THUNDER BAY – The Smart Growth Action Plan is already showing results.
In a presentation to the growth committee on Tuesday, Matthew Pearson, senior advisor for growth, highlighted several action items that are progressing as planned.
“Thunder Bay hasn’t experienced a lot of (growth) over the last 10 years, and so to get back on this track or to try and accelerate it or get more of it is all welcomed. So, it’s been positive. There’s been a lot of early work going into it,” he told Newswatch in an interview.
Currently, 11 of the 48 actions under the plan’s readiness pillar are at some stage of progress, he said.
Opening up public lands for housing development, including the Central Avenue subdivision, is underway, as well as the one-stop development shop, the community improvement plan, industrial development of Mission and McKellar Islands, and a coordinated community response to homelessness.
Under the attraction pillar, 16 of the 43 actions are moving forward.
Projects like the Tbaytel Multiplex, the Centennial Botanical Conservatory, and the reimagining of Victoriaville got started before the plan developed, but progress is being made on the vacant and dilapidated building program, and the Pool 6 lands have made progress since the plan was approved by council, he said.
Pearson said the city is focusing the growth plan in three areas: employment land, housing, and iconic action.
For example, he said prioritizing actions that support commercial and industrial development will help expand existing businesses and unlock new job creation, while housing will create “workforce attraction, infrastructure efficiency, and long-term tax-based sustainability.”
“Infill housing in the urban serviced area are designed to unlock capacity where services already exist, reducing cost pressures and accelerating delivery timelines…housing mix and affordability addresses structural gaps in Thunder Bay’s housing stock, and that new supply reflects the needs of students, families, seniors, and the local workforce,” Pearson said.
Iconic actions are projects “that reshape public space,” by creating cultural and recreational attractions, he said.
“There have to be things to do,” Pearson said.
“As someone that chose to move to Thunder Bay 14 years ago with a family, people have options. They can move to different communities. You have kids. What do you want your kids to be doing? What are the schools like? What’s the health like? Municipalities are a competitive environment when someone is choosing to move to your community, and making sure you have the things that other communities offer is important,” he added.
He said that people look at moving to communities that fit their needs, particularly people with families. They will move to a community that best suits their family’s needs.
Pearson said he would like to see more than the “basic bare minimum services” offered in the city and would like to see the community “strive for better for the citizens” of Thunder Bay.
“I think we take that for granted sometimes and we’re not in let’s say like a London, Ontario where there’s 10 other cities within a two hour drive, go to a concert, go to a show, go to a tournament, do whatever, go to a sports event,” Pearson said, “here we have to make our own entertainment. There’s no next town two hours away in Canada that we can rely on to help support that. We’re it, and you know what we’re pretty good at it. So, I hope some of these new assets just enhance that, enhance the quality of life for people living here.”
Coun. Dominic Pasqualino cautioned administration that creating more jobs is a key focus because without job creation, Thunder Bay does not need housing or iconic buildings.
“I will tell you that my key focus is going to be on those jobs that are going to be here for the for many, many years and hopefully that I know that we’ve got some things cooking on that, and there are some good signs on it, but those are the important things because with the rest of that, the other two aspects, don’t have the support of the income coming in,” he said.
