To the editor:
I am writing this letter to express my frustration and, what I believe to be, the frustration of many taxpayers of the City of Thunder Bay.
If anything, I hope this submission will encourage city council to be more receptive in their future deliberations to the wishes of the residents, and to acknowledge the uncertain times we are in. Locally, we are struggling to find ways to keep our economy going during a pandemic, and many people have lost their jobs at Bombardier.
We have seen many local retailers close up shop, and many food service businesses are sounding the alarm over their inability to sustain operations in these uncertain times as the cold weather sets in. The economic realities of our situation are right in front of our eyes and being lived every day by many of us living in this City.
Despite these economic realities, it appears that our city council is either not appreciating the economic circumstances of the residents of this City or are not sympathetic to their current situation.
City council recently approved the construction of a very large recreational complex despite being cautioned by staff about the uncertain economic future as a result of Covid-19. The loss of jobs, as noted above, should have also sounded the alarm bells for council on the economic realities we are facing when confronted with the decision on the soccer-plex.
Then, on Monday, our city council repeated their conduct and approved the spending of a $100,000 on the purchase of a new light-up sign for our waterfront. Neither of these expenditures were urgent or necessary in these times.
If the photo-ops provided by the Sleeping Giant are insufficient for tourists, at the very least it should tide them over a little longer. There are other causes that these funds could have been put towards, like ensuring the Conservatory remains open to serve the broader public and to make necessary repairs. There are many other existing services and facilities, used by residents and tourists alike, that could use support.
However, while we are facing significant job losses and in the midst of a pandemic, there is simply nothing wrong with easing the throttle on future spending while we weather the economic and pandemic storm.
We are in a time when the public expects our public decision-makers to be extremely prudent and fully apprised of our economic situation. It safe to say that we are in a time when taxpayers have little, if any, tolerance for increases in property taxes.
We can only hope the city council will be fully appreciative and sympathetic of the economic situation faced by many residents in future deliberations and decisions that they will no doubt be encountered with. Hopefully, they will agree that the prudent thing to do is to freeze future spending on non-urgent matters while we weather the storm.
Etienne Esquega,
Thunder Bay
