THUNDER BAY — City council members have rejected the sweeping changes proposed to the city’s ward system and the makeup of council itself.
At Monday night’s committee of the whole meeting, Thunder Bay city council voted against the recommendation of adopting a new four-ward system, with a mayor, two councillors per ward and two at-large councillors. That model was developed by city staff on behalf of an ad hoc citizens committee struck about a year and a half ago to investigate council composition and ward distribution options.
Only Couns. Kristen Oliver and Trevor Giertuga and mayor Ken Boshcoff supported it.
Council also narrowly voted down an amendment brought forward in the meeting by Coun. Mark Bentz, which would have tweaked the recommended four-ward system by having one councillor attached to each ward, six councillors at-large and the mayor.
Council voted twice on that motion after Bentz requested a re-vote, citing potential confusion earlier. Ultimately the motion lost by one vote. Couns. Bentz, Rajni Agarwal, Albert Aiello, Giertuga and Kasey Etreni supported Bentz’s amendment, while Couns. Dominic Pasqualino, Andrew Foulds, Greg Johnsen, Brian Hamilton, Shelby Ch’ng and Oliver opposed. Coun. Michael Zussino was absent from the meeting, and mayor Ken Boshcoff didn’t raise his hand either for or against.
The mayor’s vote ultimately didn’t matter in this case, as the motion was already lost.
A memorandum from Coun. Andrew Foulds was also defeated. Foulds' memo requested council defeat the citizens’ committee proposal but task administration with a review of the city’s existing wards and their boundaries with an eye on population equity
Rebecca Johnson, a former longtime member of Thunder Bay city council herself, has been the chair of the council composition review committee. She watched the debate in council chambers and told Dougall Media after the series of votes that maintained the status quo that, overall, she was disappointed.
“We brought forward a recommendation which we felt had some value to it, but at the same point in time, council has not only turned the recommendation down but they just turned (down) an opportunity to make some change in our community and so that's a little bit disappointing,” she said.
Johnson said the six-person volunteer committee has been hard at work, researching what’s being done in other municipalities as well as soliciting feedback through public surveys, focus groups, community pop-ups.
“There was a lot of work that went into this, a lot of time,” she said.
The results of the committee's public consultations were inconclusive.
The votes on Monday bring council one step closer to wrapping up years of deliberations about how council will look for the foreseeable future. Oliver said during the meeting that the current conversation around council composition and ward distribution goes back to 2019.
Council’s final decision, however, is still contingent on ratification at a future city council meeting.
Under the citizens committee proposal (or Bentz’s amendment) council would have decreased by two members from 13 to 11. The four wards would have been essentially drawn along parallel east-west lines, encompassing rural and urban constituencies.
Throughout the debate, many council members showed appreciation for, and thanked, the citizens committee for its work.
Johnson, as the chair, offered her own gratitude to her colleagues.
“I would just like personally to say thank you to the committee,” she said. “They put a lot of time and effort into this and I think it's really important that, as council has identified this evening, they did appreciate the work that that committee had done.”
