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Thunder Bay's next mayor will have to grapple with homelessness, housing crisis
Homelessness, safety top of mind in Thunder Bay
THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Jackson
Candidates vying to lead one of northern Ontario's largest municipalities agree that public safety, homelessness and aging infrastructure will have to be among the top priorities for Thunder Bay's next council.
Nine candidates are competing to replace long-serving mayor and former member of Parliament Ken Boshcoff, who is retiring from municipal politics. He was first elected councillor in 1979 and served two stints as mayor, first from 1997 to 2003 then again in 2022.
Trevor Giertuga, who's running for mayor after serving as city councillor since 2000, said the rise in crime and homelessness is the main challenge facing the city. If elected, he said he would increase police resources and build more housing.
"I would like to see us return back to neighbourhood policing with more boots on the ground in the areas, so we could target high-risk areas or high-crime areas," he said, noting that Thunder Bay used to have a crime prevention council whose members included Indigenous leaders, business owners and others in the community.
Statistics Canada's crime severity index, based on police-reported data, for Thunder Bay increased 18 per cent from 2024 to 2025. The Thunder Bay police website shows the city's crime severity index has been higher than both provincial and national averages from 2020 to 2024.
The District of Thunder Bay’s Social Services Administration Board estimated in an August report that there were 1,129 homeless people in the city by the end of last year and that at least 58 per cent of them identified as Indigenous.
Earlier this month, the city's long-awaited temporary shelter village with 80 private cabins and shared washroom and kitchen facilities welcomed its first residents. But Giertuga said the city needs more permanent housing instead of temporary solutions to homelessness.
"The village has opened and although I was opposed to it, we're in it now, so it's a matter of making sure it's run properly," he said, adding that the $12.5 million spent on the project should have gone toward permanent housing.
Moe Comuzzi, a real estate broker with extensive business experience who is also running for mayor, said the temporary village is a well thought out project and she would be committed to moving it forward if elected.
"It gives people dignity and the opportunity to have a nice, warm, safe place to help them," she said. "Whether or not they need services for mental health and addictions, the services will be there for them ... or whether they're just waiting for an affordable home that takes a little bit of time to build."
Comuzzi said building more housing and infrastructure is part of the goal to attract more investment and growth, as the city is an economic hub in northern Ontario.
"Industry, small business, and mining, critical minerals — I mean the opportunities are endless," she said.
Giertuga said he would also focus on increasing the city's tax base to avoid steep rate hikes for residents. He said Thunder Bay has a $30-million infrastructure funding gap and city council has been raising the capital budget by five per cent a year to make that gap smaller.
But he said promising to freeze property taxes is not realistic.
"Other candidates have put forward a tax freeze for 2027 and I ask, 'then how, where, are we going to get the money or what services are we prepared to cut?'"
Comuzzi also said a tax freeze is not feasible.
"Everybody's feeling the pinch at the grocery store and at the gas station. Businesses are feeling that stress too. So, growing Thunder Bay for all of us is the right step in the right direction," she said.
Since Thunder Bay is a regional service hub in northern Ontario, Giertuga said he would also advocate for more federal and provincial funding to help the city serve people from nearby communities.
"We have 30,000 people in the city that are not on our census that have come from outlying communities, and not just unhoused people, people coming for cancer treatment, people coming for other medical treatment, people coming for all sorts of different reasons," he said.
For mayoral candidate Volker Kromm, a project manager and business leader, the rise in poverty is a key issue.
"These last couple of years, we've seen a steady decline and such an increase in the effects of poverty on the streets and the drug culture and the cost of living and the whole of the affordability issue," he said.
"The poverty is growing, there aren't enough jobs. In some cases, there isn't the training available, and these people can't afford to live here because there aren't enough affordable houses, so they end up on the streets."
Thunder Bay's 10-year housing and homelessness plan says getting enough affordable housing will continue to be a problem since the average cost of building a single new unit is $450,000 and "the available funding does not stretch far."
