Make it three in the race for Thunder Bay’s mayor’s chair.
Jeff Irwin, 52, calling himself a voice for the silent majority, says there’s a number of issues facing the city that he’d like to see tackled, which is why he decided to throw his name into the hat alongside incumbent mayor Lynn Peterson and retired Thunder Bay Police Association president Keith Hobbs.
“I believe I’m one of the people that is the silent majority, who is finally tired of what I see happening and about to speak out. I’m talking about the other Ontario, because essentially that’s what Thunder Bay and the rest of Ontario is above Barrie,” said Irwin, the brother-in-law of former Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce president Mary Long-Irwin.
At the top of his list of things not to do is the city’s proposed deal with Horizon Wind Inc.
The 18-turbine project, slated for the Nor’Wester Mountain Range, just doesn’t make any sense, said Irwin, an energy inspector, in an interview with Dougall Media on Sunday.
The deal only favours one side in this case, he said, and it’s not the city. Irwin called the project little more than a hedge fund for southern Ontario investors, which will give them a 20 per cent return on their money, but end up costing Thunder Bay an enormous amount of money.
“We’re going to be stuck with a bill for $2.5 million on the first 18 wind turbines alone. Who’s going to pay for that?”
Irwin said it’s time Northwestern Ontario began to think for itself, rather than be dictated to by southern Ontario and government policies that place Toronto, Ottawa and the rest of that region of the province first.
“I’m tired of Northwestern Ontario people working and losing their jobs at the expense of subsidizing people in southern Ontario,” said Irwin, the uncle of Canadian Olympic women’s hockey gold medalist Haley Irwin.
The latest mayoral candidate said the provincial Green Energy Act does nothing for the region but handcuff it, and it’s time Northwestern Ontario communities began vocalizing their displeasure at policies that do nothing but harm.
“My vision for the region is to collectively speak with one voice. A prime example is what’s happening here now. We have a green energy policy that is the most wrongheaded, dumbest policy I’ve heard in my entire life. It’s got nothing to do with green energy. What it’s got to do with is systematic dismantling of Ontario Power Generation and Northwest Power Group,” Irwin said.
While Irwin doesn’t have a political background, he sees the mayor as the person that sets the vision for the city.
It’s time for a new outlook, he added, noting that as the largest community in the region, Thunder Bay will only prosper if surrounding communities do well too.
The status quo isn’t working, and for too long that’s what the city has settled for, Irwin said.
He added he’d like the community to tell him what their top five priorities are facing the community, together with solutions to see the city’s way through them.
Peterson has done a good job with the administration aspect of her job since first coming to power in 2003, he said, but as a whole council has failed to listen to what the people want. High taxes are drowning the city’s residents in debt, many of whom can’t afford the added expenses and face losing their homes. It can’t go on.
“Somebody’s got to say enough’s enough,” Irwin said, adding that before Tuesday’s council meeting where Horizon and more than 20 members of the public stated their case over the turbine project he had no plans to seek the city’s highest elected office.
“It’s come to a point where I simply cannot sit silently by and watch what’s happening.”
