Major changes to city council will be recommended

THUNDER BAY — The next time city residents elect a new council, they could be voting for not one but two councillors to represent them in each of four new wards that stretch the entire width of the city.

After a 14-month process, the council composition review committee decided on its recommendation for the future of democracy in Thunder Bay.

The committee will recommend council switch to an 11-member hybrid model, with two councillors in each of four wards, two at-large councillors and the mayor. The intent is to have a decision on the council restructuring in time for the next municipal election on Oct. 26, 2026.

It's the model that was recommended to the committee by city administration and one of two options presented for public input late last year.

Committee chair Rebecca Johnson told Newswatch, “the community was divided in many ways, but at the same point in time there was enough influence from the surveys and the community engagement that we had, whether it was a focus group or just talking to people at ward meetings, that identified that the hybrid system was so important to them. With that, we have been able to do that with a recommendation that we're proposing to council: keeping that hybrid system.”

“If we went with all wards and no councillors at-large, we would lose that hybrid system. And to get it back again, I think, would be very difficult. I think that continuing on with the hybrid system is a good management tool for the future of the community,” said Johnson.

The committee came to a consensus that the hybrid model was the recommendation they wanted to put forward, but it wasn’t without debate.

Committee member Wayne Bahlieda agreed the riding boundaries should be redrawn into four wards, but he would have liked to have one councillor per ward and six at-large councillors plus the mayor.

“My preferred option was to have councillors at-large. I conceded with the fact that we agreed to move towards four wards, so my position was that I wanted to have the vote reflect what the survey stated,” Bahlieda said.

He pointed out 60 per cent of the survey respondents in the phase one consultation wanted at-large because those respondents “wanted to have a say in (everyone) who was elected.”

He also added an all at-large council would focus on growing the city’s tax bases rather than being bogged down by ward issues.

“I think what we are agreeing to will be an improvement of where we're at. Where we're at was good 30 years ago, and that was sort of the mindset. I still say a lot of that was funnelled together to compete with the Fort William versus Port Arthur mentality. We were trying to combat that but that's gone,” Bahlieda said.

“How do we become more progressive? How do we grow the tax base? How do we make Thunder Bay a desired location? We need everyone unified and moving forward."

The review committee will be presenting their first report to council on March 3.

A final reading of the report will be scheduled for April for council to make a decision.