Kromm said the city needs to better co-ordinate with federal and provincial government agencies and other groups that help homeless people and those struggling with addiction.
"We have a lot of great social service organizations ... They're doing the best that they can, but they work separate," he said.
Lindsay Martin, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Northwestern Ontario, said her organization supports homeless women and gender-diverse people, including those who struggle with substance use and mental health issues, but has never had much contact with or support from the city.
"A lot of NGOs, or non-for-profits or charitable organizations, they rely on community, they rely on government funding, and the municipality doesn't necessarily step in to support organizations like Elizabeth Fry Society," she said.
"It would be good if they started to co-ordinate with work that's already being done and support it in that way."
Martin said the next city council should advocate for more support from the province to address issues that lead to homelessness, such as lack of affordable housing and mental health care.
"Without housing, folks are out there struggling ... temperatures drop to -35 here at times, and that's a death sentence for people who are unhoused in our community," she said.
Peter Diedrich, a mayoral candidate who worked for decades in telecom, technology and venture capital consulting, agreed that more co-ordination with higher levels of government is key to addressing long-standing issues in Thunder Bay.
"The role of a new mayor and a new council is to actually make that co-ordination process work and work flawlessly," he said.
"It's not just a municipal problem. Much of the funding and resources need to be coming from provincial and federal sources, and I don't think that I should go as mayor without a good plan. I don't want to go and beg for money."
Diedrich said collaboration with the province is part of his goal to build more housing, have 90 per cent fewer homeless people and zero tent encampments in Thunder Bay in four years. He criticized the previous administration for allowing designated encampment sites in parks, "where children are playing with their families."
Kromm said a lot of people he met during the election campaign expressed disappointment and frustration about the work of previous city councils.
"I was shocked a little bit at the lack of enthusiasm that people have for the municipal election," he said.
"When I'm knocking on doors, they say, 'Oh, I guess we'll have to sit down and kind of take a look at the issues,'" Kromm said. "If they're a business or a homeowner that's been affected by some of the homelessness or the crime issues, then they're keenly engaged, but still, it's a fairly small percentage of people that are responding."
The city said a total of 9.52 per cent of eligible voters, or more than 8,700, cast their ballots in advance as of Thursday morning. The overall turnout in Thunder Bay's 2022 election was 43 per cent.
Kromm said people need to pay closer attention to what the candidates are saying.
"Take a look at the councillors, take a look at their skill sets, what do they bring to the table?" he said. "If you vote on name recognition, you're going to get what you've always had."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2026.
By Maan Alhmidi | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Ballots cast on election day in B.C. will be counted by hand, Elections BC says
B.C. election day ballots will be counted by hand
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
It's the last full day of campaigning in British Columbia's election ahead of final voting day Saturday, when most ballots will be counted by hand.
Elections BC has confirmed that votes cast on election day will be tallied manually, in a departure from 2024, when electronic tabulators were used to count paper ballots for the first time in a general election.
That was hailed as a success in Elections BC's report on the polls, but the agency says in a statement that it's going back to a manual count due to "short time frames and complex operational logistics of a snap election."
It says paper ballots cast at advance polling stations and at district electoral offices will be counted with electronic tabulators, and it expects those results to be reported first.
Elections BC also says the election-night count will not include absentee or main-in ballots, which will be tallied at the final count scheduled Nov. 6 to Nov. 10.
Advance voting numbers released Thursday were down more than 11 per cent compared to 2024, bucking a two-decade upward trend.
There were more than 891,000 advance votes cast from Friday to Wednesday, representing about 24 per cent of all registered voters.
That compares to more than one million advance votes cast in 2024, when numbers spiked 49 per cent over the previous election.
Elections BC's report on the 2024 election says electronic tabulation allowed the first preliminary results to be reported within five minutes of polls closing, and 59 per cent of preliminary results to reported within half an hour.
"In past elections first results typically started to be reported around 45 minutes after polls closed," it said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2026.
Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Advocates flag contributions, not costs, of newcomers in Alberta referendum aftermath
Alberta vote raises labour shortage concerns
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
A union representative for a beef processing plant south of Calgary is warning of worsening labour shortages if immigration policy proposals that narrowly passed in Alberta's referendum are enacted.
"These are tough and high turnover jobs with few candidates lining up to fill them," said Faduma Ahmed, with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401 at Cargill's abattoir in High River, Alta.
With 98 per cent of polls reporting in Monday's referendum, a slim majority of votes were cast in favour of limiting access to or charging a fee for provincially funded services based on immigration status. Premier Danielle Smith's government had argued that the cost to provide health care and education to temporary Alberta residents amounts to $1 billion a year and that a surge in newcomers has strained affordability and services.
But critics have warned that the referendum's outcome could make Alberta less attractive to newcomers at a time when jobs desperately need to be filled.
At the Cargill plant, temporary foreign workers, refugees, permanent residents and citizens from all over the globe work side by side and all pay taxes, said Ahmed. It's back-breaking work, with staffers often having to hoist whole carcasses.
"When we sit down to eat, we rarely think about the intense and the gruelling labour it takes to get the food onto our tables, right on our plate," she said, adding that workers have come to her concerned about their ability to pay for health care and school for their children.
"They are foundational to keeping our economy moving, and they are navigating the exact same punishing affordability crisis as every other Albertan."
Ahmed said the union will draw a "hard line" if the proposals become law.
"We will fight to ensure immigrant workers receive the same services they do today, up to and including making the employers pay at the bargaining table to fund the differences."
Another sector that relies heavily on immigration is health care for seniors.
"Often we'll find they'll work in roles that maybe some Canadians may not be interested in," said Leah Lechelt, executive director of the Christian Health Association of Alberta, which represents non-profits that employ 22,000 staff across the province.
She said some college programs for health-care aides have closed or reduced their enrolment simply because there haven't been enough applications domestically.
The workforce hails from around the world, and are mostly health-care aides, but also cleaning and food-service staff, Lechelt said. They deal with vulnerable patients, so regulations largely limit those jobs to permanent residents and citizens.
"It's really a very attractive role for somebody who is fairly new to Canada and sometimes is working on some English language proficiency skills."
The association has established an apprenticeship program that enables those in entry-level jobs, like housekeeping, to train on-site to become health-care aides and pursue a better-paying career path.
"And then we can backfill those positions with other newcomers, maybe starting out in their journey in Canada."
One of the referendum proposals asked whether Albertans would support the province taking more control of immigration from the federal government.
It was an idea the Business Council of Alberta has long advocated, said president Adam Legge.
"There's a bit of a better on-the-ground intel perspective compared to a centralized decision in Ottawa," he said.
"Oftentimes there are some skills and geographic mismatches between what Ottawa approves on an immigration basis and what is needed."
For instance, he said there's a huge demand for workers in the skilled trades, like heavy-duty mechanics, welders and electricians.
He said he heard from members generally that they don't want to see anything deter people from choosing to live in Alberta.
Research by University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe commissioned by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce found immigrants paid an estimated $4.1 billion in Alberta personal income taxes in 2026.
It also found immigrants younger than 40 had a net fiscal contribution of almost $1 billion, after the cost of provincial family programs, workers' compensation and social assistance are accounted for.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2026.
By Lauren Krugel | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Le jeûne intermittent: c'est quoi et comment ça marche pour brûler du gras
L'expression IF est partout sur Instagram et YouTube. Je ne comprenais rien, jusqu'à ce que je tombe sur une vidéo de Whitney Simmons, YouTubeuse reconnue dans le domaine du fitness (voir ci-bas).
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IF, c'est pour intermittent fasting, ou bien un jeûne intermittent en français. Cet article est à des fins informatives seulement et ne recommande à personne de jeûner ou de manger moins pour perdre du poids. Au contraire, selon les recommandations de cet article: Manger moins: la clé pour gagner plus de poids.
