Municipality of Sioux Lookout

Mayor Dennis Leney

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia during the Second World War, Dennis' early years were spent in the port city while his father served in the Canadian Navy. Following the war, the Leney family moved to Port Dover, Ontario, where Dennis spent his childhood years enjoying the fun and freedom associated with youth.

Following his graduation from Port Dover Composite School, Dennis entered the workforce where he first worked as an electrician, then as a television tower builder, then to Lake Erie as a fisherman and finally the Service Manager at a Port Dover General Motors garage.

In 1964, Dennis' true calling - to serve and protect - found him enrolled in an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) training course. After successful completion of the course, Dennis was posted to the Kenora OPP Detachment where he served as an Enforcement Constable as well as a Force SCUBA diver. After 12 years of service in Kenora, Dennis and his family were transferred to Sioux Lookout in July 1976. Like many newcomers to Sioux Lookout during that time, the Leney family found suitable accommodations difficult to locate, and so Dennis built a home for his family, which includes his wife Elaine and children Kerry and Kyle. Dennis served the community of Sioux Lookout with the OPP for the next 18 years, transferring from the Sioux Lookout Detachment to the Northwest Patrol Unit for the final months of his career before retiring in October 1994.

Dennis' children, Kerry and Kyle now live in Surrey, British Columbia and Welland, Ontario, respectively, but both still consider Sioux Lookout as 'home,' and so Dennis and Elaine have chosen to spend their retirement in Sioux Lookout so that their children (and now grandchildren) always have a place to stay when they return home to visit.

Councillor John Bath

I arrived in Sioux Lookout in 1975 with my wife Myrna and our three children Jeff, Chris and Lianne.

When we arrived we bought the only house available at the time, the rooming house located at 19 King Street. We lived in and operated the rooming house until we built our new home in 1978, on Centennial Drive, where we lived for the next 32 years. In 2010 Myrna and I built again and moved to 391 Moosehorn Road.

I had trained, in 1964, as a Forest Technician at the Ontario Forest Ranger School and following stints with the Ministry of Natural Resources, Dryden Paper Ltd., The Manitoba Government and as a logger. I came to Sioux Lookout to work with Abitibi at Camp 23 on the Vermillion River Road. I stayed with Abitibi and later Great Lakes Forest Products until 1978 when I purchased 50% of DeKelver Electric and began my career as an electrician and businessman. I remained fully active in this and subsequent businesses until I semi-retired in 2009. I'm still active as the Master Electrician and occasion "helper" for Sioux Mechanical.

My initial experience with local government came about when I was appointed to the Sioux Lookout Hydro Commission in 1986. I was elected and re-elected for several more terms until 2006. During this period I served on several hydro related District and Provincial Associations and Boards and served through the tumultuous period of restructuring the Ontario electrical distribution system.

I decided to run for Municipal Council primarily to reverse the slide of control from Mayor and Council to administration, and to ensure that the Municipality is following a sustainable growth pattern that enhances the well-being of its current and future citizens.

My favourite activities are summer and winter camping, snowshoeing, hiking, running, boating, canoeing and fishing. I also like working at problem solving endeavours involving energy saving and solar initiatives and an occasion BBQ with friends and neighbours certainly has a place in my list of favourite activities.

My aim for 2011 will be to finish all the unfinished odds and ends at our new home and I'm planning on running another marathon, hopefully with some of my grandchildren.

By 2014, and the end of this Council's term, I'll be satisfied if this Council has established a governance structure that clearly places the Mayor and Council in charge of the directions and pace at which Sioux Lookout develops. I'll also be looking to have in place a planned budgetary system that accurately predicts our revenue and expenditure stream well in advance of taxation changes that never exceed the rate of inflation.

Councillor Donald Fenelon

Ward One (Hudson) Councillor

Donald was born and raised in Sioux Lookout. He attended Sacred Heart School and went to Dryden High School. In 1972 he started working at the sawmill in Hudson, in 1976 he left the sawmill to work in Quesnell BC for Weld Wood Forest Products only to return in 1977 to work for McKenzie Forest Products Inc the present owner. Community involvement has always been important to him. He is currently a member of the Sioux Lookout Volunteer Fire Department and is the District Chief for Hudson (Platoon No.2) and a member of the First Response Team. Donald feels that the Wards within the Municipality are necessary for equal representation for those that reside in both of the two wards seats on Council. He has represented Hudson Residents since 2003. The issues are the same with little change. With the land release getting closer to completion it is more crucial that we work on population growth for Hudson. The next four years it is hoped that the creation of more residential lots and, improvements to the down town area in Hudson will be beneficial for the resident of Sioux Lookout and, Hudson residents and its future residents.

Councillor Calvin Southall

Ward Two (Sioux Lookout) Councillor

Calvin is a life-long resident of Sioux Lookout.  He was born and raised in the community and has raised his own family here.

He has worked as a conductor for the Canadian National Railway and owned and operated a local hardware store.  Having retired from these roles, he now works in property management and development and as a school bus driver.

