THUNDER BAY -- The city's mayor wants the municipality to slash another golf course.
Keith Hobbs said it's time for the city to sell Strathcona Golf Course to cut expenses, but also generate revenue by transforming the 90-year-old course into a housing development.
"It would make a beautiful housing project," Hobbs said after a budget meeting Thursday night.
"If we cut it into lots and sold them as city lots that's huge revenue for the city."
"We've heard it from the chamber. We've heard it from the public and I totally agree with them. There are certain core services we should provide and have to provide and there are ones that are really luxury services and this would be an opportunity for revenue for the city."
Hobbs said he figures he lost 2,000 votes last election after the city sold Municipal Golf Course in 2013. He said it's not about politics, but what's doing the best thing for the city.
"We have to do what's in the best interest of the public," he said.
"It's about common sense and it's about doing the right thing."
Numbers are down, courses cost more and more to maintain and climate change might make the city's situation worse Hobbs said. If the city gets more precipitation as expected, city courses will see even less golfers in the coming years. Plus, he said, there are several private-sector courses with which the city competes.
Strathcona isn't the only city land the mayor wants to sell. During Thursday's budget meeting, after a motion to close the Chippewa Wildlife Exhibit was lost, Hobbs said he wants to see the whole park sold.
"There's millions of dollars to be found if we divest ourselves out there," he said.
The mayor hopes to have Strathcona ready for sale by next year's budget, but the idea needs to come before city council first and follow a process similar to the closure and the $650,000 sale of Municipal Golf Course.
