CAA Manitoba is once again calling on Manitobans to identify the roads in dire need of attention with its third annual Worst Roads Campaign.  Their Public Affairs Coordinator Angele Faucher says until April 23rd Manitobans can vote for their worst road.  She says they’re hoping to get people talking about infrastructure problems in our province and not just potholes but bike lanes, traffic congestion, cycling safety, all those kinds of things with infrastructure.  She adds they are looking for Manitoba’s worst roads and it doesn’t have to be in Winnipeg as they have a lot of provincial highways on their top ten list too so always vote no matter where you are in Manitoba.

Last year over 5 thousand votes were cast for 696 different roads in the province.  You can vote on their website www.caamanitoba.com/WorstRoads or on the CAA Manitoba facebook page.

A Hannah’s Helping Hands social is being held on Saturday.  Northern Rainbow’s Ends Leona Kemp says the social is to support Hannah Campbell daughter of Leanna Campbell and Clint Jackson.  Kemp explains she suffers from epileptic seizures and has for about four years now. She says the seizures have caused scarring in her brain so she has to probably have surgery done so Northern Rainbow’s End along with family, the Flin Flon Fire Department and friends have decided to host a fund raising social to help her with medical expenses.

The social is being held in the Creighton Community Hall Saturday night with tickets available at Northern Rainbow’s End and Creative Styling.

Hudbay reports at the Lalor Mine of the total mine construction budget of 441 million dollars they have invested approximately 386 million to February 28th with an additional 36 million dollars in commitments.  The commissioning of the production shaft and doubling of the production rate at the mine and concentrator to 27 hundred tonnes per day remains on schedule for this July.  Hudbay recently received its Environment Act licence for Lalor which will enable full production through the main shaft.

At the Reed Mine the company has invested approximately 64.9 million dollars of the 72 million dollar estimated capital construction budget to February 28th.  Project development has advanced almost 3 thousand meters with the mine producing just over 82 thousand tonnes of ore from a combination of drift development and longhole stope mining.  The project is on budget and schedule and is expected to reach commercial production by the second quarter of this year.

The Norva Center on Green Street is presenting a puppets and theatre workshop next Wednesday and Thursday. Their Manager Mike Spencer says it’ll be a fun workshop for the kids.  He says they’ve got all types of puppets including sock puppets, paper bag puppets and stick puppets and it’s going to be on April 2nd and 3rd from 10 am to 1 pm and that includes puppet building and a puppet show they are going to put on with kids.  He adds its for ages 8 and up and its 50 dollars for the two days.

To register or for more information call Norva at 204-687-4237, email norvacentre@gmail.com or visit their website at www.norvacentre.com.

Hudbay has released its annual reserve and resource update.  They report copper equivalent proven and probable mineral reserves increased by 7.4 percent while precious metal equivalent proven and probable reserves increased by 8.9 percent from 2013.

President David Garofalo says Hudbay’s reserve growth was largely driven by their efforts to optimize the Constancia mine in Peru.  He says as they look ahead, their exploration program in 2014 will allow them to drill newly discovered geophysical anomalies on their large land position around Constancia and to explore Lalor near Snow Lake from the underground exploration drift for the first time.

Hudbay also reports an expected tailings facility expansion allowed for the conversion of a portion of the mineral resources at Constancia into reserves resulting in a mine life extension to 22 years from 16 years.

18 French students from Hapnot Collegiate are leaving this weekend to tour France.  The Collegiate’s Corinne Mathews says it’s a chance for them to experience the life and culture of France.  She says first they’ll stop off at Vimy Ridge and see the tunnels, trenches and war memorials there and then they’ll head off to Paris where they’ll be spending the bulk of their time.  She says they’ll get to see the Eiffel Tower, the Notre Dame and the Louvre and then they travel through the south of France and stop off at a few places along the way and then end up at the principality of Morocco and will then fly back home from Nice.

The students will spend nine days in France.

Ecole McIsaac School is holding a Festival du Voyageur day today.  Vice-Principal Sylvie Dufour says they want to keep this event going at the school.  She says they’ll have six stations with the kids rotating as a team and that will be for grades K to 6. She adds at lunch hour they will have a hot dog lunch with veggies, cookies and milk as it is part of their milk program.  Dufour says as well during the lunch hour they will be entertained by Ms. Jardines jazz band and they will have mini contests like jigging, playing spoons and moose calling.

French students from the school also travel to Festival du Voyageur in Winnipeg in February.

Flin Flon Parks and Recreation has a series of spring break activities planned for next week.

Recreation Programmer Aimee Deans invites kids to swim, skate and be part of other activities.  She says they’ve got lot happening at the Aqua Center Monday to Friday from 1 to 4 with public swims and they’ve also got the Whitney Forum happening with scrub hockey and public skating.  She adds they’ve got Easter card making and crafts as well as hair accessories.

They will also be offering a kids yoga spring break mini camp Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for ages 3 to 5, 6 to 8 and 9 to 12 for 35 dollars.  You can register at the Aqua Center.  For more information on all of these events you can call 204-681-7540.

