It’s been a bit of a long time coming for Sonny Spina’s political aspirations to come to fruition, but this week, Ward 1’s newly elected councillor will officially be sworn in at city hall.
Finishing second in back-to-back federal elections, Spina made it count on last month’s municipal ballot by earning over 30 per cent of the vote, second to his new ward mate Sandra Hollingsworth.
He joins Angela Caputo and Ron Zagordo from Ward 3 and Stephan Kinach from Ward 4 as city council’s newest faces.
In addition to his recent campaign, Spina feels that residents have gotten to know him better in recent years through his previous political bids, and he’s thankful for the chance to represent his fellow citizens at city hall.
“We were able to engage with thousands of constituents in the Sault and get directly from them what their concerns are – there’s a lot of value in that,” he says. “I’m really excited to have the opportunity to represent those individuals across our city and find ways to make life better for people in our community.”
Spina was employed with the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service for nearly two decades, working in several capacities, including the frontline patrol, criminal investigations division, and mental health unit.
Now the managing director of Norpro Security, Spina believes the expertise he can offer as a city councillor will be valuable.
“You look at planning in terms of budgets and needs of an organization – it mirrors what you have to do in a city,” he says. “You have to manage your resources and budget them properly. With policing, I have that frontline hands-on experience dealing with the challenges head-on in our community and finding the creative solutions to those challenges.”
Among Spina’s top priorities includes addressing mental health and addictions, improving economic and tourism development, and continuing to partner with Indigenous communities, which would include re-establishing the Bawaating advisory committee.
The idea of moving the Sault’s police station from its Second Line location to the downtown core was brought up several times during the municipal campaign trail, and Spina says he wouldn’t be opposed to the idea if the logistics are there.
“There’s a lot of things you have to look into if you’re going to put a police services building in a different area of town,” he says. “There are a lot of infrastructure needs that are important, like ensuring the radio tower has uninterrupted transmissions everywhere in our community.”
“There are ways you can have satellite service or satellite buildings across the city, and that’s something I’d be in support of looking at,” he adds.
Spina would also be interested in partnering with Algoma University or Sault College to bring a campus downtown.
“It would be an important addition to help revitalize the downtown and bring people there,” he says. “If people are there on a 24-hour basis, then shops can stay open, and people can enjoy the downtown in a more fulsome way.”
When speaking on the delays of the downtown plaza, Spina explains that the council is not at a point where they have the ability to put a halt to the project since the contracts have already been signed.
Moving forward, however, he says the council needs to work together to make sure projects stay on budget and on target.
“I know projects across the country are facing delays because of limitations that everyone is having with the shortage of product and labour,” he says. “This new council must ensure that approved projects meet the necessary timelines and budgets and that we’re not spending unnecessarily on it.”
Spina says he has met with most of the councillors already, incumbents and newbies alike, and he’s looking forward to working with them.
“We’re all familiar with each other, and we all share a vision for a better and more prosperous Sault Ste. Marie,” he says. “We will all have a different view on what those projects may be, and we’ll have some good conversations that can help our community move forward when these new ideas are presented.”
“My message for the community is the council you have elected shares a vision and is ready, willing, and able to work collaboratively to make our community better,” he adds.
City council’s inaugural meeting, which will include the swearing-in of Mayor-elect Matthew Shoemaker and all ten councillors, will be livestreamed on SooToday starting at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.