Nickel Belt News
Volume 58 Number 11
Friday, March 16, 2018
Thompson, Manitoba
Serving the Norman Region since 1961
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
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Serving the Hub of the North since 1960
Volume 61 • Issue 21
Mayor and city manager field chamber questions about Thompson’s finances
Book a way to preserve and pass on memories of growing up in Churchill
BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
Mayor Colleen Smook and city manager Anthony McInnis fielded questions about property taxes, the city’s reserves, pothole repair and the water utility from Thompson Chamber of Commerce members May 19 after a brief presentation on the 2021 financial plan, which was passed by council May 10. One of the questions asked during the online meeting was how Thompson’s mill rates stack up against other communities of similar size. McInnis said chief financial officer Jenny Krentz compared Thompson’s mill rates with those in other communities around the province and that they are “quite competitive,” though there are factors that affect what that means for the city in terms of actual numbers. “Unlike a lot of communities that are a lot heavier on commercial properties, Thompson is mostly residential properties that bear the brunt of any sort of taxation burden,” said McInnis, as the city has 67 per cent residential properties, 27 per cent commercial properties and six per cent institutional properties. He also cautioned that mill rates aren’t always an oranges-to-oranges comparison point as some communities have low mill rates but many special levies for
everything from garbage collection to firefighting, while Thompson has only one special levy, with all other services funded by mill rates and external grants. The city manager also said that rumours of depleted reserves are untrue. “We drew down on our reserves this year $3 million, leaving us $14.6 million in all the city’s different reserves,” he said. The minimum balance required based onThompson’s operating budget is $6 million. Chamber president Dennis Green asked if the $8 million difference between the required minimum and what the city actually has is earmarked for anything in particular. “Basically in our last term of council and this one, reserves aren’t meant to be spent to their max usually,” said Smook. “They’re more or less saved unless you need it in case something comes up.” When it came to deciding whether to set aside money for infrastructure projects that could be largely paid for by federal-provincial grants that are still pending approval, McInnis said deferment wasn’t an option “We can’t say, ‘This is not a good year,’’ he explained. “It’s either this year or not. That was the dilemma council had to face.”
Mike Lawson said the budget should have done more to support local businesses that are struggling. “I sure would have liked to have seen more relief for our local businesses,” he said. Raj Thethy asked why potholes aren’t fixed properly the first time around. McInnis said the only option early in the road repair season is to cold patch the problem areas until a construction company with an asphalt plant comes to town. “The cold patch is typically not a long-lasting solution,” said the city manager. Thethy, who owns
Thompson Auto Wash, also had questions about the water and sewer utility, given the volume of water the business uses. “I’m starting to question the profitability of my business,” he said, asking if it was possible for larger uses of water to pay different rates than other customers. “The Public Utilities Board, to the best of my knowledge, doesn’t allow for differential rates,” said McInnis. “Everybody has to bear the same burden.” The city manager acknowledged that Thompson’s water rates have been rising quickly, attributing the need for bigger increases to a large number
of water breaks and also to the city having to build a new sewage treatment plant and take over the water treatment plant from Vale in the past couple of years. When asked why the city took over the water treatment plant if it is expensive to run, McInnis explained that under the 1956 agreement between Inco and the provincial government that established Thompson, the company (now Vale) could get rid of those assets at any time. “There are a number of things in there that are to Vale’s advantage. It was basically passed on to the city. The city had no choice.”
McInnis was also asked if the water utility could start issuing bills monthly so that residents would know quicker if they had leaks that needed fixing or if there was a possibility of establishing a system like those in some other cities, where customers can go online and see their consumption in real time. The city manager said the monthly billing idea is being looked at and that hopefully planned upgrades to the water meter billing software would make that possible. Systems that allow so-called smart monitoring of water usage are expensive, he said, but prices are starting to go down.
