Thunder Bay Counts hosting community forum to establish goals to exact change

Thunder Bay Counts wants public input on ways to make the city a better place for all.

The group is pairing with the local United Way chapter and the Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre and hosting an open community forum on Thursday afternoon at the Italian Cultural Centre, where they play to present a first draft of a set of community goals for discussion.

Among the broad categories are a connected community, a community free from the effects of poverty and how best to develop a prosperous, vibrant economy.

The United Way’s Sandra Albertson said on Wednesday said there is plenty of great work being done in all three areas in Thunder Bay, but there is no question that improvements and redundancy reduction can be achieved.

The forum can also help identify new areas that may need work.

“What we’ve done is develop community goals with Thunder Bay that we feel are broad enough that many cross-sections of groups can see themselves working toward, but also in areas that the community has deemed most appropriate and really working toward the issues that we’re facing here,” Albertson said.

Social issues like racism, poverty and inequality will be at the forefront, she added.

Thunder Bay Counts is comprised of 47 leaders from a variety of different sectors around the city, many of whom don’t work together on a regular basis.

It not only includes social organizations, but also boasts police representation and the North Superior Workforce Planning Board.

“All those groups, they’re doing wonderful work, but they don’t normally sit down and plan,” Albertson said. “So that’s the first impact. The second is efficiencies. We’re hoping that we can achieve resource efficiencies.”

Often different groups with similar goals are applying to the same funding pot, both at the local level and from higher levels of government.

“If people know what they’re doing and we have some shared goals, hopefully that will eliminate cross applications and cross duplication of work. We see that over and over again locally and in many other communities as well.”

Coun. Rebecca Johnson is the chairwoman of the Thunder Bay Counts roundtable and said it’s important to look at where the community is headed and how to make sure the journey is a smooth one for everyone.

There are plenty of needs in the community, she said.

“We’ve come together to look at that and find some ways to uncover what are the real goals we want to accomplish.”

Johnson said they’ve talked to about 1,000 people in Thunder Bay over the past year, but still want more input before pressing ahead.

“We need to go back out to the community on Thursday at the Italian Cultural Centre from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. to ask are these the goals. We want you to definitely confirm them. If something’s missing, we need to hear that. If there’s something you feel you’d like to have strengthened, we need to hear that,” Johnson said.

Consultant Andrew Taylor, who helped collect the research for Thunder Bay Counts, will be on hand at Thursday’s meeting to answer questions.

The public will also be asked to identify positive actions already taking place in the community, as well as choose a logo and tagline for Thunder Bay Counts.

For more information, visit http://uwaytbay.ca/community-impact/thunder-bay-counts/