Faculty at the University College of the North are traveling to all campuses and regional centers.  The strategic planning committee is setting up meetings to get public feedback on a new five year plan.  Committee member Charlene Lafreniere says a date has been set for launching the 2015 – 2020 plan having approval by their tri-council by November allowing the staff to operationalize that plan and develop action plans over the next six months to implement in June of 2015 which is when they will start the new strategic plan.  She adds they’ll also have a roll out communicating the plan before they develop their actions just to share what they’ve heard and what their new plan looks like.

During meetings in Thompson two of the biggest suggestions were better promotion and programming should be included in the new plan.

A recent survey by the Cities Journal resulted in a list of the top 13 small cities in Canada based on their size and unique character.  The Journal states across Canada there are some pretty interesting and wonderful small towns fit for living in or simply for visiting.

On the list Flin Flon is seventh with the Journal noting the city was named after a character in a science fiction novel and the mining community straddles the border between Saskatchewan and Manitoba with part of the community on each side. It’s actually one of two Canadian communities that couldn’t make up its mind where it wanted to be. Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce President Tom Therien says he’s quite pleased with the results.  He says it just goes to show you that Flin Flon is really unique and we’re being noticed and we’re noticed for good reasons not bad and that’s always a positive thing.

Flin Flon was higher on the list than communities like Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and Fort McMurray, Alberta.  The top city was Corner Brook Newfoundland.

The new publisher of the Reminder Valerie Durnin who recently came here from B.C. told the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce yesterday the role of newspapers is to tell the stories of the communities they’re in. She says the newspaper is able to collect and archive and also have current stories about what’s happening on pretty much all levels of the community so when they talk about people and their lives they profile people, the good things they do, the innovations that they bring, the exciting things they do, really all facets of life.

Durnin says she is committed to maintaining the Reminder’s standards and continuing what they offer the community as well as being prepared to develop new ideas in the future.

Recycling Center Administrator Deb Odegaard told Durnin there are people who don’t realize what they have in the community with a local paper and radio station and they should support them to make sure they remain viable.

The Flin Flon School Board met last night and Superintendent Blaine Veitch reported on upcoming course selection for Hapnot and Many Faces.  He says it’s a sure sign the school year is quickly passing by. Course selection for 2014-15 takes place after spring break. 

The Division will be opening the TVI building and high school students will be offered an intro to trades program starting in September.  Parents and students are encouraged to contact the school for more information.

Some good news for Ruth Betts Community School who made a successful submission to the Manitoba Arts Council and received an Arts Smart grant.  Local artist Karen Clark will be working with some students in grade 8 and in Kindergarten at the school.  At Ecole McIsaac School the Canadian Parents for French have organized a lunch of Friday as students there will be celebrating Festival Du Voyageur day on Friday.

In other School news Manitoba Education and Advance Learning have a website to help parents become more involved in the education of their child.  You can learn more at Manitoba.ca/mychildinschool.

Spring bread starts March 31st to April 4th.  Classes resume on April 7th.

March is Fraud Prevention Month and Treena Cooper, Director of Legal Affairs for Yellow Pages Group says the best way small and medium sized businesses can protect themselves against fraud is through awareness and education.  She says it’s very important to educate employees about employee fraud, impersonation, cyber fraud and identity theft and it’s also important for a business to identify areas in which they could be potentially a victim of fraud and once they’ve identified that to develop a simple response plan that can help their employees move through the murky waters.

You can get more information on recognizing fraud by going to their web site at www.YellowPages360solutions.ca.

The sixth annual Frontier Collegiate Institute Fishing Derby was held on Neso Lake on number ten highway Sunday afternoon.  The Collegiate’s Tony Poirier reports the first place winner was Todd Collier from Flin Flon, Second was Tim Smith from Flin Flon and the third place winner was a student from Frontier Collegiate Ryan Watt.  He says first prize was a thousand dollars, second was 500 and third prize a gas ice auger.

Poirier adds around 120 people came out for the derby.

The Manitoba Teachers Society is accepting nominations until April 1st for their Young Humanitarian Awards. Their President Paul Olson explains they came up with this award a number of years ago because they noticed that there are a lot of awards for kids with high marks or for the star athletes but there weren’t really any awards that they were seeing prominently highlighted that talked about kids who were compassionate or showed self-sacrifice, leadership or creativity in dealing with human welfare issues, basically good citizens, good people, young humanitarians.  He says they thought it was time they created something like that to put the spotlight on the good work that many kids and teachers are doing in that area.

Olson says any public school student from kindergarten to grade 12 can be nominated with three individual and one group award presented.  Nomination forms and detail are available on their website www.mbteach.org.

International Women’s Day was marked Saturday with a lunch under the theme communities in action ending violence against women and girls.  Guest speaker Byron Hurt who is a film maker, writer and activist explained this violence is not only a women’s problem it’s also a men’s problem and there is a role for the community.  He says we have to enlist people to use their voice and to see themselves as being powerful to stand up and to speak out in support of victims and survivors of violence against women and he thinks that’s something that happens but it doesn’t happen enough.