80 tickets, multiple licence suspensions handed out by Thompson RCMP during long weekend traffic enforcement blitz
Addictions Foundation of Manitoba northern director Gisele deMeulles has written a book about her experiences growing up, mostly in Churchill. BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
Though she’s now written Thompson RCMP issued a about her experien80book tickets and stopped seven ces growing in Churchill, alcoholor up drug-impaired Addictions drivers overFoundation the course of Manitoba director five days northern from May 20 to Gisele deMeulles said writMay 24, the last three days ing wasn’t she being the something Victoria Day always thought she would weekend. do.One-quarter of the tickets “In in myThompson youth I and never issued on felt good 6atand writing,” she Highway Provincial said. whenfor I moved Road “But 391 were speedto to get into ing,Thompson with the fastest speeder the school of 35 social work, clocked going kilometres at had the to write perthat hourpoint fasterI than postfor university realized, ed speed limit.and There were ‘Holy, nothanded bad atout this, also 20I’m tickets to right?’ certainly developed people Idriving unregistered a lot of skill university vehicles and in nine people and out of there witha finedcame for driving without a very stronglicence. skill in my valid driver’s writing confidence in Sevenandpeople were my writing. I write very stopped and either failed or clear and warnings that’s it. It’s received on there. roadSome people say it’s kind of blunt or direct. I don’t tend
to write things that you have to figure out. It’s pretty clear when I get through.” side screening devices for DeMeulles said she wrote drug or alcohol levels. Two her book, titledwith Whispers in were charged driving the Wind: Stories from the over the legal limit for blood North in Churchill for alcohol- Life content, including a couple reasons. one whoofwas stopped on “I justLake sort Road of thought, Mystery around you what, 9 p.m.know May 21 and this later hisprotory, this stuffsamples that’s inthat my vided breath head, over it’s going be legal gone were twicetothe if I don’t write it down,” limit of .08. Four othersshe resaid. “My kids are not susgoceived three-day licence ing to getincluding it if I don’t it pensions, twodo who and it’sroadside something I’ve alfailed screening ways wanted my Another mom to tests for cannabis. do. My mom’s an elder and received a seven-day licence she’s an artist, got soa suspension aftershe’s providing many wonderful stories beroadside screening device cause she her sample thatalways tested tells positive stories at Parks for cannabis and Canada cocaine.in Churchill and I’ve licence always Five learner’s houndedwere her, ‘Please, holders ticketed just for put it on without tape, I will it driving a write superfor youdriver because yourtickets story vising and four is going to be lost,’ and she’s never done it and I thought,
‘Oh, I’m just as bad, right?’ I have all these stories and Iwere need issued to capture for for them driving my grandchildren really while suspended. Three becauseeach they were will behanded lost if tickets I don’t.” out for not wearing seat She failing also hastoa reputation belts, produce a as a storyteller driver’s licenceherself. and unlaw“I had such a varied fully transporting liquorhisor tory and I would tell people cannabis. stories and they wouldMay go, One driver stopped ‘That’s true, isRoad it?’ I’dwas go, 23 on not Station ‘Yeah it’s true.’ They’d go, determined to be banned ‘You didn’t do for all that, did from driving life and you? You’ve got ato be really also carrying weapon old.’ I wasto like, ‘No, actually contrary a court order. IAnother did all driver that before I was was ticketed 27,’using and they went ‘What?’” for a cell phone and Looking back, observed some of a dirt bike rider those experiences things by police doing aare wheelie sheHighway might not6 do on wasagain. ticketed did some bizarre for“Idriving anpretty unregistered stuff like vehicle fuel hauls into the off-road and carehighdriving Arctic of at an -35,” said less off-road deMeulles. dawn vehicle and “It wasdidn’t also issued me until after. That was a aonserious offence notice. very dangerous thing to do. Being on a plane full of fuel
was not a very safe thing to do but I jumped at it. I thought that was exciting until the plane landed and they started throwing the fuel off and I realized, ‘Holy cats, I was probably sitting on a bomb.’” Another thing that spurred her on was the hard times facing Churchill since the Hudson Bay Railway suspended operations north of Gillam last spring. “It used to be a really thriving large community and it’s just dwindled down to such a small population now,” deMeulles says. Though she’s not there any longer, her parents and her sister and other family members still are. “My cousin owns the hardware store there,” she says. Because of that, deMeulles finds it hard to
Nickel Belt News photo by Ian Graham
swallow when people say that Churchill residents should just find somewhere easier to live. “To say, ‘Those people choose to live there. They should just leave,’ is quite simplistic. It’s quite disrespectful. If we were in the same boat in another area I think we would scream about that so why don’t they have the option to do that? I think right now they’re feeling like they’re pawns in a political game and that’s really sad for them because I think the people of Churchill really want to thrive. They’ve built their worlds there. How would we feel if someone came to you and said, ‘I’m sorry, you have to leave your home community and we’re going to displace you somewhere else and all your loved ones and your history is gone?’”
For all the harsh weather and the dangers of polar bears, deMeulles said if it had been viable she would have moved back to Churchill in a heartbeat. “I miss the shoreline, I miss the rock, I miss the polar bears even though they’re very dangerous and I really miss the Hudson Bay,” she says. “When I go back home, standing on the Hudson Bay looking out on the bay, it just gives you an incredible sense. You feel so small and you feel great.” Now that she’s got one book under her belt, deMeulles says she may try to produce another. “I have another book in me,” she says. “It’s a darker story, more about personal growth and struggles. Maybe in the next five years it’s something I’ll focus on doing.”