Le jeûne intermittent est une «tendance» dans le monde de la mise en forme présentement, utilisée dans le but d'atteindre ses #fitnessgoals sans perdre de poids ou de masse musculaire. Les adeptes de ce mode de vie ne mangent que pendant une période de temps déterminée, puis cessent de manger pendant plusieurs heures.
Par exemple, une personne qui pratique le JI pourrait commencer à manger aux alentours de 1:00 pm, puis arrêter de manger vers 8:00 pm. Son corps est donc en période de jeûne pendant 17 heures par jour. Le but n'est pas de manger moins ou différemment.
Selon plusieurs experts, cette pratique aide à construire les muscles tout en éliminant le gras corporel, car le métabolisme devient «fou» en ne digérant de la nourriture que pendant quelques heures par jour. L'organisme va donc puiser dans ses réserves de graisses pour produire de l'énergie pendant la période sans repas (de 21:00 à 13:00 le lendemain, selon l'exemple précédent).
Pour bien pratiquer le jeûne sans manquer d'énergie ou perdre du poids, il est bien important de manger des gros repas très nutritifs pendant la période d'alimentation (ex: de 1pm à 8pm). Le JI ne limite pas la quantité d'aliments ingérés dans une journée, seulement le moment où les repas sont pris. Il est donc possible de manger 3 repas, comme d'habitude, durant une période de 7 heures (voir vidéo plus bas pour des exemples de gros repas).
Important: il faut très bien s'y connaître en matière d'alimentation pour s'assurer de consommer la bonne quantité de macro/micronutriments afin de rester en bonne santé, bien se nourrir et ne pas perdre de masse musculaire. Cette pratique n'est que conseillée aux gens qui font énormément d'activité physique et qui sont suivis par un professionnel de la santé. Une nutritionniste peut donner des recommandations en fonction de la quantité de protéines, glucides et lipides nécessaire pour s'assurer que le corps n'ait pas à puiser dans ses réserves de muscles pour aller chercher de l'énergie.
Par exemple, Whitney Simmons s'assure de manger énormément de protéines, selon les besoins énergétiques requis pour son mode de vie (sa vidéo explicative est à la fin). Elle adore cette façon de s'alimenter puisqu'elle manque de temps dans une journée et n'a pas à traîner plusieurs repas ou collations lorsqu'elle s'absente de la maison.
Bien entendu, le meilleur moment pour ingérer des aliments dépend de chaque personne: ceux qui travaillent durant la soirée pourraient préférer manger de 8:00 à 16:00 avant de s'arrêter pour plusieurs heures. La période de jeûne peut également varier d'une personne à l'autre. Certaines personnes préfèrent jeûner pendant 12 ou 13 heures par jour ou bien s'adonner à cette pratique seulement quelques journées par semaine.
Mais pourquoi ça aide à brûler de la graisse? Le corps peut être dans 2 états: nourri ou à jeun. Lorsqu'on mange, le corps absorbe et digère les aliments et du sang se précipite dans l'estomac (c'est pour ça qu'une tonne de personnes sont épuisées après avoir mangé). Il n'est pas facile pour le corps de brûler des graisses lorsqu'il est en phase de digestion, en raison du niveau d'insuline (hormone diminuant le taux de glucose dans le sang). Lorsque le corps est dans un état de jeûne, de 8 à 12 heures après un repas, le niveau d'insuline est faible, ce qui l'entraîne à puiser dans les graisses pour générer de l'énergie.
Notre organisme est très rarement en «mode à jeun», puisqu'on mange du lever jusqu'au coucher, et qu'on dort beaucoup moins de 12 heures par nuit.
Plusieurs influenceurs dans le monde de l'entraînement physique disent avoir perdu du gras et gagné du muscle sans avoir changé le contenu de leur assiette ou leur routine d'exercices en essayant le JI.
La pratique du jeûne intermittent est très critiquée. L'avis d'un professionnel est recommandé avant d'entreprendre des changements.
Pour visionner les capsules de Whitney Simmons, c'est ici:
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