John Hildman

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North Bay neighbourhood outraged by witnessing crated dog outside in the heat

BayToday

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Calling this “quarantine” does not suspend Ontario’s animal-welfare laws. The PAWS Act requires compliance with all standards of care and prohibits causing, permitting, or recklessly exposing an animal to an undue risk of distress. Ontario’s outdoor-dog rules require protection from heat and weather, shade, clean water, room to move naturally, and a waterproof shelter with an insulated roof, elevated dry floor, ventilation and bedding. A wire crate with cardboard on top is not that.The dog was reportedly confined there around the clock for nearly a week during a heat wave, heard crying, appeared distressed when police attended, and later left outside through wind and heavy rain. Quarantine may require isolation, but it does not authorize inhumane confinement. “Food, water and shelter” is not the full legal test. The neighbours were right to keep calling.

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North Bay council returns to mayor pay discussion with new compensation motion

BayToday

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This should not be a simple raise/no raise debate.The real issue is trust. If council wants a compensation review, publish the whole package in one table: salary, benefits, pension value, travel, expenses, board pay, committee pay, and any other compensation. Then compare North Bay to similar northern cities by population, budget, staff, services, and workload.Do not design a number around one person, one candidate, or one council mood. Use a clear formula and make it apply to the next term.And if the mayor’s job is now full-time, then define full-time standards: public office hours, response expectations, expense disclosure, project reporting, and clear rules on outside payments or committee top-ups.Good compensation can help attract better candidates. But the public bargain has to be clean: one transparent total, higher expectations, and no hidden side-door pay.

User fees finalized as North Bay’s new twin-pad centre prepares to open

BayToday

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If there’s no open house, Val, a one-hour tour will cost you $244.13, the price of one hour of adult prime-time ice.

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North Bay council approves $5.9M sports field project after divided debate

BayToday

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The debate keeps getting reduced to “cricket field bad” or “sports good,” but that is not the real issue. This is a $5.9M project with $1.675M in provincial funding, so the grant does not pay for the whole thing. It is also not just a cricket pitch. The article says it includes two FIFA-sized artificial turf soccer fields, a regulation cricket ground, repairs to Field C, drainage upgrades, and underground infrastructure for future lighting. That should have been explained plainly from the start.The concern is process, scope creep, and cost control. If the project changed from a smaller cricket/parking idea into a larger multi-use sports-field package, then show the public the full field-inventory study, utilization rates, maintenance plan, bid details, and long-term operating costs. One compliant bid should make council more careful, not less. Sports facilities can be worthwhile, but taxpayers deserve clear math, not another municipal fog machine.

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Public can now view North Bay council attendance records online

BayToday

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Looking only at regular Council & Committee attendance, not boards or agencies where N/A entries, conflicts and missing records make comparisons uneven, the 2023-2025 data show 1,761 attendances out of 2,002 possible: 88.0%. The median member attended 91.2%, meaning the average is being pulled down by a lower-attendance tail. The spread is large: from 96.2% to 78.0%, an 18.1-point range. Standard deviation is about 6.7 points; Bain sits about 1.5 SD below the mean, with Vrebosch, Mayne and Lowery also clustered near the bottom. Those four members account for 145 of 241 missed council/committee opportunities, or 60% of all absences, despite being only 36% of council. In 2025 the pattern sharpened: average 87.8%, median 89.2%, range 29.2 points, and Mayne at 69.2% is roughly two standard deviations below the 2025 mean. Council should publish a simple yearly statistical table with totals, percentages, spread and explanatory notes.

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User fees finalized as North Bay’s new twin-pad centre prepares to open

BayToday

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Give it 10 or 15 years and they might be taking out the ice and turning the place into a flea market. Then it will finally be a community centre.

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City looking to cash in on new arena naming rights

BayToday

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Of course the City is selling naming rights. They need money. That part is not shocking. When you build giant recreation projects, the invoice does not politely vanish into the snowbank.The City’s own RFQ makes it clear: sponsors get visibility on the building and inside spaces. So let’s call it what it is: a sponsorship sale, not a warm community naming ceremony with cupcakes and a brass plaque.It may even be financially practical. Fine. But say that plainly. The City is monetizing the name because big facilities cost big money, and taxpayers are already being squeezed like a lemon in a hydraulic press.What annoys people is when civic pride, memorial naming, public sentiment, and corporate sponsorship all get tossed into the same blender and served as a “community smoothie,” while the bill is still sitting there with a little umbrella in it.

