The Northern Health Region has announced the facility closed on Tuesday citing potential flooding and staffing issues as the main reasons for the suspension.

Any patients needing emergency care will be transported to either Lynn Lake or Thompson.

 Flin Flon MLA Tom Lindsey says he was not informed of the closure despite Leaf Rapids being in his constituency. He says local officials confirm the high water level has been addressed.

Lindsey adds he talked to the NRHA about contingency plans should multiple patients need emergency care as the community only has one ambulance.  He explains he asked about putting a second ambulance there just in case but he was told they kind of looked at that and it wasn’t really what they were going to do so he asked is the runway at Leaf Rapids usable and was told he didn’t know so they’ve done an emergency plan and they have no idea if they can land a Lifeflight there so he asked the local administration and the runway is usable during the day but it doesn’t have any lights so it’s not usable at night so it just makes absolutely no sense to shut this facility down in the middle of a pandemic.

The Northern Health Region says it has contingency plans put in place which are being implemented.