Former Hudbay staff house, future RCMP detachment site annexed into city limits

The City of Flin Flon grew a little bit on paper last week, with city council approving the annexation of two areas, including the Flin Flon Airport and locations formerly operated by Hudbay.

Two parcels of land were annexed formally into the City’s municipal boundaries. The first parcel covers the Flin Flon Airport, which was incorporated into the City back in 2021 but is now officially part of Flin Flon’s municipal bounds.

“For the airport, we already own that land. All we’re doing there is making it part of municipal boundaries,” said City chief administrative officer Lyn Brown.

The second parcel of land consists of three areas in uptown Flin Flon formerly occupied by Hudbay, covering the company’s staff house, the historic Whitney House and the vacant lot between the Flin Flon Community Hall and the Hudbay compound being pursued by Manitoba RCMP as the eventual location for a new Flin Flon detachment headquarters.

“The piece with Hudbay has to do with the Whitney House, the staff house and where they’re planning to put the new RCMP station - that will also come within our municipal boundaries,” Brown said.

Last September, the City reached an agreement to lease the Whitney House and staff house from Hudbay for a year at the nominal fee of one dollar - for that loonie, the City got control of both buildings and renovated both buildings. The City and Hudbay agreement includes an option to buy for the City at a later date and councillors have openly mused about it being a place to house workers coming to Flin Flon as part of the Wyndham by Ramada hotel project at the long-vacant Flin Flon Hotel nearby.

For the future site of the police headquarters, the change will allow the City to assign it a street address, most likely labelling it in the 100, 110 or 120 block of Church Street. Having a street address would prevent a possible extra hangup in getting the building put up, allowing the City to get a new police office faster.

“For instance, with the RCMP station, because it’s not in our municipal boundaries, while they've been trying to work things out with their builders and their people, they've been asking us for a civic address. We literally cannot yet give them a civic address, because it's not in our municipal boundaries,” said Brown.