The new mayor, John Rodriguez, moved into his office on the fourth floor of the municipal building at Tom Davies Square Friday. On his first official day on the job, he penned a letter to Paul Dacre, editor of The Mail on Sunday in England to complain about an article that portrayed Greater Sudbury as a environmental wasteland.
On The Mail's web edition Nov. 18, the story was headlined,
Toyota factory turns landscape into arid wilderness.
The story, written by Martin Delgado, reports that the environment-saving credentials of Toyota's hybrid Prius are "undermined by the disclosure that one of the car's essential components is produced at a factory that has created devastation likened to the arid environment of the moon."
Delgado repeats the astronaut story, then reveals that Toyota
gets the metal for the Prius's nickel battery from Sudbury.
Toyota buys 1,000 tons a year from the "plant" owned by
Inco.
Nickel is sent to the nickel refinery near Swansea in Wales,
and then transported to the Chinese cities of Dalian and
Shenyang where it is turned into nickel foam. The foam is used
in Prius batteries made in Japan. This consumes vast amounts of
energy and fuel, writes Delgado.
The reporter goes on to repeat all the usual stories about
environmental damage we have heard so many times before.
A photo accompanies the story - it looks like a view from
Coniston - which, according to the mayor, was taken in
1994.
Rodriguez gives the editor an update about the city's greening
successes, and he attaches a series of current photographs.
I suggest readers visit the Mail's website and fill out the
comment section under Delgado's article. Just google "The
Mail." At the home page, go to the search engine and type
"Toyota factory turns landscape...." This will take you to the
offensive article, and you'll see where you can send your
comments about the accuracy of this article.
The mayor has been very busy indeed. On Friday, the ACFO, the
francophone association of Sudbury, sent out a news release in
French to announce "the City of Greater Sudbury raised the
francophone flag shortly before 9 am on Dec. 1, 2006. One of
the first things the new mayor of Greater Sudbury, John
Rodriguez, did as an official duty was to raise the francophone
Ontarian flag." There was no release from the city's very
efficient press office.
The mayor is perfectly entitled to use his "executive powers"
to make this decision. However, citizens will remember there
was a lot of "Flag Flap" in 2003 when then-councillor Dave
Courtemanche made a motion to raise the flag on behalf of the
city's francophone community. The motion was defeated 7-5.
Jim Gordon, who has been "unofficially" advising Rodriguez, was
mayor at the time. He said then that flying the francophone
flag would send the wrong message to other nationalities that
helped to establish this city and to make it grow and
prosper.
Rodriguez has also exercised his powers to declare that once
again Boxing Day will be a holiday in Greater Sudbury and
stores will be closed.
Now, I support this decision, but apparently there are members
of the new council who support Boxing Day shopping. They were
hoping to have a chance to debate the issue.
It appears Rodriguez was serious on election night when he told
the media he was the one driving the bus.
Vicki Gilhula is the managing editor of Northern Life.
