North Bay's deputy mayor Tanya Vrebosch has announced on her Facebook page that she will be running for re-election in the upcoming municipal election. Photo from Facebook.
"I will be filing my nomination papers on September 2, 2014, to seek my 3rd term on council for the City of North Bay. As much as people would like to believe that I was always going to put my name forward, it was not an easy decision," she tells her Facebook friends.
"This past term has certainly had its challenges, but nothing that we can’t overcome. Moving forward, we’re going to have to change and get passed the negative attitude and image that has been portrayed by a certain small group of people and made as headlines for some media outlets.
The negatives have overshadowed the large focus on the necessary infrastructure improvements, the expansion at the airport industrial park, the new jobs that have been created and so much more. "
She adds, "We are a beautiful and vibrant community that needs to be promoted in a positive way to continue to attract new people and new businesses."
Moving forward Vrebosch says " We need to continue to invest in our infrastructure while we balance the needs and wants of the rest of the community in a fiscal and responsible manner."
As for the deficit, she wants to change the budget processes to be more realistic to avoid future deficits.
"This year we were burdened with a hard winter, large MPAC assessments and trying to tighten up the budget even further than the previous year. Continue investments in our reserves are imperative to help us when we have multiple harsh winters in a row and unexpected expenses and emergencies.
"Memorial Gardens will hang over this council’s head but we need to move forward. The process in how it was done was wrong. We’ve since changed policies and procedures to help us avoid this in the future. In the end, we have taken an old arena and turned it into a refurbished COMMUNITY centre that we can and should be proud of.
"As for Lakeshore Drive, if anyone thinks that any politician wanted this project to continue on into an election year, they would have to think again. This council and our staff have done everything possible to try and get the project done as quickly as possible under the circumstances while protecting the city as a whole and limiting our liability. Those who feel they have been affected should put a claim to see if they can be compensated for their loss of business," she says referring to L'Amis Garden Centre and Billy Bob's Bait that suffered a severe drop in business during an extended reconstruction of Lakeshore.
"I will continue to work as hard as I have for the last 7 years to better this community. Council is a job that very few people wish to undertake. As much as I had my doubts, I have decided that I am committed to running for a 3rd term because I am objective, prepared, and listen to each issue on an individual basis as it comes forward and I actually love doing it.
Constituents have to know that this is a partnership. Decisions we make at the council table affect them and it affects us as individuals. I’ve done my best to respect the constituents and their concerns and I hope that they see that I am committed to this city and re-elect me on October 27, 2014."
