Heading into another chapter in the COVID-19 journal, when the City of Elliot Lake holds a third virtual live-streamed and televised electronic update next Monday, Mayor Dan Marchisella told ElliotLakeToday, "This is war."
ElliotLakeToday: You have stated that we are at war with an invisible enemy (COVID-19). How much do you think that your military background has to do with that mindset?
Marchisella: I think it has quite a bit more to do with it. Just because of training while I was in the Canadian Forces and did extensive nuclear, biological and chemical warfare training while being a part of the Royal Canadian Dragoons. And we did multiple different scenarios, multiple different occasions.
I know how serious it can get if the pandemic isn't brought into a curve. Our federal government or provincial government has taken pretty strong stances in areas. A lot of their positioning is recommendations and hoping that people will do right. But in a lot of cases, their recommendations aren't being heard. So you have to take a little bit of a stronger stance. As far as I'm concerned, though, all the training, information was key and the communication of that information is the difference between life and death in so many different scenarios. That's why I've taken such a strong stance on saying, if we're working with partners in the healthcare system, we need immediate information because that's the difference between potentially one person getting communal spread or 100 people getting communal spread.
And then it could explode in our community. If we have the information, it should be made available to our emergency management teams, to our local governments. As far as I'm concerned, being in local government it's our duty. And I don't think anyone will argue with this point. It is our duty as government to protect our residents at all costs. And that's what we're aiming for. That's what we're trying to do. It's hard to do it when one of your allies is refusing to share vital information.
ElliotLakeToday: After you and your family returned to Elliot Lake in 2012, you took an active interest in the community that soon led to your decision to run for mayor. Did you have any idea back then about entering a new career in public life?.
Marchisella: No, not at all. I was very comfortable with a long term disability pension that was more than enough for our family to live comfortably off of. And I had kind of an early retirement which can get boring but I was very concerned with a lot of what I was seeing locally. The community didn't feel like the same community that I had left 10 years earlier. And I wanted to try and make a bit of a change here in our community and I originally anticipated running for Council. As I was talking to different groups of people discussing my opinions and my views, it was group after group saying you should run for mayor, you should run for mayor.
It might have been my “no BS' attitude. I'll tell you when things are good. I have no problem being upfront when we have good news but I'll also tell you when it's bad. I'm not gonna say anything to people to give them an answer they want to hear. I'm going to tell you how it is.
We're in one of those situations where I have to tell it how it is because everybody has a responsibility to protect themselves. But if they don't have the information, then they can't protect themselves properly. Simple as that.
ElliotLakeToday: Your first term as Mayor was filled with challenges such as an undisciplined council along with normal problems any Elliot Lake leader has in getting funds from senior governments. We get far more funding from the province than Ottawa. Is there any way to pry more money from the federal government?
Marchisella: In this whole situation that we're in, in the province and in the country, with the pandemic there have been additional funds flowing out. With the Business Recovery and Retention Team, we're looking at FEDNOR. There are additional funds with the Community Future Development Corporation to assist businesses. It was money that wasn't asked for that was just laid out for your district. So that's available, but in other areas.
I think the North has been overlooked for so many years. And I'm not sure if it's because of the higher political t-shirt colours that we wear here, or not. We have Mike Mantha and Carol Hughes who are NDP with the orange t-shirts. Great, great people but they're not in that position of wearing the red shirt or the blue shirt that's controlling our senior government.
That being said, they're both people that you can see when you go to Queen's Park or you go to Ottawa and are very well respected amongst their peers, no matter what colour the shirt is. But the North has been ignored for a long time and you know that's something that all northern communities have been pushing. I think it's being heard and I'm hoping as a provincial budget continues to move forward slowly, we'll see that the North is being recognized and our local needs are being recognized here also.'
ElliotLakeToday: What single issue have you found most challenging as mayor and what is the most rewarding thing or things that have happened?
Marchisella: The most challenging was changing the political aspect in the first couple years because I had a different view and different aspect not going in with any previous political background. I hadn't sat on council previously. And so my view on transparency and how things should be done was not really accepted all the way around. It took a little while. I got beat up quite a bit by some other councillors.
But you know, I think we adopted a code of conduct a year prior to it actually being mandatory. That was a big deal. We changed the procedural bylaw. We opened up council for a public question period which hadn't been done before. We embraced technology for web-streaming and archiving. All these huge steps towards more public engagement and transparency, but it was a battle in the beginning.
That's the exact same thing that I'll come out of this with. You know, when I'm no longer needed on Municipal Council, I can look back and regardless of the infrastructure we've tried, whatever has been built, whatever new developments come out of it. I think the thing I'll be most proud of is being able to say we changed how our government worked locally and became more engaged with the community itself.
ElliotLakeToday: With about half the people living in Elliot Lake age 65 or older, seniors issues remain the focus at City Hall. At the same time, It's also important to make Elliot Lake attractive as a place to live for younger people who want to stay and raise families. How do we balance the needs of these two seemingly disparate groups?
Marchisella: The great thing that came out of the Age-Friendly Action Plan was it actually looked at an 8 to 80 model. So, if you can come up with things in the community that you can say this is good for an eight-year-old and it's also good for an eighty-year-old, you're on the right track.
A lot of it has to do with social spaces and, unfortunately, we're in one of those times where our social spaces aren't getting utilized, because of COVID-19. But when things get back to normal, we will be using things like the pier and the boat launch and upgrading some of our parks. You know the splash pad was a big deal and a contentious item. We spent $150,000 on it.
Interestingly enough, I've seen grandparents with their grandchildren playing in the splash pad. There's something that's being utilized by both age groups. You need to look at the overall recreation and the community well being in all different aspects. Again it goes back to that 8 to 80 concept and I think our staff developed a great plan. It's just being able to, year after year, initiate pieces of that plan.
In a subsequent story, ElliotLakeToday will discuss other issues with Mayor Marchisella including ongoing communications problems regarding COVID-19; the future of health care in Elliot Lake; access to a personal physician; approval of a new 90 unit rental unit on Spine Avenue; more help for business; COVID implications for capital project funding and the mayor's best hope for outcomes in the rest of his second term at city hall.