Superintendent Blaine Veitch reported that the Division has hired five mentors for the new school year.  During public question period Veitch described some of the work that mentors undertake during the year.  They work before and after class putting in about 30 hours a week including lunch hours, offering guidance and a positive influence for the students .Veitch also noted that few schools in the province offer the mentor program which Flin Flon has been involved in for 15 years or more.  Trustee Angie Simpson added the program gives the mentors an opportunity to decide if they wish to continue pursuing a career in education in the future or not.  The program does offer extensive training and after the term is complete mentors have gained considerable experience.  This year Kelcey Anderson, Monique Wall and Raquel LaLiberty will mentor at Ruth Betts while Jesse Simms and Haylee Fouillard were hired at Ecole McIsaac School. 

  In closing Board Chair Murray Skeavington reminds you that the Minister of Education has announced that September 28^th to October 2^nd is Support Staff Appreciation Week.

The Central Canada Film Group is starting their new season of films you should have seen Friday night with the film Goodbye Lenin one of the most watched films in Germany in 2004. The group’s Collin Davis says the film takes place in 1989 in which the mother has lost her husband and is completely devoted to the East German state but a heart attack leaves her in a coma and once she wakes up 8 months later the Berlin Wall has fallen and a whole new world has begun but to protect her from the shock her son Alex hatches a plan to keep her in the dark and all he has to do is bring East Germany back.

Goodbye Lenin will be shown Friday night at 7:30 in the Hapnot Collegiate Theatre. Admission is a silver collection and snacks will be sold.

The provincial mine rescue competition is being held in Flin Flon Friday and Saturday.  Hudbay Mine Safety’s Olaf Hettrick says four teams are involved in the competition including the two Hudbay teams from Flin Flon and Snow Lake, Vale Thompson and Tanco from Lac du Bonnet and the biggest part of it which is the underground portion will be at Triple Seven Mine with the fire fighting within the Company compound.

The Flin Flon team is made up of Captain Trevor Thurston, Marshal Manns, Annette Last, Mike Desjarlais, Travis Pfoh, Eric McIntosh and Director of Operations Steve Palegato while the Snow Lake team is made up of Captain Aldin Kowalchuk, Vice-Captain Adam Harrower, Rene Gagnon, Jon Young, Jeremy Nickel, Director of Operations Bob Forsyth and Trainer Clint Parsons.

 Flin Flon’s Community Adult Learning Center is holding an open house tomorrow.  Literacy Instructor Heather Jobes says they offer a variety of programs and this is a great opportunity to ask questions about their adult literacy programs, upgrading your math and English skills or even GED preparation.  She adds they also offer computer use programs for a small fee.

The open house runs from 11:30 to 1:30 tomorrow at the Learning Center on the lower level of the Co-op store with snacks and refreshments available.

Creighton Recreation and the Flin Flon Aboriginal Friendship Center are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday October 10^th at 5 pm at the Creighton Community Hall.  Recreation Director Channa Senyk explains this dinner is for residents who don’t have family to be with on the holidays so those celebrating on their own who may be new to the community, low in means or just looking for some companionship at this special time of the year.

The ticket deadline is Friday with tickets available at Super K, Creighton town office, Creighton Recreation and the Friendship Center at five dollars each.

There are four candidates seeking election in Manitoba’s Churchill Keewatinook Aski constituency.  The New Democratic Party’s Niki Ashton is seeking re-election with the Liberal Party represented by Rebecca Chartrand, the Green Party by August Hastmann and the Conservative Party by Kyle G. Mirecki.

There are also four candidates in Saskatchewan’s Desnethe Missinippi Churchill River constituency.  The Conservative Party’s Rob Clarke is seeking re-election with the New Democratic Party represented by Georgina Jolibois, the Liberal Party by Lawrence Joseph and the Green Party by Warren Koch.

Advance polls for the election are being held on October 9^th, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th.

The Ham Sandwich Theatre Group has their winter performance coming up December 12^th and 13^th.  Director Tom Heine says they’re presenting Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Harvey which concerns a fellow who sees a spirit who is his companion and nobody else can see him which causes some interesting problems so they are looking for a cast of six men and six women.

Auditions are being held tomorrow night at 7 in the Flin Flon Community Hall.

