The Northern Neighbors Foundation is accepting applications for the Moffat Family funds that they receive each year.  This year they will have around 90 thousand dollars to grant to their communities that include Flin Flon, Creighton, Denare Beach, Snow Lake, Sherridon and Cranberry Portage.  Their Chairperson Jane Robillard explains there are applications online at Northern Neighbors Foundation and also the grant applications and grant guidelines are at our public library.  She adds grants are made to non-profit organizations that have a registered charitable number so it’s non-profit and it’s for organizations that demonstrate a strong and committed responsibility to the community.

The deadline for applications is February 15^th.

The Central Canada Film Group is presenting the film Look Who’s Back Friday night. The groups Colin Davis says you’ll be surprised to see who’s back asking what would you do if you were walking down the street in Berlin and were met face to face with Adolf Hitler.  He says you would probably think that it is a character actor doing some sort of performance piece but in this film it is actually him.  Davis explains the film has a brilliant story line but the fun part is that it also features several unscripted vignettes of the actor who is playing Hitler interacting with ordinary Germans while in character.  He adds how do you think the modern public would react to seeing Hitler in their towns, perhaps not as you would think.

Look Who’s Back will be shown Friday night at 7:30 in the Hapnot Collegiate Theatre and admission is free.

Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler has announced access to Manitoba’s winter road system is now available to a number of northern communities allowing for delivery of supplies.  13 of 23 communities that rely on winter roads now have access and it’s expected the remainder of the 24 hundred kilometer network will open in the next two weeks. The winter road connecting Pukatawagan to highway ten is expected to open this week.

Schuler says in a typical season more that 25 hundred shipments are delivered to a large number of isolated northern communities and the system also provides access for area residents. He adds approximately 10 million dollars will be spent this year to ensure our winter roads are suitable for delivery of essential goods to remote Manitoba communities.

For information on road conditions in the province visit www.manitoba511.ca or call 511.

A new session of the Read to Me Program is starting next week.  Coordinator April Eardley invites you to join the fun at the eight week family literacy program. She explains each day will focus on a theme that will include books, games, songs, crafts and snacks.  She says this is an opportunity for pre-school children ages 3 to 5 and their parents or other adult to create a brighter future by learning adding there’s no cost to participate and no limit on how many sessions you can attend.

The new session of Read to Me will run Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from 9 to 11:45 until the end of March at Ruth Betts Community School.  To register or for more information you can call April at 204-472-3939.

 A number of organizations in Flin Flon will be part of Bell Lets Talk Day tomorrow.  One of the organizers Ebony Trubiak says it’s a national campaign to help raise awareness about mental health.  She explains we know that mental health problems affect about one in five people each year and stigma is one of the biggest reasons why people that have mental health problems don’t get help and so this campaign promotes the need for people to start having conversations about mental health in our communities including our schools, our homes and our workplaces and to learn ways to help better support people.

Some of the Lets Talk Day events are planned at the Flin Flon Community Hall, local schools, the Public Library, the Aqua Center, Sal’s Fitness, the Orange Toad along with a wellness walk to Pharmasave.  Posters promoting events can be found around town.

 Watch recipeints   25 year safety

  Membership in Hudbay’s Quarter Century Club climbed to 3138 Friday night with the presentation of watches to 5 employees who have completed 25 years of continuous service with the Company.  Safety awards were presented to 18 employees with 25 years, 23 with 30 years, 6 with 35 years and 5 with 40 years without a lost time accident. Award recipients were congratulated by President Alan Hair who said while celebrating past achievements we can also look forward.  He said they are in a cyclable business, people understand that the commodities business has its ups and downs and what he’s very pleased to be able to say is that they have seen commodity prices improve, they have seen the Company’s position improve markedly in the last twelve months and he’s very pleased to see them again in a position where they can allocate significant resources back to exploration and exploration in the Flin Flon area and hopefully that will ensure that they are here to celebrate an event like this for many years in the future.

Also recognized were 82 employees who retired over the past year.

30 year safety  35 year safety

40 year safety

Flin Flon Fire Chief Chad Cooper is asking residents to help them out in emergencies.  He explains they are looking for the community’s help in clearing fire hydrants around the community.  He notes their fire engines carry only five minutes of water supply without being supplied by a fire hydrant so please ensure that fire hydrants on your street are clear of snow and visible from the street and it’ll save valuable time for fire crews if they have to respond to an emergency at your house.

Cooper adds your help will ensure fire crews are able to find and use the hydrants providing valuable seconds that could save your or a loved ones life.

