Wabush mayor pitches amalgamation plan to Lab City

The twin mining towns of Wabush and Labrador City may be better off under a common municipal government, the mayor of one of them says.

Wabush Mayor Jim Farrell said with job cuts looming in his town, cutbacks in municipal services might be avoided through amalgamation.

Farrell said the town is already planning to close its arena in the spring and cut back operating hours at the local recreation centre, to deal with a budget shortfall sharpened by pending layoffs at Wabush Mines.

"It's costing $800,000 this year, over and above what we take in, so that's a big expense," said Farrell, who is lobbying for a feasibility study.

"We've found it hard to balance our budget and it's not going to get better for either one of the towns down the road ... There's only so much money to go around [and] there's only so much money the companies can give you."

Both Wabush and Labrador City were built around separate iron ore mines. No longer company towns, the municipalities share an informal border.

"If we could have amalgamation, and some of those services could be shared, I think that would be the right thing to do right now," Farrell said.

The 2006 census found that Wabush had a population of 1,739. Labrador City's population, by contrast, was 7,240.

The council in Labrador City has not yet expressed an opinion on the Wabush proposal.

Mayor Graham Letto said a meeting will be arranged later this month to determine whether there is enough interest for the study to go ahead.

Dorothy Hogan, a Labrador City resident who works in Wabush, supports the idea of a study.

"With the economy here right now, and what's happening with the mining and stuff like that, if we can get together and make this a better area to live in and a cheaper place to live — why not? Keep all of our resources and of our recreation going — sure," she said.

Although the Labrador West region was coasting on a wave of good times in the mining industry for several years, heady growth has been quickly replaced by a much gloomier mood.

Wabush Mines will be laying off a third of its permanent staff in February, while the Iron Ore Co. of Canada, the operator of Labrador City's mine, is shutting down production in July and shelving an expansion plan.