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City looking to cash in on new arena naming rights

BayToday

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At this rate, they should just sell the naming rights to EllisDon so the City can raise money to pay EllisDon for the building EllisDon is building.Welcome to the EllisDon Centre for Settling EllisDon Invoices, featuring two ice pads, a walking track, and the new taxpayer observation deck where residents can watch their money do laps.

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North Bay council returns to mayor pay discussion with new compensation motion

BayToday

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Before council sets mayoral pay for the next term, there should be a real public mayoral debate.Not just screened questions. Not just campaign speeches. Residents should have the opportunity to stand up, ask direct questions, and hear how candidates answer without a script.If the mayor’s job is being described as full-time, complex, and worth higher compensation, then voters should be able to test who actually understands the job. Ask them about taxes, budgets, infrastructure, housing, transit, openness at City Hall, strong mayor powers, expenses, project management, and how they would handle public criticism.North Bay has had mayoral debates before. Do it again, but make it meaningful: live audience, livestream, fair moderation, real resident questions, and follow-ups when candidates dodge.Pay, standards, and public scrutiny should rise together.

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Public can now view North Bay council attendance records online

BayToday

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Public recording rights are a separate issue. This article is about council attendance records: how often the mayor and councillors attended council meetings, committees and local boards over the past three years. The useful question here is whether the city is presenting that data clearly enough for residents to compare attendance, missed meetings, conflicts, leaves and unavailable records. Transparency is not just filming in a lobby; it is also publishing public records in a way people can actually analyze.

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Auditor says media attention led to added review at Cassellholme, Castle Arms

BayToday

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The auditor is not saying the media proved wrongdoing. He is saying the public mess around Cassellholme and Castle Arms changed the audit risk.That matters.BDO lowered Cassellholme’s audit threshold from about $1 million to $500,000, reviewed more transactions, and even looked at legal fees that were nowhere near normal materiality because those fees had become part of the public concern.So no, this is not proof of fraud. But it is proof this governance fight has gone far past routine board business.Residents should not have to piece this together through FOIs, legal bills, board removals, integrity complaints, in-camera meetings, and carefully worded statements.Put out a plain timeline. Put out the costs. Explain who approved what. Then get back to seniors’ care, seniors’ housing, and public confidence.

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Council rejects compensation review, ending push to study mayor's pay

BayToday

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The article’s question is fair: the mayor’s role may be close to full-time, and compensation can affect who is able to run.But this was never going to land well right before an election, especially after an earlier proposal to raise the next mayor’s pay from about $85,000 to $115,000. Residents going to land well right before an election, especially after are dealing with taxes, roads, housing, seniors’ needs, homelessness and affordability. That context matters.The answer is not “no review ever.” The answer is do it properly. Use an independent public review after the election, not a council-driven pay discussion during campaign season. Look at total compensation: salary, benefits, pension value, travel, mileage, meals, committee pay, board income and expenses.Then apply any change only to the next term.That balances fair compensation with public trust.

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Health officials remind pet owners to vaccinate and leash animals to reduce rabies risk

BayToday

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Agreed. This is not just about whether someone personally likes dogs. Some owners act like the world owes their dog special treatment because they think their dog is perfect. Their “common sense” says the dog does not need a leash, but everyone else’s common sense says public spaces are shared spaces.If a dog jumps on people, scares kids, bothers other pets, wanders into traffic, disappears, gets picked up by strangers, or pees on people, that is not freedom. That is the owner making their dog everyone else’s problem. And fighting with people who ask you to control your dog only proves the point.Leashing and vaccinating pets is basic responsibility. A leash is not an insult to the dog. It is respect for other people, other animals, public health, and the dog’s own safety.

