A lively debate picked up at Thunder Bay city council Monday evening over the a suggestion from Councillor Trevor Giertuga of having the city explore selling off Hillcourt Estates.
Giertuga’s argument was to gain the money from the sale for the city and the associated cost savings, as well as put an emphasis on how the city shouldn’t be a landlord.
However some on council, including Andrew Foulds, weren’t too fond of the proposal.
“Do I, I’m certainly not advocating we go out and buy a bunch of properties and sell them. But we have this one, that our administration has turned around.”
The argument also focused on the past when the communal septic system for the park had issues, and Giertuga wants to avoid potential liabilities for the city.
“It makes $170,000 a year but it could be catastrophic. It could be catastrophic to failure with the septic system, who knows what could happen? We could get lawsuits from it, if it fails and we don’t get it done fast enough.”
Some misconceptions over the move also required some councillors to emphasize the city is not going to make people homeless should the property be sold.
The motion passed and now city staff will explore options, before bringing a report back to council on July 24th.
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