Operation Christmas Child reports Canadians packed just over 615 thousand shoeboxes with toys, hygiene items, school supplies and many other items during their 2017 shoe box campaign.  As we reported in November local coordinator Pastor Jim Galbraith of the Baptist Church advised 256 shoe boxes were collected in the Flin Flon area during the local campaign.

Distribution of the shoeboxes in the developing world has already begun.  During the next few weeks children in Haiti, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Chile, Nicaragua, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Gambia and Ukraine will be receiving shoe boxes packed by caring Canadians.

Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected and hand delivered more than 150 million gift filled shoeboxes to children in over 130 countries hurt by war, poverty, natural disaster, disease and famine.

Creighton RCMP received a complaint Wednesday of a youth who had allegedly made threats against a school as well as an individual.  As a result of this complaint members located and arrested a 17 year old male youth in Creighton.  He has been charged with two counts of uttering threats.

The youth appeared in Creighton Provincial Court today and is scheduled to appear in court on February 13^th in Creighton.  No one was injured as a result of this incident and no weapons were seized.

The Lions Journey for Sight is a snowmobile ride that left Flin Flon last Wednesday finishing in Brandon Saturday.  It is held to raise money for the Lions Eye Bank of Manitoba and Northwest Ontario.  Committee Chair Brad Henderson says they were able to ride at least half the way but they ran out of snow at Grandview and then were able to ride a little bit from Onanole to Erickson but the rest of the time they had to trailer which was a little disappointing but over all it was a great time had by all.

Henderson says 18 snowmobiles from across the province wrapped up the ride in Brandon on Saturday.  He says so far just over 31 thousand dollars has been turned in with money still coming in from pledges made to the riders and from their snowmobile draw.  When all the money came in last year the Journey had raised close to 73 thousand dollars for the Eye Bank.

The Creighton Community School Community Council is hosting a family dance Tuesday night.  School Coordinator Carol Sutherland invites you to dress up and attend.  She explains this year’s theme is Dancing Through The Decades for the annual family dance that’ll be held January 30^th from 6 to 9 in the Creighton Community School gym.  She invites you to come dressed in your favorite dance era adding this is a free dance for families with door prizes and free snacks and all children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian so join them and dance the night away to Amisk Sounds.

Transportation from Denare Beach will be provided with pick ups at the Band Office at 5:20 and at the Alpine at 5:30 with a return run at 8:45.

  Hapnot Collegiate is nearing the end of their first semester.  Principal Brent Bedford explains Tuesday, January 30^th is the first day of exams and they go right through to Thursday, Friday is a semester turn around where they get ready for semester two and that starts on Monday, February 5^th with a brief home room at 8:45.

Bedford adds during exam week any new students and students wishing to change their semester two timetable can do so next week in the office or with the Career Guidance Department.

A Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is being celebrated next week.  Salvation Army Major Debbie Allen says it’s a chance to join together with people from different congregations.  She says the idea is for the Christian community to meet together to pray for each other and Christians around the world.  She adds in Flin Flon they have a series of six meetings beginning on Sunday with the service at the First Baptist church and each night that week there’s a service at a different church all at 7 o’clock except for Tuesday evening which is at the Lutheran Church and it starts at 7:30.

Services will be held next week starting Sunday at the Baptist Church, Monday St. Ann’s Church, Tuesday the Lutheran Church, Wednesday the Cornerstone Church, Thursday the Salvation Army and Friday the Alliance Church.

 Kids First North is holding a clothing give away tomorrow open to anyone needing them.  Their Supervisor Shelly Vancoughnett says they have received generous donations of items.  She explains they have some toys, shoes, coats, boots, household items, some pots, pans, plastic containers, knickknacks, about everything you could possibly think of and they have been generously donated from community members and so they are giving back and you can come and browse through and take home whatever you would like.

The clothing give away runs from 10 to 4 tomorrow at the Kids First board room at 430 Main Street in Creighton and all items are free.

  A group of grade nine students at Hapnot Collegiate is taking part in a 20 Time Project and want to share their ideas with you.  Teacher Daniel Dillon explains they have 20 students taking part and a 20 time project is an independent project where certain students get to pick what they want to learn about and they blend in what they’re learning in the curriculum to whatever they’re interested in their own lives.  He says they have a variety of topics this year one about fighting childhood cancer, another one is about building a steady cam, another about the impact of screen time with teens and they also have ones about health and wanting to write a book.

Dillon adds the students get one hour once a week usually on a Friday to work on this project. Anyone in the community interested can attend the presentation Friday evening from 6 to 8 in the Hapnot Collegiate theatre.