The Habitat 53° Chapter of Habitat for Humanity is holding their 4^th annual coffee house Saturday night as a fund raiser to support their first home being built in Flin Flon.  The Chapter’s Kathy McCormick says they have a great night of entertainment planned including Frank Michell from Cranberry Portage, Ian Krieger, Holly Freeborn and Rod Kerfont with Father Paul Bringleson as their M.C.  She adds the coffee house will also feature coffee, tea, desserts, a 50-50 draw and raffles.

The coffee house will be held in the Creighton Community Hall starting at 7 Saturday night.  Tickets are ten dollars and are available at Northern Rainbow’s End on Main Street or at the door.  If you can donate a dessert you can call Katie at 687-3935 or Kathy at 687-6582.

A memorial was unveiled yesterday in the Neighbors of the North Park at the south end of Main Street to honor David Collins.The Committee’s Gerry Clark explains a hundred years ago a native trapper by the name of David Collins showed the ore body that’s now the Flin Flon mine to Tom Creighton and he and his group staked it and David was told he could expect to get his fair share eventually but he got nothing and he was largely forgotten.

The memorial was unveiled by Mayor Cal Huntley and Collins’ Great Great Granddaughter Margaret Head Steppan who represented the six generations of the Collins family introducing those who were able to attend the ceremony while Great Great Granddaughter Kelly Blouin told the story of Collins, the pride it brings to the family and the struggle for recognition.

 Northland Ford held a ribbon cutting ceremony Friday afternoon to officially open their new building at the corner of Green Street and 10A highway. General Manager Allison Wilson says it’s a great change for the dealership and the community.  She says it’s one of those things where they had such a small dealership and shop before so it’s just like bringing the city to Flin Flon and it’s very nice to come to work now in a brand new building and it’s like a real dealership so they’re really proud to say that they work there.

Wilson added they now employ 25 people and expect an increase to 30 to 35 within five years.

Mayor Cal Huntley said it was a significant investment in our community that speaks to the health of the community a sentiment echoed by MLA Clarence Pettersen.  Also on hand were several representatives of Ford Canada with the General Manager for the Western Region Gerald Wood thanking the staff and customers for their ongoing confidence in the dealership presenting the staff with the Golden Shovel Award.

A large crowd of people gathered at Pioneer Square yesterday afternoon to celebrate a successful weekend of Culture Days by dancing down Main Street.  Organizer Crystal Kolt says they had 80 events calling it the most amazing year yet.  She explains that as an administrator she’s really starting to get a sense of what works and what locations work best for the various events.  She adds a big shout out to all the businesses, writers, musicians, visual artists, crafters, organizations and the provinces that supported this financially and with their love of the arts and for the community for coming out because it wouldn’t be fun if it wasn’t for the community.

Culture days began early last week with the Bollywood presentation followed by a full day of events Friday that included the schools continuing through Saturday and wrapping up yesterday.

As one of their over 80 events Culture Days will feature an event for Dungeons and Dragons fans and those with a good imagination.  The Arts Council’s Crystal Kolt says tomorrow afternoon they will feature Larping which was very popular last year.  She explains it stands for Live Action Role Play and people get dressed up and it’s a lot of role playing medieval sparring kind of event and so they have a tent there where people can make their weapons before they go and take part in the battle out in the field.

Kolt adds there will also be a demonstration on making bows, arrows and knives.  Larping takes place at Creekside Park tomorrow afternoon from 2 to 5.

Creighton Community School is holding a Terry Fox Walk at the school Wednesday morning.  Their School Coordinator Carol Sutherland says they will meet in the staff parking lot at the school and will start from there for the walk at 11 am.  She says they are also collecting toonies for Terry to help support Terry’s goal of a cancer free world.  She notes in addition to that there will be a hot dog sale that day with pre-order forms going home at the beginning of next week.

Sutherland adds the community is invited to join the students in the walk and you’re encouraged to bring a toonie for Terry.

The Central Canada Film Group is bringing a film featuring top actors to Flin Flon as part of their Films Up North Series.  The group’s Collin Davis says Boy Choir is a Toronto International Film Festival circuit feature.  He explains in this inspirational story a choir master played by Dustin Hoffman at an elite music academy pushes a gifted but rebellious student to fulfill his true potential.  He adds they’re really looking forward to starting off their year with this film which has been one of the highlights at the Toronto International Film Festival and they’re very pleased to be able to show it at Culture Days.

