An explanation from Thunder Bay’s City Manager as to why the municipality has more employees than others of similar population in Ontario.

During a virtual pre-budget townhall Tuesday night, Norm Gale explained that many cities are either lower or upper tiered in terms of services delivered.

The lower tiered only delivers so much, the upper tier has more than that, but, there’s also single tier.

“Single tiers, like Thunder Bay, are actually quite rare in the province” said Gale. “A single tier municipality delivers services of a lower tier, and an upper tier, combined.”

Gale gave the example of Chatham-Kent, which he stressed is another single tier but different in its services, largely due to it being a rural area.

Thunder Bay’s governance structure also means it has more people on the Sunshine List than most municipalities.

“We have on our payroll, paramedics who are delivering services in the District. Nipigon, Marathon, Greenstone, and the like…. so, that’s kind of like a double hit.  You have all these emergency services workers who are well paid,” Gale added.

As for hiring more city employees, Gale says aside from police and paramedic, the number of people on the payroll has stayed stable for the last six to ten years.

He also made a distinction concerning how the tax structure is set up.

Gale says the taxation homeowners pay is not the same as the tax rate, which he admits is the second highest in Ontario.

“But, Thunder Bay demonstrably, does not have the second highest level of taxation in the province. There’s a formula behind this that sets the taxation levels, and council will make a series of decisions when it comes to taxation levels.”

The city manager added the Sunshine List, of those making over $100,000, is dominated by emergency personnel.