'It's not likely to return to normal immediately': Thunder Bay mayor addresses concerns from residents

The Mayor of Thunder Bay said he is working to communicate the municipality's role in reopening the economy after hearing many concerns on the topic from residents of the northwestern ONtario  city. 

Mayor Bill Mauro said in an interview with CBC on Tuesday, that he and other city staff members are hearing from residents about pressure to reopen businesses.

"Municipalities have very little ability to have an impact on the economy," said Mauro. "Most of, if not all of, the decisions that have been made to shut down businesses have been made at the provincial level...pretty much the reopening of the economy is with and the authority is vested with the province of Ontario to roll back some of their provincial orders."

Mauro added that he is working with the chamber of commerce on a regular basis and stays in touch with the community economic development commission to see "what is possible".

"I think at the end of the day we all need to still really appreciate the situation that we're in and our decisions just simply need to be informed... erring on the side of caution I think is where we just need to be and doing whatever we can to support our business sector as best we're able," he said.

'It's not likely to return to normal immediately'

Mauro added that the decision to reopen businesses will take into account a variety of issues and be done in collaboration with public health and the hospital.

"It's not likely to return to normal immediately," he said. "I don't think people will begin congregating in restaurants or bars immediately...when they do get reopened I think that there'll be some caution still but at least there will be some steps that are taken in that direction."

The state of emergency enacted  by Mayor Mauro on April 23 is an example of a municipal decision that was made to better align with the provincial response to COVID-19.

"About ten days ago the province of course brought down another one of their provincial orders, and that order was that the cities would be allowed to redeploy staff to be able to continue to meet critical services and essential service provision," Mauro explained.

In order for the city and their management to redeploy staff, and to work around collective bargaining agreements if necessary, the city would be required to declare a state of emergency.

Mauro said he was resistant at first to declare a state of emergency, but changed his mind when new COVID-19 screening measures were put in place.

"With that new screening protocol the likelihood that more of our staff might have to be off work for a period of time, and then our ability as a city to continue to provide essential services was put in more peril," he said.

According to Mauro, the new screening protocol put in place can screen for as many as 15 symptoms, and if one of those symptoms is detected in the process, the individual would be asked to go into quarantine until they could be assessed by the health unit.

"This is not a local decision of course.  It is guided by the province's assessment tool and work with the health units right across the province and so that was the real game changer for me," said Mauro about the new screening protocol.

Mauro said he hopes residents can appreciate why this decision was made, and that the city will have to "work together and get through this".

"We all need to continue to be able to provide emergency services and essential services and that will allow a bit more flexibility, and if more people are off work as a result of this new screening protocol that will get more difficult," he said.