From crime to infrastructure, here's what Thunder Bay mayoral candidates say about the city's future
Mayoral candidates begin to lay out their vision in first all-candidates forum of the campaign
The Ontario municipal election is about three weeks away, and in Thunder Bay, the five candidates vying to become mayor had their first chances to make their case for the job.
The Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday hosted a noon-hour candidates forum, the first time in the campaign that the five hopefuls have outlined their positions in the same room.
The event came the same day the voting period opened. Eligible voters can cast their ballots online any time up until the election day deadline, while there will also be advance polls and polling stations will be set up on Oct. 24.
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During the forum, the candidates were asked the same series of questions with up to one minute to provide a response.
Here is what the candidates had to say about some of the topics that were discussed.
Community safety
Ken Boshcoff, who served two terms as mayor from 1997 to 2003, said the city has become a "gathering point" and emphasized the importance of creating a coordinated regional response with municipalities and First Nations.
"What we need is a leader who can coalesce the response to this so when we pressure provincial and federal governments, we know that we're servicing an area larger than Germany and France, and for us to try and do it and take on all the responsibility as a municipality is simply untenable."
Clint Harris, the former publisher of Thunder Bay's daily newspaper, said the provincial and federal governments have been absent when it comes to supporting the city.
"Half the crimes are being committed by people who are coming from outside our city," Harris said. "Eventually we're going to need to put up a roadblock to stop this from happening or get the resources."
Gary Mack, a small business owner and former social services worker, proposed creating a new tier of first responders to address non-criminal, non-violent matters that take up police responses.
"We can then focus on the serious crime that is happening in our community — guns, the gangs, the opioids," he said.
Peng You, an at-large councillor who ran for the Ontario Progressive Conservatives in the spring provincial election, said the city needs to use more tools to address crime.
"I do believe something we can do from the bottom up, neighbourhood, and bring neighbourhood policing," he said. "That worked. It cut the crime rate by 27 per cent."
Robert Szczepanski, the youngest candidate in the race, described himself as "the average voter" and said it's important to recognize the causes of crime.
"If we help people with mental health, then we'll reduce people who have to self-medicate. If we reduce self-medication, we reduce the amount of illegal drugs sold. If we reduce the amount of illegal drugs sold, we reduce the amount of drug dealers."
Managing city spending
Harris said emergency service costs are "enormous," particularly when it comes to multiple services responding to calls.
"Right now the firemen don't want to be doing the EMS jobs, police don't want to be showing up at firemen's jobs. When you add up the money it costs to do that, you reduce that expense, it's literally another budget line we can get rid of."
Peng You said property taxes are too high in the city, particularly with inflation. He pointed to slow economic growth over the last few years.
"We need the private sector, we need fresh money to come to Thunder Bay. We need to help existing business to grow."
Boshcoff said development would alleviate budgetary pressures.
"We know that the potential of housing lot development, that revenue alone would provide millions of dollars. We have lots of people working on the business, industrial side of things. We know there are several businesses, organizations ready to come here."
Mack said City Hall needs to stop wasting money.
"A great example is the tugboat that we've spent over $1 million on that. Now it's sitting on a dry dock while we're waiting to figure out what we're doing to do with it," Mack said. "We can't afford this any longer. We need to run city hall like a business."
Szczepanski echoed Mack's reference to the city's core services review, which produced a number of recommendations to reduce costs.
"We're just sitting on so many ideas. Let's do something," Szczepanski said.
Managing infrastructure
Peng You said the city continues to struggle with an infrastructure gap.
"We are in big trouble because we don't have enough tax base."
Boshcoff said that when it comes to large projects, like an indoor turf facility, which was leftover from the last council, the city doesn't need to be the ones taking the lead.
"City ownership and management is not required for a lot of these things, especially if they're going to compete with the private sector."
Mack said he's heard from people concerned about the city's infrastructure, as well as others looking for an indoor turf facility. However, he suggested that the proposal with a $46 million price tag isn't the way to go.
"Edmonton built Canada's largest indoor soccer field for $8 million. That's something Thunder Bay could afford."
Szczepanski vehemently voiced opposition to the city building an indoor sports facility.
"What about the kids who don't like sports? They're just left high and dry. I feel like we should be creating and looking into programs to help all kids, not just those who like sports."
Harris said big-ticket projects like an indoor turf facility or event centre need money from the senior levels of government.
"It's time to use what we have currently now. When they come up with a new plan, new funding, then we apply."
The election is set for Oct. 24.
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