Mayor McDonald’s metaphorical contention that the Cassellholme board is “suing” the City by imposing a $121.9 million redevelopment levy on member municipalities is interesting.
Cassellholme has the right under the Long-Term Care Homes Act to apportion capital costs to member municipalities.
Naturally, the Mayor would be familiar with the concept of suing citizens having had that power for the last decade and used it to approve virtually every increase in staffing at City Hall and increase in taxation during that time.
The Mayor suddenly becoming the champion of city taxpayers over the Cassellholme issue, which has been in the works for a decade, is an insult to one’s intelligence.
Possibly he should have thought about Cassellholme before instituting the Mayor’s Plan which continues to cost taxpayers millions.
Perhaps an early reconsideration of the Taj Mahal proposed to replace the West Ferris arena or the $600,000 plus paid out in termination penalties to various management personnel over the years.
Maybe ending the $1 million-plus Ponzi scheme being run by North Bay Hydro or the indefensible $8 million purchase of Espanola Hydro would provide an opportunity for some fiscal common sense.
A few concrete actions such as considering an OPP costing and a hybrid fire department would be a way to actually provide some real evidence of this sudden concern about taxpayers’ interests and would be a little more convincing
How about stopping the practice of charging taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest on their own money every year.
The most recent example is the hiring of former council member Marcus Tignanelli as a city employee.
While disavowing any knowledge of the hire, the Mayor inexplicably then assures us that “he would not have been treated more favourably or less favourably than everyone else”. The idea that the addition to the payroll of a twenty-something whose qualifications consist of having travelled abroad a little (using taxpayer funds in some cases) and taken a couple of correspondence courses (paid for by taxpayers) is really a good use of taxpayers’ funds, is ludicrous.
Has anyone forgotten the results realized from that economic powerhouse, Invest North Bay, which was nothing more than a distraction and a total waste of a couple of million dollars during its lifetime.
Has the Mayor forgotten the optics caused by the awarding of a $1 million contract to his long-time campaign manager which resulted in a total lack of any real value for the money spent?
The faux mission to grow the city created by the Mayor is just that. The fact is, his actions and that of council in this regard, have been nothing but detrimental to the citizens and businesses of North Bay.
Rather than respond to these criticisms our elected officials continue to assume the role of victim and suggest that the issue is not them but the cynicism and destruction of community spirit due to social media and the solution is to develop a thick skin and soldier bravely on.
Don Rennick
North Bay
