Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Friday morning.
Lo-Ellen dominating at NOSSA track finals
Sudbury’s Lo-Ellen Park Secondary dominated the first day of the first Northern Ontario Secondary School Athletics track and field championships to be held in two years. The event was held May 25 and 26 at the Jo Forman Track Complex in Sault Ste. Marie. Thirty-two high schools from across Northern Ontario are competing, including schools from Sudbury. After the first day of competition, Lo-Ellen Park has a commanding lead with 218 points. That’s nearly 70 points ahead of the next highest school, also from Sudbury, Lockerby Composite with 151 points. Lo-Ellen Park is also dominating when broken down by male and female athletes. On the female side, Lo-Ellen and Lockerby round out the top two with 98 and 80 points respectively. Manitoulin Secondary is in third with 58 points. On the male side, it’s Lo-Ellen and Lockerby in the top spots again with 120 and 71 points respectively. The competition wrapped up yesterday so look for a followup on Sudbury.com today.
Sudbury’s economy to get ‘massive’ boost from electric vehicles
Greater Sudbury’s first ever municipal conference to explore the commercial viability of the battery electric vehicle (BEV) industry was told Wednesday that massive economic opportunities will exist in Sudbury and Northern Ontario because of it. The conference – BEV In Depth – is being held at Science North, hosted by Greater Sudbury Economic Development with delegates from government, the mining industry, mining supply industry, the auto industry and the battery development companies. As the demand grows for more battery electric vehicles, so does the demand for new automotive and industrial batteries large enough and efficient enough to provide sustainable power to cars, trucks and mining vehicles in Canada. Sudbury is setting out to stake its claim in the game since modern batteries require significant amounts of premium-grade nickel, cobalt, copper and lithium — critical minerals that are all produced in Northern Ontario. That was pointed out by Toronto Danforth MP Julie Dabrusin, who is also the parliamentary secretary to the federal Minister of the Environment and Climate Change and to the federal Minister of Natural Resources. She was a key speaker as the conference opened Wednesday night. “And now, as the world shifts to low carbon transportation models, the future has never looked better for those who mined and processed the riches buried in Sudbury basin and other Greenstone belts in this region,” Dabrusin said.
Date set for inquest into 2017 workplace death of Sudbury man
The coroner's office said a date has been set for an inquest into the death of a Sudbury man who died on the job five years ago. This week, Dr. Harry Voogjarv, regional supervising coroner for North Region out of the Sudbury Office, announced that June 13 is when the inquest will be held into the death of Ronald Charles Lepage. Lepage, 59, died in hospital on April 6, 2017, from injuries sustained while operating a dump truck at the Copper Cliff Refinery in Sudbury, said a news release. An inquest is mandatory in Ontario when a worker dies on the job. Lepage was described at the time of his death as a contract driver for a Sudbury company who was disposing waste materials at Vale’s central tailings area when the fatal accident happened.
Study: A cleaner illicit drug supply would cut overdose rates
A new study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) said that providing safe drug substances to addicted drug users might be a solution to the growing number of overdose deaths from the toxic and unregulated supply of street drugs. The study reports that there are safer alternatives available in Canada that provide substance users with a "flexible safe supply program that provides several medication options, including fentanyl, and is integrated with other health care and social services." The report is authored by Sukhpreet Klaire, Christy Sutherland, Thomas Kerr and Mary Clare Kennedy, a group of physicians and researchers affiliated with the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, and at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna. Details of the study were released Monday, May 16. "Between January 2016 and June 2021, 24,626 people died from opioid toxicity in Canada. A key driver of this ongoing public health crisis has been the infiltration of illicitly manufactured fentanyl and other dangerous adulterants into the unregulated drug supply," said the study. Newer numbers released from Health Canada show the death count at almost 27,000 in that five-year period.
Mayoral candidates denounce anti-council signs posted downtown
In a series of jabs at Mayor Brian Bigger and city council as a whole, several signs were found taped to poles in downtown Sudbury earlier this week. “Bigger taxe$ every year clean hou$e,” read one of the signs, while other signs claim “developer$ run thi$ city,” and urged people to “Clean house, get rid of these council ‘bums.’” One sign inaccurately claimed that Sudbury has the “highest taxes in Ontario.” Depending on the metric used to compare tax rates between municipalities, Greater Sudbury is either middling or high. The most commonly-accepted metric ranks Greater Sudbury as among the lowest in its classification and middle-of-the-road provincially. It’s unclear who installed the signs, but a municipal spokesperson clarified that they are not considered election signs, which must promote a specific candidate for election. However, they do fall under the city’s sign bylaw, which prohibits signs on poles except for those that advertise a “non-commercial event or activity, a non-profit event or activity.” Posters can also be approved by the Downtown Business Improvement Area.
Read the full story on the Sudbury.com homepage.
Walk in memory of Kamloops 215 to be held May 27
A remembrance walk is being held in Sudbury May 27 to mark the one-year anniversary of the discovery of 215 unmarked graves found in Kamloops, B.C., and to remember the more than 10,000 children who never came home from residential schools in Canada. The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc refer to the May 2021 discovery of the unmarked graves at the Kamloops former residential school site as finding “Le Estcwicwéy̓” (the missing). The May 27 remembrance walk is being hosted by N’Swakamok Native Friendship Centre, in partnership with Laurentian University and the Greater Sudbury Police Service. Beginning at 12:45 p.m., the event will start at the 110 Elm Street location of the N’Swakamok Native Friendship Centre. The walk will begin at 1 p.m. and take participants to Ramsey Lake in order to hold a ceremony at 2:15, located at the Orange Flower Memorial. Participants are encouraged to wear orange, as well as ribbon shirts and skirts.
More showers and clouds in the forecast today
Expect a cloudy day with a 60-per-cent chance of showers in the morning and a high of 18. The skies should clear for a time later in the afternoon. The wind will be out of the north at 20 km/h early in the afternoon. The UV index today is one, or low. Tonight, expect cloudy periods and a low of 10.
