McKellar Ward Councillor Brian Hamilton enters Council Chambers during the swearing in of the current term of council on November 28th 2022

When if comes to wants vs needs in Thunder Bay, Councillor Brian Hamilton says there has to be focus.

Speaking with Acadia Broadcasting Tuesday morning Hamilton says if the city wants to do something big, such as an indoor turf facility, there needs to be a holistic approach.

Specifically it means side projects and requests from special interest groups need to be delayed until larger projects are completed.

“Resources are finite, and if we want new services we really have to pivot we can’t just continue to snowball and just throw that on the tax burden.”

Hamilton adds one of the goals at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference is to test the waters as to what the province is willing to support from a funding perspective.

Those comments come amid a cuts that need to be made to keep the tax levy low, cuts which many people are finding hard to swallow, such as an option to close a majority, some 31 of the city’s 39 outdoor skating rinks.

The McKellar ward councillor says he isn’t happy with that option. however he does support how usage numbers and other necessary data for those rinks is gathered.

“Is going down to eight my personal choice? Well not even close and I don’t even think council is interested in that. But I am interested in the constantly assessing utilization and make sure we right size our programs and services, I think that’s important and I think the community expects that of us.”

Hamilton notes that whichever number of fewer rinks is settled upon, they should be maintained to a standard which would address the increase in use through the loss of other rinks.