Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to get you started this weekend.
You spin me: First roundabout in city's history to open Monday
As the $80.1-million Maley Drive extension nears completion, the city is preparing to open the first roundabout in Greater Sudbury's short history. Located at the entrance of Collège Boréal, the first of three roundabouts will open at noon Monday, the city said in a news release Thursday. “Traffic signals that currently direct vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians will be removed before the roundabout is opened on Monday,” the release said. Two more are slated to open — one on Barrydowne Road at Maley Drive, and one on Maley Drive at Lansing Avenue — as part of the Maley Drive extension, which is slated to open to traffic before the end of 2019. Some finishing work will continue into 2020. The project is on time and on budget, the release said.
FOI requester insists city selling or giving away animals for research experiments
An unnamed animal rights activist in Greater Sudbury who is convinced the city has sold or donated pets from its shelter for research experiments has lost a legal bid to force the city to hand over records detailing the transactions. That's because there's no evidence the records exist, Ontario's Information and Privacy Commission has ruled, or that the city ever engaged in the practice. City spokesperson Shannon Dowling said Thursday the city has never sold or handed any animals over for research experiments.
Police: Disturbing child abuse video circulating in Sudbury originated in Belgium
A disturbing video of a toddler being assaulted, which is currently making the rounds on social media in Greater Sudbury, is not local, Greater Sudbury Police said in a news release Friday. “The video showed a man wearing an orange T-shirt assaulting a toddler,” the release said. “Our (Internet Child Exploitation) Unit has confirmed with international partners that the man has been identified and the child is safe. They were located in Belgium in September of 2019.” Police were notified the video was making its way around Greater Sudbury that had been viewed on Facebook and Facebook Messenger.
Posthumous ruling for LU prof a win for academic freedom in Canada, union says
An arbitrator has concluded that Laurentian University administration “failed to consider” the late psychology professor Michael Persinger's academic freedom when he was removed from teaching a course in December 2015 after a student complaint. Persinger, perhaps best-known for the development of the "God Helmet,” a device used to study creativity, religious experiences and the effects of stimulation of the temporal lobes, passed away in August 2018 at the age of 73. While he was a sitting member of Laurentian's senate, Persinger clashed with Laurentian's administration several times, including his above-mentioned removal from a first-year psychology course in 2015.
Time to road test Swedish highway model in Northern Ontario, says chamber committee
A Temiskaming highway safety group vows to keep the pressure on Queen’s Park to trial a proven Swedish-engineered roadway model with a 20-year track record at reducing fatal collisions. While the Ministry of Transportation isn't entertaining the idea of test-driving the 2+1 model on Ontario highways anytime soon, Mark Wilson of the Going the Extra Mile (GEMS) Committee said a provincially commissioned engineering report makes some findings and recommendations that suggest otherwise. “The report identifies significant advantages and that a pilot would be something to trial,” said Wilson, who provided excerpts of a report, prepared by WSP for the ministry, to Northern Ontario Business. Wilson said the findings are in stark contrast to the “very negative” remarks MTO staff delivered, in dismissing the 2+1 concept, last April in a special briefing he attended with chamber of commerce representatives and local politicians.
Health unit budget increasing by less than 1%
On Wednesday, Public Health Sudbury and Districts approved a 0.76-per-cent budget increase for 2020, out of a $26.6-million budget. For all boards of health starting January 2020, the province will no longer fully fund certain public health programs and is reducing its funding share for all programs to a maximum of 70 per cent. Locally, this is a $1.17 million funding cut for 2020. To ease the transition, the Ministry of Health said in August all municipalities will be protected in 2020 from any cost increases resulting from the funding changes that exceed 10 per cent of their existing costs. That translates into an increase in municipal funding of $4.47 per person per year, or an almost $735,000 total increase compared with 2019. The 2020 operating budget totals $26,623,396, which represents an increase of $200,000, or 0.76 per cent, compared with 2019.
How switching anesthetics can have a massive impact on a hospital's carbon footprint
The operating room is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the health care industry, said a local physician, who is a leading voice on encouraging hospitals to go green. Desflurane, a common anesthetic gas used every day to put people to sleep before surgery in hospitals everywhere, is a major contributor to the carbon footprint of a hospital, said Dr. Sanjiv Mathur, a physician with Health Sciences North. Along with Dr. Antonio Caycedo, a surgeon at HSN, they published a paper in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia comparing the use of Desflurane and Sevoflurane, another anesthetic gas with a smaller carbon footprint.
Read the full story on the Sudbury.com homepage.
Sudbury council to consider holding meetings in the afternoon rather than at night
It has become a regular feature at city council that the meeting ends before all the business on the agenda has been completed. Specifically, individual motions from city councillors, which are near the bottom of the agenda, are often carried over meeting to meeting before they are finally dealt with. A motion – if it is heard – coming at the Nov. 26 meeting aims to fix that by starting council meetings at 2 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. It is being moved by Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann, Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh and Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier.
Read the full story on the Sudbury.com homepage.
