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Meet the Candidates: Henry Wojak wants more transparency at city hall

There aren’t many outsiders as tuned into city hall as Henry Wojak.
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Meet the Candidates: Henry Wojak is running to stop what he believes is a lack of transparency at city hall. (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)

There aren’t many outsiders as tuned into city hall as Henry Wojak.

A long-time council watchdog, Wojak decided this year that enough was enough and jumped into the mayor’s race head first, citing what he sees as a lack of transparency and accountability on Donald Street as the main reasons for doing so.

It’s the budget that has Wojak, a retired mill worker, up in arms.

“For me it’s the retired debenture, the $19.3 million, that was never mentioned to the public. It’s similar to the retired hospital debenture that came due in 2010. They’re basically letting us continue to make the payments on those and not telling the public.

“I hate the lack of transparency on council and in this administration.”Wojak, who unsuccessfully ran in Neebing Ward in 2010, finishing fourth of five contestants, said he plans to be an open book if he’s elected.

He’d also like tackle the declining population problem and everything it represents.

“It’s an unsustainable tax base that we have without an increasing population. As the Chamber of Commerce said … with an aging population the demographics just show we don’t have the population to sustain this increase in taxes that we have, that council and administration are putting upon us,” Wojak said.

New business is needed in town, he added, and he thinks he knows how to help drive it.

While every municipality has an economic development corporation, including Thunder Bay, fighting for big industry to arrive might not be the best way to go about increasing the commercial presence in the city.

Not that Wojak is saying to ignore that route. There are just other options, he said.

“What we can do is turn small scale,” he said, “such as the food strategy. If we can get the local area to live on sustainable farming, it’s going backward in time, but it may be a reality for Thunder Bay.”

Wojak, as he has from the start, is emphatically opposed to bringing an event centre to Thunder Bay. Not at this time, when taxpayers are already struggling to make ends meet.

He maintains that Fort William Gardens has plenty of life left in it, so why replace it at this time?

“We do not have the population to fill the Fort William Gardens at this time. Why would we need another event centre at this time? That is the reason I would not support an event centre,” he said.

Wojak arrived in Thunder Bay in 1978, fresh off a stint at the University of New Brunswick in their forestry engineering program.

He went to work for the Great Lakes Paper Company, and has lived in rural Thunder Bay for the past 26 years.

He said he’s tired of seeing taxes increase and services decrease, adding municipal spending must be brought under control.



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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