Students will get more housing and the Legion receives breaks.

1st Vice President of The Royal Canadian Legion 23rd Branch of North Bay, Bill Wilkins (left) spoke to council regarding tax breaks towards reconstruction of the Legion's falling constructions, and was pleased with the response. Photo by Devin Size

Canadore College and the city have reached a mutual agreement to aid both parties’ expansions. In an effort to ease into the new by-law restricting the amount of students living in tenant dwellings, the city agreed to give Canadore and its private developers over $370,000 in waived development fees and municipal tax breaks to alleviate the costs of building.

The new residence at the College will entail a six story structure, with a capacity to house 196 students. This provides the College with more space for students to reside directly on campus, making it more attractive to out-of-towners.

The motion was put forward by Deputy Mayor Peter Chirico and then seconded by Councilor Mike Anthony, and soon after unanimous consent was given around the table.

“This is a great news story for North Bay,” said Chirico. “These 196 students represent 40-50 of these homes that have had extra students living in them. I’m glad Canadore finally stepped up to this with a proposal.”

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The city will finally be cracking down on the piling up of pedestrians on sidewalks and roads in certain hot spots. A new by-law was passed Monday night under the Set fines and short form wordings for Traffic & Parking By-Law.

This is in conjunction with the rising cigarette smoking problem in the city. As the city’s by-laws on smoking have been tightening and places to smoke are becoming few and far between, the issue has become increasingly severe around schools and the hospital.

This inquiry and by-law creation is in reaction to several complaints called in by citizens and home owners around the city who live near these hot spots. Their sidewalks or driveways near their homes become crowded with smoking teenagers from schools for example, as smoking on school property is strictly prohibited and finable under a similar by-law. Councilor George Maroosis raised an interesting point about enforcement issues.

“How do you enforce this?” said Maroosis “When you get pulled over for speeding, you have your license and registration, but these kids won’t have ID on them and whatnot, how do you ticket them?”

Councilor Tanya Vrebosch-Merry explained in response that it was more about education at first as opposed to enforcement.

“We need to inform these people before just ticketing them, then through education we can nip the problem,” explains Vrebosch-Merry. “This problem isn’t just with young smokers though, it’s the same on Main St. after bar hours, or at the hospital now with the new smoking by-law. People are congregating on the streets, and it’s all obstruction of traffic and we need to educate them.”

There would be new training and regulations for by-law officers in effect with these changes. Chirico stated plainly that they ticket pedestrians in non-smoking areas now, so it would be very similar. Either way he declared it would be up to the by-law enforcement officers to find an effective system like they always have.

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The war veterans of the North Bay Royal Canadian Legion Branch 23 made a request of city council Monday night to have a property tax break, in an effort to bring the Legion back to speed. They made this request to enable them to make repairs to their slowly dilapidating structures in town, and to be able to provide service at top level.

The 1st Vice President of the 23rd Branch of the Legion, Bill Wilkins, explains that the veterans are getting up in years and dying off from WWI and WWII, as well as the vets from the Korean War. They don’t have the man power they used to have for the upkeep, and therefore are looking for options to increase revenues and be able to reconstruct. His speech received a great response of applause from the audience.

“Our membership is getting old and slowly dying off,” explains Wilkins. “We were collecting dues before but that is non-existent now. Our attrition rate is terrible now and we don’t have the volunteer base we used to.”

“This tax break enables us to go out and hire younger students and not only help the Legion, but also help the local economy. This will save us roughly $27,000 in a year. We need that money desperately, because even the building has been in disarray for many years. As our older veterans have been dying off and we’re losing help, the building is not at the level it should be and is falling into a state of disrepair.”

There are still many veterans not only from past wars, but also young soldiers coming back from Afghanistan that are suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and need the Legion for support upon return, like it has been providing vets for years.