THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay Mayor Bill Mauro and other city representatives will be attending the annual conference for the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. The three-day virtual event starting Monday will see delegates hold meetings with Health Minister Christine Elliott and at least five other ministers
Mauro is looking to follow up on a proposal brought to Associate Minister of Mental Health Michael Tibollo about mental health and addictions in 2020.
“We have a formal proposal in on behalf of 20 different networks in the community, the formal proposal’s been with the minister for, I think close to a year now, had a meeting with the minister and other northern Ontario mayors about a week and a half ago, chased it at that time," said Mauro.
“So we’re still looking, we’re still hopeful, there’s been nothing formally announced relative to our proposal, I think we’re likely to hear something about mental health and addictions across the north, I don’t know if it will be supporting the formal proposal that we’ve submitted to Minister Tibollo, but we’re going to be talking to Minister Elliot, the Minister of health about it.”
Thunder Bay will also be submitting a bid to host the 2024 Ontario Winter Games which Mauro is confident will bring more eyes to Thunder Bay.
“If we’re successful it will mark 50 years since the city actually hosted the Ontario Winter Games last, we’ve got a solid proposal in,” said Mauro
“We’re actually a bit surprised that we haven’t heard one way or the other yet, whether or not we will be successful. So we will once again just check in with the minister responsible and ask if we’re likely to get a response on this sometime in the future.”
Mauro went on to explain that hosting the 2024 Winter Games will bring Thunder Bay into the national spotlight and provide a great opportunity for people to learn about Thunder Bay, as well as strengthen the local economy as people travel here to spectate or take part in the games.