Around 6:20 Monday evening the RCMP received a report of an assault on an employee at a business on Hapnot Street in Flin Flon.  When the officers arrived they found a female employee who had been sprayed in the face with a fire extinguisher by a man who was stealing a bottle of liquor.  As the officers were speaking to the victim a new report came in from a nearby business on Main Street.  A female employee there was also sprayed in the face with a fire extinguisher by a man who was stealing cigarettes.  Both victims were not injured.

The investigation led officers to a residence in Flin Flon that same evening where a 19 year old man from Denare Beach was arrested.  He is charged with two counts of robbery, mischief, theft under five thousand dollars, two counts of assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and six counts of failing to comply with probation.  He remains in custody.

At their meeting yesterday the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce heard from Alan McLauchlan the Northern Manitoba Tourism Consultant for Tourism Manitoba.  He explained his role is to help roll out the Northern Tourism Strategy to assist communities and entrepreneurs increase tourism spending in the north and to get people excited about tourism and get all of us, right from the person that pumps your gas right up to the Mayor and Council to get out mind set changed that tourism is really an important part of our communities and if you don’t think that tourism affects you, really it affects all of us so its important that we do get that mind set changed.

McLauchlan adds we need to answer the question why should people come to Flin Flon so we should be looking for things you can only do in Flin Flon and get the word out there so people will come here for that experience.  He adds to help with this Travel Manitoba will soon be initiating a place brand program which will give the community the chance to develop a brand focusing on what the community has to offer and use it in promotions as we see fit.

You and your family are invited to be part of Family Literacy Day Friday.  Library Administrator Courtney Campbell says they are teaming up with the Read to Me Program for the event. She says they’re having some special guest readers come in, they’re doing crafts, they’re having a snack and then they can play.  She adds its just an opportunity for the families to get together and learn about literacy and maybe in different ways than they would normally expect it to be as its more than just numbers and letters, literacy is really about functioning in the world and teaching your child to look critically at different things.

The Family Literacy Day celebration runs from 10:30 to 11:30 Friday morning at the Flin Flon Public Library.  To register or for more information you can call the Library at 204-687-3397.

  Far Resources has started a new phase of diamond core drilling at its Zoro Lithium Property near Snow Lake.  The Company has received a drill and work permit from the Office of Manitoba Sustainable Development and has mobilized a drill to the property.

Far Resources President and CEO Keith Anderson says the start of their helicopter assisted drilling at  Zoro marks the beginning of their ongoing program to assess the deeper portions of Dyke 1 and high grade Dykes 2 through 7. He adds deep drilling returned the widest intercepts of spodumene in Dyke 1 which they will attempt to confirm with this program and they are also excited about the lithium potential of high grade dikes 2 through 7 where no recent drilling has been undertaken.  Anderson concludes they are looking forward to this next phase in their program on Zoro adding they are funded and ready to take this further as results warrant.

Flin Flon RCMP received a report of a break in to a business Saturday morning. The break in at Scorpio Bearing occurred sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning.  Nothing was stolen but damage was caused inside the business including fire extinguishers being set off.  The RCMP remind business owners that alarms and video equipment can be a deterrent to this kind of activity.

School Bands will get together tomorrow night for a junior high winter band concert.  Band Director Anna Harrison says it will feature the grade six to eight band students from Ruth Betts and McIsaac Schools. She says they are featuring songs that are by kind of famous composers, some Beethovan, some Dvorak, some of the older stuff and they had a really good time learning about music history this term so it’ll be a really good concert.

The band concert starts at 7 tomorrow night at Ecole McIsaac School with a silver collection as admission.

This week is the 9^th annual Red Tape Awareness Week Sponsored by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.  Their Provincial Affairs Director Jonathan Alward says they are challenging all levels of government to commit to tackling the burden that red tape places on small business.  He explains red tape really translates to lost time filling out unnecessary forms or trying to find confusing information or getting poor customer service and it really wastes employer’s time and energy that can be better spent running their business and growing their business.  He adds they’ve been really pleased here in Manitoba as the provincial government here really takes this on as a priority issue and they made a huge amount of progress in a short amount of time.

Information on red tape is available on their website www.cfib.ca/redtape including the Paperweight Awards for the worst over the top regulations, the cost of regulations and red tape to Canadian businesses and the Red Tape report card.

 Rockcliff Metals Corporation has filed an updated inferred resource estimate for their high grade Talbot Deposit near Snow Lake.  The report shows inferred resources of just over 4.2 million tonnes at 1.6 percent copper, 1.8 grams per tonne gold, 1.4 percent zinc and 28 grams per tonne silver.

