Optimism and the smell of sweet grass were in the air as Thunder Bay’s new city council took its seats Monday night.
After the smoke from an Aboriginal smudge ceremony cleared and Oh Canada was sung, new mayor Keith Hobbs addressed the capacity gallery in council chambers. He first recognized former mayor Lynn Peterson saying while the two didn’t always get along, she worked hard for the city.
"We all owe her a huge debt of gratitude", Hobbs said.
Hobbs said the next four years must be spent building a city that will help young people stay in Thunder Bay. While he wants an inclusive council, the decisions made today will have consequences for future generations so they must be heard Hobbs said.
"Every decision we make will have a greater impact on those born in recent decades than most of us here today" Hobbs said. "In the decisions that are made and the dollars that are spent."
Hobbs then touched on poverty the city must make steps to eliminate it.
"Our city should not tolerate hungry children. We simply cannot fail in this" said Hobbs.
While some people warned him to stop referring to his record as a police officer, Hobbs said he will consider it a failure if the city is not a safer place to live after four years as mayor. Every member of the community needs to come together in order to make that happen he said. The city needs concrete, measurable goals to aid the process he added.
"What should not be acceptable is to simply shrug our shoulders and accept the status quo," said Hobbs. ""We need to show criminals that they are not wanted here."
Hobbs said councillors, administration and unions need to figure out a way to keep the cost of city services down while coming up with innovative ways to deliver those services. Over-taxation has to be combated by attracting new business and industry to the city Hobbs said.
Newly elected at-large councillor and former mayor Ken Boshcoff agreed. The whole community needs to come together with elected officials to make that happen and Boshcoff said so far he is seeing that happen.
"From what I’ve seen since the election there’s been a tremendous amount of willingness to work as a team," Boshcoff said. "I think the optimism is quite tangible."
First time councillor Paul Pugh said he is on board with the new mayor’s priorities. From poverty to job creation the city has a lot of challenges Pugh said.
"It’s essential to start off with an optimistic tone because we certainly face some serious problems so it would be pretty sad if we didn’t show some optimism as we go into this particular work," said Pugh.
Council will meet again Tuesday evening.
