Housing, fate of LPH property among key topics for Thunder Bay leaders at ROMA conference

Housing was one of the main talking points for Thunder Bay, Ont., leaders at this year's Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) conference.

The annual event, which took place Sunday through Tuesday in Toronto, gave municipal leaders and staff the chance to speak with provincial representatives in the hopes of seeing action — and funding — allocated for key issues in their communities.

The conference came on the heels of a new report released by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, which found that more than 81,000 people in the province were known to be experiencing homelessness last year. 

The City of Thunder Bay has supported a human rights-based approach to homelessness, providing support to outreach workers at homeless encampments and exploring options for a temporary shelter village — something ROMA delegates sought funding for at this year's conference.

"I think what came out loud and clear is that Thunder Bay has developed a plan that's completely different than any other thing that we're seeing throughout the province," Coun. Kristen Oliver, chair of the city's intergovernmental affairs committee, told members of the media Wednesday.

While city council voted against building the village at a site on Miles Street East in November following backlash from the business community, staff are assessing alternative locations.

Oliver said delivering wraparound support at the village, as well as encouraging training opportunities for those who live there, are key components of the plan, "and that's certainly something that we're not seeing from any other community."

I think what came out loud and clear is that Thunder Bay has developed a plan that's completely different than any other thing that we're seeing throughout the province.- Coun. Kristen Oliver, chair of intergovernmental affairs committee

On the addictions front, she added that the city is grateful for the province's approval of a Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub, which is slated to replace Thunder Bay's only supervised consumption site upon its closure this spring.

"One of the things that we really try to hammer down is that we don't want to see any gaps," Oliver said. "That we're actually going to be serving a population that is in crisis and having those wraparound supports in place."

Remediating LPH property

As for more permanent housing solutions, remediating the former Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital (LPH) was another subject that came up at the ROMA conference, and one that's been discussed at council chambers for years.

Mayor Ken Boshcoff said the city has received site plans and proposals from a number of groups since the property's been vacant, but because it's owned by the province, it's up to the Ontario government to allow the city to approve development there.

"Certainly the interest nationally for this site and from surrounding communities of all types is pretty inspiring, and it tells you what a gem that property is," Boshcoff said.

Due to the age and conditions of the existing buildings, the property would have to be completely demolished, said Oliver, but there is a big push to encourage multi-unit residential buildings there.

"That is where the province is really focusing their growth plans right now and where they're looking at investing," she said. "Obviously, when we have density, [it] reduces the cost to municipalities to deliver the services, so we're working online with what the province's recommendations are."

Meanwhile, the city is also looking at getting support through the province's Housing Enabling Core Service Fund to aid its housing goals.

Infrastructure, training, and public safety

Other discussions at the conference included investing in the infrastructure needed for new housing builds, as well as filling the city's energy gap to support its growing manufacturing sector.

There were also conversations around filling key labour shortages in areas from paramedicine to the trades, and the province's role in supporting the city's post-secondary institutions as they cope with the federal government's caps on international study permits.

"Northern Ontario is completely different from other parts of the province, where we're trying to increase our growth, maybe not slow it down like other communities," Oliver said.

As for public safety, funding to address guns and gangs also came up, as well as the city's lack of forensic pathology unit and the toll that takes on the Thunder Bay Police Service, which must send officers to Toronto to travel with postmortem patients, said Coun. Kasey Etreni.

"How are we going to support that financially, because right now the taxpayer is doing that," Etreni said. "We have a temporary solution where a local team comes here once a month for a week. When are we going to be looking at a permanent solution?"

With signs of a provincial election on the horizon, Oliver said she left this year's conference feeling more hopeful for quicker results from the city's advocacy efforts than in years past.

"The level of engagement, the conversations we had, I left these meetings in Toronto feeling incredibly confident and robust," she said. "I think we're going to see some movement in the very near future."