City councillors in Sault Ste. Marie have given their city a new symbol.

A new city flag was approved at Monday night's meeting featuring the maple leaf and river logo already used in Sault Ste. Marie tourism promotion.

It replaces a flag that featured only the city's coat of arms, and was not widely flown in the Sault.

But there was a brief flag flap, with city councillor Ross Romano wondering about what the other options were.

"I'm only seeing one sample. I don't know what anything else looked like. So, it's difficult for me to sort of say what's good or bad or comparatively to others," he said.

Other councillors asked why there was no public consultation on the flag design and were reminded by members of the flag committee that council voted to form the committee to review proposed flag designs and bring its favourite back for a vote.

"Of course all councillors were welcome to sit on the committee. It was open to membership," said city councillor and committee member Matthew Shoemaker.

He said the flag will be officially unfurled during the City of Sault Ste. Marie's birthday in June and he hopes that all citizens will "fly it proudly."

That isn't the case in other northern Ontario cities, where municipal flags often just feature the city logo and are rarely seen away from city and town halls.

In Greater Sudbury, the city's official flag designed in 2004 is never flown and is stored away out of sight at Tom Davies Square. Outside on the flag pole is a flag with the corporate logo.