THUNDER BAY – Vanity projects should be a thing of the past, says mayoral candidate Robert Szczepanski, addressing his infrastructure priorities for the next term of city council.
The first-time hopeful called unnecessary projects, which could include the proposed indoor turf facility, which dominated the past several years of the council agenda, and the shelved $114-million event centre that dominated previous mayor Keith Hobbs’ tenure, as a waste of time an money.
Taxpayer dollars are better spent elsewhere, Szczepanski said, also critical of statues on Algoma Street and the fountains outside of Thunder Bay city hall.
“I want to build more affordable apartments, because the city has been going nuts with houses and building out, building out,” he said. “Instead we should be building up. That’s a big reason a lot of the things in the city aren’t working that well.”
Szczepanski said people simply can’t afford to live in Thunder Bay.
“Instead of building three-, four- and five-hundred thousand dollar houses, why don’t we build an apartment building with 100 rooms that are maybe $500 or $600 a month.”
He wasn’t alone in his criticism of how the city’s infrastructure budget was spent.
Entrepreneur Gary Mack, also running for mayor for the first time, said the No. 1 issue he’s hearing at the door is the state of the city’s roads.
“We just went through a terrible spring. Our roads are crumbling. Our city feels neglected. One of the reasons I stepped up to run for mayor is just because our city has been neglected for so long and we need a leader to step up and take care of our beautiful city,” Mack said.
It’s time to get out in front of Thunder Bay’s $20-million infrastructure deficit, he added.
“It’s going to have to be prioritized as part of the budgeting process,” Mack said.
Former two-time mayor Ken Boshcoff said it’s clear that while previous councils have looked at ways to catch up, with climate change starting to show its impact, the city may have to take a different approach.
“The rapidity of some of the changes now has caught everyone by surprise. The council, as a group, has to think how (it) is going to be adaptive enough to deal with this,” Boshcoff said.
“In our city, we know roads are really the first thing – and the first to go. Maybe there are things like frost lines built into the pavement so they don’t totally destroy themselves.”
Clinton Harris, the former Chronicle Journal publisher, said council needs to get a better handle on what needs to be budgeted for and stop putting things off for future councils to fund.
“That needs to be addressed so we can actually get that work done. If we get our infrastructure in place we can look for possible investment from people who want to come here. The shortfall is on the infrastructure spending,” said Harris, adding he dip into reserve funds in order to play catch-up, rather than putting past mistakes on the backs of present-day taxpayers.
“That way you don’t have to go back to your taxpayers for money,” he said.
Coun. Peng You, seeking the mayor’s chair after one term on council, said planning is key to keep up with the need to maintain the city’s roads, bridges, sewage and wastewater systems.
You said the city also has to find a way to make larger recreational projects happen, though not necessarily paid for out of city coffers.
“We have to find a different way,” he said. “Private-sector organizations can be part of the partnership. And also, I’d really like to see them be done with short-term solutions. We could put a bubble over Fort William Stadium and let our kids play through the winter indoors. We can do it.”
Larger structures, like a replacement for Fort William Gardens, can only happen hand-in-hand with growth and economic development, something You said must be a priority of councils moving forward.
