‘I need a couple more years,’ Provenzano says

Sault Mayor Christian Provenzano says he needs another term as mayor to carry out his vision for Sault Ste. Marie.  

Rory Ring, Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce CEO, asked Provenzano if he would be running for re-election in the Oct. 22, 2018 municipal election Thursday, which marked the final opportunity in Provenzano’s current first term to have a Chamber of Commerce Fireside Chat event (held at the Water Tower Inn for Chamber members).

“I’m not quite done. I need a couple more years, and then I’ll be done.”

Those "couple years," Provenzano said, would include a full term from 2018 to 2022 (if re-elected), but said “I know to do what I’m doing, I need 2019 and 2020, but you will not see me pass the next council term. I believe the mayoral leadership should change frequently.”

Much of Provenzano’s first term has focused on municipal cost-trimming.  

In what sounded like re-election campaign comments, Provenzano said “I feel really blessed to have had the opportunity to do what I’ve been doing.”

“We’ve come a long way from the start of our term. I think this council’s done a lot. This council has completely changed the way the city budgets so it’s much more involved in it’s budgeting…(and) reduced the number of councillors that will sit at council (from the current 12 councillors across six wards to 10 councillors in five wards, a decision made by council in March 2017), reduced city spending, and our municipal taxes (the yearly municipal tax increases approved by council) are among the lowest in the province.”

“We’ve done that,” Provenzano said, “in incredibly difficult economic circumstances,” pointing to beginning-of-term fears OLG would privatize its Sault operations and cut local jobs, hard times at Tenaris and Essar Steel Algoma (Provenzano adding he is optimistic the steelmaker will emerge from its current restructuring challenges).

Provenzano spoke of a number of topics of importance to the community, but an early part of Thursday’s event centred on everyday issues, such as the size of snow banks in Sault Ste. Marie, which make it difficult for both vehicles and pedestrians to get around.

“I know we could do better (in snow bank trimming and snow removal),” Provenzano conceded, stating the issue will be brought before council by city staff at its next meeting.

“My preference would be that they deal with the downtown more quickly than other areas, but that’s not the feeling around the city.”

“When you live near certain intersections and you live in certain neighbourhoods, you want your banks cut back,” Provenzano said.

Provenzano devoted part of Thursday’s Chamber question and answer session to municipal taxes, always the key municipal issue for most Saultites.

“Taxes aren’t a real simple kind of thing to talk about,” the mayor said, pointing out municipalities are not allowed to run deficits like federal and provincial governments do.

Last year’s municipal tax burden in Sault Ste. Marie was $108.9 million.

“We take 67 per cent of that burden from the residential taxes (single family, residential and other classes)…23 per cent of the burden is carried by the commercial taxpayers, and nine per cent is taken from the multiple industrial classes (the remaining one per cent coming from what was termed the 'miscellaneous tax class'),” Provenzano said.

“Your residential tax rates are significantly lower than they were seven or eight years ago but you’re paying more in residential taxes. Why? Because your residences have gone up in value,” Provenzano said.

“The only way (to keep taxes as low as possible) is to decrease our spending, which affects services, or by moving money from one tax class (residential, commercial or industrial) to the next.”

“We have tried to control the spending side of it. We’ve made some decisions, we froze our own salaries (at city hall), decreased the number of FTE’s and the number of city councillors (which will save the city $250,000 every term from now on).”     

Other points Provenzano touched on at Thursday’s Chamber event included;

• continued development of the downtown
• ongoing dreams for a Smart Grid
• the city’s bid to Noront for a ferrochrome processing facility (known officially as an FPF, a ‘smelter’ in unofficial terms) in connection with the Ring of Fire project, if or when the Ring of Fire mega project is developed.
• cleanup of the old petroleum distribution terminal property, owned by SunCor Energy and located at 795 Bay Street, and development of the Gateway site
• the need for transportation between the Sault and Garden River First Nation, Provenzano agreeing with the feasibility of a privately-owned and operated shuttle service between the two communities