Hurt added we need more men who are willing to gain the knowledge and ability to stand up against men who abuse and stand up for women who are being abused and this education has to start at an early age.  He says hopefully we can all be motivated to learn to work together to end the problem of violence against women around the world.

La Ronge Gold Corporation has announced it has acquired by staking two blocks of claims in north central Saskatchewan.  The Amisk Lake block located about 30 kilometers southwest of Creighton has potential for near surface frac sand resources.  A geophysical survey is being planned for this month that will help determine the presence and thickness of favorable sand strata. The Deschambault Lake block is located along the southeast shore of Dechambault lake about 35 kilometers southwest of the recently announced diamondiferous kimberlite bodies and also has potential for frac sand resources.  A till sampling program is planned for this property this summer. Frac sands are the proponent used in hydraulic fracturing.

La Ronge Gold is a Vancouver based company that owns high grade gold deposits in the La Ronge Gold belt in Northern Saskatchewan as well as in Ontario.

The Flin Flon Creighton and area SPCA will be holding a Fur Ball Benefit Social on Saturday, April 12th.  President Debbie Hiebert says it’s to raise funds to keep their shelter open. She says they are going to have different events at the social including a 50-50 draw, some raffles going on, they’re going to pull their kayak raffle winning ticket and the music should be good.  She says they are bringing in a band called Bed of Roses and they are a Bon Jovi tribute band from Winnipeg and should put on a good show.

Hiebert adds if this event is a success it will become an annual event. Advance tickets are 30 dollars at the SPCA Shelter, Northern Rainbows End, the Gateway or Alpine Convenience or 40 dollars at the door.

VMS Ventures reports the Reed Mine near Snow Lake is staffing up to meet increased development and production targets.  Their Chief Operating Officer Neil Richardson says they are pleased the Reed Mine continues towards commercial production with ramp development now approaching the 160 meter level.  He says the mine development is a critical process and the 325 meters of advancement in February is a testament to the motivation of the operational team at the mine. VMS owns 30 percent of the project with Hudbay holding 70 percent and is the operator.

Richardson adds the focus for March remains on safety and continued ramp development adding commercial production remains on schedule to start in the second quarter of this year and within the estimated budget parameters.  Almost 23 thousand tonnes of ore was mined there in February.

Earth Day Canada is accepting nominations for its Hometown Hero Awards.  Their Director of Communications Keith Teffry says this award is an opportunity to be recognized for the work you’ve done to educate and engage your community on addressing environmental issues and it has three different award categories, the individual award, the group award and the small business award.

The individual winner will receive ten thousand dollars to donate to a local environmental cause of their choice, the group winner ten thousand dollars to support their work and the business winner five thousand dollars to use to make operational changes to lessen their environmental impact and they can use the Earth Day Canada logo and trademark for a year to promote their business.

Information and nomination forms can be found at their website www.earthday.ca. The deadline is March 31st.

Students at Ruth Betts Community School in Flin Flon will be taking part in Wear Green for a Dream tomorrow. Teacher Amber Kubat explains the idea is the students will raise money and the money goes towards sick kids in Manitoba.  She says this year they will be donating the money locally towards Hannah Campbell whose in their morning kindergarten class and the students will be making cupcakes and selling them for a dollar each.

Kubat says last year the project raised just over 302 dollars.

This is National Brain Awareness Month and the Program Director for the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba Norma Kirkby says you need to remember the brain uses one third of the oxygen in our bodies.  She explains because the brain governs the whole body it’s essential to the body’s health but the interesting thing is the health of the body also promotes the health of the brain so exercise of the physical body is very important in that it keeps the cardiovascular system healthy so the brain is oxygenated.

You can also help your brain by quitting smoking, eating healthy and wearing protective head gear. There’s information at their web site www.alzheimer.mb.ca on brain health and services available.

The Manitoba Government has opened a request for proposals for the development of affordable seniors housing in Manitoba communities.  Their acting project officer Sandra Fitzpatrick was at the Flin Flon Public Library yesterday to present details on the program at a public meeting.

Through the program the government is investing nine million dollars and seeking partners to build homes so seniors can live in their own communities close to family and friends.

The new homes will be for low to moderate income renters and co-op housing members 55 or older.  Under the request for proposals the province is making available up to 75 thousand dollars per unit in northern Manitoba to a maximum of 35 percent of eligible project costs.

You can get more information by going to the government website at www.manitoba.ca and click on departments, then housing and then on RFP for seniors housing.

The 6th annual FCI Campus Fishing Derby is being held Sunday afternoon.  One of the organizers Monica Genaille says they have a good line up of prizes including a thousand dollars for first, second is 500 dollars and third prize is an ice auger.  She says there’s lots of giveaways from local businesses that donated t-shirts, hats and items like that and they have 50-50 draws at the site.

Genaille adds they are raising funds for programs at the Collegiate.  Tickets at 20 dollars are available at Kleen-all in Flin Flon or at the derby that runs from 1 to 3 Sunday afternoon at Neso Lake on number ten highway.

