FORT FRANCES – It has been an interesting nomination period for the Township of Fort Frances. With current Mayor June Caul deciding to not run again, the slot of mayor was wide open until the last couple of days before the 2022 nomination period closed.
On Aug. 15, Ken Perry, alumni of Fort Frances town council, put in his bid for the mayor position. He ran for the position back in 2018 but lost to June Caul.
Two days after Perry filed, Duty Mayor Andrew Hallikas put his name on the ballot on Aug. 18.
“Democracy in its truest form is when people have a choice, said Hallikas. “Although, I am not running just so people can have a choice. I truly believe that I have something to offer. I am very pleased to be running and I hope that I do get elected,” said Hallikas.
Hallikas has served as a town councillor for the last three terms. In his bid for a fourth term, this time as mayor, Hallikas would like to see some of the town’s more pressing matters finally get addressed.
One such issue is the council itself. During the last four years, the Fort Frances council hasn’t been the best working environment. A total of six integrity commissions have been reported over the last four years. However, Hallikas wants to ensure that the integrity of the office is in good standing if elected Mayor.
“I’m not going to tackle anything alone,” Hallikas explains after getting asked what he intends to do if elected. “We are going to have a really good team. Whoever gets elected with the choice of the people of Fort Frances. And if I get elected, we will work together as Mayor and Council along with the staff of the municipality to do the very best that we can for the town of Fort Frances.”
Of course, there are issues Hallikas has concerns about, but working together as a team with the municipal staff and fellow councillors isn’t going to be one of them.
“One of the things that are happening here in the Rainy River District and Fort Frances is that we are losing population,” said Hallikas. “We have a dwindling population. We have an aging population where the medium age is increasing and if we can’t reverse that trend, we are going to have problems if we get industry and business, which I am very optimistic that they will come here because it’s a beautiful spot, but they’re going to have trouble finding suitable workers from the work pool.”
Hallilkas makes an interesting point about the troubles a lot of towns are facing at the moment. As people begin to reach the age of retirement, there isn’t enough of a young population to fill the void. Let alone those that have the skills to perform tasks in an industry setting. Attracting industry to a town like Fort Frances whose dwindling workforce might not meet the needs of big business is going to be difficult. But, Hallikas is optimistic. Hallilkas want to focus the town on retaining and recruiting by figuring out more incentives for the younger generation to go to school and then come back to Fort Frances to work.
Overlapping that concern is the general safety of the community. “We got signs that say we are a safe community and we are compared to other communities, but I’ve noticed that there is a deterioration in certain areas and it’s not just unique to Fort Frances,” Hallikas begins, “Our DSAB, which runs the ambulance and the paramedic program is having a lot of trouble retaining and recruiting paramedics,” said Hallikas.
Hallikas understands the massive amount of work involved in getting a handle on ensuring that emergency services have the people needed in all sectors including firefighters, mental health and addiction specialist, and paramedics, but he is ready to get to work on these pressing issues which will take a great deal of support from Ontario’s provincial leaders.
Lastly, Hallikas want to move forward with finding a solution toward taxing for-profit rails companies. At the moment, the trains that pass-through Fort Frances do not pay a municipal tax.
“The fact that that bridge at Rainer is one of, if not the, busiest train crossing in North America,” said Hallikas. “We have thirty trains a day coming across that bridge and through our community and now there is talk that they are going to twin the bridge. So, there are going to be more trains and there would be longer trains coming.”
Trains propose a certain risk to the community. If there was a derailment inside the town of Fort Frances, the municipality front the bill for emergency and clean-up services, not the railway company.
“The biggest risk in our community, according to our fire department and emergency management people, is that they train, above all else, for train derailments,” explains Hallikas. “That training costs money. It takes time and effort, yet CN pays very little. In fact, they don’t pay any taxes. They pay an acreage fee.”
According to Hallikas, CN pays the municipality $110 per acre which equals about $11,000 per year around 100 acres of land.
“Imagine what a homeowner, if they had 100 acres of land, would be paying in taxes,” said Hallikas. “We have no control over that. That’s a provincial thing. But it’s just not right that we are assuming their risk, but they are not helping us.”
For example, if there were a serious train derailment, Fort Frances doesn’t have a hazmat team to go in and assess the risks. The closest hazmat team is stationed in Thunder Bay nearly six hours away.
“If we can accomplish that,” Hallikas acknowledges. “It’s not going to be in one fell swoop. It’s baby steps. It’s a lot of people working together in the same direction. But if we can accomplish that then we are going to see a lot of people wanting to move here. And that’s going to help our economy.”
As for mayoral candidate Ken Perry, he declined to talk to the media about this candidate platform.
