THUNDER BAY — The James Whalen tugboat isn't headed for the scrap heap just yet.
In a nine-to-three vote, council directed administration to look into a third option for destroying the 119-year-old tug.
A local industrial scrap metal recycling company, Harbour Metals, claimed in an email to the city that they can take the vessel off the city’s hands for free.
Coun. Albert Aiello motioned to have city staff hold off on scrapping the tug stating “I think a conversation needs to be had, and then again, being administration, you could determine whether it's worthy or not.
“But I'd like to at least go down that avenue anyway, just see what the possibility is there, because potentially we could be saving a whole lot of money.”
The main issue for city staff is the tender recommendation that was presented.
The city has two tender bids to scrap the boat. The lowest was from Marine Recycling Corporation for $579,600 and the second bid was from LH North Ltd. for a little over $1.1 million.
When asked how long it would take for city staff to consult with Harbour Metals, City Manager John Collins said they would need three weeks to prepare a new report for council’s consideration.
However, he also stated that proceeding with Aiello's request would jeopardize the tender contracts with the two companies.
“Our recommendation is that we stay the course. Three primary reasons for that. First of all, we've already gone through an open and transparent process for the tendering of this work, and there is a question of fairness,” said Collin.
“Secondly, there can be potential additional costs behind this. And thirdly, there can be potential legal considerations that we could certainly expose to counsel when we brought this back if it was a deferral.”
Collin also said there is a cost to leaving the historic boat where it is.
Since 2022, it has cost the city $5,000 a month to store the James Whalen near the James Street swing bridge.
City manager of parks & open spaces, Cory Halvorsen, said that awarding the tender to Harbour Metals would push back the project to August or September.
According to Halvorsen, Harbour Metals put in a bid in the winter, but because they were “coordinating other projects,” they wouldn’t be able to meet the completion date of May 31 as part of the tender.
"Given that we're paying a month-to-month lease for its current storage, then there is a financial implication to punting this down the road," added coun. Brian Hamilton, who opposed the motion.
“If we have to keep it in storage longer, we will incur that cost. We will need to tighten up the tender proposal accordingly," said Collin. "My understanding is this is a desire of council through the referral for us to take a look at this last opportunity. Quite frankly, if it's a non-starter, we might come back to council even earlier. But, we are just going to take a look at it and we will return on April 28th with our recommendation,” said Collin.
