A new tourist attraction for the waterfront has been pushed to the 2021 budget discussions.
A proposed $150,000 “Thunder Bay” sign was to be funded using tourism money leftover from 2018, but City Council changed that last night.
During the half-hour debate, Red River Ward Councillor Brian McKinnon objects to the move, saying it would unnecessarily delay the project.
“This is not a budget item, this is money that was sitting there from 2018. I don’t know why this has become a discussion for budget. I think we’re going backwards on this,” McKinnon says.
Councillor Trevor Giertuga supported the vote, but suggests Council needs to be realistic about how much it’s going to cost and where the money is coming from. He says the Toronto sign the project is based on costs around $750,000 to run for three years.
Councillor Rebecca Johnson adds she would also be more comfortable if Council had more information about the source of the funding.
“We need to stop and take another look at what this all about and what we want to do. I’m not against the sign. You want to have the sign, that’s fine, but at the same point in time, it’s something where I think we need to make sure all our ducks are in a row,” she says.
She chairs the city’s Clean Green and Beautiful Committee, which is contributing $25,000 toward the project, while the Community Economic Development Commission is giving the same amount.
The sign is intended to be a legacy project for the 50th anniversary and a tourist attraction to bring more visitors to the waterfront. There is still no confirmed timeline for when it’ll be installed, and its final design has not been revealed.
