McDonald stresses innovation to achieve growth | North Bay Nugget
More than a year into his current mandate and Mayor Al McDonald remains committed to his pledge to grow North Bay. If anything, he feels more strongly about it.
“I’ve been the mayor now for nine years. I think we’re at an important stage of our history where we all need to work together to create those opportunities for our children and grandchildren to stay here,” McDonald said during a sit-down interview with The Nugget in his office at city hall.
“It’s tough to say grow because people ask ‘What’s the definition of growth?’ But if they think of families being able to stay here and more people wanting to come to our city, the opportunities that everyone will have will be greater.”
With the budget passed and a new year underway, McDonald points to certain changes and trends which to him suggest some early successes are taking place in the city.
Figures from November show the city issued more than $93 million in building permits, surpassing a previous 10-year high and a recent low in 2018, although the latter has been attributed to permits being counted based on when they were issued instead of when they are received.
Council put in place a three-year moratorium on residential development charges and has a staff member dedicated to helping existing businesses retain their workforce and possibly expand.
Canada Meat Group and Norgalv are establishing themselves at the city’s Airport Industrial Business Park and are expected to create dozens of jobs.
The city recently undertook major construction projects, such as the widening of Cassells Street and the re-working of the Highways 11/17-Seymour Street intersection, and committed multi-year funding for renovations at Cassellholme Home for the Aged and a new community and recreation centre in West Ferris.
The elimination of overnight parking fees in the McIntyre Street West parking garage will encourage property owners to build more residential units downtown, McDonald said, although with the rise in online shopping he hopes people will continue to buy local. Meanwhile, a new casino is taking shape on Pinewood Park Drive.
Protect investments
But in backing up his stated goal of growing the city, McDonald points to a concerning shift in demographics that saw North Bay’s population fall by more than 2,000 people in 2016 according to the last census.
As deaths outpace births, the city will naturally lose one person every two days, the average age is inching higher, all in the face of recent school closures, with Widdifield Secondary School being the latest to close in just a matter of months.
All the while, spending in the operating budget will increase by 4.8 per cent next year, with new tax rates to be determined by April.
But in doing nothing to address the city’s population, McDonald says there will be fewer opportunities for businesses, less jobs for young people, not enough people to buy homes, and a decline in property values.
“We have to do everything we can to help protect the investments of our citizens in their houses, because they’ve made an investment to live here. We want their property values to go up in value, we want their businesses to go up in value, so we really need to focus on increasing property values. We need to attract individuals and families to North Bay.”
The federal government announced last year that North Bay would be included in the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot, a program in which employers are matched with skilled immigrants who, in turn, get a path to permanent residency.
But even then, the program has been capped at 100 applicants in its first year, leaving the question of what will draw other people to the city.
To that, McDonald points to the lifestyle of North Bay, from its schools and parks to the waterfront and ski hill, as well as the housing market down south that has become increasingly unaffordable and has people seemingly frustrated by the ongoing “gridlock” of traffic.
But unless people have more babies, McDonald says the current population trend will only continue.
“To turn a blind eye to that, I don’t think that’s what leadership’s all about,” he said. “We’ve identified the challenge and we need to do everything we can to make our city sustainable into the future.”
‘Brilliant’ strategy
At the same time, a heightened awareness appears to have developed in the city around drug use, homelessness and mental health, with businesses such as Pearls referencing these problems as having affected their decision to close shop.
McDonald sought to address this by holding roundtable meetings alongside representatives from more than two dozen social service agencies.
The recommendations from those discussions will not only be sent to Ontario’s associate minister of mental health and addictions, Michael Tibollo, he said, but they led to the announcement of a new 24-7 transitional housing centre that will offer mental health and addiction supports all in one building. The centre could open as early as this summer.
“So, you can imagine if you’re an individual who needs harm reduction, you’re addicted or you’re having struggle(s) with mental health, you don’t have any place to stay, what’s the short-term living arrangements? Who’s giving you counselling? Can you imagine trying to say to someone go to 10 different places? That won’t work,” McDonald said.
“I think their strategy of doing it under one roof where you can come and get all the services you need is brilliant.”
Innovate to survive
McDonald hints that residents can expect to hear the city talk a lot more about innovation, something he says Coun. Marcus Tignanelli, who proposed during budget talks the creation of a chief innovation officer, will take the lead on.
Marcus Tignanelli
While Tignanelli’s proposal, which would have examined ways of reducing costs and making services more efficient in part through technology, wasn’t included in the budget, McDonald said cities need to innovate in order to survive.
It was only a few years ago, he said, that they didn’t even know how many people rode city buses.
“Those are the type of things that we can measure through technology, and if we can do that then I think the strides that we, as a community, are going to make are going to be incredible.”