THUNDER BAY — City council will get another chance to tell administration whether or not to come up with specific criteria for allowable tent encampment areas in Thunder Bay.
During Monday’s council meeting, Coun. Brian Hamilton asked to defer ratifying council's existing decision on the matter — a vote that rejected a motion to have administration pursue developing those criteria. That vote was lost in a tie at the Aug. 11 committee of the whole meeting. Decisions made at committee of the whole have to be subsequently ratified at a following meeting of city council.
“I'm interested in a recorded vote, but I'd rather defer it for a recorded vote at a future meeting, if possible, because I think there's members of the council that aren't here today,” Hamilton said.
The ratification vote was pushed to council's Sept. 2 meeting in a 6-3 vote on Monday.
Couns. Kristen Oliver, Kasey Etreni, Shelby Ch'ng, Greg Johnsen, Michael Zussino and Hamilton voted for the deferral, while Couns. Dominic Pasqualino, Albert Aiello and Rajni Agarwal voted against.
Couns. Mark Bentz, Andrew Foulds, Trevor Giertuga and mayor Ken Boshcoff were absent Monday.
The original proposal, introduced by Oliver, was to have city staff set clear guidelines for 10 tent encampment sites as part of the city’s human rights-based community action plan. City staff would then present their guidelines for council approval.
If those are passed, city staff would then work with outside agencies and individuals living in encampments to determine where the three designated encampment sites out of the 10 proposed sites could be safely located, and staff could present any necessary bylaws for ratification.
This story has been updated for clarity.