Editorial: Mayor getting taste of political reality

Is the honeymoon over for Mayor Keith Hobbs?

Rolling into office on a promise to change how things are done at city hall, Hobbs is quickly realizing it’s not an easy job as it looked from the outside.

He failed to cut anything from the $31.6-million Police Services Board budget.

He went into municipal budget talks saying the city had to tighten its belt, but his only real suggestion was to dip into reserve funds in order to keep the tax increase to zero per cent. It didn’t happen.

He publicly told the city manager he wanted him to micromanage the waterfront project and questioned the ability of the current project manager, Katherine Dugmore.

Then earlier this week he made a gaffe when he suggested Energy Minister Brad Duguid and the province were favouring Sudbury for a proposed Ring of Fire ferrochrome processing facility.

Duguid later said all he mentioned was that Sudbury already had the 300 megawatts capacity necessary to run the plant.

Rookie mayors will make mistakes. Lynn Peterson and Ken Boshcoff both made more than their fair share during their terms in office.

But it’s time to get down to business, time to get off the campaign trail and start getting things done. Only then will Thunder Bay start to thrive again.