Mayor Steve Black is in North Bay this week at the Northern Ontario Large Urban Mayors meeting. Representatives from the five biggest cities in the north are meeting to discuss issues facing the region. That also includes Mayors from North Bay, the Soo, Sudbury, and Thunder Bay.
Black says some of their biggest topics include energy prices and gas prices. He says the Wynne government was happy to let private industry regulate the prices, but he’s not settling on that response. Black says it’s not an acceptable answer for the city and for northern residents, when we’re paying ten cents more than communities a couple of hours down the highway. Black says they are talking about some options at the NOLUM meeting, to see where they can take it from here.
Black is also drawing attention to energy prices, saying they are concerned about the steadily increasing prices. He says the city has a large population on fixed income as well as an aging population that just can’t afford increasing electricity prices.
Economic development was also on the NOLUM agenda. Black says they are looking at ways to change the projects of population decline in northern Ontario to a place where it’s growing, and being successful and sustainable for the future.