A Youth Alpha course will be held at the Flin Flon Alliance Church starting early next month.  One of the organizers Kayla Bates says it’s an eight week program that offers a delicious supper, entertaining movies, music and a great discussion.  She says it will get youth talking about life’s biggest questions like why am I here, what does it all mean and it’s a great way for youth to explore faith in a relaxing comfortable atmosphere.  She says it’s non-denominational and all youth ages 13 to 18 are welcome to attend.

Bates adds Youth Alpha will run every Wednesday starting April 9th from 6 to 8:30 running until May 28th and there is no cost to attend.  Pre-registration would be appreciated but is not required by calling Bonnie at 687-3376 or texting Kayla at 271-5357 or Natasha at 271-2503 or check facebook at youth alpha dash Flin Flon.

At their meeting last night Flin Flon City Council agreed to donate 88 hundred dollars to the Flin Flon and District Environment Council to help purchase a collection trailer to be placed within the city.

Council approved the rezoning of the property at 200 to 204 Whitney Street, the former Presbyterian Church, from single family to multiple family dwelling and also agreed to a request from Northland Ford to build a new dealership building on their current property.

In response to a question Administrator Mark Kolt noted there is a rate study underway for the new water treatment plant to determine what increase we will see in our Utility bills and the results should be known later this year.

And Blair Sapergia presented Council with a request for more information on 2013 expenses covering contracting services, overtime expenses, cost of recreation facilities, the water treatment plant and operating the waster water treatment plant as well as the monthly salary of each Councilor.  He was referred to the upcoming public budget meeting.

Around one hundred people took part in the 18th annual Richard Beasley Memorial Fishing Derby held Saturday on Big Island Lake near Westwood Lodge.

The first place Snow Tracker sleigh went to Nicole Whitbread with a 26 and a half inch Burbot, the second place Jiffy ice auger went to Fred Williams with a 19 inch lake trout and the third place 3500 watt generator went to Kevin Buettner with an 18 inch lake trout. The carving by Irvin Head was won by Blaire Sapergia.

There were numerous other prizes and giveaways out on the ice as well as free hot chocolate and hot dogs with help from local merchants.

VMS Ventures reports they continue to move forward at their Reed Mine near Snow Lake in which they hold at 30 percent interest and Hudbay a 70 percent interest.

Of their 72 million dollar estimated capital construction budget they report they have invested approximately 63 million dollars as of December 31st and have entered into an additional 4 million dollars in commitments.  To the end of January they had surpassed 26 hundred meters of total underground project and pre-production development and continue to focus on safety and ramp development. They add the project is on budget and on schedule and is expected to reach commercial production by the second quarter of this year.

An exhibition of sketches by local artist Gerry Clark has opened at the Norva Center on Green Street.  Clark says over the years teaching art at Hapnot he thought one of his problems was keeping himself busy enough to keep out the way of the kids when they were drawing so he started drawing the kids while they were drawing other kids and over the 20 years or so that he taught art he had a bunch of sketch book with hundreds of these sketches.  Clark adds one day while he was over at Norva teaching a drawing class they suggested why don’t you just give us some of those sketches and we’ll hang them for you so that what they are, a collection of serious portraits and some caricatures of kids.

The exhibition will be at the Norva Center until March 30th.

The Central Canada Film Group is featuring the film Cas and Dylan Thursday night.  The groups Collin Davis says it’s being shown to only a few communities.  He says Cas and Dylan is still an unreleased film that was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival starring Richard Dreyfuss and Canadian actor Tatiana Mascany.  He says they are able to show this film through a special program that allows some of Canada’s less urban areas enjoy film festival films and in Manitoba outside of Winnipeg it’s only Flin Flon and Gimili that are in this program.  Davis adds the film itself is a road trip comedy about an ailing man in his 60’s who goes on the lam with a young woman.

The film will be shown Thursday night at 7 in the Hapnot Theatre.  Tickets are ten dollars at the door.

This is Kidney Month and the Communications Director for the Manitoba branch of the Kidney Foundation of Canada Erica Vogt says Manitoba has the second highest rate of Kidney disease in Canada.  She says the biggest thing they want people to have as a take away from Kidney Month is to make sure they are getting active and being healthy and proactive in their kidney health.  She says you can actually lose 80 percent of your kidney function without symptoms showing so make sure that when you’re going to your doctor asking them to check how our kidneys are doing is really important.

You can get more information at their website www.kidney.ca/manitoba or call them at 1-800-729-7176.

Hudbay Minerals has announced it has acquired just over 10 million common shares of Panoro Minerals at a purchase price of 28 cents per share for total consideration of just over 2.8 million dollars.  The shares acquired by Hudbay represent approximately 4.9 percent of the issued outstanding shares.

As a result of this investment Hudbay now owns and has control over 22.9 million shares representing approximately 11.2 percent of the issued and outstanding shares.  They report the acquisition of the shares is being made for investment purposes.

