Thunder Bay city council votes down recommended changes to its composition

The makeup of Thunder Bay city council will stay the same after councillors voted down a recommended new model on Monday.

The city's council composition review committee was recommending some significant changes to council's makeup.

Currently, city council is made up of 13 members: seven ward councillors, five at-large councillors and the mayor.

However, in a report to council, the committee recommended reducing that to 11 councillors — eight ward councillors, two at-large councillors and a mayor.

In addition, the committee recommended reducing the number of wards to four, each of which would be represented by two councillors, and redrawing ward boundaries.

However, council voted against the committee's recommendation on Monday.

"Here was an opportunity for us to look at the city in a different way," said Rebecca Johnson, who chaired the now-defunct composition committee. "Whether you agreed with anything or not, to me, it was a really a great opportunity to look at getting rid of the north-south boundary that we currently live in with Fort William and Port Arthur.

"We would have east and west wards. Our wards would be balanced. And we would take away some of the idea of having so many at-large and they would concentrate more in the ward."

Johnson said the proposed new wards were balanced by population and income levels, and each had a similar mix of property use types, such as waterfront, urban, rural, and industrial.

The last time the composition of Thunder Bay city council was changed was in 1985, when the current system was implemented.