Calvin brings his diversified experience of employer, employee, business owner, property developer and resident to the current council.  He is committed to developing a long-term, sustainable and fiscally responsible plan for the growth of the community and strives to present an objective and common-sense point of view.

Councillor Doug Squires

Doug was born, raised and educated in Bognor Regis, a small south coast community in England.  He immigrated to Canada in 1967 where he settled in London Ontario. Doug worked as a foreman and service manager for an auto dealership before fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming a Police Officer with The Ontario Provincial Police. This job enabled him to live and work in many parts of this great Province. With each move he was faced with new challenges, especially the last three which were promotional moves. His move to Sioux Lookout in January of 1985 was the most rewarding, at the outset having no thoughts of staying beyond the mandated term of 4 years, the community grew on both he and his wife. Hence even with a couple of moves since, Sioux Lookout has become their "Home". Doug has over the years developed a deep feeling for the community partially as a result of watching many of our young people develop in the 10 years he and his wife were involved with the local Army Cadet Movement. Doug enjoys fishing, photography and travel, but most of all the satisfaction of being retired and able to volunteer time to give back to the community.  He is currently involved with Meals on Wheels and cooking for the seniors at Sioux Towers.

Councillor Joyce Timpson

As a downtown Toronto girl, I studied science but learned that the lab was not for me and switched to social work.  I came to Sioux Lookout in 1976 for wilderness and adventure and to work for the Kenora Children's Aid Society 'for a year', or so I thought.   The timing was right and for the next decade, I was on the ground floor in the creation of the now established social services in town, such as the Patricia Centre, First Step Women's Shelter, Community Counselling and Addictions Services, and Nodin.  Next, I returned to graduate school, did research, wrote academic papers and taught at Cambrian College. I soon learned that full time academia also was not for me.  In 1993, I returned to Sioux Lookout and established a consulting practice. On the side I worked on the provincial Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council.

Working in and around, and studying government has given me a great interest in grass roots politics and in 2006 I was elected to Council. During my first term, I was active in Sioux Hydro, social housing, Ontario Works, child care, and homelessness committees. I proposed the creation of the Municipal Environment Committee and spent 4 interesting years with the committee in education of the public about environmental issues. I sit on the provincial Social Housing Services Corporation (www.shscorp.ca), an enterprise that supports public, non-profit, supportive and cooperative housing providers.

I am currently the Chair of Friends of Cedar Bay and regularly ski in the Sleeping Giant Loppitt seeking pledges for Friends of Cedar Bay.  With the donations, we have purchased the wagon that you see on our streets pulled by Bud and Commander. We are currently working on creating an accessible walking trail at Cedar Bay that will be wheel chair accessible. Although I live working with government, I feel that my greatest contribution is working with people in community based initiative such as the Environment Committee and Friends of Cedar Bay.

Councillor Steven Forbes

I moved here from Saskatchewan in 1986 when my parents purchased the Trapper's Shack. While I am technically "an outsider" not having been born and raised in Sioux Lookout, I am far from a visitor.

My family's roots in the community run deep...all the way back to the early 1950's. My grandfather, Alexander Hannah, was Mayor of the town in the 50's and my mom Gail, and her sisters Donna and Bev all grew up here. I spent many summers fishing and water skiing Big Sandy Lake down Highway 72 when the camp known now as Pine Cliff Lodge was owned by family friends Bud and Rhett Stewart.

I finished my high school at Queen Elizabeth District High School and then moved to Winnipeg to pursue a degree in Political Science at the University of Winnipeg. I followed up four years at U of W with another two at Red River College and obtained my degree in Creative Communications, majoring in journalism. Summers were spent running up and down Lac Seul, while working for my parents at the family business, Sioux Lookout Floating Lodges.

After obtaining my degree, I worked at the Winnipeg Free Press as a sportswriter for a year and then moved over to the Winnipeg Sun and covered the city hall beat for two years. It was here that the bug for politics started to take hold and I knew there would come a point where sometime in my life I would end up running for public office...15 years later, here we are.

After some serious discussions, my wife Angie and I decided to make Sioux Lookout our home and buy into the family business full time in 1997. I worked a couple of years as the editor of the Sioux Lookout Bulletin upon moving here to help pay the bills and now the houseboat business is fully owned by Angie and I. Our two sons, Josh and Ben are starting to learn the ropes (and the lake) and we all greatly enjoy our Sioux Lookout summers!

I ran because I felt Council was missing the perspective of a "younger" person. Councils have traditionally skewed toward the upper range of the age demographic and I just thought there should be a different voice at the table. After a few months in office I see now why a lot of retired people run for the job...they need all that extra time to do the job effectively! While the workload is a little more than I thought, I don't regret for a minute making the leap and am really enjoying serving the people who were nice enough to entrust me with their vote.

We have a lot of challenges to overcome as a community, but the opportunities we have far outweigh the obstacles. I greatly look forward being able to being a part of the solution towards both over the next three years.