THUNDER BAY — Thunder Bay’s city council delved into the municipality’s improbably long infrastructure wish list Monday, even as it received disappointing financial news from fiscal year 2022, and voted to move more of the city’s taxation burden onto residential tax payers.
Council also received final reports on the 2022 municipal election in a meeting that stretched past 10 p.m.
Council debates infrastructure priorities
Staff presented a list outlining their recommended top 25 new infrastructure projects for the city.
Things like an indoor turf facility, green bin program, and traffic light synchronization topped that list, which comes with an estimated total price tag above $300 million even while excluding some expensive projects like a new police station.
Much of Monday’s discussion, however, questioned whether the city could afford even a portion of those projects, with some councillors saying it should turn more of its energy to maintaining roads and other existing infrastructure.
City posts $5M deficit in 2022
The city finished last year with a deficit of $5 million, driven largely by overruns at the Thunder Bay Police Service, staff reported.
That will force the municipal government to dig into its financial reserves, depleting the stabilization reserve fund to below $10 million and leaving others, like the winter control reserve, low enough they could be completely exhausted this year.
Council affirms Frederica sidewalk decision
Council ratified its decision to add a new sidewalk along Frederica Street over area residents’ vocal objections.
A strong minority of councillors supported residents’ arguments the sidewalk would disrupt their property, potentially forcing one or two residents to park on a side street.
Other councillors suggested that showed a dismaying lack of understanding of the bigger picture, in the form of the city’s transportation and accessibility goals.
Coun. Trevor Giertuga called the idea of voting against a sidewalk connection on a main street “asinine,” while other councillors noted it would disrupt a planned full sidewalk connection along the north side of Frederica.
City lowers commercial, industrial tax ratios further
Council voted to reduced tax ratios for the commercial and industrial property classes, meaning those tax payers will pay proportionally less of the city’s overall tax levy.
The commercial class will now be taxed at 1.98 times the rate of the residential class, down from just over 2, while the large industrial ratio was brought down from 2.85 to 2.73.
That continues a years-long process that has left residential tax payers responsible for an increasingly large proportion of the city’s tax bill.
Staff have framed the move as necessary to meet provincial tax ratio thresholds that encourage keeping commercial and residential ratios lower. Cities cannot fully apply new tax increases to property classes whose tax ratios exceed the provincial target.
Couns. Andrew Foulds and Trevor Giertuga voted against the ratio changes on Monday.
Municipal election, campaign spending reviewed
City clerk Krista Power submitted her review of the 2022 municipal election, along with a compliance report on candidates’ financial disclosures.
The review found few significant problems with the conduct of the election, aside from a ballot error in Shuniah that disrupted the Catholic school trustees race.
The compliance report indicated mayoral runner-up Gary Mack will be disqualified from running in the 2026 election after failing to file his financial statements by deadline.