The Talbot Copper Deposit is located on the Talbot Property which is part of the Company’s Manitoba property portfolio within the Flin Flon Snow Lake greenstone belt.  They note the Deposit is defined as a stratabound gold rich VMS copper deposit with the polymetalic mineralization remaining open in all directions.  They add bore hole and geophysical surveys immediately outside of the know limits of the Talbot Copper Deposit Resource have identified large conductive plates that could represent additional areas with VMS mineralization.

At last weeks meeting the Creighton School board reported Minister of Education Bronwyne Eyre informed Board Chair Ray Biberdorf that the recent review of school division boundaries across the province has determined that the Division will remain in its present structure.  The local message was very supportive of leaving the status quo and the government has listened to this feedback.

Athletic Director Jennifer Johnsgaard reported so far this year Creighton School has hosted four tournaments and have two upcoming tournaments planned and there have been seventeen coaches and multiple athlete helpers involved in the athletics program. This spring the school will be offering a junior high badminton program and both a junior and senior track and field program.  The total overall percentage of 60% of their grade 7-12 students have participated in sport so far this year. Physical Education Teacher Ian Clark applied for and received a learning opportunities program grant that will provide funds for outdoor education activities.

The Board also announced that the Director of Education, Blaine Veitch will continue in this role through to July 2019.

The Pas and District Chamber of Commerce held their annual general meeting on Wednesday night at the Rotary Room at the Sam Waller Museum.

Some of the items on the agenda included the financial report and resolutions to take to the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce. Some of these resolutions include a feasibility study on bringing natural gas to the North, putting rest stops and garbage cans at highway intervals, ending daylight saving time in Manitoba, a past resolution called “creation of an interprovincial highway and having improved hydro rates for Northern Businesses.

Hudbay reports on a consolidated basis their copper production exceeded 2017 guidance and production of zinc and precious metals were within 2017 guidance ranges.

In Manitoba mine development at Lalor near Snow Lake is now adjacent to the gold zones and a recent batch sample of gold ore sent to the Flin Flon Concentrator realized favorable gold recoveries of more than 60 percent.  Planned capital expenditures in Manitoba include continued drilling of the gold and copper gold zones at Lalor.   

Combined unit costs for Manitoba are forecast to be higher than 2017 guidance due mainly to reduced ore production at Triple Seven in Flin Flon, the cessation of the capitalization of development costs at Reed near Flin Flon as it approaches the end of its mine life and costs for trucking ore from Lalor to the Flin Flon concentrator for processing in lieu of capital expenditures on expanding the Stall concentrator.

              Their exploration budget is 50 million dollars focused on exploration near existing infrastructure in Manitoba and Peru as well as grassroots exploration properties in Chile and British Columbia.

MP Niki Ashton says in regions like our north there is an ongoing issue with high rates of unemployment in many Indigenous communities.  She adds there are major job losses in urban communities such as Thompson with the future prospect of the loss of jobs in Flin Flon, traditional industries such as fishing have been hard hit by the end of the single desk Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation and even the strategically critical Hudson Bay rail line and Port of Churchill have been shut down. She says the response from governments has been one of negligence at best.

Ashton adds as she looks ahead to 2018 it is clear the economy is going to be critical and she will be speaking out calling for action in our region as much of the wealth of this country comes from regions like our north and increasingly we are seeing less of it benefiting those of us who live in our area.  She is calling for an economic strategy and action to reverse job losses, support our traditional industries and create new jobs for young people today and for future generations.

Chamber President Chuck Davidson with Minister Navdeep Bains

The Manitoba Chamber of Commerce held a special lunch gathering recently at the Metropolitan Entertainment Centre in Winnipeg where Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Navdeep Bains answered questions regarding the future of Churchill and the closed rail line as well as tech, and trade in front of business leaders, Northern Representatives, and technology stake holders.

According to a news letter, Bains is hopeful that a resolution can be found with the current owners of the rail line to Churchill and he hopes that rail service will be brought back this year.

Bains also answered questions about how Manitoba fits into the government’s innovation agenda, the government’s arctic strategy, and how the federal government views Northern Manitoba, stating that the government sees the North as “Critical to Canada.”

 Nominations are being accepted until January 26^th for the Manitoba School Boards Association Student Citizenship Awards.  Their Associate Director Heather Demetrioff says nominations are made by school boards and are open to all public school students kindergarten to grade 12. She explains they are intended to recognize students service to their school and the broader community, things like involvement in fund raising activities for social justice causes, activities on student council, activities in the broader community and sometimes those are church based and sometimes they’re dealing with helping out seniors or young kids, basically all of those character and citizenship building activities that we know so many of our students are involved in.

