With the Oct. 26 municipal election almost here, voters in Sault Ste. Marie had a final opportunity to hear from mayoral candidates Wednesday night. The chamber of commerce hosted a forum to get responses from the candidates to the top issues among their members. Four of the five mayoral candidates did their best to sway the room in their direction. Since the questions were given to candidates in advance, attendees were able to see the research each had done ahead of the event. Challenger Joel Rowswell said he was exhausted by incumbent Matthew Shoemaker talking about building a major port in the city. “That’s all I hear is about the port,” Rowswell said. “What about all the other existing businesses in this community that need support? Not a port at the moment. The port, even if approved, is years and years away. What are we going to do? Until then, just sit on our hands? I don’t like that.” Shoemaker countered that if approved, benefits would flow to the city almost immediately. “The port is not a five-year opportunity,” he said. “If approved by the federal government, it would start construction immediately. That would create 1,400 jobs over the next 18 to 24 months until it was fully operational. The five years that Mr. Roswell is talking about is a five-year time frame for it to get to full capacity, but there would be work commenced immediately on the port.” Candidates were also asked broader questions related to their economic views, including what industries aside from steel and the public sector that the city should aim at expanding. “We know with Algoma Steel already, the government is willing to fund anything that’s green,” said Selva Rasaiah. “We already have a lot of green energy that we’re doing now. So why not have that synergistic approach that we appeal to businesses, that we are the green capital?” Other questions included details on the four candidates’ plan to improve functionality at the municipal level. “I also think we need to work with what we have and get better results,” said Matthew Toffelmire. “This is why, in part, I would like to meet with every city department and go through and see what efficiencies we can find. What are they doing? What can be done differently to get better results?” So far, more than 3,800 Saultites have already voted in this year’s municipal election – almost 1,200 more than in 2022. Voters are encouraged to visit the city’s website for any information they need ahead of Monday, when voting locations will be open from 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