Panoro Minerals is a Canadian mineral exploration company with a strategic focus on exploring and advancing its significant portfolio of large potential copper and copper-gold deposits in Peru.  They own 13 copper and gold properties in southern Peru as well as one polymetalic project in the northwest.

With temperatures reaching minus 50 degrees northern Manitoba RCMP members were in Thompson to spend five hours in and out of the water at Paint Lake all for training purposes.  Sergeant Ben Sewell explains it’s a two day course so one day is in the classroom and the second day is all spent in the water so officers don dry suits and they go into the water and practice rescuing themselves and they also practice rescuing other people who are unable to help themselves.

Sewell introduced ice rescue training to the RCMP in Northern Manitoba four years ago.  He says it’s important to know since police often conduct work on and around ice.

An International Women’s Day Luncheon will be held at the Flin Flon Community Hall Saturday, March 22nd from 11 to 2.  The Women’s Resource Center’s Colleen Arnold says the theme is communities in action ending violence against women and girls. She says they want to inspire the community, men women and youth to stand up and take action to end violence against women and girls, to acknowledge that violence against women is not a women’s issue but a men’s issue.  Arnold adds their guest speaker is Byron Hurt who is an award winning documentary film maker, a published writer and an anti-sexist activist.

Tickets are 15 dollars and are available at the Orange Toad, Northern Rainbows End and the Friendship Center.

The Northminster Memorial United Church in Flin Flon is presenting a concert on Thursday night.  Reverend Alex McGilvary says they’ll feature a group of young musicians out of Victoria, BC called West My Friend who have a really interesting sound.  He says there’s a double bass, guitars, a flute, fiddle, mandolin, accordion and they play piano and have quite an interesting and eclectic way they do the music.  He adds its sort of folk, sort of modern stuff and given the collection of instruments it isn’t hard rock, it’s really enjoyable.

McGilvary says this tour is to celebrate the release of the group’s second album.  The concert starts at 7:30 Thursday night with the doors open at 7 at the United Church.  Tickets are available at the Church office or by contacting Alex McGilvary.

Services to children and families on the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation are being strengthened thanks to a recent accreditation process.

Peter Ballantyne Child and Family Services reports they have received accreditation through the internationally recognized Commission on Accredited Rehabilitation Facilities Canada which is an independent body that sets rigorous benchmark standards for quality in the human services field including child and youth services.

Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation Chief Peter Beatty says this accreditation means their agency conforms to nationally and internationally recognized service standards.  He adds he is very proud that their agency has worked so hard to ensure that children and families in their communities receive the best service possible.  Their Child and Family Services agency serves several communities including Amisk or Beaver Lake, Deschambault Lake, Pelican Narrows, Sandy Bay and the central office at the Chief Joseph Custer Reserve in the city of Prince Albert.

The Northern Neighbors and Thomas Sill Foundations have partnered with Hapnot Collegiate for a Youth in Philanthropy grant program.  The Collegiate’s Corinne Mathews says grants are available to any registered charity within the Flin Flon, Creighton, Denare Beach area and the high school group is not limiting the type of grants that they are sending out, they would like to see what is out there right now so pretty much anything is within range.  She adds they are accepting grant applications in the amount of one thousand dollars or less.

To apply for a grant or for more information you can contact Corinne at Hapnot Collegiate at 204-687-7506.

The 18th annual Richard Beasley Memorial Fishing Derby is taking place Saturday afternoon on Big Island Lake.  One of the organizers Chuck Woods says prizes include a Snow Tracker sleigh for first, a Jiffy ice auger for second, a 3500 watt generator for third.  He says they have a few more prizes to give away when the fish are caught and there’ll be other giveaways as well as free hot dogs and hot chocolate so come out and enjoy the day and help them remember their friend Richard.  He notes it runs from noon to 3 at Westwood Lodge so just follow the signs and they’re just off the dock.

Tickets for ten dollars are available at the Gas Bar, Steelworkers office on Main Street or the Gateway.

At their meeting last night the Flin Flon School Board approved their budget for the 2014-15 school year as presented at their public meeting February 26th.  The budget asks for a 1.8 mill increase in their special levy request to the city due to an increase in expenses and the change in the sharing of the Hudbay grant between the city and the school division.  The budget now goes on to the Public Schools Finance Board.

In other business Superintendent Blaine Veitch thanked Pharmasave for their latest donation of just over 46 hundred dollars to local area schools from the Neighbors Helping Neighbors program.  He noted this is added to the over 85 thousand dollars that has already been donated.

Veitch also reported the Minster of Education has declared March of each year as Perfect Attendance Month and schools are encouraged to place a special emphasis on attendance and work with families and the community to make March the month that every child is in school every day.

The Women’s Resource Center in Flin Flon is offering a free eight to ten week education group next week.  The Center’s Mary Fullerton says they will cover issues for women interested in gaining a better understanding of the dynamics surrounding family violence.  She says in the workshops they will be doing topics like the cycle of violence, the myths of violence, profile of an abuser, effects of family violence on children, healthy relationships, communication and much more.