The film will be shown Sunday night at 6 at the Hapnot Collegiate Theatre.

Solvista Gold Corporation has announced the first drill hole assay results from its ongoing drill program on the Talbot Property which is part of their Snow Lake property in Manitoba.

Their President and CEO Ken Lapierre says their very first drill hole confirms that the Talbot Property has substantial potential to host high grade massive sulphides containing significant thicknesses and grades of copper, gold, zinc and silver.  Drill hole geophysical data from the hole also identifies large conductive anomalies that need to be drill tested to determine their significance.  He says drilling continues and they look forward to testing several additional high priority targets on the Talbot Property.

The Company’s drill program is focused on four areas with significant high grade copper, gold, zinc and silver potential.

Culture Days will feature Jammin’at Johnny’s Sunday night.  The Arts Council’s Crystal Kolt invites you to join in. She says anyone who wants to drop by with any instrument can come by or if you don’t have an instrument you can just come by and sing.  She says they’ll have charts and song books there and they meet at Johnny’s and they have a good old fashioned fun jam and last year there were something like six or seven guitars, two keyboards, a harmonica and a fiddle and it’s something for everybody.

The Jammin’ session takes place at 7 Sunday night at Johnny’s Social Club on Green Street.

 A Defeat Depression Walk is being held in The Pas Saturday with plans to hold one in Flin Flon next year.  Sherri Campbell with the Mood Disorders Association encourages people in the Flin Flon area to support this year’s walk.  She explains the idea behind it is to raise awareness on depression and mood disorders and to try to reduce stigma by gathering a group of people together and raising awareness while doing a walk to support people who do suffer from mood disorders.

The walk begins with registration at 11 and the walk at 12 from the Roy H. Johnston Arena in The Pas.  You can make pledges at the walk or go to www.defeatdepression.ca and click on The Pas.

Over 80 people have contributed art work to the Norva Centers Square Foot fund raiser.  A variety of people paid 25 dollars for a square foot canvas, painted on it and returned it to Norva for display and sale.  The Center’s Karen Clark says they are now holding a silent auction so people are welcome to come into Norva for the next ten days and place their bids.  She says every day from the 23^rd to the 30^th there’ll be something called five at five and at 5 o’clock each day a random lot of five paintings will be chosen and the bidding will be closed for that day and the people will find out that they have acquired a piece of art.

The remaining art works will be auctioned off on September 30^th with auctioneer Raphael Saray.  Clark invites everyone to come to the Norva Center at 177 Green Street to view and bid on the art works.

Alliance Church Pastor Andrew Mcgregor told the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce yesterday about an upcoming Global Leadership Summit presented locally by the Church.  He says the event originates in Chicago and will be rebroadcast in other countries with a community as small as Flin Flon a new experience as a host.  He says it’s a world class leadership training event with the best speakers on leadership in business, from the church and academics.  He says this year there’s an estimated audience of 260 thousand people world wide, it’s in 120 countries and 875 cities and they’re excited that this year we will be one of the 875 city locations it’s going into.

Pastor McGregor adds the theme this year is a grander vision and is designed to help leaders in business, the church, family and community organizations to sharpen their skills.  It takes place October 23^rd and 24^th at a cost of 179 dollars and anyone interested can register at www.growingleadership.com/flinflon or call the Alliance Church.

 The Flin Flon Friendship Center Aboriginal Headstart Program has started and is taking registrations for their fall programs.  The Program’s Katie Kawerski says it’s a pre-school program for First Nations, Metis and Inuit children three to five years old so their focus is language and culture, education, parental involvement and community partnerships as well as health and nutrition but during the day the children get to interact with one another.  She says they prepare them for school and they learn valuable skills in a very relaxed semi-structured environment.

Kawerski adds there are still spots for the morning but the afternoons are full so you can still register and be put on a waiting list.  To register call Katie at 204-687-1311.

 Creighton Community School is holding an open house tomorrow evening.  Vice-Principal Janel Pearson invites you to visit the school.  She says they’re going to have a barbeque with hamburgers and smokies for everybody who shows up and they encourage all the families to come in for a bite to eat and to meet the staff and tour the classrooms.  She says they have quite a few new staff this year so it’s kind of nice to come in and put a face to the name.

