Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Monday morning.
Drugs seized, multiple arrests made in Espanola
A search warrant executed by OPP in Espanola resulted in the arrest of six people on Dec. 8. Approximately 15 grams of suspected fentanyl was seized alongside nine grams of suspected crystal methamphetamine and more than 62 grams of suspected crack cocaine.
Greater Sudbury lags in COVID employment recovery
Greater Sudbury is lagging behind other municipalities when it comes to employment recovery post-COVID, with employed Greater Sudburians down 4.8 per cent from January 2020. This ranks the city 32 of 35 municipalities in the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Business Data Lab’s listings, which the organization’s chief economist shared during a presentation in Copper Cliff on Thursday. Invited by the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, Stephen Tapp noted that the slow employment recovery has been accompanied by a “tight labour market” in the region. At the same time, the city’s unemployment rate has also been historically low (4.6 per cent in November) and the city’s population grew by 2.8 per cent between 2016 and 2021. These statistics draw from an “accumulation of factors,” local Chamber president Anthony Davis told Sudbury.com following Thursday’s 2023 Development Outlook presentation at Bryston’s on the Park.
Several businesses broken into at Lorne Street building
Several businesses reported items stolen after a commercial building at 633 Lorne Street was broken into between Thursday evening and Friday morning. Officers arrived on site at approximately 8 a.m. on Friday (Dec. 9) to investigate, after the incident became known to them. “That’s pretty typical when a business is closed, unless they have an alarm company,” Staff Sgt. Sherry Young told Sudbury.com. Appearances Hair Salon owner Jonathan Boucher estimates his business was broken into at some point between 6:30 p.m. Thursday and 7 a.m. Friday.
More than 250 motorists recorded illegally passing school buses
Some Greater Sudbury motorists just aren’t getting the message, and have continued neglecting to stop for school buses whose red lights are flashing. At the start of the school year in September, seven school buses in the city with built-in cameras recorded more than 100 occurrences involving almost 250 vehicles failing to stop for them. “This is unacceptable and highly concerning,” Greater Sudbury Police Service recently wrote on their Facebook page.
‘More toxic substances’ may be circulating in local street drugs
Reports of unexpected reactions to substances and an increase in overdoses sparked Public Health Sudbury and Districts to caution the residents of Sudbury and Manitoulin Island about the quality of street drugs. The Community Drug Strategies for the City of Greater and Manitoulin Island received the reports. While unable to confirm the substance that has caused the overdoses, they concluded it warrants a warning. “This situation serves as an important reminder to the community that street drugs may be cut or mixed with substances such as benzos (benzodiazepines), fentanyl, or carfentanil,” they caution. “Frontline workers warn that more toxic substances may be circulating locally.”
USW: Canada lags protecting miners from diesel particulate
United Steelworkers Local 6500 and several industrial health advocates in Sudbury have launched a new campaign to clear the air and make it easier to breathe in underground mines. The effort is aimed at reducing the amount of allowable diesel particulate that exposes thousands of miners to carcinogenic levels of particulates in the mining industry. Sudbury's Local 6500 has launched the USW Diesel Particulate Project in partnership with the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) at Laurentian University, and Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW). This new campaign was the subject of a town hall meeting at the USW Hall on Brady Street Dec. 8 with roughly 100 to 150 in attendance. Many were active and retired miners with experience in underground environments and were exposed to the exhaust and fumes from heavy equipment diesel mining machines.
Sunny conditions on the forecast for today
It'll be sunny today, with a high of -6 C and a wind chill making it feel like -18 C in the morning and -11 C in the afternoon. This, according to the Environment Canada forecast, which also anticipates a northeast wind of 20 km/h becoming light late in the afternoon. It'll be clear overnight, with a wind of up to 15 km/h and a low of -12 C. Expect a wind chill of -10 C in the evening and -17 C overnight.