Demetrioff adds an award is given to a student in each of the Association’s six geographic areas and one provincial award for a student group.  She says the award includes a certificate and 500 dollars while students nominated but not selected receive a certificate and 100 dollars.  Several Flin Flon students have won this region’s award in the past.

At the City Council meeting Tuesday night Councilor Karen MacKinnon asked people to watch for information coming soon on the Flin Flon Rocks Facebook page.  It will offer a trip for four to Flin Flon as part of the promotion for the first Blueberry Jam Music Gathering being held at the Flin Flon campground August 10^th to 12th.  The new three day festival is designed for musicians and music lovers to enjoy Flin Flon and join other musicians from across the country to share their music.  MacKinnon says the trip includes a Calm Air flight from Winnipeg, a stay at the Victoria Inn, a visit to Camp Whitney and attending the Festival totaling 15 thousand dollars. Rules will be published soon and you’ll have to visit the Flin Flon Rocks Facebook page and like and share it to enter with the winner to be announced at a Council meeting in April.

At the meeting Council also received several requests for funding approving two of them, 500 dollars for the Flin Flon Junior Bombers 2018 Hockey Night in the North Free Skate and 400 dollars for the Flin Flon Skating Club to purchase ads in their programs for the 2018 Norman Regional Starskate and Funskate Competition.

The Salvation Army has reported it raised 23.1 million dollars nationally through its Christmas Kettle Campaign.  This is the second highest total ever raised by the organization during the holiday season and will help the Salvation Army feed, clothe, shelter and empower vulnerable people in 400 communities across Canada.

As we reported earlier the Salvation Army in Flin Flon raised 15, 872 dollars for their 134 Christmas Hampers, their Soup Days and other things they do in the community.

Territorial Secretary for Public Relations and Development Major John Murray says they are grateful to donors, dedicated volunteers and supportive partners for making this campaign a success.  He says last year they helped over 1.9 million people and he expects that number to increase this year.

At their meeting last night Council passed on first reading a bylaw dealing with fire inspections. Councilor Ken Pawlachuk says there are electrical contractors available to inspect wiring in homes and recommend work that has to be done.  This bylaw sets rates for these inspections as well as for fire inspections by the Fire Chief and also requires that smoke detectors be installed in all multi-family dwellings.  Mayor Cal Huntley noted this is in reaction to recent fire issues adding there are many older homes in this community in which the wiring requires upgrading.

Council also approved the agreement between the City and members of CUPE Local 228 covering the employees from February 1^st, 2017 to January 31^st, 2020.  Mayor Huntley noted negotiations were delayed due to staff changes at CUPE but once started they went very well.

Councilor Karen MacKinnon urged people to come out and support the Flin Flon Trout Festival Committee with putting together the Festival that runs from June 29^th to July 1^st.  Their next meeting is February 1^st at 7 pm in City Council Chambers.

The Central Canada Film Groups Colin Davis says they are presenting the film Their Finest at the Hapnot Theatre tomorrow night.  He explains the film takes place in London during the Battle of Britain and the London blitz.  A film team working for the British Ministry of Information is making a morale boosting film about the Dunkirk evacuation.  He says the film follows Catrin Cole, a young script writer who goes to work for the Ministry and the filming of their feature which may not be the complete truth telling documentary that the Ministry has commissioned.

Davis adds if you have any fascination for World War Two, the Dunkirk evacuation or what life was like during these times you’ll want to come by the Hapnot Collegiate Theatre tomorrow night at 7:30 and because this is a film from the Toronto International Film Festival admission will be ten dollars.

Operation Red Nose reports for 23 years they have helped Manitobans and their vehicles get home safely over the holidays.  During the 2017 holiday season 2489 volunteers gave 4449 rides in ten communities across Manitoba raising over 95 thousand dollars for a variety of organizations in the province.

As we reported earlier this month in the Flin Flon area the Rotary Club’s Operation Red Nose provided 273 rides with 148 volunteers raising 4353 dollars in donations from rides and with other fund raising that total reached 13 thousand dollars to donate to local youth sports and other activities.

The President of Safety Services Manitoba Judy Murphy thanked everyone who volunteered or used the service making this year’s campaign another huge success.  The largest number of rides was in Winnipeg with 1522. The Pas had 382 and Thompson 380.