The open house begins at the school tomorrow evening at five o’clock.

Culture Days will be taking place this weekend and part of the celebration will be Culture Shock Friday night.  The Arts Council’s Crystal Kolt says it includes three events.  The first one will be at Ann Ross and Doug McGregor’s place on Murton Avenue called Local Roots with performances happening in their home like a Home Routes program at 7 ‘clock. Kolt says the next one will be Wood n’ Wire which has become so popular at Johnny’s and there will be more performers there like Kevin Imrie and Keith Bartlett is coming in from the Regina area.

The final event is Rock Blast from 9 to 2 at the Hooter.  Admission to all events is free.  For more information you can go to www.flinflonartscouncil.org.

The Community In Motion Committee is holding a Geocache Walk tomorrow.  Committee member and Creighton Recreation Director Channa Senyk says they have created four new geocaches in the Creighton area and they are inviting everyone who loves geocaching to come out.  She says they provided the GPS so you come to the Creighton Recreation office at 7 o’clock Wednesday evening if it’s not raining and they’ll head out and see if you can locate these new sites.

If you need more information you can call the Creighton Recreation Office at 306-688-3538.

Creighton is hosting their Copper fair this weekend at the Sportex and Director of Recreation Channa Senyk says a lot of local businesses will be show cased:

" We invite people to come out and take a look at the local art and don't forget to vote for your favorite choice. Some of the local businesses that we have joining us are : Epicure, Norva, A Touch Of Class, Grandma's Baking, Michelson's Wood Working and Quilting, Caribou Hair Tufting and Living Young Essential Oils. We have a nice variety of local businesses joining us."

There will be something for everyone including 12 different categories of art, a penny parade and a go pro raffle. The hours are Friday 4-9 and Saturday 9-4 at the Sportex. A silver collection will be taken at the door.

The Flin Flon Fire Dept held their annual boot drive on Third Avenue on Friday and Fire Chief Jim Petrie says it was their most successful yet:

" This year was fantastik, and again I want to thank the citizens of Flin Flon for all their  donations. This year we will be giving the money to the Women's Safe Haven and Habitat For Humanity . We collected  $11,200.00 and the Scotia Bank is going to donate an additional $5,000.00 bringing the total to $16,200.00.That means each charity will recieve $8,100.00."

This is the 17th year that the FF Fire Dept has held this event and Petrie would like to thank the 14 firefighters, members of the Scotia bank and Barb Petrie for volunteering their time. A big thank you to all the citizens of Flin Flon and area as well for your continued generosity.

Northland Ford hosted Drive One For Your Community last weekend at the dealership and sales consultant Nikki McConnell talks about where they will be donating the money this time.

"This year we are donating money towards Flin Flon Creighton Minor Ball and the Slowpitch league and money will be used to upgrade the diamonds. We raised $2000.00 on 100 test drives this year."

Northland Ford has been doing the Drive One For Your Community and Drive One For Your School for 5 years and have donated thousands of dollars back into the community. Drive One For Your School will be back in the spring of 2016.

The third Relay For Life took place this past Saturday at the Creighton Ball Diamond and chair of the leadership committee Margot Gray says it was another huge success.

"It went fantastik, we are really happy with how it went, we raised a lot of money. So far it is $87,000 and some change, we are expecting more to come in and we do have some bills to pay. We won''t have  a final total til next week."

The goal was to raise $89,200.00 and Gray says they are well on their way to doing that. A huge thank you to all the volunteers, businesses, food vendors and entire community for your overwhelming support.

The Northern Health Foundation and Doctor Chaitasi Intwala are presenting a Bollywood night at the Flin Flon Community Hall September 23^rd and 24^th.  It’s to raise money for the General Hospital emergency room redevelopment project.  Dr. Intwala says the theme this year is folk dancing from India with dancers of all ages.  She says they had a huge participation with lots of kids and adults coming out to volunteer as dancing participants and they have participants ranging in age from 5 to 50.

Dr. Inwala says there was so much interest in the show last year they are doing two shows this year.  Tickets are available at Northern Rainbow’s End on Main Street.

