Thunder Bay City Council this week began to move into its “lame
duck” period - which officially starts August 8th - with its decision
to
hold off on advancing the Turf Facility project and essentially kicking it
down the road to the next city council which will be elected in October. While they still might revisit the project
before the 8th, it is unlikely and signals acceptance that this
legacy project will not be the current council’s legacy. Of course, key to the problem is the cost of
the project and the lack of external funding which has made the project
controversial in part because early on Council rejected a private plan for a
bubble type project. And the failure to attract federal funding which instead has
gone to the Art Gallery project and a new Science north Facility suggests there
will not be any federal funding soon making the project reliant on municipal
borrowing.
As to whether the next council will support another go at a
municipal Turf Facility is a good question given there is going to likely be a
major change in its composition given that several incumbents including the
current mayor have decided not to seek re-election. What seemed to be a dearth of candidates
earlier on is now dissipating as there are quite
a few candidates starting to declare.
There are now four candidates for mayor and nine candidates for the five At Large seats. There are two candidates
each in Red River, Westfort, and McKellar Wards and four in Northwood. Current River is likely on the road towards
acclamation as only the Incumbent has declared to date. Neebing Ward has three
candidates. Only McIntyre still has no declared candidates but that will likely change. So, with the filing deadline being August 19th,
sufficient choice is on its way.
The more interesting question is why some of the incumbents
have decided not to run – at least four so far and maybe more given that some still have not declared. Part of the issue may be fatigue given the
length of time many of these incumbents have served in local politics
especially when combined with the events of the last four years. Thunder Bay has been beset with numerous controversial
issues – poverty crime, the opioid crisis, racism and of course the entire
police department which essentially has come under external direction and
scrutiny. There is also the dismal state
of road infrastructure and sinkholes popping up where they should not be. All these issues have had to be dealt with
during an unprecedented pandemic which along with the disruption also complicated
the conduct of council business. This
conjunction of events would have taxed the stamina and patience of anyone. Of course, add to this the presence of
several class action lawsuits all dealing with municipal water issues including
the leaky pipe fiasco and one can see the possibility of a lot of trouble
coming down the pipeline over the next couple years on a wide range of issues –
not least of which will be the police service.
And the kicker was of course that the current council signed
off on
pay increases of up to 12 percent for senior staff - something that is definitely going to eat
into the popularity of some of the more vocal incumbents. That this salary increase
came on the heels of the announcement of a record
budget surplus of 10.9 million dollars for 2021 did not help and neither did
pronouncements by at
least one incumbent that future tax increases should be kept in line with
the rate of inflation -which incidentally is at about 8 percent. And interestingly enough, the projection for
2022 is now that after years of surplus, there
is a 5.3 million dollar deficit being forecast for 2022. Who could have foreseen such a thing especially
in the wake of the salary adjustment for staff?
And so, there is likely going to be quite a bit of turnover on Thunder
Bay City Council this time around – perhaps a generational change – after which
you can expect the same faces to remain in place for a decade or so as that is the
nature of municipal politics. Retiring
incumbents already worn down by the pandemic have decided that they have run out
of the political capital needed to easily gain re-election. New candidates with political aspirations
have decided now is the time to strike. Hope springs eternal in fresh candidates
that with their skill set they will be able to make a difference in a role which is a difficult
and thankless task. The old city council
is dead. Long live city council. Once again, the drama begins.
