THUNDER BAY -- Despite city administration already having its mind made up, the city will meet with concerned people near city hall before making it a permanent bus terminal.
City hall has been operating as a south side bus terminal since 2010. When that decision was made business owners and some people who lived nearby complained of noise, air quality and security concerns. They were told by city council at the time that the move would be temporary and that they'd be consulted as decisions were made.
But on Monday, as city council was set to vote on making the move permanent, administration said there had only been a few casual conversations with people in the area since 2010, mainly because only a handful of people had made complaints to the city since then.
The city did receive a letter from Atwood Labine, a nearby law firm, stating that it had only been contacted once by the city in the past four years and that was to assure the firm that city hall would be an unlikely permanent home for the city's bus terminal.
"This letter is not to say definitively that city hall is the incorrect place for the bus depot, only that this city council cannot possibly conclude this to be the case without consulting us and other affected parties," lawyer Chris Arnone wrote.
It was that lack of consultation that made Coun. Aldo Ruberto suggest delaying the permanent move, complete with around $340,000 in upgrades, until people were consulted.
"This is not about location, this is about process. I like the location but the process wasn't followed," Ruberto said.
Administration said there would likely be no problem with that as long as it can wrap up consultation before the end of April.
"It would not change the recommendation that administration is making,” facilities, fleet and transit manager Michael Smith said.
But enough councillors were concerned enough about process to refer the approval back to administration until the consultation was done.
"To say that the decision has already been made therefore it doesn't really matter to listen to the people is not a democratic process,” Coun. Joe Virdiramo said.
