The city is holding provincial candidates’ feet to the fire to get clear answers on issues important to Thunder Bay.
Candidates from both ridings are being asked how they would support the city’s top priorities. The answers will be posted on the city’s website during the week before the Oct. 6 provincial election.
“It puts pressure on them to answer the questions before an election, not after,” Mayor Keith Hobbs said.
The most important question for the city, Hobbs said, is on an industrial hydro rate and whether any of the parties will bring the rate down to 3-to-5 cents per kilowatt hour in order to be more competitive.
“If we can compete with Quebec and Manitoba on the energy pricing we’re going to be attracting a lot of industry to the region and the city of Thunder Bay,” Hobbs said.
Hobbs, like other northern municipal leaders, was disappointed last week when both NDP leader Andrea Horwath and Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak side-stepped a similar question during a debate on Northern issues in Thunder Bay.
“Neither the PCs or the NDP had an answer for that question. They talked about the HST on home heating bills. That’s not what we asked. We asked ‘what are you going to do about industry,’” Hobbs said.
Another top priority is how the parties plan on dealing with withdrawal management and crisis housing for people with substance issues, something the province has been criticized on for its silence in the past.
A place like Kenora has 50 detox beds, while Thunder Bay has less than 10 right now.
“We need the province to step up big time for funding those kinds of things,” Hobbs said.
There is also a request for a Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs office to open in Thunder Bay. Most of the questions have been posed to various provincials by the city in the past.
Other questions involve non-emergent transport for Thunder Bay residents, funding for crime prevention initiatives and support for the Thunder Bay Event Centre.
