Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Tuesday morning.
Queen Elizabeth II honoured at Lockerby Legion service
As mourners took part in Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in England, a small group of Sudburians gathered at the Lockerby Legion in Sudbury’s South End on Monday to pay tribute to the late monarch’s long life. Jennifer Huard, president of the Lockerby Legion, pointed out during the short service that Queen Elizabeth II was a veteran of the Second World War. Then known as Princess Elizabeth, the future queen insisted upon joining the Auxilary Territorial Service (ATS), the women’s branch of the British Army, training as a mechanic. She started as a second subaltern in the ATS and was later promoted to junior commander, the equivalent of captain. Huard said Queen Elizabeth II also served as the commander-in-chief of the Canadian Armed Forces, a role to which she was “remarkably dedicated.”
Bigger refutes Lefebvre’s ‘crickets’ comment
Greater Sudbury mayoral candidate Paul Lefebvre was “politicking” when he claimed he heard “crickets” from the city when federal funds were available. So described Mayor Brian Bigger in response to comments Lefebvre made during his campaign office opening earlier this month, at which Lefebvre claimed the city left money on the table. “As a member of Parliament I brought the federal budget to city hall to say, ‘These are opportunities that are there for you to invest,’ and there were crickets,” Lefebvre told a group of supporters earlier this month. “I didn’t hear anything. They weren’t moving forward and there was money on the table.” After the meeting, he explained to Sudbury.com that in 2017, when various baskets of funding were made available for things such as affordable housing, he reached out to the mayor’s office to let him know.
City says WSIB data tool spitting out wrong info on safety stats
Despite a report to the contrary, the City of Greater Sudbury’s safety rating is actually lower than most municipalities. Sudbury.com was recently provided a document produced by a community member using data gathered by the province that seems to show the Nickel City’s municipal employee workplace safety rating is among the worst in the province. While they are based on provincial data, the numbers being circulated are inaccurate, city manager of corporate services Kevin Fowke told Sudbury.com and show a lost-time incident rate several times greater than it really is in reality. At issue is the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s online Safety Check web tool, which cites a Greater Sudbury lost-time incident rate of 13.48 per 100 full-time equivalent workers last year. In reality, last year’s figure was 3.4, Fowke clarified to Sudbury.com. This represents 83 workplace injuries/illnesses resulting in employees unable to work and the city unable to find accommodations to keep them working. To add greater context to the local numbers, the average 2020 lost-time incident rate among 16 municipalities was 5.56. That year, Greater Sudbury’s rate was 3.38.
Local MPPs call Laurentian plan approval ‘a tremendous relief’
The approval of the Plan of Arrangement for Laurentian University this past week is a “tremendous relief” but also “bittersweet,” said local MPPs. On Sept. 14, the university’s creditors approved a plan that’s been in the works for more than a year to put the post-secondary institution back on solid financial footing and deal with the millions owed to creditors. On Friday, Sudbury MPP Jamie West and Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas issued a statement on the plan approval. "The approved Plan of Arrangement is a tremendous relief for the thousands of students, faculty and staff who have had their lives overturned by the events of the last year and a half,” the joint statement reads. “It's a relief for Sudbury and Northern Ontario — Laurentian’s precarity has caused the careers, educational prospects and economic opportunities of so many to hang in the balance.” However, while the survival of Laurentian is something to celebrate, the sacrifices that were made to ensure that survival are not.
The Food Truck wins city’s best burger award
While the proceeds are still being counted, we do know who won this year’s Burger Wars fundraiser for the Northern Cancer Foundation. Based on the votes of local burger lovers, The Food Truck in New Sudbury was crowned the maker of the city’s best burger and most creative burger this year. Burger Wars is an annual fundraiser that sees local restaurants donate $1 from the sale of selected burgers to beef up funding for the Northern Cancer Foundation. Sudbury residents are then invited to try out as many burger creations as they can at local eateries and vote on their favourites. The idea appears to have come to Sudbury via the East Coast, according to local organizer Mitch Speigel, who explained that his daughter and her family live in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, a beautiful town that he visits often.
Canada lags behind world nickel producers, says mining exec
Nickel mining executive Johnna Muinonen told mining leaders in Sudbury Monday that Canada has fallen behind in nickel production compared with other countries in the world and she said there are some concerns in the Canadian nickel mining industry that need to be addressed before other countries in the take advantage of the growing demand for the metal. Muinonen is president of Dumont Nickel, Magneto Investments LP. Along with being a professional engineer (P.Eng) Muinonen has spent more than 20 years as a mining executive and in operational management in nickel mining, including nine years with Vale. She was a keynote speaker at the Mine Operators and Maintenance Engineers conference, hosted by the Sudbury branch of CIM (Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum). Most of her address was focused on the growing importance of nickel and other critical minerals for the manufacture and supply of batteries for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) for the automotive market as well as electric vehicles for industry. Muinonen said that needs to change if North America wants to win back a significant share of the market. Muinonen told the crowd that Indonesia today produces more than 30 per cent of the world supply of nickel. More importantly, she said, is that the processing of nickel is dominated by China. She said that means the battery supply chain is dominated by China.
Read the full story on the Sudbury.com homepage.
High of 22 without a cloud in the sky
Expect a sunny, warm day for your Tuesday. Today’s high is forecasted to be 22 under sunny skies. Fog patches will dissipate around noon. The humidex value today will make it feel like 26. The UV index today is five, or moderate. Tonight, expect increasing cloudiness and a low of 14.