The session will start on Wednesday, March 19th at 6:30 upstairs at the Women’s Resource Center.  To register or for more information you can call Mary at the Center at 204-681-3105.

The Rotary Club of Flin Flon is taking over CFAR starting tomorrow afternoon for a fund raiser they call Rotary Radio Days.  The Club’s Bill Pauley says the local businesses support them in a big way.  He explains they sell advertising on the radio with them and the Rotarians do the on air commentary and it’s a colorful thing because most of them are not very good at speaking on the radio.  Pauley adds the businesses get advertising and the Rotarians make a fairly good amount of fund raising for the club and that money goes back into the community.

Rotarians will be on the air reading their commercials starting tomorrow afternoon at 1 and will continue all day Friday and Saturday morning until 11.

The Flin Flon School Division and City of Flin Flon have announced they have agreed to make adjustments over a two year period to the longstanding arrangements for dividing the 5.2 million dollar grant received from Hudbay.  City Administrator Mark Kolt explains once the portion of expenses supplied by other levels of government is deducted, approximately one third of the combined expenses of the School Division and City is paid for through a grant from Hudbay, which is supplied in lieu of taxation.  He says once the changes are fully phased in a uniform percentage equivalent to the percent contributed by Hudbay to the combined pool of adjusted expenses will be applied to the City and School Division net requests.

Kolt adds this percentage is also expected to be roughly one third, however small variations may occur from year to year because of other factors affecting the agreement such as changes in the municipal assessment.  He notes the agreement will not affect overall expenses or the final bill paid by taxpayers.

The sixth annual Jack Streitle Memorial Fishing Derby was held at Denare Beach Saturday.  One of the organizers Christy Wasyliuk says they had 21 fish caught with 159 people taking part.  She reports the biggest fish was caught by Dave Wasylciw and he won one thousand dollars, the second place fish went to Rick Quaal winning 500 dollars, third place went to Brendan Senyk receiving 215 dollars and the smallest fish went to Eric Smith and all the fish caught were jackfish.

The first catch of the day of 125 dollars went to Cathy Christianson, Jax McCubbing was the youngest fisherman, Haley Norman the youngest fisher girl, the oldest fisher woman was Violet Skeoch and the oldest fisherman was Tony Wasyliuk.

Churchill MP Niki Ashton is outraged over the fact the federal government has refused to call a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.  She says everyone except the federal government wants this inquiry. She explains what an inquiry would do is get into the reasons behind why so many aboriginal women have gone missing or have been murdered.  She adds a few months ago Canada’s Premiers said we need an inquiry, we know international human rights organizations like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have been asking for an inquiry and more importantly the families of missing and murdered indigenous women have been asking for an inquiry and the odd one out is the federal government.

Ashton believes the next step is a national action plan before trying for the inquiry.

Flin Flon MLA Clarence Pettersen says the Manitoba budget is good for the province calling it a budget to grow our economy and grow jobs.  He says it includes more apprenticeship and training opportunities to help grow Manitoba’s workforce by 75 thousand by 2020 which is big and a five year plan to invest 5.5 billion dollars in core infrastructure to improve roads, bridges, flood work, municipal infrastructure and create thousands of jobs.

Pettersen adds in the constituency that includes continuing improvements on highways ten and six which are important transportation routes to the north, they continue to invest in heath care and education noting the upgrades to the emergency room in Flin Flon and at the Collegiate in Cranberry Portage and they continue to invest in the northern healthy foods initiative so food can be produced locally in remote communities.

The Women’s Resource Center in Flin Flon is offering an anger management workshop for women starting later this month.  The Center’s Barb Hopkinson says the workshop is to promote an understanding of what anger is, the feelings and effects generated by anger, recognition of occurrences and effective ways to combat anger.  She adds the effects of anger can harm the family, the self, employment and anyone connected with the individual.

The course begins March 24th at 6:30 and will run for 8 weeks.  To register call the Women’s Resource Center at 204-681-3105.

The RBC Foundation is offering grants of up to 40 thousand dollars for after school programs in at risk or under served communities for the next school year. Their Regional Vice-President for the Agassiz Region that includes Flin Flon and other northern communities Michelle Aitkenhead explains to be chosen for a grant recipients must offer structured supervised activities in an environment that they like to call the three S’s offering safety, social skills and self-esteem.  She says grant recipients all provide activities for kids after school such as computer instruction, sports, tutoring for reading, music, art lessons, nutrition guidance and homework help.

Aitkenhead adds they already support successful programs in Thompson and The Pas and would like to see applications from Flin Flon.  The deadline to apply for the grant is Friday with forms available on their website www.rbc.com/afterschool.

The Flin Flon Ski Club is holding their 39th annual Centaloppet Sunday afternoon.  The Club’s Dave Price says it’s a mass participation event for all local skiers of whatever age and they’ll be meeting at the Ski Club on Sunday for the start of an easy ski of 3.4 kilometers at 2 o’clock.  He says they hope that people will come out and bring their family and friends.

