War of words gets ugly in Ward 5

The gloves came off about midway through last night's Ward 5 Candidate's Awareness Forum in city council chambers.

In response to the question, "How important do you think it is for the councillors in the same ward to work together for the good of their constituents," Ward 5 incumbent Frank Fata said sometimes people have to agree to disagree.

"Mr. Celetti did not see it that way," Fata said. "Out here in the parking lot he thought it was okay to put his fist in my face after we didn't go along to make it [the vote on a Celetti-tabled resolution]."

Fata and Celetti represented Ward 5 in the 2006-2010 term.

In 2010 Fata and the second Ward 5 incumbent finished ahead of David Celetti bumping him out of his seat on council.

Celetti has returned to challenge Bruni and Fata for a chance to represent residents of Ward 5 on October 27. 

"What do you plan to do to ensure safe, reliable and competatively-priced electricity in our city?" was the next question asked and Celetti didn't hesitate to throw a poke at his two opponents.

He was the first to respond to the question and, with a gesture toward Fata and Bruni said, "You should be asking these two guys over here. They sit on the PUC."

He also talked about the period of time he served on the PUC board of directors indicating that our community had the second-lowest rates in the province of Ontario during that period of time.

"If you feel a third hand in your pockets you know that the increased rates come from these two individuals who sit at the PUC and raise the rates, so, I'll leave it to them," Celetti said. 

"Obviously the facts weren't presented in that bit of comment we heard there," said Fata. "We are still in the lowest 25 percent in the province. Our rates are still quite reasonable but there's still work to be done."

He went on to say that, in the 2006-2010 term, Celetti decided not to stay on the PUC board because it was too much work.

Bruni elected to stay out of the war of words.

"Yes, I sit on the PUC board and I'm not ashamed of it," he said. 

He also went on to say that the PUC's prices are fixed by the province, "But there are other initiative the PUC is undertaking."

Other issues discussed in the Ward 5 Candidate's Awareness Forum included freezing councillor's honorariums, how to best cut waste from the budget and what candidates thought were the most important issues in the ward they want to represent.

If you didn't catch Thursday's forum, a replay of our livestream is available on the Village Media 2014 Sault Ste. Marie Municpal Election page.

The Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce hosted the forums, in partnership with SooToday’s sister site LOCAL2.ca (which live streamed the forums), Shaw TV and Algoma University.

Check out Village Media’s 2014 Sault Ste. Marie Municipal Election page.

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So check it out before you vote on October 27.

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