THUNDER BAY – It seems that the public is getting fatigued by the council composition review process.
Krista Power, director of legislative services and city clerk, told Newswatch, “we are finding that people are fatigued in having the conversation and potentially have given us their feedback. And they are not interested in continuing to give us their feedback, which is fair.”
“We have done a significant amount of consultation,” she added.
Power stated that survey and public consultation data is still being collected and the council composition review will make a final recommendation to council in the new year.
The council composition review committee was tasked by Thunder Bay’s previous council to look into possibly redrawing ward boundaries and changing the makeup of city council in time for the next municipal election in 2026.
During phase two of the council composition review, the committee proceeded with public engagement on two proposed recommendations, both involve reducing size of council by two, with to 10 councillors and a mayor.
One option would see the current seven wards replaced with four larger wards, with more equal populations, each stretching from the waterfront to the rural parts of the city, and each represented by two councillors. The eight ward councillors would be joined by two at-large councillors.
The second option would be to do away with wards entirely and move to an all at-large system.
Power said she has noticed that the same people are showing up to public consultation events such as ward and at-large meetings and stakeholder sessions.
During yesterday’s committee meeting, Power informed the committee that only one stakeholder had registered for the next stakeholder session at the Thunder Bay Public Library and they might have to cancel the event or merge the two remaining stakeholders’ sessions into one.
This led to a discussion about whether or not any more public open houses, besides the slated ward meetings, are necessary to complete their work.
Committee Vice-chair Cody Fraser told Newswatch that “there is a threshold” to engaging with members of the public and once public consultations go beyond that threshold “it isn't gonna necessarily hurt the process, but you're not gonna get anything new.”
“We're at the finish line from a public consultation standpoint. I think capping it off on the 20th with deputations, we'll get a lot of the same but at the same time, it's the public forum," Fraser said. "Folks have their chance to speak and the democratic process is unfolding.”
The council composition committee has a scheduled day for deputations on Nov. 20.
Afterwards, they will get to work on analyzing the consultation data and finalizing their recommendation to council.
Power said the committee should present a report to council sometime in early 2026. City Manager Jon Collin has suggested that this report should initially be presented as a first reading and presented again in the spring for debate and ratification.
Collin said that between January and February council will be heavily invested in the 2025 budget and presenting the composition report would allow council to digest the document without being overwhelmed with the heavy decisions being made during the budget time.
Having a second reading of the report in the spring, if council decides to move forward with a bylaw, should still leave time, said Power, to get the by-law ratified, allow the by-law to go through the standard appeal process, and send the by-law out for ministry approval.
