Thunder Bay's Priorities: Business as Usual

The City of Thunder Bay recently sent a delegation of administrators and councilors to the AMO meetings where they also had the opportunity to present their priority list to members of the provincial cabinet.  According to the report in the media, here are what the priority topics appear to have been:  Priority topics included:

• Bombardier
• Crisis centre
• Non-urgent patient transport
• RegenMed
• Thunder Bay Expressway
• Shelter House
• Provincial Offences Act
• Joint and several liability
• Multi-sport complex
• Multi-purpose correctional facility
• Next Gen 911 service
• Police services funding

What is intriguing about this list is that there is no explicit mention of any of Thunder Bay’s “water issues” – the current court case over the 2012 flooding and the water treatment plant, the issue of lead in Thunder Bay’s water supply or the epidemic of pinhole leaks in residential homes across the city. Perhaps the issue of “joint and several liability” is the code term for the water issues given that the province is going to inevitably be involved in any of this legal fallout given that municipalities are creatures of the provinces? Maybe, but then maybe not. 

Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing what the actual priorities are and there is no point in asking your councilor for insight or contacting someone at Thunder Bay City Hall to ask a question because more often than not, they will not respond.  Even worse, even members of council may be unaware of what is actually going on.  Thunder Bay appears to have become a full blown  “insider-outsider” city.  Those in the right social circles seem to know everything while those not graced with the correct social connections …well, you are pretty much left guessing as to what is actually going on.  Thunder Bay has always been a pretty insular place in this regard but the social isolation of the pandemic has made it worse.

On Monday night, there will likely be another marathon City Council meeting which will include another lengthy debate on the turf facility – which nevertheless will get approved despite the many reservations that have been raised.  It is always easy to approve new spending when it is someone else’s money and at present our City Council is no doubt being inspired by our federal government which after a 343 billion dollar deficit is going to dream even bigger. Then there will likely be a lengthy discussion of whether there should be changes to the numbers of city councilors to make the city more “efficient” but this has been discussed many times before and will be discussed many times again.  In the end, it will likely not matter because when it comes to the efficiency of any production process, it is not just the number of inputs that matters but also their quality. 

So, stay tuned for signs from the heavens to provide any additional enlightenment as to what Thunder Bay’s priorities are.  The only certain priority is that taxes will be going up in 2021.  It is business as usual for Thunder Bay's cozy inner circle.