The Alpha course is starting a new session at the Flin Flon Alliance Church Tuesday evening.  Their Pastor Andrew McGregor says Alpha has a lot to offer.  He explains life is full of questions and it’s often difficult to find answers to those questions on your own.  He says the Alpha course provides an open environment to explore the big questions from a Christian perspective.  He adds each evening includes a meal, a video presentation and time for group participation to discuss their own questions and views on the subject and they encourage anyone who’s interested to come and try it out and ask anything.

Alpha begins Tuesday evening at six at the Alliance Church with a celebration supper so you can learn what it’s all about and runs for ten weeks. To register or for more information you can call the church at 204-687-8498.

The Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corp starts a new training year Monday evening.  Captain Daryl Wilkinson says there’s a three way responsibility with cadets and that is to create good citizens, physical fitness and interest in the armed forces.  He explains army cadets is a youth organization that offers adventure, some outdoor camping, navigation skills and physical fitness activities and is open for all youth from the age of 12 to 18 years of age.

  Wilkinson adds they also offer summer camp opportunities.

Any young people interested can drop in on their training Monday nights at 7 at the Flin Flon Community Hall.  If you have any questions you can call 306-688-7420 or 204-687-5878.

The Flin Flon Community Choir is starting a new season of rehearsals to prepare for upcoming musical events.  Director Crystal Kolt says this is the 20^th anniversary of the Community Choir and there will be three great choral opportunities for choir members.  She explains they have been invited to perform with Michael Gabriel at the Contact Showcase in October, then they’re performing with Jesse Peters for the Christmas concert at the end of November and then for people who are interested in heading back to New York they’re going to be performing in Carnegie Hall with Maestro Jonathan Griffith and gang in June so it’s going to be a banner year.

  Registration for the Community Choir will take place at 11 tomorrow morning at McIsaac School and she welcomes past and new members to attend including anyone interested in just trying it out to see if they like it.

The Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life gets underway tomorrow evening.  Committee Chair Margot Grey says they have 197 people walking in the Relay on 16 teams.  She invites everyone to come out and support the teams. She says if you’ve never been to one or if you’re not part of a team you are more than welcome to come out even if you can spare a few hours to help them set up, just to volunteer a bit of time or just have a look around if you don’t know what the Relay is like to peak your interest in the next one.

The teams have been fund raising and members will be taking turns walking the track at the Creighton Ball Diamond from 6 tomorrow evening until 6 Sunday morning reminding everyone that cancer never sleeps.  Those not walking will have a variety of activities to take part in all night.

The Recycling Center has been operating the red bag curbside pickup program since 2010. The sale of the red bags pays for the cost of the pickup service.

  When the program began pickups were every other Wednesday but to simplify it changes were made until in March of this year a six month pilot project began to provide curbside pickup in Flin Flon every Wednesday.  Administrator Deb Odegaard says it’s time to review the project. She says it ends September 30^th so they’re encouraging anyone who would plan to do it but haven’t started yet to get started so they can do a good assessment of where the project is actually going.  She add they expect that it will continue but with some modification depending on how much of an increase they see noting there has been some increase but they want to get a good sense by the end of this month.

Odegaard reminds you recyclables can also be dropped off at the Recycling Center at 9 Timber Lane or the trailer in the vacant lot by Canadian Tire.

 Northland Ford is sponsoring Drive One For Your Community today.  Salesperson Nikki McConnell says they will have vehicles you can test drive at their dealership today from 3 to 8. She says this year they are partnering with Flin Flon Creighton Minor Ball as well as the Flin Flon Creighton Slow Pitch League to raise funds to improve our ball fields.

There’s only one test drive per family and you must be 18 years or older with a valid drivers licence.  For each test drive Ford will donate 20 dollars to the fund raiser up to six thousand dollars.

The Alzheimer Society of Manitoba invites you to help them celebrate the 20^th anniversary of their coffee break fundraiser.  Their CEO Wendy Schettler says you can host a coffee break to help them.  She explains for a cup of coffee, tea, a glass of water or maybe even a glass of wine people will make a donation to the Alzheimer Society.  She says you can host any way you want just call the Alzheimer Society at 1-800-378-6699 or you can register your coffee break at www.alzheimer.mb.ca and they will send you out a kit.

Schettler adds you can also make a donation of five dollars if you have a cell phone by texting coffee to 45678.  Last year coffee breaks raised 69 thousand dollars in Manitoba and their goal this year is 70 thousand.

