A North Bay City Councillor says when businesses aren’t knocking on the door, you need to seek out opportunities.

Councillor Marcus Tignanelli tells BayToday he was shocked to see his expenses lead the pack in 2019.

He says to expense 72-hundred dollars on a 130-million dollar budget is an investment in economic development that’s needed.

Tignanelli points to a trade mission to Israel, with the city paying only a portion of the expenses.

“I met with the Tel Aviv Innovation Officer, their Knowledge Officer, I toured some of their universities and checked out some local startups,” he says.

As a result, he says they’re looking at how to get artificial intelligence into the traffic lights here in North Bay, city-wide free WiFi, and autonomous transit buses.

Tignanelli says the city money spent in Israel was for registering for a conference in Israel and the hotel room during the conference.

Overall, he details where the money went.

“Some economic development and political conferences like ROMA and AMO and also continuing education courses that deal with local municipal economic development,” Tignanelli says.

He says the $7,200 is re-imbursement for actual costs incurred and councillors aren’t re-imbursed for time away from their regular job.

He says only a portion of the costs of that trip were covered by the city.

Check out the full story on BayToday.ca

(photo by station staff)

Filed under: Coun. Marcus Tignanelli, expenses