By IAN ROSS
The new mayor of Temiskaming Shores enters office with her fundraiser’s resolve to keep taxes in check and tackle some pressing amalgamation problems.
Judy Pace says the municipality of 10,000 is struggling with a “multitude of issues” stemming from the unfinished business of municipal amalgamation of New Liskeard, Haileybury and Dymond Township in 2004.
In her first month in office, Pace was immersed in meetings to find solutions to deliver local policing and garbage pickup for all three communities while preparing for an early municipal budget process in February.
“There hasn’t been a lot done in three years to bring these three communities together.”
Pace admits during her election campaign she didn’t focus much on business and economic development.
But everyday issues like curbside pickup, which varies throughout the municipality, are the little things that can affect business.
As part of the city’s “new direction,” Pace and the new council made their mark very early with the dismissal of the CAO Ken Zurby, replacing him with planner Brian Carre as acting city manager.
Further changes came about by combining the economic development and planning departments under one umbrella.
“People respond to strong leadership. We’re working our butts off to do everything we can for this city. You can just see how everybody’s coming on board,” says Pace. Money is tight and available bodies are short.
As a former separate school board chair, Pace announced her mayoral bid in June after her predecessor Jamie Hawken announced he would not run again.
Married to a local physician and a mom to two grown children attending university, Pace spearheaded the successful community fundraising efforts for Temiskaming Hospital’s CAT Scan foundation before moving on to municipal politics.
Pace recognizes access to start-up capital remains a major hurdle for small business and entrepreneurs.
The community also has a shortage of qualified tradespeople and can’t always compete against more lucrative opportunities in western Canada. So partnerships with colleges and upper levels of government to train a local workforce is a must, she says.
To gain insight into what small and medium sized businesses require to survive and prosper, the city commissioned their own business retention and expansion program.
A “critical” red flag raised was to keep taxes at a sustainable level for business.
Last fall, the City of Temiskaming Shores was cited by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business as having one of the worst provincial education and municipal property tax regimes for business in Ontario. A resident pays $592 while commercial property owners pays $4,942.
She attributes the “tremendous” tax hikes in recent years to paying for an aging infrastructure.
To Pace, improving a community’s infrastructure means more than better roads and sewers to attract new business to the Tri-towns areas. It includes education, health care and the well-known struggle in small town Ontario to retain and recruit physicians.
Without getting into specifics on upcoming projects, Pace says their strategic plan is geared toward supporting home-grown business to help stem population outmigration.
One industry sector in the Tri-towns area is booming. Mineral exploration for diamonds and gold is growing and local suppliers are benefiting.
But Pace says they must capitalize on the area’s tourism potential and tap into promoting the lakeside community as an attractive place to retire. A southern Ontario real estate developer, Skyline Inc., already has big plans to renovate a former Haileybury convent into a 48-unit condominium project for seniors.
She says the city must find ways to support and strengthen the agricultural and business community with fewer regulations, zoning changes and by eliminating impediments to progress.
“It’s critical. Council’s objective is to do our best to arm the planning and development service department with as many tools as we can.”
One controversial political decision she must deal with is last year’s decision to build a new $4.5 million city hall, now under construction. The ribbon cutting is set for summer.
Pace admits she wasn’t happy with the previous council’s decision to build the 15,530-square-foot building, calling it a “poorly made” decision to proceed on a major capital project without first securing government grants and without considering less expensive options.
Though she fully expects construction costs to exceed $5 million, Pace says her new job as mayor is to support the project and secure additional funding to get local taxpayers off the hook.
