Councillor Ken Pawlachuk raised the issue of the use of drugs and alcohol by people gathering on Main Street resulting in fights, injuries and other issues.  He noted as a Council and City we have to do more about it and faster because it is getting serious.  He suggested if a homeless shelter is the answer then that’s what we have to do because the situation won’t get better by itself.

Mayor Cal Huntley replied we have to work towards a solution but there is no easy solution. He explained Flin Flon is not alone as it’s a prevalent problem that everyone needs to work on and there needs to be some government support as a City Council is not going to fix social problems that are out there but we can do our part and part of that is making the province and feds know what is going on and there needs to be some true reconciliation that can fix these kinds of problems,

Councillor Colleen Arnold reported there is a local group called Everyone Deserves a Home being run through the Friendship Center made up of a large number of local services and organizations looking at this issue and working on homelessness and getting some kind of housing but it takes time and we need everyone at the table including the federal and provincial governments.