Current River Candidate shares Goals

THUNDER BAY – Civic Politics – My name is Andy Wolff and I’m running for Councillor, Current River Ward.  I have lived in this part of Thunder Bay all my life.  While growing up, I’ve enjoyed participating in many activities in our area such as; cross-country skiing and hiking through Centennial Park, swimming in Boulevard Lake, the Cascades and Trowbridge Falls, or just walking my dog through the LPH Greenspace, which is very near my home.

I’ve completed a 2 year term serving as a citizen representative on the Anti-racism Advisory Committee.  My roles on this committee included chairing a workgroup focused on involving youth in promoting anti-racism and coordinating articles for the “One City, Many Voices” column.  I’ve participated in a number of charity events such as washing cars on Chachi’s Drive-in lot raising funds for the Salvation Army and donating my time performing music in the Current River Mall parking lot, raising money for Shelter House.

I decided to run for office because I feel we need more inclusive leadership and better communication on city council.  Too many major decisions are made without public consultation or proper explanation, causing great divisions within our community.  I will make a commitment to involve the general public in decision making through public meetings and social media.

Also, I feel we need more transparency and accountability on city council.  It’s every citizen’s right to know how each member of council voted on each issue and what are the costs to date for each major project that is approved by the city.  It will be my commitment to make this information easily available to the public.

The major issues I see facing our city is continual rising property tax and water rates.  We cannot continue to rely on taking a larger percent of your hard earned money to balance the city’s budgets.  Rather, the solution should be to thoroughly examine the city budget and find efficiencies in the city’s operating expenses, particularly in administration.  Upon looking at the city budgets for the last ten years, City Management operating costs alone have gone up 90% compared to our total city expenditures which have gone up just 40%.

Rather than looking in the possibility of a Multiplex and imagining what it will do for the economy, we should be taking care of what we already have in our facilities such as the upgrading of the Conservatory and cleaning up of Boulevard Lake.  For any city project over $20 million, it should be our right as citizens to vote on whether or not we spend ANY money on building it.

Over the following months, I look forward to talking to residents and finding out what their concerns and issues are for the city.

Andy Wolff

NetNewsLedger has offered editorial space to all registered Civic Election 2014 candidates to share, with you our readers, their views on issues of the day. We view this as a key means of citizens in the City of Thunder Bay and communities across Northwestern Ontario to find out what the people seeking to be their voices and representatives in civic government are all about.

Each Candidate’s Ledger is published as received by NetNewsLedger from the candidates. NetNewsLedger.com publishes each column based on our Terms and Conditions.

If you are a registered candidate, and wish to participate; Contact NetNewsLedger.

Discuss the Thunder Bay 2014 Civic Election on Facebook.