SAFE Work Manitoba is holding three prevention workshops that provide education to safety and health committee members, workers and supervisors.  Their Chief Operating Officer Jamie Hall says they will be held January 30^th, 31^st and February 1^st and the first one is Safe Committee Basics so it really talks about the requirements for Safe Work Health Committees in organizations that have more than 20 employees.  The second one is Investigating Workplace Incidents just to make sure that when an unfortunate incident does occur there’s a lot of good learning that takes place to prevent it from happening again and the last one is Harassment and Violence Prevention certainly a timely topic these days but giving companies the opportunity to have a prevention program in place for harassment and violence and learn about a good program to prevent those kinds of incidents would look like.

The Workshops will run from 8:30 to 4 at the University College of the North at 4 Hart Avenue and you can register at www.safemanitoba.com/education or call 1-855-957-7233.

  Manitoba Municipal Relations Minister Jeff Wharton met with community and local business leaders in Flin Flon Sunday afternoon.  A Northern Steering Committee was announced to help co-ordinate and oversee the next steps and implementation of the Look North Report and Action Plan for Manitoba’s Northern Economy.  In making the announcement Wharton said Look North represents the beginning of a northern inspired movement to promote economic growth and change.  The Committee includes members for each priority area identified in the action plan including Flin Flon’s Becky Cianflone General Manager of Community Futures Greenstone who is the lead in the enterprise area.  The Minister also noted work continues to advance a new mineral development protocol with First Nations as part of the Look North Initiative with an engagement session today in Winnipeg to build on the emerging themes and tools identified to date and development of a mutually agreed upon process for Crown – Aboriginal consultation during all phases of mineral development.

The Lions Journey for Sight starts in Flin Flon Wednesday morning from the Victoria Inn.  The Journey is the annual fundraiser for the Lions Eye Bank of Manitoba and Northwest Ontario.  One of the organizers Dean Lounsbury from the Dauphin Lions Club says snowmobiles from across the province will leave from Flin Flon Wednesday and as usual their ride the first day will take them from Flin Flon to Cranberry Portage for dinner with the day concluding in The Pas.  The says day two will start in The Pas and again visiting some of the locations along the route to Swan River which will be the conclusion of day number two and then from Swan River they split with a couple of guys going down 83 and the rest through Dauphin.

The snowmobilers will be joined by others from across the province as they wrap up in Brandon Saturday afternoon.  The Journey for Sight raised just under 65 thousand dollars for the Eye Bank last year.

  Flin Flon Parks and Recreation will be part of Bell Lets Talk Day January 31^st.  Recreation Director Caitlin Bailey says there will be quite a few events around town but gives details on their event at 1 pm at the Flin Flon Community Hall.  She says Katie Kozak is going to teach a chair yoga class so it’s a gentle yoga class anybody from all abilities and spectrums is welcome to come anf they’re also going to do coffee and tea and Doug and Ann are going to do a performance.

Further details on all the events taking place on Bell Lets Talk Day January 31^st will be released as they become available.

The Manitoba Historical Society is accepting nominations for the Lieutenant Governor’s Award.  The award recognizes people interested in the preservation and promotion of the province’s history.  The Society’s Gordon Goldsborough says nominations are open to anyone.  He explains the award is intended primarily for people serving in the promotion of Manitoba’s history, so pretty much anyone who’s done things like writing books, various art projects, running museums, anything that has an aspect of preserving and promoting Manitoba’s history would qualify.

Nomination forms and more information are available on the websites of the Manitoba Historical Society www.mhs.mb.ca or the Lieutenant Governor at www.manitobalg.ca.  The deadline is February 28^th.

  At their meeting Tuesday the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce heard from Gorden Glenn President and CEO of Minnova Corporation.  The Canadian gold producer is focused on restarting and expanding the resources of the PL Mine, formerly Puffy Lake Mine near Sherridon toward achieving initial production in early 2019 producing 230 thousand ounces of gold and offering 110 to 120 direct employment opportunities including First Nations opportunities.  Glenn says it will have an impact on Flin Flon as Flin Flon is where all the miners are, Flin Flon is where all the service providers are, so its going to have an impact on Flin Flon for sure.  He says they’ve got a railway going right to the mine so in theory he can accommodate commuting via rail, get his own rail car or bus that’s reconfigured for railway lines and pull people from Pukatawagan, Flin Flon, the Pas and rail people to the site.

Glenn adds the five year projected minimum mine life is based on reserves but could turn out to be ten or more years with near surface expansion potential.

Youth Alpha is again being offered by the Alliance Church.  One of the organizers Kayla Kemp says the course provides youth with interactive sessions exploring the Christian faith.  She explains it’s a 12 episode series designed to engage young people in conversations about faith and life and how that all comes together.  She adds it will run for nine weeks and each session is filled with games, food, music, video clips and great discussion.  She notes Alpha is for anyone no matter which background, religion or viewpoint and all youth ages 11 to 18 are welcome, its free to attend and it’s a really great way for the youth to explore faith in a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere as well as getting to know youth their age.