The Community Adult Learning Center has started their new season.  Coordinator Barry Hanrahan says they offer a continuum of learning from basic literacy to GED preparation.  He says the range of programs includes literacy, essential math skills, life skills instruction, computer literacy, apprenticeship requirement preparation and tutorial support when available.  He adds intake is continuous and learners attend an interview to establish wants, needs and goals.

The programs at the Center are free and they run from September to June from 8:30 to 4:30 Monday to Friday.  For information you can call 204-687-3223 or visit them on the lower level of the Co-op store.

The Flin Flon Fire Department is holding its annual fundraising Boot Drive tomorrow.  Fire Chief Jim Petrie says this year they are again supporting local charities.  He says last year they collected for the Lord’s Bounty Food Bank and the SPCA who each received 77 hundred dollars which was fantastic and this year they will be collecting for the Women’s Shelter and Habitat for Humanity.

  Petrie adds they will again be receiving support from Scotia Bank. The Boot Drive runs from 9 to 4:45 tomorrow on Third Avenue across from Mikes Ice and Burger.  Petrie says you don’t have to give but drive through carefully.

The Employment Links Development Center is beginning a new session of EWIN or Entry to Work in the North program in October.  The Center’s Barb Link explains they offer life skills, upgrades in your essential skills such as numeracy, reading and communications, computer work, thinking skills, working with others and they do certificate programs such as first aid, WHMS, CPR and safe foods as well as a six week job placement.

Link says you can come into their office at 51 Main Street for an information session tomorrow afternoon at 1:30 and for further information you can call them at 204-687-8791.

 Flin Flon Parks and Recreation is holding Registration Under One Roof tomorrow and Friday.  Recreation Programmer Caitlin Bailey says it’s a convenient way for people to register in one place.  She says people are going to find different organizations that are in the community either looking for volunteers or to register their children for upcoming programs.

  Bailey adds they have eleven organizations taking part this year.  Registration Under One Roof is open in the Flin Flon Community Hall from 4 to 8 pm tomorrow and Friday.

The Habitat 53° Chapter of Habitat for Humanity will soon be wrapping up the shopping season at their ReStore.  Since April they have been accepting donations of and selling building supplies, furniture, appliances and other gently used or unwanted items.  Store Manager Kathy McCormick says they’ve had a lot of people through their store this year which continued to raise the money needed to help build their first Habitat home in Flin Flon largely because of more awareness and starting in July they were open four days a week instead of just Friday and Saturday.  She adds in appreciation for the support from here and all surrounding communities they are going to have a big closing for the season make a reasonable offer sale for the next three weeks.

  The ReStore is located on the Armories lot next to Twin Motors.  It is open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 1 to 4 and Saturday from 10 to 3.  Their final day is Saturday, September 26^th.  Due to a pending change in ownership of the Armories lot Habitat will spend the winter seeking a new location and deciding on the future of the ReStore.

MLA Clarence Pettersen told the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce yesterday about his four years as MLA mentioning he has helped bring 150 million dollars to this constituency. He says that includes funding for hospital emergency room redevelopment, highway upgrades from Flin Flon to Bakers Narrows and Snow Lake to number ten highway due to upcoming use by up to 50 ore trucks per day and upgrades at Hapnot and Frontier Collegiates as well as many smaller Community Places grants. Pettersen says his next goal is seniors housing in Flin Flon, Snow Lake and Lynn Lake.  He says people want to stay in their community and he thinks that’s great.  He says when people stay in their communities they shop, they use facilities whether it’s curling or whatever and if we lose those people then our facilities are not used enough and we can’t get the grants so we need those people here.

Pettersen added there is also interest in improved provincial bus service to northern communities and a road from Lynn Lake to Flin Flon through Pukatawagan.

Culture Days are being celebrated September 25^th to 27^th.  Organizer Crystal Kolt says they’re up to 81 events. She says there’s going to be a whole bunch of activities for families at the Rotary Wheel on the Saturday while on the Friday there’s Culture’s Cool for Kids for all the pre-schoolers and families at St. Ann’s Church.  She says there’s going to be Yes I CanCan and the Itchin’ For Stitchin’ at the United Church for people who are interested in crafts and there’s going to be the popular Wild Rice concert and this time their calling it Wild Rice Roots celebrating how people got to Flin Flon.