Price adds last year they had 57 skiers take part ranging in age from 6 to those in their 70’s. He says there’s no entry fee and there’s a lot of prizes including the Centaloppet Cup.

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization continues to look at Creighton and 14 other communities as a site for a nuclear waste storage facility. Their Communications Manager Mike Krizanc says concerns have been raised about the safety of the project but he says it is based on extensive research in Canada and Internationally.  He says over the next couple of years they will narrow down the number of communities to one or two before going into detailed site characterization.  He says that involves a lot of work as that’s when the heavy lifting is done, that’s when the boots are in the field and that will involve an investment of 200 million dollars or more per community to really provide all of the information that the NWMO needs to determine whether or not the repository can be safely built and operated in the location but also all of the information that the community needs to make an informed decision.

Krazanc adds as transportation is a concern they will be bringing in their transportation exhibit in late spring or early summer that includes one of their transportation containers.

Callinan Royalties has received interim quarterly payments for the quarter ending December 31st of just over 2.3 million dollars from the six and two thirds net profits interest royalty and almost 113 thousand dollars from the production royalty of 25 cents per ton of ore from Hudbay.  This is down from payments of just over 3.9 million dollars in the same quarter last year.  The payments are due to Callinan’s royalty interests on lands that include the Triple Seven and Triple Seven North mines in Flin Flon.

A Callinan release states the quarterly royalty income from these mines is lower than last year for the same period but they note some improvement compared to payment received in the last quarter.  They add they see this as a positive development given metal prices and challenges experienced at Triple Seven in 2013.

On February 23^rd the RCMP began an investigation after receiving information that an adult male had sent inappropriate texts to a 13 year old girl.

As a result of the investigation a 31 year old man was arrested on February 27^th and has been charged with sexual assault, sexual interference, luring a minor and invitation to sexual touching.  He was remanded into custody and will appear in court March 10^th in The Pas.

The RCMP say the name of the accused will not be released to protect the identity of the victim.

St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church in Flin Flon is hosting a World Day of Prayer tomorrow night.  Catholic Women’s League member Dona O’Brien says this event has been going on for 84 years.  She explained that in about 1922 Canada and the States started working together to celebrate this day and they started doing it on the first Friday in Lent.  She adds by 1928 the first International World Day of Prayer was held around the world and today 170 different countries are involved.  O.Brien adds by 1930 the Day was organized for the first time by a group of Christian women outside of the USA and since then every year a different country is chosen to pick a theme and plan the order of prayer.

This year women in Egypt have organized the event with ladies in 170 countries sharing the same stories and prayers.  It starts at 7:30 tomorrow night at St. Ann’s Church on Center Street.

With Creighton still on the list of communities looking into hosting a nuclear waste storage facility, members of the Committee for Future Generations and the Coalition for a Clean Green Saskatchewan spoke to the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce yesterday and at a public meeting last night.  The Coalition’s Dave Geary says they have concerns about the safety of the project. He says this project is technically and scientifically kind of risky, it’s very divisive in any community they go to both politically and socially and the transportation of this material is a huge safety concern.  He says this project is experimental, we’re all being guinea pigs here and it’s never been done anywhere on earth before adding this is a prototype.

The speakers say before making a decision on the facility people should make sure they obtain as much objective and science based information from independent sources as possible and they should take into consideration their grandchildren who will have to deal with this issue for a very long time due to concerns about the long term safety of storage facilities.

The sixth annual Jack Streitle Memorial Family Fishing Derby is being held at Denare Beach Saturday afternoon.  One of the organizers Christy Wasyliuk says they are offering a lot of prizes.  She says they have prizes for the biggest fish, second place and third place and that will be based on cash entries and then they have prizes for first fish, smallest fish, oldest fisherman, oldest fisherwoman, youngest fisher boy and fisher girl  and then they usually have a bunch of raffle prizes at the end.

They also have a loonie bucket for the first fish caught.

The fishing derby is being held in the bay at Angell’s Marina at Denare Beach.  Registration for five dollars begins at one Saturday afternoon with fishing from 2 to 4.

Flin Flon School Division band students will take part in the Parkland Nor-man Honor Band in Dauphin this weekend.  Band Instructor Anna Jardine says it includes students from Flin Flon, The Pas, Thompson, Swan River and Dauphin areas and all of the students get together and play in big ensembles.  She says there’s the junior ensemble for first and second year players and that will be about 140 students, there’s an intermediate ensemble for older students and a senior ensemble for grades 11 and 12. She says they get guest conductors in to work with the students performing different repertoires and then they put on a concert on Saturday following two days of rehearsals.

Jardine adds about 35 students will be attending from Hapnot, McIsaac and Ruth Betts Schools.

The 25th annual Snow Lake Winter Festival runs Friday through Sunday.  One of the organizers Kim Stephen says their theme this year is Disney. She says for supper on Saturday night they’ve hired two circus type entertainers out of Winnipeg, they’re having a chicken and rib supper and they’ve built a big castle so when the kids come in they can walk through and they’ve got special guests such and Mickey, Minnie, Daisy and Donald.  They’re showing a movie on Friday night, they’re having miniature golf and the Mark Gogal road hockey is taking place on Friday.

