Frances Wesley says she’s confident city council will agree the Thunder Bay Urban Aboriginal Strategy is worth $90,000 to municipal taxpayers.
Wesley, the co-ordinator of the organization, made a post-budget request Monday night, telling a smaller-than-usual gathering of councillors and city administration that the work their group does is integral to making Thunder Bay’s growing First Nation population adapt to life in the community.
Council unanimously agreed to have administration prepare a report by next week’s Committee of the Whole meeting, detailing why or why not they should add the request to the budget.
“I expected that there would be no decision made tonight because we understand the budget talks already took place,” Wesley said.
“I’m positive the council will consider our request to move the initiatives forward that we’re doing with the urban Aboriginal strategy.”
Wesley said people coming from remote First Nation communities experience culture shock when they arrive in Thunder Bay.
A variety of factors are at play, she said.
“Racism is always high,” Wesley said. “The lack of adequate financial resources for them to continue to go to school is one of the things we have to talk about.”
Suicide is another subject, that while not easy to discuss, must enter the conversation, she said. In recent years seven students have died in Thunder Bay after leaving their own northern communities to come to the city for school.
“The issue of suicide is very sad for all of us,” Wesley said.
Finding an affordable place to stay can also be tough, and she urged a discussion is needed between tenants and landlords.
The Urban Aboriginal Strategy office can help broker those talks and make the transition easier, Wesley added.
Housing is just the tip of the iceberg.
“When a family moves to Thunder Bay, first of all, they’re scared, so they need someone to help them through the system,” Wesley said. “When I first came here to go to Confederation College, I was scared.
Wesley doesn’t want to think what might happen if the $90,000 is denied.
“It would affect us tremendously and we would not be able to (keep) the co-ordinators we have … We would be strapped, for sure.”
Neebing Coun. Linda Rydholm said council had little choice but to seek a referral, which passed in a unanimous vote, and get administration’s help.
“Unfortunately this request has come after we finished, or almost finished, the budget for 2013.”
Greg Alexander, the city’s general manager for community services, agreed.
“I think the referral is the appropriate reaction, since we just heard about this,” he said.
The Thunder Bay Urban Aboriginal Strategy, which provides mentorship training for young leaders and leads a stay-in-school program for First Nation’s youth, also gets funding through the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, both of which has committed money for 2013. The city has provided $125,000 to the organization in each of the past two years.
The money covers Wesley’s $60,000 salary and the costs of administrative support.
In other council news, the city will continue to explore all options to help find a solution to the Boys and Girls Club of Thunder Bay's tax woes. The charity appeared before council earlier this month to ask the city to forgive nearly $40,000 in property taxes they have yet to pay. Coun. Iain Angus said he knows there are questions about the organization's finances. Administration found close to $300,000 in their bank after their initial request.
Also the city will try to determine whether or not it's possible to up public-sector procurement of local food by two per cent, or $83,000.