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Health Unit replaces routine beach water testing with safety signage

BayToday

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“Do the math” should start with the actual numbers. The wastewater plant is operated by the City under provincial ECA reporting, not by the Health Unit. In 2025 it discharged 11,679,432 m³ of treated effluent, averaging 31,998 m³/day. During chlorination season, treated effluent E. coli averaged 28 CFU/100 mL, with an ECA objective of 150 and limit of 200, and the report says the objective was met for all chlorination months. Lake Nipissing contains billions of cubic metres of water, so the plant’s daily treated flow is tiny compared with the lake volume. The more immediate beach problem after rain is local runoff: storm drains, birds, dogs, shoreline drainage, stirred-up sediment and shallow-water conditions. The plant should be monitored, but “it’s down the road” is not math.

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Fifth ice pad prompts review of North Bay's ice-sharing plan

BayToday

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The real issue is not simply whether North Bay needs ice. The article says the city hired Monteith Brown to review actual 2025–26 ice use, compare other municipalities and meet with user groups. It also says only half of respondents found the process clear and predictable, and only one-third felt ice time is shared fairly. That means the public should see the full report, booking data, prime-time demand, waitlists, out-of-town ice rentals and user submissions before council approves the new Ice Allocation Policy.Also, if people are going to say the arena “cost $70M+” or that roads directly took the hit, show the source and calculation. The better question is opportunity cost: full capital cost, debt servicing, operating subsidy and what other infrastructure work was deferred.And one more thing: if West Ferris is being removed from the system, publish the safety/condition report. Residents should not be asked to trust conclusions without the documents.

Sidewalk work to temporarily close stretch of Algonquin Avenue

BayToday

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The City was warned in the early 1990s that they were a poor choice for Algonquin Avenue, particularly with North Bay’s traffic, snowplows and freeze-thaw cycles. It went ahead anyway, and taxpayers have been resetting, patching and replacing them ever since. Correcting the terminology does not correct the decision.

West Ferris Arena decision sent back to committee

BayToday

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People should know the key document is the 2019 Update to the Multi-use Recreational Facility Feasibility Study (2013). The 2013 study did not find enough demand for a fifth ice pad. The 2019 update changed the model and got to about 4.8 pads, meaning the new twin pad replacing West Ferris gives North Bay 5 total pads, not 6.The math does not support keeping West Ferris as a sixth pad. Total arena participation fell from 3,112 to 2,947. Youth participation fell from 1,931 to 1,839, about 4.8%, not the 8% stated. The report also says girls’ hockey declined, but its own table shows it increased from 280 to 304.There is also a West Ferris math problem: 49 prime-time hours out of 60 is 81.7%, not 90%. Release the engineering reports, but do not pretend the demand math supports six pads.

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Public can now view North Bay council attendance records online

BayToday

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Dave, do you know why the public speaking rules were changed? Under Procedural By-Law 2017-01, s. 36.2(c), after the agenda was published, any person could request by email, letter or phone by noon on meeting day to speak for five minutes on an item or subject within council’s mandate. That same-day five-minute route appears to have disappeared under Procedural By-Law 2019-80, s. 38.2 and 38.3, replaced by a prescribed-form presentation process, earlier deadlines, a three-presentation cap, Clerk scheduling discretion, and questions for clarification only. Was there a specific incident or staff rationale behind removing the five-minute public speaking option? If you are saying the policy should be rewritten, is restoring that route part of what you would support?

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Health Unit replaces routine beach water testing with safety signage

BayToday

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The Health Unit makes a fair point that routine E. coli testing only captures conditions at one moment, and delayed lab results are not ideal for deciding whether a beach is safe on a given day. However, replacing testing with signage should not mean less monitoring or less public accountability. Rain and wind can quickly wash contaminants into the lake, including goose droppings, uncollected dog waste, road runoff, stormwater debris, lawn chemicals, and possible sewage contamination. Those are exactly the conditions where clear guidance and follow-up matter most. A stronger approach would include signs, rainfall-based advisories, complaint-triggered sampling, public access to past results, annual beach risk assessments, and investigation of repeat problem areas. If standard testing is too slow, the Health Unit should explain whether faster options such as qPCR or predictive models were considered. Signs help, but they do not identify or fix contamination sources.

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Bruman Dog Park reopens following upgrades and new wooded trail addition

BayToday

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It looks good, but who got the contract and what did the work actually cost? The 2026 capital budget set aside $130,000 for Bruman Dog Park, yet the article says nothing about the contractor, tender, final price, or any change orders. That information should be included whenever the city announces a completed taxpayer-funded project.

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