City Council overwhelmingly votes to proceed with temporary shelter village
Thunder Bay City Council has voted down a motion to delete the temporary shelter village from the city’s Ten-Part Human Rights-Based Community Action Plan.
Councillor At Large Rajni Agarwal introduced the motion, suggesting the city should build more permanent housing rather than a temporary shelter village.
Councillor At Large Trevor Giertuga seconded Agarwal’s motion. In the end, Giertuga was the only councillor to vote with Agarwal.
“We cannot be changing paths at the eleventh hour,” said Councillor At Large Mark Bentz.
City Manager John Collin revealed at the meeting that Thunder Bay has already signed two contracts with third parties for the construction and operation of the temporary shelter village.
“We’ve made commitments – legal commitments – and we have to stand by those,” Bentz responded.
Responding to a question from Neebing Ward Councillor Greg Johnsen, the city manager also confirmed that the ten-part plan for addressing encampments would dissolve without the temporary shelter village.
Councillor Andrew Foulds of Current River Ward pointed out that the city will have no legal ability to clear out encampments without the temporary shelter village.
In the end, even councillors who were highly critical of the ten-part plan, such as Councillors Albert Aiello of McIntyre Ward and Michael Zussino of Red River Ward, ultimately voted to keep the temporary shelter village.
Agarwal’s motion required a two-thirds majority of nine votes to succeed.
The final tally was 11-2 in opposition to Agarwal’s motion.
Councillors Rajni Agarwal and Trevor Giertuga voted YES to deleting the temporary shelter village from the ten-part plan.
Mayor Ken Boshcoff and Councillors Michael Zussino, Dominic Pasqualino, Kristen Oliver, Greg Johnsen, Brian Hamilton, Andrew Foulds, Kasey Etreni, Shelby Ch’ng, Mark Bentz, and Albert Aiello voted NO to deleting the temporary shelter village from the plan.
“It’s a difficult issue that we’re dealing with,” said Dominic Pasqualino after the meeting. “But I believe that we’re too far along to back out of it now.”
