Thunder Bay’s next mayor will lead the city as it grapples with high rates of opioid-related deaths, rising crime rates, and a troubled police service.
TVO.org speaks with candidates Gary Mack, Peng You, and Ken Boshcoff about their reasons for running, where they stand on contentious capital projects, and how they would tackle some of the city’s most pressing social issues.
Up now: Gary Mack, 58, co-owner of Bay Village Coffee and former executive director of the Shelter House.
TVO.org: Why did you decide to run for mayor?
Gary Mack: I was really inspired this spring, because our city just felt so neglected to me, and it felt to me like, at city hall, they were not addressing the issues that are really affecting Thunder Bay the most. By that, I mean crime, homelessness, and drug use. These are really rampant issues in our city, and I just feel like we’re at a point where, if we don’t address them now, they’re going to become so deeply entrenched that we’re not going to be able to do anything about it. So, for me, it feels like we can’t be continuing to wait for someone outside to come in and fix our problems. We have to deal with them ourselves, and we need somebody that can lead that. And I believe that’s me.
TVO.org: Data shows there are hundreds of people in the City of Thunder Bay experiencing homelessness. If elected, how would you support the homeless population in Thunder Bay?
Mack: I have a plan to end homelessness in Thunder Bay, and that’s going to begin by creating a task force to end homelessness. Other cities have done it, and I believe that we can do it as well by bringing all the players to the table: everyone that can contribute in some way. There’s a great deal of work being done in the area of homelessness right now. A lot of agencies — everyone is working to help it. But we’re not doing that with the eye to ending it. There’s only one way to end it, and that’s to provide housing.
We’re going to have to quickly assess what our needs as a community are and then create a plan and then sell that plan — get it funded. I’m not anticipating that’s going to be that difficult. We get buy-in from homeless people. We bring that forward to Indigenous leaders in our community and the communities around us, invite some private-sector involvement. We’ll create a plan that’s unique to us that addresses our needs here. We’re a different situation here in Thunder Bay, but these issues are not going to go away on their own.
We have to take action, and we can’t wait. People’s lives are in danger. Also, it’s holding our city back from moving forward in any way. It’s very expensive to have this number of homeless people in our community. Bottom line — it’s a win-win. We have to address this issue.
TVO.org: Data shows that Thunder Bay had the highest rate of opioid-related deaths in Ontario during the second year of the pandemic. If elected, what would you do to address the opioid-overdose crisis?
Mack: Well, there’s the supply and there’s the demand. So, the supply. I believe that we need to make some changes to how policing is done in Thunder Bay so that our police officers can focus on what they’re really trained to deal with, and that is serious crime in Thunder Bay: the drugs and the shootings. We’ve already had our twelfth homicide this year. That’s more than any year before, and there are still a couple of months left in the year.
What I’m recommending is that we introduce a new tier of first responder, which is teams of mental-health workers going out into the community to take care of all the situations that are non-criminal and non-violent. Over 80 per cent of calls to police are non-criminal and non-violent and could be handled by somebody else. So, mental-health crises, homelessness, public intoxication — all of these things. Police don’t need to be involved in that. They can be focusing on what they are trained to do, and that is to tackle this serious crime: we need to get these drugs and gangs out of Thunder Bay.
The other thing though is, of course, the demand. That comes from poverty. It comes from lack of opportunity. It comes from all sorts of more complex issues that we need to address as a community. Also, better treatment options. There’s been talk for many years about larger detox facilities in Thunder Bay. That’s something that I think we really need to push forward, and a faster stream into addiction treatment when people are ready for it.
TVO.org: Are you familiar with the proposal for a 24/7 crisis centre? Is that something you would support?
Mack: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, for sure.
TVO.org: There’s been a record high number of murders so far in Thunder Bay this year, and some argue that the Thunder Bay Police Service is in a state of turmoil — with a suspended police chief and an administrator overseeing the police services-board, among other issues facing the service. If elected, what would you do to ensure public safety for citizens in Thunder Bay?
Mack: I’m looking forward to being on the police-services board. It’s one of the reasons I want to be mayor. I haven’t been feeling very good about what I’ve been seeing coming from our police department. They were very slow to acknowledge the existence of systemic racism. They were very slow to issue an apology. It did not feel to me that there was a great deal of enthusiasm for addressing the recommendations of the OIPRD report. I believe that we have the opportunity right now to create an anti-racist police force. We can change our police department from the ground up, and I believe that we should. I’m excited that we’re going to be hiring a new chief, and I like the administrator’s recommendations for the qualities that we should be looking for in a chief. I think that’s a very good place to start.
TVO.org: If elected, what would you do to ensure that Indigenous people feel safe in Thunder Bay?
Mack: I think that really working with our police department to create an anti-racist police force would go a long way in that, and also hiring a police chief who is either Indigenous or has great experience working with Indigenous populations. I think those are two very good things. Also, ending homelessness in Thunder Bay will be a very nice act of reconciliation. If the majority of our homeless people are Indigenous, then let’s get them housed. That would be a great thing to do in that area.
I have a great respect for Indigenous people and Indigenous culture, and I really believe that our Indigenous population is one of Thunder Bay’s greatest strengths — and that we need to ensure that everyone feels safe in Thunder Bay, particularly Indigenous people.
TVO.org: Where do you stand on the issue of the indoor turf facility, previously estimated to cost $46 million?
Mack: The sports community has done a great job advocating for itself and the need for an indoor turf facility. I do agree with that, but I don’t like that initial price tag, and I didn’t like its original location, which I thought would be problematic — to build it in a swamp. I like the model from Edmonton, where they have built Canada’s largest indoor turf facility for roughly $8 million. I think we can look at something for a lower price point and just build it. The community needs it. Let’s just build that thing and move on and deal with the really important issues facing our city, which for me are crime, homelessness, and infrastructure.
TVO.org: Where do you stand on the issue of the proposed police headquarters, previously estimated to cost $56 million?
Mack: We should just stick a pin in it for now and wait until we’ve hired a new chief, because that chief is going to be tasked with reinventing what our police force even looks like. So let’s wait until then, when they are hired — I think that they would want to be part of a lot of these decisions.
TVO.org: With a potential recession looming, what would you do to ensure that Thunder Bay residents get the best value for their money?
Mack: One of my platforms pieces has really been about value for our tax dollars. There are several things with the recession looming, and we’re already hearing about utility rates going sky high. For me, really, the most important thing that we can do at this time is make sure that we are providing good value for our tax dollars. That means having a city council that is able to make decisions on its own without having to pay for expensive consultations over and over again. We need to stop wasting taxpayer money on projects that do not come to completion — and on things like our tugboat, which has been sitting in the water neglected because nobody even bothered about it. And now here we are spending a million dollars to get that thing out of the water. [Editor’s note: TBNewswatch reports the cost to raise the tugboat was $793,000.] It’s a constant waste of money.
What I really like is, when I’ve been knocking on doors all summer, I’ve been hearing these three things over and over again: crime, homelessness, and infrastructure. So, for me, the people of the city have spoken. This is what they want us to be working on. This needs to be our focus right now.
TVO.org: What is your overall vision for the City of Thunder Bay? What would the city look like as the best version of itself?
Mack: Thunder Bay already is a beautiful city with amazing people. There’s tons of great talent and just awesomeness here. There are things holding us back. Our reputation internationally, because of our police department, because of our homelessness, because of our opiate crisis. These are things that we have to address. Once they’re addressed, I see Thunder Bay as being a beautiful city of strong neighbourhoods where people are able to walk the streets in the evening, able to go out downtown and walk around and not have to see visible signs of poverty every day. We need to take action on that.
This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
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