Ward 4 Coun. Stephan Kinach found himself castigated by fellow city council members yesterday after he persisted in griping about an already-decided issue.
Council was about to vote on retaining a consultant to provide engineering services for the Queen Street reconstruction between Bruce Street and East Street. Councillors had already decided at their last meeting on Aug. 28 to commence the $6-million project next year, but Coun. Kinach continued complaining about it.
"I want to once again echo what I've been saying about this project from the beginning," said the rookie councillor.
"This Queen Street improvement project is a swing and miss. I don't know why we are rushing into another project for downtown that will be over-budget and not address any of the current issues.
"The proposal before us is from the direction of council from over eight years ago. There have been two elections since then. And from that council that gave direction only two out of 11 sitting here today are with us.
"The opinions and the needs of the city have changed drastically since the direction was given. I do agree we need investment in our downtown but what is proposed is like starting to build from the second floor completely ignoring all the structural support that that the building stands on.
"This proposal should not be the project. It should be our starting points. It has been 15 years since the last major investment has been made on Queen Street.
"We are a newly elected council. We all ran on our ideas, which is always agreed with. That's why we're sitting here today.
"None of our ideas are in this proposal because we'd have had no input into this project. Don't councillors represent the people and people can reject a recommendation?
"I ask you once again: Can you live with this project for the next 50 years?
"We have a chance to make a real impactful difference in our community by voting no and going back to the drawing board," Kinach said.
This drew angry responses.
"If members of this council want to point out deficiencies that they see, I'm going to point out deficiencies as I see them," replied Ward 5's Corey Gardi.
"The plan proposed by Coun. Kinach would have cost millions and millions of dollars more than one before us," Gardi said.
"Democracy works by people voting in councils and those councils making decisions. And the good work of the councils before us are what we add to and help to improve our city.
"So it's easy to say that wasn't around when this came up. It's easy to say that we should go back to the drawing board. But dozens and dozens if not hundreds of hours had been put into this plan.
"Mayor Shoemaker came up with a proposal which was a compromise and got us to a consensus... and it was approved.
"There is absolutely no need to take a step back. I'm sure this is going to move forward.
"I don't speak for council but I would really prefer that we quit talking about things and just proceed forward.
"We went through this a couple of times in a couple of evenings, and as far as I am concerned, this plan has been approved and I'm hopeful that we're gonna just keep trucking," Gardi said.
"I certainly echo my colleague Coun. Gardi," said Ward 2 Coun. Lisa Vezeau-Allen.
"I just want to report back from the accessibility committee, which is members of the general public. Myself as council representative as well as my colleague Coun. Hollingsworth.
"The entirety of the accessibility committee is very happy and looking forward to the improvements because their struggles continue.
"They are very strong advocates and we've been working hard toward this, not just to make Queen Street look pretty.
"It's to make it accessible and to be up to code. So I thank staff for this moving forward quickly.
"I just want to say on behalf of the accessibility committee, because they're not here: They wholeheartedly support this plan, and I'm honoured to be with them now over five years and look forward to a few more," Vezeau-Allen said.
"I would also like to echo what the councillors ahead of me said," said Ward 3's Angela Caputo, also a rookie councillor.
"There's a piece in what Coun. Kinach said that I want to address. He said we're building something from the second floor and not addressing structural issues, which is actually completely untrue.
"I think the whole reason why we approve this the way that it stands is to address the structural issues.
"To fix that lighting, to fix those sidewalks to make things more accessible.
"We are doing things from the ground up and as a new councillor I think it's important.
"Something that I've I've really picked up on, is we can we can agree on things and we can disagree on things.
"But when something is decided by council, I think it's really important that we rally behind it as a council and as a city and move forward.
"So that is something that I'm really looking forward to doing on this project. However I can best support the best outcome for this, I will.
"But going backwards on this, I simply cannot," Caputo told the meeting.
"The plan that we settled on for Queen Street was approved three weeks ago," added Mayor Shoemaker.
"So we are not approving anything from eight years ago.
"If council as a whole thought that the downtown redevelopment plan... needed a complete overhaul, it's of the authority to do that by telling staff to stop doing all downtown work by majority vote and redirecting them to work on what we see as our collective priority.
"However, the majority of us have determined that the plan that was approved at the last meeting is the plan that we found consensus on.
"It's not perfect. It's a compromise, but it's what we've got.
"And this is to start engineering work on that. So nothing could be more rote in its direction than doing some engineering work on a municipal project.
I see it as an approval based on the direction council gave at the last meeting."
With only Coun. Kinach voting against, councillors agreed to retain AECOM to provide engineering services to the Queen Street reconstruction project.
The following are briefs from yesterday's council meeting:
- 54 Summit Ave. will be designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act. Named 'The Gables,' the house was commissioned by E.W. Shell, treasurer at Algoma Steel from 1916-1949
- the new Soo Market at 73 Brock St. has been granted a tax exemption as a municipal capital facility
- 1972703 Ontario Inc. (Sheila Purvis, BeaverTails) got a five-year extension on its existing lease for the southwest building at Roberta Bondar Park
- the city is updating its purchased services contract with Sault Ste. Marie and District SPCA, which will receive a 2.8 per cent increase ($18,750). The new agreement is for five years and five months of animal control enforcement and sheltering services
- AECOM won a $698,357 contract for design, tender and contract administration related to an ultraviolet upgrade at the East End Water Pollution Control Plant
- the city will provide $60K a year for three years to help Harvest Algoma transition from a charitable program into a self-sustaining social enterprise
- councillors named two new inductees to the Sault Ste. Marie Sports Hall of Fame, as well as winners of the Community Development Award. They'll be recognized on Sept. 28
- buyers have been found for two parcels of industrial land on Yates Avenue, and the city has started on a process toward extending Wood Park Road to open up more industrial land
- the city is looking into the possibility of accessibility upgrades at Sinclair Yards, aimed at attracting Challenger Baseball and other tournaments
- S&P Global Ratings is maintaining the city's exemplary AA+ (stable) credit rating, but is cautioning for the first time that increasing the city’s debt burden over 30 per cent of operating revenues could adversely affect future credit ratings
- concerned that nuisance taggers are for the first time defacing murals and other public art in the Sault, councillors agreed to re-start the local graffiti committee