New council is sworn-in

Before a packed house at city hall North Bay’s new council was sworn-in on Saturday.

The elected body includes five returning councillors and five who weren’t on the last council.

North Bay mayor Al McDonald was re-elected for a third term and says growing the city is their number one priority.

He says they’ll do that by monitoring three bench marks: assessment rolls, building permit stats and population.

“My goal is to see the city go up by 10,000 in 10 years. By 2030, I’d like to see our population to be 62,000. I want to see our numbers up 5-10 % a year on the building stat numbers,” McDonald says.

He says the birth rate is 1.6 and the death rate is 2.1 so they need more people in the city.

McDonald says goal around assessment rolls will be determined by council.

He says at a December 10th meeting they will outline their strategy on steps they will take to make it easier for people to invest in the community.

McDonald also says Invest North Bay will be making some announcements next month.

On Saturday, Tanya Vrebosch was confirmed as deputy mayor.

“This is a good day. It’s a proud day to share this with my dad. The fact that he was able to move the motion that made me an official deputy mayor. It’s a day that I won’t forget,” Vrebosch says.

Her dad Bill is one of the incoming councillors.

Another newcomer to council is Marcus Tignanelli, who says this council will work together to get things done.

“Team effort, team work is going to drive the growth of North Bay. It’s a great opportunity for the next four years,” he says.