It’s not the money, it’s the principle.
The largest member of the Northeastern Ontario Municipal Association – the City of Timmins — is withholding its $480.00 membership fee in response to a poison atmosphere around the NEOMA table.
Coun. John Curley is one of two Timmins reps on NEOMA. He says during this term, some members have been constantly critical of the city. The latest example is one member – Curley doesn’t specify who – “speaking loudly” against the Northlander passenger train coming to Timmins.
“They openly admitted that we should not get such a thing, it should go down Hwy. 11 corridor and should not be coming to Timmins,” he told council this week.
Curley and the other Timmins rep, Coun. Cory Robin, say the 14-municipality organization is all for working together, but some members make negative and near-antagonistic remarks whenever Timmins benefits from something.
Mayor George Pirie has said repeatedly that when Timmins benefits, so does the whole region – and vice versa. A letter is going to NEOMA, asking it to address what the mayor calls “grating comments”.
“So let’s get the correspondence back out and as I say, all political leadership is temporary and we’ll see what the next group brings in,” Pirie states.
All municipalities have an election this fall. That could mean a different group of politicians on NEOMA after that.
NEOMA stretches from Matheson to Hearst.
