Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 13, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Floor with Many Homes now Worth less than half of what they were just a decade ago. Unfortunately the collapse of the housing Market has been accompanied by a cruel irony a skyrocketing property taxes. A major reason behind the escalating property taxes has been the Cost of keeping the elementary and High schools open As class sizes shrink. Garry Hanna Pinawa a town administrator said anxiety Over the towns Fate is fuelling speculation the schools will be mothballed and children will be turned Over to a neighbouring school division. Numerous recreational and cultural facilities May also be closed. Peter Siemens executive director of the economic development authority of White Shell said the town has become trapped Between the apprehension of privatization and the Promise of a better future. Siemens said the town itself requires massive reconfiguration because it has existed for so Long in an uncompetitive artificially supported Jeff Debooy Winnipeg free press environment maintained by the Parent company. As a result there is no business tax base to speak of he noted. There is one grocery store a handful of service providers and a couple of restaurants. Recently the Only service station in the town closed from a Lack of business although there is Hope it will reopen soon. Decl hastily constructed an Industrial Park just outside of the town some years ago but failed to put in the water sewer or electricity needed to attract Light Industry Siemens said. With no other businesses in town there really Isnit anywhere else for people to look for work he said. The trick is going to be attracting businesses to serve the Community and then looking for other larger employers to fill the Industrial Park or Cluster around the lab site Siemens said. To that end the Federal and provincial governments have provided $20 million in seed Money to help attract those businesses. Sheppard in front of her Home with dog a sox a All of our Community groups Are losing key people. The social infrastructure of the town is falling Siemens stands before Pinawa a Only Gas station which recently closed its doors. The town which relied so Long on one company has virtually no business tax base he says. Cocoon no longer sheltered by decl Pinawa faces a Brave new world agreement. The news have come at a worse time for the town. A a we be got people out at the lab who Are staring at their computers All Day with no idea what they re supposed to do a said Sheppard who Heads a division of about 40 scientists. A a we be got other people who Are so Busy they done to know what to do. Other people Are doing their resumes and looking for other jobs. Some done to know whether they should be looking for other jobs. Its very hard to work in this Pinawa is a company town created out of the Eastern Manitoba wilderness and maintained by decl since the Early 1960s for the exclusive use of its employees. However in so Many ways Pinawa is anything but a typical company town. Unlike communities built to support mining or other heavy Industry Pinawa has always been a relatively affluent stable place to live for a Well educated population thanks to the fact the employer is a Crown corporation with a virtual monopoly in Canadas nuclear Industry. Year in and year out Pinawa and its residents remained in a cocoon like environment free of the Boom and bust cycles that so Many Blue Collar company towns experience. The town itself a the Homes streets utilities and Public amenities including a Golf course a were built by decl not by property taxpayers. In to tel be been so insulated for la so Long i think we be taken t ? a lot of things for granted a said Carole Edwards a former decl employee who now works for a regional health Agency. A before we had this big employer who built the hospitals and built the schools and built the Community Centre for us. If we needed something else we just asked the company for More Money. Now its like the father of the family the breadwinner is going with All the uncertainty surrounding the future of the lab housing prices have dropped through the a billboard promotes Pinawa on Highway la just Southwest of the town. A Deal to Transfer the White Shell lab to a private consortium has yet to be completed. By Dan Lett National reporter Pinawa a the jazz band is losing its Leader and the Community band is Down to about 20 people less than half the size it was just a few years ago. The local theatre troupe the Pinawa players is dwindling. And at the Pinawa hockey Arena there is talk that this Winter there will be no ice installed and no minor hockey. In this the last summer people of this town of 1,800 can say they work for atomic Energy of Canada ltd., bits and pieces of the towns foundation Are being chipped away. Many families unable to wait for a plan to turn the decl White Shell Laboratory Over to private owners Are leaving the once thriving Community. Although decl keeps a tight lid on such information residents and Plant employees report that each month one or two key staff from the lab Transfer to other decl facilities or opt to take other jobs outside of Manitoba. For longtime residents like Marsha Sheppard a senior environmental scientist at the White Shell lab it is hard not to imagine that the end of this Model Manitoba town is coming and soon. A fall of our Community groups Are losing key people a said Sheppard who has worked with her scientist husband Steve at the lab for 18 years. A the social infrastructure of the town is falling apart. A i think personally i can keep going but i done to want to be sitting in a town that has fallen apart and where there a nothing to this summer Federal officials Hope to Complete a Deal to Transfer the White Shell facilities into the hands of a private consortium. The Best this town can expect is that slightly More than half of the 700 jobs Here will be saved by the Deal. However delays in negotiations have postponed a final Resolution that most expected by june 30. Decl officials believe it May take until september or october to Ink the ;