Thunder Bay City Council votes down recommended changes to its composition

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 09, 2025 12:12 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

The constitution of Thunder Bay City Council volition beryllium staying the aforesaid aft councillors voted down a recommended caller exemplary connected Monday.

The city's Council Composition Review Committee was recommending immoderate important changes to council's makeup.

Currently, metropolis assembly is made up of 13 members: 7 ward councillors, 5 at-large councillors, and the mayor.

However, successful a study to council, the committee recommended reducing that to 11 councillors — 8 ward councillors, 2 at-large councillors, and a mayor.

In addition, the committee recommended reducing the fig of wards to four, each of which would beryllium represented by 2 councillors, and redrawing ward boundaries.

However, assembly voted against the committee's proposal connected Monday.

"Here was an accidental for america to look astatine the metropolis successful a antithetic way," said Rebecca Johnson, who chaired the now-defunct creation committee. "Whether you agreed with thing oregon not, to me, it was a truly a large accidental to look astatine getting escaped of the north-south bound that we presently unrecorded successful with Fort William and Port Arthur."

"We would person eastbound and westbound wards. Our wards would beryllium balanced. And we would instrumentality distant immoderate of the thought of having truthful galore at-large and they would ore much successful the ward."

Johnson said the projected caller wards were balanced by colonisation and income levels, and each had a akin premix of spot usage types, specified arsenic waterfront, urban, rural, and industrial.

The past clip the creation of Thunder Bay City Council was changed was successful 1985, erstwhile the existent strategy was implemented.