The Youth Alpha course starts next Thursday night, January 18^th with a supper at 6 pm at the Alliance Church.  For information you can call Kayla at 204-271-5357 or check Facebook at ffyouthalpha.

There are still openings as a session of Read to Me continues this month.  Coordinator April Eardley invited you to join the fun at the eight week family literacy program. She explains each day will focus on a theme that will include books, games, songs, crafts and snacks.  She says this is an opportunity for pre-school children ages 3 to 5 and their parents or other adult to create a brighter future by learning adding there’s no cost to participate and no limit on how many sessions you can attend.

Read to Me runs Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from 9 to 11:45 until the end of this month with a new session beginning in February.  To register or for more information you can call April at 204-472-3939.

Rockcliff Metals Corporation has completed the first phase ten hole step out drill program totaling 3250 meters on the Company’s Bur Zinc Property in the Snow Lake Mining Camp.  The drilling showed 7.2 percent zinc equivalent across 4.9 meters including 10.9 percent across 2.9 meters.

Rockcliff President Ken Lapierre says the program was successful in identifying significant VMS mineralization adjacent to and southwest of the known limits of the historical Bur zinc deposit.  He adds each drill hole intersected what is termed the Bur VMS horizon which is a potential 8 thousand meters long mineralized horizon that hosts the original Bur zinc deposit adding the potential to identify additional resources along this important horizon is considered excellent and will be the focus of upcoming drill programs on the property.

The first baby born at Flin Flon General Hospital in 2018 waited until the fourth day of the year to arrive.  Lorenzo Angus Custer was born at 3:24 Thursday afternoon.  His mother is Ocean Custer from Pelican Narrows, Saskatchewan.

The Norva Centre is featuring a display by artist Joseph Reyes all this month.  Centre Manager Mike Spencer says the display is titled Fever Dreams and it’s a really interesting exhibition of pen and ink drawings that feature a sort of Canadian iconography and a very graphic almost comic book or tattoo sore of style drawings and the images are extremely intricate and really have to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.

Spencer adds the display is supported by the Flin Flon Neighborhood Revitalization Corporation and the Manitoba Arts Network.  It is open at the Norva Centre Tuesday to Friday from 10 to 5 and Saturday from 12 to 4.

The year end totals are in for last year at the Flin Flon Recycling Center.  Administrator Deb Odegaard says it was another successful year. She explains they bailed about 463 metric tonnes of material which is 21 tonnes more than last year adding the year before they were higher but they’re still 3 ahead of even 2015 so that’s good news as it’s the third highest tonnage in their history.  She adds they also recycled 30 metric tonnes of electronics and 409 kilograms of batteries and they’ve been shipping out quite a few fluorescent bulbs but she forgot to keep track of those so hopefully next year they’ll have exact numbers on that.

For information on recycling you can contact the Recycling Center at 204-687-6169 or visit their website www.flinflonrecycling.org.

  Manitoba RCMP wrapped up their Holiday Checkstop Program on Monday.  During the program that ran through December and January 1^st 8,333 vehicles were checked during 176 checkstops. Among other offences 117 people were charged with a criminal code impaired driving offence and 2153 traffic related charges were laid with the majority for speeding and seatbelt offences.

Last year 11,781 vehicles were checked during 250 checkstops with 122 people charged with a criminal code impaired driving offence and 2633 traffic related charges were laid with the majority for speeding and seatbelt offences.  This year there was one traffic related fatality during the holiday season down from six last year.

Flin Flon School Division will again be running their Kindervention program starting next month. Assistant Superintendent Tammy Ballantyne explains it prepares four year olds for school. She says it would get them familiar with the school setting they’re going to be attending for kindergarten and teach them some school readiness skills.

Ballantyne adds information meetings are being held for parents with the first one on January 9^th in the Family Room at Ruth Betts Community School starting at 2:30 and then on January 10^th at 7 pm in the Library at Ecole McIsaac School.

If you are unable to attend either information session you can contact the school within your catchment area to register your child. The registration deadline is Friday, January 12^th.

Karen Clark and Jan Modler are again offering a Paint Night at the Norva Centre January 19^th.  Centre Manager Mike Spencer explains this is a repeat of their very popular Poppy Paint Night that they did in the fall so Karen and Jan will be at it again and it’s a paint night that features painting with a palette knife so its painting with knives and that is January 19^th from 7 to 11 and its 55 dollars.

To register for the Paint Night you can drop into the Norva Centre at 177 Green Street, call them at 204-687-4237 or email norvacentre@gmail.com.

