TimminsToday asked each of the candidates to submit a bio to introduce themselves to the voters. Here's Ward 5 candidate Steve Black's:
Steve Black previously served two terms in municipal politics. From 2010 to 2014 he was a councillor for Ward 5 and from 2015-2018 he served as Mayor of Timmins. Over the last four years, Steve has returned to the local mining industry and currently is employed as the Manager of Business Development for Dumas Contracting Ltd.
Steve has previously served as the chair of the Timmins Police Service Board, chair of the Cochrane District Social Services Board (responsible for EMS, housing, childcare, and Ontario Works programs in the region), vice-chair of the Timmins Economic Development Corporation, board member and former chair of the Porcupine Health Unit, board member of the Timmins and District Hospital, and board member of the Mattagami Region Conservation Authority.
Steve hopes his past experience and leadership roles allow him to support the incoming mayor and council in a positive way to help the city grow and prosper. Steve has always maintained that the community must remain focused on improving infrastructure and quality of life to attract people and jobs to the region and help the city grow. The best way to alleviate the tax burdens in the municipality is to grow the community and attract additional residents.
However, the city also needs to rethink its community safety planning. People should not be afraid to walk through the downtown of a community. Addressing the needs of our homeless population and those with addictions is a critical requirement but solutions to these problems need to be well established and their impacts fully understood before being launched to not further create problems for residents and businesses and their ability to live a safe life within the community.
Many have asked Steve if he will push to bring back Stars and Thunder. The answer is no. That event ended with the 2018 election and subsequent council. While he maintains events like that, and the kayak festival, and Hometown Hockey and many others the community has had in the past are positive for the community he believes the new council will need to work together and decide how it wants to approach community events while continuing to work with groups hosting currently successful community events like Rock on the River.
Steve looks forward to working with the new council in developing strategic initiatives to address the above issues and other priorities within the community.
Connect with him on Facebook or email [email protected].
The municipal election is on Oct. 24. The other Ward 5 candidates are Rick Dubeau, Veronica Farrell, Andrew Marks, Caroline Martel, James McMahon, Kristin Murray, Cory Robin, Neil Siblall and Ed Stecewicz.
