TONIGHT: Essar, the APH scandal and a 4.6-percent tax increase

TONIGHT: Essar, the APH scandal and a 4.6-percent tax increase

Get your popcorn ready, it’s city council night. Tonight’s meeting begins at 4:30 p.m. and we'll be livestreaming the whole shebang on LOCAL2 .

Get your popcorn ready, it’s city council night.

Tonight’s meeting begins at 4:30 p.m. and we'll be livestreaming the whole shebang on LOCAL2.

Up for discussion tonight is a request from Essar Steel Algoma for $1 million from the city as it prepares to restart its No. 6 blast furnace this fall.

Algoma Public Health and the weird tale of its former interim chief financial officer are on the agenda as well, with two city councillors calling for a report from the beleaguered health unit board on its audit of financial and privacy records.

It’s also time to look at the preliminary budget for 2015, which is going to councillors with a proposed 4.6% increase in the tax levy - the result, the document says, of provincial funding cuts, the increased cost of providing services, and $2,150,055 in surplus money council used to hold the line last time around.

If you want to follow along, agendas are posted on the city’s website.

We'll archive the meeting for those of you who miss something or just want to go back and watch the good parts again.