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A Thunder Bay delegation is satisfied with the feedback they received from several provincial cabinet ministers at a conference held recently in Toronto. The delegation made up of city staff and council members recently returned from the 2020 Rural Ontario Municipal Association Conference.
A delegation led by Councillor Brian McKinnon, Chair – Intergovernmental Affairs Committee, along with Mayor Bill Mauro, and City Manager Norm Gale brought forward community issues to lobby for action or funding on a number of important issues for the community.
Councillor Brian McKinnon tells us they asked the Attorney General’s office recently to look into getting that money recouped.
“They know what the issue is because they are experiencing it as well, they are all going through it in southern Ontario. We gave the Minister’s office a full sheet and asked could we do some of these things,” explained McKinnon. The councillor went onto say the minister’s office told them they are already working on ways of getting those unpaid fines collected and will continue to work on the issue.
The Minister of the Solicitor General has promised city officials the RFP for a new district jail will be going out soon for tender.
Mayor Bill Mauro says there wasn’t much else said about our need for a new jail facility but notes they also received positive feedback about her office looking into finding more host communities that can host flood and fire evacuees.
“It would benefit all of us who are impacted by these situations if she could put proactively in place a situation where she already had lined up a list of willing host communities,” said the Mayor.
Mauro also stressed to the provincial government the need for more funding for police since they have added stresses on their force and require money to help combat the growing guns and gang problems in the city.
The Thunder Bay delegation secured meetings with Provincial Ministers, and/or designates, including:
· Doug Downey, Attorney General, Ministry of the Solicitor General
· Sylvia Jones, Ministry of the Solicitor General
· Parliamentary Assistant, Parm Gill, Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
· Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade
· Michael Tibollo, Associate Minister of Health
· Parliamentary Assistant Stan Cho, Ministry of Finance
Key priorities the Thunder Bay delegation lobbied for included:
· Collection of Provincial Offences Act (POA) fines
· Police Services Funding
· Next Gen 911
· Evacuation Procedures
· Shelter House funding
· Bombardier
· Detox beds
· Crisis Centre for Mental Health and Addictions
· Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund
