FTNS Free Territories North of Superior
Thunder Bay
District Unincorporated Ratepayers Association
RR #1
Kaministiquia, ON, P0T 1X0
David Leskowski 1 807 933 4148
October 1, 1999
Special Notice
Attention: members,
We have a number of developments to announce. We hope that you will communicate news to residents in your area. If you require assistance to do this, or feel that a public meeting is needed to address any particular issue, let us know and we will do what we can to help set one up.
Our web site is up and running; look for it at: www.ftns.on.ca. As our site grows and improves, suggestions or complaints are welcome. Email me at: david@pinehouse.com or Paul Hogan (communications director) at: pahogan@ftns.on.ca
Or phone 1 807 767 3168
We will be including links to other sites of interests, such as Northern Development and Mines, and Municipal Affairs. Right now, there are some interesting statements made by the Minister of Municipal Affairs posted on their site regarding amalgamation of services. It is our hope that the efforts we are making to “organize” ourselves will deter the Province from taking unilateral action on its own to streamline service delivery in our unincorporated territories.
We will be posting detailed information regarding the Thunder Bay District Social Services Board. A “Joint Implementation Plan” (which describes the structure and operation of the Board) has been completed, and the responsibility for delivering many social services has shifted from the province to the district. Exactly how this affects our taxes will start to be known in the year 2000. We in the Unincorporated Territories (UT) must indicate our approval to allow taxes for social services to be collected permanently on a “weighted assessment” basis instead of either an actual cost, or 1:1 ratio. The time for us to discuss this issue amongst ourselves is growing short. Presently, education taxes are collected on this weighted assessment basis, and as the province is picking up 50% of the education invoice amount this year, half of the taxes we pay is being sent back to the province on an interim basis to fund Social Services delivery in the unincorporated territories. It may be that we do want businesses and industries to pay social services taxes at a higher ratio than residences, or maybe we don’t. Please start considering these options and gather opinions on the subject, then forward them on to us.
We have organized our district into four regions, and the three representatives elected during the previous ASB process will serve in three of these regions. An election will have to be called in the Geraldton region to choose the fourth representative. With the assistance of the Ministry of Community and Social Services, four computers, four printers, and four scanners with fax and OCR software have been purchased, and each region has the capability to do word processing, email, make submissions to the web site, print copies of letters and agendas for meetings in your area, send and receive faxes, and retain electronic copies of important files.
We have set up a temporary office in the Kaministiquia Community Hall, and are working out details about how to pay some rent for the space. The members of the steering committee have agreed to let their residential telephone lines, mailboxes, and personal email accounts to be used for association business, and so we have minimal communications costs. We have paid for the setup of the web site out of donations and there still are a few dollars left in the bank account.
On the issue of bank account, we have started to collect a $5 per resident voluntary levy in order to fund operations. We thank those who have contributed so far, and encourage those who have not started to collect and forward these funds to do so as soon as possible. The Shebandowan Local Services Board did this by calling a meeting, and having individual forms printed for contributors to fill in and submit with their donations. The government funding we are accessing for our initial start up costs is one time only; we must pay for all continuing costs ourselves. If anyone has any good fund raising ideas, please forward them to the steering committee. If anyone wants a copy of the bank account, let us know and we will send you a statement. The District of Kenora Unincorporated Ratepayers Association has requested that their district’s Social Services Administration Board include a $5 levy in future years’ billings, and we may do the same if voluntary payments are not received.
We have asked for submissions of logo designs for our association, and have promised that there will be prizes offered to the winning submission. If you can find some businesses that are interested in contributing any goods or services in this way, please send us contact information for them. This would be great advertising and excellent public relations for any business. A good logo could make the sale of hats, jackets, and other promotional materials possible and this could bring in a little revenue for the association. Logo designs should be mailed to me at RR #1, Kaministiquia, P0T 1X0, and the outside of the envelope should be marked “Logo”. The unopened envelopes will be given to a judging committee.
Feel free to contact us, and we encourage you to make use of the Internet in order to keep our costs down.
Sincerely,
David Leskowski,
Chairman of the Steering committee.
Thunder Bay District Unincorporated Ratepayers Association
Copyright ©
Last revised: October 2, 1999