Good morning Neighbours:
We are running out of time- but it’s still not too late! On Tuesday, January 13th, City Council will meet and Growth Standing Committee will recommend that our much-loved greenspace on Arundel be declared as surplus. If this happens, the housing development process advances to the next stage and the City will begin negotiations with the developer to refine the conceptual development proposal. We need to stop this process by encouraging – demanding, City officials- elected by us, to vote ‘NO’ to declaring the greenspace in our backyard as surplus!
For those who have contacted Council before and for those that haven’t yet, please copy the brief email below, sign, and send to Mayor and Council to let them know you want them to vote ‘NO’ to sacrificing our beautiful greenspace on Arundel to housing developers.
Copy and paste this short email below:
Dear Mayor and Council:
I oppose the recent and all housing development proposals on the Arundel greenspace. I am encouraging you to protect our greenspace and not advance this Community zoned property as surplus. This greenspace is a beautiful and unique feature to Thunder Bay, promotes wholistic well-being for all community residents, and serves an important role in our local ecosystem. Further, such a development would not benefit our neighbourhood but rather contribute to it obvious deficits including traffic obstacles, water pressure burden, and social impact challenges.
On January 13th, please serve the interests of your constituents and protect our greenspace by voting ‘No’ to declaring this much loved and much needed place as surplus.
Sincerely,
(Your Name)
And copy and paste this email list to send directly to our Mayor and Council:
ken.boshcoff@thunderbay.ca; Rajni.Agarwal@thunderbay.ca; trevor.giertuga@thunderbay.ca; kasey.etreni@thunderbay.ca; andrew.foulds@thunderbay.ca; albert.aiello@thunderbay.ca; brian.hamilton@thunderbay.ca; dominic.pasqualino@thunderbay.ca; michael.zussino@thunderbay.ca; kristen.oliver@thunderbay.ca; shelby.chng@thunderbay.ca; mark.bentz@thunderbay.ca
I have also attached the phone numbers for each member of Council below if you prefer to call your representative(s).
FUNNY BUSINESS
Recently, a neighbour who has been actively working to preserve our greenspace, Catherine Courtine, sent an impassioned open letter to the media and Mayor and Council, underpinning the immeasurable and wholistic significance of greenspaces. Councillor Etreni’s response to Catherine, in part, was, “Selling these lands as surplus for housing development helps every resident in our community in one way or another. When new housing is built, it increases the number of people contributing to the property tax base. This will add upwards of 1,400 new units paying property taxes. The City benefits twice: first from the sale of the land, and then from ongoing tax revenue.”
The Mayor also responded to Catherine on the heels of Etreni’s message, stating, “As Ms. Courtine has a valid concern I do hope that she will understand and accept Council’s debated and approved decision to utilize such surplus lots which must be maximized to keep our taxes low and indeed ensure our services reach the most number of taxpayers at continued low costs.”
It sure sounds like Council has made a decision to sacrifice our greenspace as surplus behind close doors ahead of the January 13th meeting doesn’t it? And this may also explain the recent reproposed number of units the developer has included in his revamped proposal -400 instead of 600 which is still 400 units too many!
Get those emails out everyone- this isn’t a done deal yet!!
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
The next City Council meeting will be at 630 PM on Tuesday, January 13th (as I’ve mentioned multiple times already…LOL). This is the one to attend everyone! We must arrive in great numbers and show Council that we are engaged. Neighbours- carpool, bring signs, bring a friend, just show up PLEASE!
THANK YOU -To everyone single one of you who gathered petition signatures, signed a petition, shared information with neighbours, made deputations, showed up to support the cause, emailed Councillors and City officials, wrote letters to the editor, and who have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make difference! We can impact change, if we are doing it together!
Warmly,
Steffanie 