 Creighton Recreation is sponsoring Skate for Paws Sunday afternoon.  Recreation Director Channa Senyk explains they are partnering with the Flin Flon Creighton and Area SPCA in offering a Skate for Paws.  She invites you to bring a donation for the SPCA which is looking for Mr. Clean, Javex, dog food, cat food, paper towels, they need lots of different items and this is a great time to be able to donate.

Senyk adds Skate for Paws runs from 2 to 4 Sunday afternoon at the Creighton Sportex.

Between December 24^th and January 1^st Saskatchewan RCMP conducted targeted enforcement throughout  the province to find impaired drivers.  During that time 21 people were charged with impaired operation of a motor vehicle down from 29 during the same period last year.  No people refused a breath sample compared to 3 who refused last year and 8 people received an alcohol related roadside suspension this year down from 14 last year.

Saskatchewan RCMP note while these number are an improvement over last year they remind you that even one impaired driver is too many and encourage everyone to plan a safe ride home no matter what time of year it is.

Operation Red Nose has wrapped up another holiday season of getting people and their vehicles home safely.  The Rotary Club’s Committee Chair Ted Hewitt says the program was a success with a total of 273 rides which was close to last year’s total.  He adds donations also went well.  He reports even though Operation Red Nose is operated as a free service those using the service donated a total of about 44 hundred dollars so with their other sources of income they expect to have a total of about 13 thousand dollars to donate this year for children’s activities preferably in organized sports.  They invite those groups in the community that are involved with organized sports or children’s activities to send them requests and they’ll review them.

Hewitt says in the past they have supported most of the parks, a new soccer field, the skateboard park, Camp Whitney as well as most of the groups that provide sports for children.  He adds the program could not operate without volunteers noting they had 148 volunteers this year.

At their meeting last night Flin Flon City Council praised city employees for keeping the water flowing.  Around 2 o’clock last Friday morning the power went out for around 600 resident of Flin Flon for about four hours.  Because of the outage the city’s water pumps went down stopping water circulation for the city from the Gas Bar west including Uptown, South Hudson and Ross Lake areas.  Without the water circulating in around minus 40 weather there is a very high risk of water lines freezing. Councilor Ken Pawlachuk applauded the fast action by city employees in getting the back up pumps going to keep the water flowing before the lines froze.

Council also received the Fire Chiefs report for December indicating three incidents during the month which is the same a December of 2016.

Operation Red Nose completed its final nights of getting people and their vehicles home safely December 29^th and New Years Eve.  The Rotary Club’s Committee Chair Ted Hewitt says they had a successful weekend.  He reports over the weekend Friday evening and New Years Eve Operation Red Nose provided a total of 53 rides of which 43 came on New Years Eve. He adds it was a busy evening and volunteers from throughout the community provided the workers and they thank them all.  Hewitt notes compared to the previous days which were very cold New Years Eve was almost pleasant so everybody enjoyed themselves.

We’ll wrap up the full season for Operation Red Nose on tomorrow’s news.

  Rumors have been circulating about Hudbay extending the life of the Triple Seven Mine in Flin Flon from 2020 to 2030. A Hudbay spokesperson Daniel Weinerman has stated that rumor is untrue.  He says Hudbay is continuing to evaluate options to extend the life of Triple Seven Mine including the possibility of mining remnants currently assumed to be uneconomic, with a smaller workforce.  However he stated these efforts are ongoing and there is no certainty that Triple Seven’s mine life can be extended beyond 2020.

  The Christmas Gift Program run by the Flin Flon Friendship Center went well again this year.  The program allows parents to give their children a gift at Christmas when circumstances prevent them from doing so.  The Center’s Program Events Coordinator Jolene Gardiner says donations and gift pick up ran well. She explains the numbers were down a little bit this year compared to last year but they still had over 120 families come in and pick up gifts for a various amount of children so they did very well and it was well received.  She adds they community was very generous and it is always a well received program so they always have lots of donations coming in which is great for the community.

This was the 24^th year for the Christmas Gift Program.

The Lords Bounty Food Bank is at its new location in the former St. Marys Church at 2 Hiawatha across from Ruth Betts School.  Their Food Distribution Chair Dennis Hydamaka says this caused some confusion over the Christmas season noting they were down about 80 clients from last year but they did pick up 8 new ones and they handed out 10 hampers which included a full turkey dinner and each of their clients received a gift certificate and the families received what they called a movie pack which included a DVD and treats to sit and watch the movie with.

Hydamaka adds they received a considerable amount of food from various locations so their cupboards are quite healthy right now.