Timmins mayoral candidates talk taxes, addictions, housing, public transit and mining

There were some raised voices Thursday night at Northern College in Timmins, where the three people running for mayor squared off in a debate.

While they shared a stage, they do not share the same vision for the city. Or see it from the same perspective.

Unlike his opponents, Richard Lafleur hasn't sat around the city council table, but feels he has a better seat for knowing Timmins as the owner of a large taxi company.

"I have the pulse of the community. I know what's going on in our city when it's happening," he told the audience of over 100 in the college cafeteria.

"We've got some of the highest taxes in Ontario, we've got the worse roads and people are fed up and I'm fed up and I want to do something about it."

Throughout the debate, Lafleur's take on city operations was regularly corrected by the two sitting city councillors who are looking for a promotion to the mayor's office, replacing George Pirie, who moved up to provincial politics before his one term was finished.

Joe Campbell defended what the city has done on economic development and infrastructure repairs, but did continue to criticize how taxpayers money is spent. 

"The city is a business that spends $150 million in residents' money," said the two-term Timmins city councillor.

"It's a business and it should be run like a business."

Campbell butted heads with staff and other councillors repeatedly in recent years on how the municipal budget is set and says that as mayor, he would continue to push staff to reveal more information to the public. 

"It's all your money and you have a right to know exactly where it's spent," he said.

But Michelle Boileau, who is also running for mayor, after four years on Timmins city council, says it's the "duty" of councillors to work with staff and understand what's being spent and why.

"I agree it needs to be transparent. It is," she said.

"No one is hiding anything from anyone here."

"We have agencies, boards and committees that spend tens of millions of dollars outside the watchful eye of council. What are they buying? We have no idea," Campbell replied.

"Ask questions," Boileau interjected.

"Do the homework before the council meeting where we're actually deciding on the budget and you should feel comfortable in passing the budget," she added.

Campbell pledged he would keep property tax increases in check, but Boileau argued the best way to do that is to have more taxpayers.

"The only way we can keep taxes from going up is to have more people living in Timmins," she said.

Boileau says that as mayor, she would focus on making the city, which actually shrunk by 643 people in the last census, a better place to live with more "diverse" recreational programs, working with developers to build more housing and by improving public transit.

She said newcomers to Timmins she meets are "shocked when they have to use our public transit system" and wants to see riders consulted on any future changes because too often the city is "making decisions strictly based on dollars and cents."

Lafleur argued the addictions crisis has changed Timmins.

He says he no longer feels comfortable leaving his car running when he pops into his favourite poutine place to pick up his order and believes the "unspeakable" increase in crime is keeping young families away.

"You can't expect the city to grow if you don't take care of the problems that are here now," Lafleur says.

"I've been watching these people suffering. I can't watch it any more."

Lafleur says that as mayor, he would immediately hire 10 new police officers, but Boileau, who sits on the police board, says finding workers is a challenge across the city.

"If it was as easy as hiring ten officers tomorrow, we would be doing that," she says.

Discussing the rough shape of roads in Timmins, Lafleur suggested that ore trucks should be charged when they use city streets, but Campbell says the city needs to instead make things easier for the mining industry, especially with the uncertain future of the Kidd Creek mine.