Kolt adds there will be new events at the Hooter and Johnny’s, human books at the library and Bomber road hockey.  She says passports will be out soon and there’s a complete schedule at www.culturedays.ca.

Tomorrow is the first day of school in Flin Flon School Division.  Citizens on Patrol Program Chair Sinclair James warns drivers to watch your speed. He says they are going to be out in the school zones with their speedwatch board and letting motorists know the speed they’re traveling at so they can reduce their speed down to 30 kilometers per hour in all school zones in the Flin Flon area and hopefully they can bring awareness and keep kids safe on the streets this school year.

Citizens on Patrol will continue to use the Speed Watch sign around the community until October.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business says it’s getting tougher for employers to find new workers who measure up to their experienced employees.  A recent survey conducted by the Federation found that employers say that the work ethic of new hires had deteriorated in recent years.  The Foundation’s Elliot Sims explains right now according to CFIB’s help wanted reports there’s 12 thousand unfilled jobs in small businesses across Manitoba which is the equivalent of about 2.7 percent of the province’s entire labor force.  He says the problem is that many small businesses are simply finding difficulty in getting good quality applicants.

The study also showed that employers rate good employees as being more important than even their product or services when it comes to the success of their business.

The Many Faces Education and Adult Learning Center is preparing for the start of classes.  School Secretary Valerie Strom says on the morning of the 9^th they’re going to be having their registration, snacks and coffee starting at 9 AM and that’ll go until noon in the Many Faces office lounge area and the teachers will be there so students can discuss what they’re interested in and they can look at a timetable and fill out the registration form.  She says in the afternoon they’re starting their classes so in the first semester the afternoon classes are phy ed as well as basic hairstyling and hair cutting.

  You are asked to bring your Manitoba health card when you register.

  Many Faces is located at 115 Green Street behind Hapnot Collegiate.  For more information you can call the school at 204-687-6354.

Flin Flon School Division continues to add new facilities at Queen’s Park beside Hapnot Collegiate. School Superintendent Blaine Veitch says they have been developing their multi-use courts, landscaping and the fencing has been completed as well and so they’ll be laying down the new courts in the near future.  He explains they will be able to be used for basketball, volleyball, tennis, badminton and a variety of different activities and a liner can be installed for the winter so they can flood that area to make a skating rink if that is wanted by the school.

Veitch adds this is an exciting new addition to our school and the community.

 The Chairperson of the Flin Flon and District Environment Council LaVerne Hinzman wrote to City Council following up on a meeting held in May with the Council and Product Care Manitoba to discuss establishing a year round hazardous waste depot in Flin Flon. He says their Board urges Council to proceed with this project in a timely manner stating the current annual collection of hazardous materials does not meet the needs of the community.  The letter adds it is our fear that many of these hazardous materials are being released into the environment at the landfill and other unsuitable places.  The letter was referred to Engineering Services.

Council also received the Fire Chiefs report for August indicating 11 calls during the month largely bush fires and Council passed a resolution recognizing Queen Elizabeth who on September 9^th will become Britain’s longest reigning monarch.  She has been Queen since February of 1952.

The Flin Flon Station Museum has closed for the summer.  The Board’s Bunny Burke sys it was a busy summer as they made several changes.  She says they changed a lot of the displays, Hudbay added some new items and information to their archives and they did a lot of work out in the grounds as far as the big mining equipment goes moving things around and making things look a little better.  She says it was a big attraction and a lot of tourists this year with a lot of great comments.

              Burke adds they will continue to work on the museum over the winter and will have some new changes again for next spring.  She notes the Museum will be open for some events during Culture Days later this month.

The Manitoba Government has announced the purchase of 52 new replacement ambulances.  Northern Health Region Communications Coordinator Twyla Storey says four of those ambulances will come north to Flin Flon, The Pas, Easterville and Grand Rapids offering safety and comfort as the attendants can now be seating facing forward with the three point seatbelts and with additional controls that are now within easy reach.  She says as well components that are accessed more frequently have been moved.  She adds new to these ambulances is liquid suspension which provides a better ride quality for the patients over rough and gravel roads and an additional advantage with this suspension is that it allows the back of the ambulance to lower down so it makes it easier for the paramedic to load the stretcher.

