Ontario mayor wants province to let cities buy local

TIMMINS — The mayor of one small Ontario city wants provincial legislation changed surrounding the ability for municipalities to keep money in their region.

Timmins Mayor Steve Black had a resolution drafted and placed on this week's council agenda for a vote. It stated that local businesses generally contribute positively to the quality of life in their communities, pay taxes, and provide employment, and that a stronger emphasis on buying local should be an option for municipal councils. 

The resolution's impact would extend beyond the city of Timmins, as much of the resolution aims to empower small and rural communities as well. It said that outside bids for projects in rural areas often come with little or no positive impact to the local community or its economy.

"Over the last number of years, we've had many discussions on the benefits of buying local and supporting local business. Obviously there's been a lot of changes over the last few months provincially, through legislation which the small business community has also raised concerns over," said Black, citing an increasing concern provincewide for the sustainability of small businesses in small and rural communities.

However, he explained that local companies would not suddenly become the 'de facto' winners of tender bids, a policy which could potentially lead to price gouging of the municipality.

"The point of this isn't to say that we're always necessarily going to go with a local company, where the bids don't warrant us to do that. But we've had a number of bids that are within hundreds of dollars of each other that council has struggled with why would not support the local business who is paying taxes and supporting our community and doing other charitable causes through their business of supporting local service clubs, local organizations."

The resolution aims to help small and rural communities sustain local businesses. Andrew Autio for TimminsToday

Formally, the request is for the Government of Ontario to remove any language preventing 'municipal or geographical preference in municipal purchasing' throughout provincial legislation. An alternative idea included in the resolution is an exemption for Northern Ontario as well as rural Ontario regions.

"Given that we're going into an election year, and this is a clause in the Municipal Act that has caused us some discussion and agreement, I thought it would be appropriate to have this on which would request the province remove the clause from the provincial legislation, and leave that decision up to the individual councils to weigh the pros and cons of each tender as it applies to their community, and make that decision at the local level," said Black.

Council voted unanimously to send a copy of the resolution to the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM), Northern Ontario Large Urban Mayors (NOLUM), Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA), Association of Municipalities Ontario (AMO), to Timmins-James Bay MPP Gilles Bisson, Minister of Municipal Affairs Bill Mauro, and to Premier Kathleen Wynne.