Three years and eight months after Ontario first declared a COVID-19 emergency, Sault Ste. Marie is still suffering pandemic aftereffects, says Malcolm White, the city's retiring chief administrative officer.
"We're still finding our way, post-pandemic," White told a special meeting of city council on Wednesday night.
"There's a lot of issues still facing our development, so that while we have development going on, obviously things like workforce availability, availability of financial capital, the ability of people and organizations to work together and look ahead – it's very difficult for them.
"And there's also very unsettled feelings still in the community. So while we we see better days ahead, we're not really sure what our new normal is, and certainly you can feel that in the community."
White, who's due to retire at the end of January 2024 after 35 years with the city, was speaking at a meeting of city council and senior staff, called to provide preliminary input on a new corporate strategic plan for the years 2023-2027.
Council met as committee of the whole, meaning that its usual procedural formalities were set aside.
For much of the meeting, participants broke into informal working groups that dealt simultaneously with a variety of issues.
White commented that, right now, the city seems to be doing well.
"Generally... we've got tremendous economic transformation and activity going on, almost unprecedented since I've been with the city," he said.
"So we're really poised for a lot of things happening. I mean, a small indicator like the amount of industrial land we've sold off in the past year. We sat on it for a very, very long time.
"Obviously, we've got the big projects like Algoma Steel going on, transforming how they make steel and really setting themselves up for being here in a sustainable way for a lot longer than what we've seen in the traditional boom-and-bust cycles of the past.
"We're seeing strong immigration and migration into the community. That's something that has happened in waves over the many years of Sault Ste. Marie's history. And now we're headed into one of those waves again," White told the meeting.
"We're seeing a really strong bounce-back in pandemic-affected sectors. There's still some challenges there, but in areas like tourism... and in the services industry – where we saw a lot of effect during the pandemic – and things like transit ridership – we're bouncing right back up."
"Certainly from my vantage point, I'm really excited about our community right now and where we're headed."
White talked about social issues including homelessness, mental health and addictions, and lack of primary health care.
"These are very strong issues," he said.
"As a corporation, we have limited scope to address but there are things that we can do.... There's a real need to start clarifying what we need to address and what we need to identify in our plan that will be in a supportive role to the main drivers of the organizations of the community."
White commented that Sault Ste. Marie's workforce is getting younger.
"We are trending to a younger, more diverse workforce. And that's something that's been really exciting to see: a lot of changeover as the old fossils like myself starting to move out."
"We're getting a younger, exciting workforce and it's a workforce to that is very active in the building and young families stage."
"Real change, a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of ideas. And I'm personally very optimistic when I see our staff now because I really see them treating their occupations as a calling, not just a job.
"So we're really well positioned to support the next phase of community growth," White said.