Storey says the new ambulances are expected to be in service by the end of the year.

Solvista Gold Corporation has started a first phase drill program on the Talbot property.  The program is planned to include between 10 and 15 holes and will focus on four areas within and around the historic high grade copper-gold-zinc-silver Talbot Deposit which is part of its Snow Lake Project.  The objective is to discover within close proximity to the Talbot Deposit similar areas of high grade VMS mineralization.

Additionally the company submitted an application for financing through the Mineral Exploration Assistance Program sponsored by the Manitoba Government and received approval for approximately 160 thousand dollars in financing toward eligible expenditures at Talbot.  They anticipate the eligible expenditures will be incurred by the present drill program.

As we reported last week the North of 53 Consumers Co-op has decided to purchase the Armories lot on highway 10A next to Twin Motors for a new store.  At their meeting last night Flin Flon City Council passed a resolution for the signing of an agreement with the Co-op to begin the process of transferring the lot to the Co-op.  City Administrator Mark Kolt says the City which has a lease on the property will now purchase it from the province and then sell it to the Co-op at what it cost them to purchase it.

Council also passed a resolution to enter into an agreement with Northern Buslines to have them operate the municipal bus service until next September.  This could change if the Buslines sold their garage before that time.  The resolution also confirmed as they announced at their last meeting the city is no longer interested in purchasing the garage.

 Flin Flon Parks and Recreation will be holding an event called Registration Under One Roof September 10^th and 11^th. Recreation Director Caitlin Bailey says people interested in registering for events will be able to do it in one place. She says the idea is to make things easier for parents with children, those looking to get out and volunteer or participate in programs going on in Flin Flon and surrounding area to get signed up for all the fun upcoming events and programs.

All interested organization who wants to hold registrations at this event can contact the Recreation Office at 204-681-7542 by September 7^th.

The Flin Flon School Board held their first regular meeting of the new school year last night.  With a welcome back to staff and students the Board presented Gayle Yungwirth with a bouquet of flowers thanking her for her service of 18 years with the Division. Yungwirth has retired.

  In his report Superintendent Blaine Veitch announced that most of the work at Queen’s Park being done this year should be finished by mid-month.  This included the installation of multi-use courts, landscaping and student parking.  Ecole McIsaac School will benefit from funding from the Minister of Children and Youth Opportunities offering an after school arts enrichment program.  The Flin Flon Arts Council has received funds to support a guitar lesson program with George Trevor and Doug McGregor.  As well plans for the new year continue as new student orientation with Hapnot Student Council and the Sources of Strength Committee will take place Thursday at the school between 11 and 1:30. Regular classes for students begin Sepetember 9^th at 8:45 for Hapnot and 9 am for Ruth Betts and McIsaac.

 As we reported Friday members of the International Association of Machinists Local 1848 voted 71 percent in favor of a new three year contract with Hudbay.  Union President Rene Beachamp says over the 17 week strike their goal was to have a constructive dialogue over workplace issues important to their members.  He says last week they decided to give their members an opportunity to vote on the final offer received through the Federal Conciliator as the alternative was to break off negotiations for an undetermined period of time.  He says hopefully in the future this adversarial bargaining strategy will not be utilized adding if moving forward issues can be dealt with in a problem solving approach then further bargaining can be more productive with a different result.

Beauchamp adds a strike is a last resort and they thank the community for their support over the past 17 weeks.  Union members have started to return to work and the Company has 21 days to call them all back.

 The museum in Creighton is wrapping up its summer season this week.  Recreation Director Channa Senyk says the Royal Northwest Mounted Police Post Museum will close for the season on Friday and they had a great summer with a lot of visitors coming through and most of them were from the United States.

  Senyk adds if you still have a group interested in visiting the museum you can make arrangements by calling the Creighton Recreation Office at 306-688-3538.

 It’s back to school in Flin Flon School Division next week.  Superintendent Blaine Veitch says it will be a normal first day of classes on Wednesday the 9^th.  He explains Hapnot Collegiate will be opening at 8:45 and the two elementary schools Ruth Betts and McIsaac will start classes at 9 o’clock adding they are looking forward to the students being back.

  Anyone needing more information can contact your school office or the Division office.