Stephen says Saturday will also include a pancake breakfast, road hockey, scavenger hunt, human curling and Sunday will feature a penny parade with over 100 items and a draw for a trip for four to Orlando, Florida.

At last night’s meeting Flin Flon City Council received a challenge from the Mayor of Regina Michael Fougere to Mayor George Fontaine to join Mayors across the country in taking part in the Mayor’s Poetry City Challenge by having a local poet read a poem at the start of their council meeting in March or April.  It is to recognize UNESCO’s World Poetry Day March 21st and National Poetry Month.  The letter was referred to Mayor Fontaine.  Over 30 large and small communities took part last year.

Council passed a motion to appoint Mary Wright as Weed Inspector for the city.  This is a position mandated by the province and she is paid as her services are required.

Council received the Fire Chief’s report for February indicating there were three incidents during the month including a false alarm at McIsaac School, a smoke detector sounding and assistance to the ambulance.

The Flin Flon Arts Council is presenting country singer Tim Hus and two of his band members Friday night.  The Council’s Crystal Kolt says he’s an Alberta bred song maker and story teller.  She says he’s a really well known country singer and actually has a song on Flin Flon that he sings around the country.  Kolt adds he’s been known as the next Stompin’ Tom Conners and he’s been known to make up songs about the different areas and communities that he’s visited so it’s going to be a country good time.

Tim Hus will perform Friday night at 7:30 in the RH Channing Auditorium with tickets available at Northern Rainbows End on Main Street.

The Flin Flon Recycling Center is partnering with Call2Recycle to make household battery recycling easy in our area.  Administrator Deb Odegaard says they are pleased to provide our community with a way to keep batteries out of the landfill. She explains they’re accepting all dry cell batteries that are under 5 kilograms and those batteries should be put in a plastic bag and dropped off at the Recycling Center noting they don’t want them loose in the material so they can find them.  She adds they take rechargeables as well as regular alkaline batteries, the button batteries, batteries from computers, power tools, cameras but they don’t take wet cell batteries or car batteries which can be left at the Creighton and Flin Flon landfills and they will be picked up for recycling there.

More information is available at www.call2recycle.ca or by calling the Recycling Center at 204-687-6169.

Because of the extremely cold weather a few events from this past weekend’s Bust the Winter Blues Festival were postponed.  The committee’s Channa Senyk says they’re going to have the Family Fishing Derby Sunday at noon on Phantom Lake, the Border Explorers Frozen Aces Poker Derby will be on Sunday with registration at 10 at the Creighton Tourism Office and on Saturday night they’ll have the family fireworks and those are set to go off at 7:30 at the Creighton Soccer Field.

The events they did hold were well attended with the Kinettes Trivia Night, pancake breakfast, activities at the Rotary Wheel including the horse sleigh rides, baking contest and snow shoe races and then wrapping up with the Mardi Gras Family Fun Night.

The Women’s Resource Center invites you to take part in flash dances Saturday around Flin Flon.  The Center’s Jordana Ifergan says its part of a world wide event called One Billion Rising.  She says it reached over 200 countries across the world last year to demand that women be safe, free, cherished and equal.  She encourages everyone to come out and join them as they rise up and dance to demand justice, not only for those who are survivors of gender violence all across the world but also to end violence in the future so women and girls feel safe wherever they go.

Flash mob dances will take place Saturday at 10 at Canadian Tire, at 12 in Pioneer Square and at 2 at the Co-op. You can practice the dance Thursday evening at 7:30 at the Elks Hall.  For more information you can call the Center at 204-681-3105.

The Committee for Future Generations is holding an information meeting in Flin Flon Wednesday evening.  Candyce Paul from the English River First Nation which was part of the nuclear waste repository site selection process says they want to tell people what they haven’t been told so far about nuclear waste storage.  She says they want people to seriously know what they’re being asked to take a risk for, especially everyone who has grandchildren as its not us who are going to be dealing with this, its going to be the grandchildren and they’re going to be dealing with it for a very long time.

Paul says as Creighton is still part of the site selection process everyone should know as much as possible about nuclear waste if they are going to make an informed decision.  The meeting will be held Wednesday evening at 7 at the Flin Flon Public Library.

The Northern Health Region invites you to bring your lunch and join their dieticians Wednesday for a lunch of nutrition tips and ideas.  Community Dietician Joanna Ledoux says it is part of Nutrition Month and they are very excited to be offering this Lunch and Learn.  She says they are going to be talking about the theme this year which is Simply Cook and Enjoy and they’ll be focusing on building more preparation skills for the busy lifestyle, preparing healthy meals on a budget and getting children more involved in meal preparation.

The Lunch and Learn is being held Wednesday from 12 to 1 in room 130 at the Primary Health Care Center in Flin Flon.  They would prefer that you pre-register by calling Joanna at 204-681-3149.