THUNDER BAY — The mayors of Shuniah and Thunder Bay are both expressing satisfaction with the outcome of the provincial government's review of Shuniah's new official plan.
The city was worried its neighbouring municipality was preparing to host large-scale regional commercial developments within its boundary, such as a big-box store.
Both Thunder Bay and Shuniah are anxious to diversify and enlarge their tax bases.
Although the Ministry of Municipal Affairs has now approved the official plan, it's also ordered modifications.
According to Mayor Bill Mauro, the city believes those changes address its concern that Shuniah would be able to proceed with large-format commercial operations that were more appropriate for Thunder Bay.
"In the future...if they want to go forward with any additional attempt at a large-scale commercial development, they would need to make another application. They would need to try for an official plan amendment, and then that of course would allow for the City of Thunder Bay to be involved in the process once again," Mauro said in an interview.
The city had expressed its concerns about Shuniah's plan to the ministry, noting that Thunder Bay's own official plan already provides for regional commercial development within the city.
It pointed out that the government's Northern Growth Plan and the Provincial Policy Statement identify Thunder Bay as the regional economic and service hub.
Mauro thinks that, even if the city had not intervened, the ministry still would have agreed that part of Shuniah's plan was inconsistent with the government's own planning and policy documents.
Shuniah's Chief Administrative Officer, Paul Greenwood, believes the city's objections to larger-format commercial development likely had an impact on the modifications the province ordered.
He said he's disappointed the ministry couldn't see that the official plan policy on commercial development "is progressive and would support some larger-scale commercial projects."
A site-specific official plan amendment would still allow a major commercial project
However, Greenwood said the changes that were made do not exclude large-format commercial development applications.
He said the city had asked that wholesaling be removed from the Highway Commercial Development policy, and the ministry moved the wholesaling and warehousing uses to the Industrial Development section,
Despite that change, the province "kept the door open for large-format commercial development subject to a site-specific official plan amendment."
Greenwood said the city also failed to convince the ministry to remove a reference to "regional commercial use" related to Tourist Commercial Development in the official plan.
"It's hard to imagine why the city would object to regional tourism development outside the city limits when in all likelihood many of these tourists will also spend time and money at hotels and restaurants located within the city limits," he said.
But Shuniah Mayor Wendy Landry feels the ministry considered the positions of both municipalities, and found "a happy medium".
Landry said "I don't think there's any winners and losers at the end of the day....what's good for the region is good for the city, and vice versa."
She said Shuniah and Thunder Bay are in a unique situation.
"We're right next door to each other. If the opportunity were to come to Shuniah, it's not an entire loss for the city, because the economic piece is huge."
Landry added "It's not like we're trying to cut the city off at the knees in any ability to develop. We just don't think they should be able to cut us off at the knees if the opportunity arises."
Mayor Mauro noted Landry herself has acknowledged that the Provincial Policy Statement calls for any kind of big-box commercial development to go to larger centres first, rather than smaller communities.
He said he understands why Shuniah and other municipalities are trying to build their tax base, but "we're representing the interest of our tax base as well. You'll know that last year was one of the lowest growth years the city has had in the last 10 years when it comes to assessment growth. So we have our own challenges and our owns service levels that we need to accommodate and take care of."
Mauro said it's clear that "whatever the commercial developments that are being contemplated are, they can be accommodated within the City of Thunder Bay footprint."
