Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this post-election Tuesday morning.
Liberals elected in Sudbury and Nickel Belt, as Grits set to miss majority government
With tight election races in ridings across the country, the story in Greater Sudbury was much the same. In Nickel Belt, incumbent Liberal Marc Serré was re-elected after holding the lead for the entire evening, though it got a little close at times. It was a different story in Sudbury where Liberal candidate Viviane Lapointe and NDP candidate Nadia Verrelli were in a horse race, with the lead changing hands numerous times over the course of the evening. It wasn’t until nearly all the polls were in that Lapointe was declared the winner. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s gamble that he could pull a majority government out of this snap election turned out to be a bad play. While the Liberals won, the minority government they formed didn’t come with much in the way of gains for the party.
Check the Sudbury.com homepage for more election coverage.
Seven new bus routes cancelled Monday due to COVID-19
Sudbury Student Services Consortium reported seven new bus route cancellations yesterday as a result of the impact of COVID-19. That’s on top of five existing bus route cancellations from last week. This as the number of active cases of COVID-19 in area JK-12 schools climbed to 12 over the weekend. Two new cases of COVID-19 have been reported at R.L. Beattie Public School, bringing the case count at the school up to four. An outbreak has been declared at the school, although it remains open. A letter on the Rainbow District School Board’s website pertaining to one of the R.L. Beattie cases said students in the Grade 1 class in Room 99 have been asked to self-isolate, as well as the students in the School Age 1 (SAC 1) before and after school program. Also over the weekend, Public Health Sudbury & Districts officially declared an outbreak of COVID-19 at Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School, where two people have tested positive for the virus. There are also cases of COVID-19 at Lasalle Secondary School (1), St. Charles College (3), École catholique La Renaissance in Espanola (1) and École Ste-Marie (1).
Sudbury officers cleared in incident involving pregnant woman
Greater Sudbury Police Chief Paul Pedersen said lessons are being learned following a June 2019 incident involving officers and a pregnant Indigenous woman that was subject to a review by the province’s Special Investigations Unit. On June 25, 2019, officers attended a call where the woman had filed a complaint of sexual assault involving one of her children. During the course of the police interaction, the complainant became very confrontational and belligerent toward police and the other agency, said GSPS in a report. The woman was placed under arrest, but resisted officers, said GSPS, and was brought to the ground in order for police to gain control of her. During the encounter, it was learned the woman was pregnant. The baby was born prematurely the same month, but died. In a letter to GSPS dated April 6, 2021, director Joseph Martino of the SIU advised: “the investigation by this unit into the ‘other death’ of an infant that occurred on June 30, 2019, has been completed. The file has been closed and no further action is contemplated. In my view, there were no grounds in the evidence to proceed with criminal charges against the two subject officers.”
Opioid emergency calls, overdose treatments on the rise in Sudbury
The health unit's opioid surveillance numbers for Sudbury appear to be getting worse. Newly released statistics from Public Health Sudbury & Districts revealed that from January 2021 to the end of August 2021, Greater Sudbury Paramedic Services responded to 566 opioid-related incidents to provide assistance to people who have drug addictions. This compares to 368 opioid incidents that the paramedics were called out to for the same period in 2020. Incidentally, in all of 2020, paramedics responded to 683 opioid incidents to give aid. From the beginning of the year to the end of August, there have been 356 visits to the ER for suspected accidental overdoses. For comparison, for the same period last year there were 332 visits to the ER for overdose calls. Also, in all of 2020, there were 562 visits to the ER for suspected overdoses. In terms of actual overdose deaths, the numbers are less complete, but the health unit report said that from the beginning of the year to the end of March 2021, there were 32 opioid related deaths. For the same period in 2020, a year previous, the number was 21 deaths.
Help restore Junction Creek shoreline at Oct. 2 tree-planting in Garson
Junction Creek Stewardship Committee is holding a tree-planting event in Garson on Oct. 2. The event takes place from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Planting supplies, training, and light refreshments will be provided at the event. Participants are asked to register online. The local environmental charity has received funding from a TD Tree Day Grant to plant 300 native trees and shrubs along a section of Junction Creek in Garson, and is looking for volunteers to help. The goal of the planting event is to restore the shoreline of Junction Creek, an urban stream that flows through Greater Sudbury, and build resilience to mitigate flooding and climate change.
Public Health Sudbury reports 10 new COVID-19 cases for Sept. 20, Ontario reports 610
Public Health Sudbury and Districts (PHSD) has reported 10 new cases of COVID-19 in the local jurisdiction for Sept. 20. This number includes cases that would have been recorded on Saturday and Sunday. PHSD has also reported one new COVID-19 outbreak at Technica Mining at Vale's South Mine Project. The health unit is also reporting there are now 55 active cases being monitored. Also, since the PHSD began tracking COVID-19 cases just over 18 months ago, there have been 2,390 total COVID-19 cases confirmed locally. PHSD also said 2,335 of those cases are now resolved. There are also 1,119 cases that are "confirmed or presumed to be" positive for variants of concern. No increase in that number in 24 hours. The details were outlined on the PHSD website. As for the possible location of new cases, PHSD said 10 new cases were reported to have occurred in Greater Sudbury. Public Health Ontario reported 610 new COVID cases today. The latest updates noted 628 recoveries and two deaths.
Wet weather for Tuesday
Tuesday there will be showers with risk of a thunderstorm. Local amount 10 to 20 mm. Wind south 40 km/h gusting to 70 becoming west 20 gusting to 40 in the afternoon. Temperature steady near 19. UV index 2 or low. Tuesday night there will be showers ending in the evening then cloudy with 30 percent chance of showers. Risk of a thunderstorm early in the evening. Wind becoming north 30 km/h gusting to 50 late in the evening. Low 7.
