first round of the main decline was blasted in October of that year.
Underground development and construction of the surface facilities proceeded simultaneously.
Continuous exploration repeatedly extended the life of the copper-zinc mine. Five years on, Trout Lake was still going strong. Then 10 years on. Then 20.
Trout Lake mine would not close until 2012. Within HBM&S, only the original Flin Flon mine and the Ruttan mine in Leaf Rapids lasted longer.
Trout Lake mine was also famous as the site of Canada’s first legal medicinal marijuana production facility. A private company operated the facility in rented space within the mine from 2001 to 2009.
Water/sewer
The years 1979 and 1980 were eventful in Flin Flon and area.
In 1979, governments committed an initial $800,000 to begin construction of a new sewer and water system in Denare Beach.
The work was scheduled to start in the 1979-80 season with funding from the Canada-Saskatchewan Northlands Agreement.
Denare Beach had no sewer and water prior to the project. Installation of the piping left Channing as the only subdivision in the area without a hookup to waterworks.
The final year of the ’70s saw the election of Rod Murphy as MP, the start of a long period of dominance for the federal NDP in northern Manitoba.
In 1980, satellite television was on its way. Here’s how The Reminder reported the news on April 9, 1980:
“Satellite television is no longer a dream in Flin Flon. It is now officially a reality and will be available before you know it.
“It was learned today that negotiations have been going on for some time and that Flin Flon Satellite TV Ltd. has purchased equipment, which will be arriving in Flin Flon next week.
“With this new equipment, the satellite company will begin broadcasting what they term “three super channels” that will provide television viewing to Flin Flon residents 24 hours a day.
“It is not known what the costs to the individual will be at this time. The first viewing of the new television signals should start the first week in May and all three channels should be in full operation by the end of May.”
