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Council selects board and committee appointments

Appointments include new member to police services board, district board of health and district social services board.
Thunder Bay City Hall

THUNDER BAY – A number of local boards and committees are in line for a shake up, which includes two new appointments to the city police services board.

The new term of Thunder Bay city council met Tuesday night for a marathon meeting to finalize council and citizen appointments to a number of boards and committees.

Mayor Bill Mauro said a number of those bodies play a role in the success, or lack thereof, for the municipality.

“There is lots of community support to be involved. A lot of people came forward and volunteered, which is always encouraging for publicly elected people,” Mauro said, adding councillors never hesitated to put their hands up for available positions during their meeting.

“The boards are full. We did some streamlining as well in the backroom that I think was a good thing to do. There were some committees that had met their mandate and were no longer required to be in existence. We’re looking forward to getting busy and doing the work.”

As previously promised, Mauro will serve on the five-member Thunder Bay Police Services Board in the position designated for the mayor. He will be joined by first-term Westfort Coun. Kristen Oliver, who replaces former board vice chair Brian McKinnon.

"We talked about police services board (Tuesday) and what I told people in the back room was I have no special expertise particularly when it comes to the police services board," said Mauro, whose brother Jim is a long-time officer and former president of the city police association.

"I thought given the focus on crime that all of us felt through the election it was important for me as mayor to take the seat and that's what I'm doing."

Mauro will also serve in ex officio capacities on both the city’s intergovernmental affairs committee as well as the board of the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission.

The intergovernmental affairs committee will welcome some faces new to the portfolio with Ch’ng, Oliver and Albert Aiello joining returning vice chair McKinnon. Ch'ng and McKinnon will also sit alongside Mauro on the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association's board of directors.

Thunder Bay District Social Services Board appointments include returning members Andrew Foulds, Aldo Ruberto and Ch’ng, who will be joined for the first time by Rebecca Johnson, Brian Hamilton and Albert Aiello.

Johnson, who was elected to her fifth term as an at-large councillor in this fall's municipal election, had been seeking the social services board appointment for the last couple of terms.

"It helps me with the work I'm doing with what I call the social wellness of our community, whether it's the homelessness or day cares," Johnson said. "For me it's an opportunity to work at that level to be able to make some change. I'm probably going to look and see what their vision is, what their strategy is and I think I need to know that before I say what the areas where I think we need to have change."

The city council appointments to the Thunder Bay District Board of health are new councillors Oliver and Brian Hamilton. 



About the Author: Matt Vis

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