Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Wednesday morning.
Greater Sudbury’s aging pipes leak well beyond targets
Greater Sudbury’s infrastructure shows its age in various ways, and a new municipal report shows how it has manifested in water leakage volumes. The city’s target rate of 15 per cent water leakage is largely exceeded in Greater Sudbury, ranging from nine per cent in Dowling to 47 per cent in Onaping-Levack. A large leak in Levack in the Hardy Industrial Park leading to an abandoned mine has been found and repaired since these leakages were recorded, but the report released this week does not offer an updated leakage volume estimate. The total leakage volume in 2012 was estimated at 5,738,490 cubic metres in Greater Sudbury. Against a production of 21,846,607 cubic metres, there was an overall leakage of 26.3 per cent. To combat this and other concerns, the city started a Water and Wastewater Task Force five-year pilot program, which was officially underway by 2021. “Leaking water distribution systems are a global problem, which, with decreasing available water and climate change, continues to gain attention and new tools continue to be available on the market to address the issue,” city water and wastewater professional Cheryl Beam said in a report the city’s operations committee will be presented on Jan. 16. “Water loss reduction is a cost-effective water management tool.” Learn more here.
University study shows ‘vaccination deserts’ in Northern Ontario
A study carried out by the University of Waterloo, with assistance from Laurentian University, has identified areas of Northern Ontario and rural Ontario that are "vaccination deserts" because such areas have poor access to pharmacy vaccination sites for COVID-19 vaccines or the flu shot.The research was carried out by Waterloo's School of Pharmacy and compiled Statistics Canada data to determine where pharmacists are working in relation to where some Ontarians live. The study said many areas have little to no access to pharmacies that provide the vaccines.The researchers found that most community pharmacists authorized to administer injections work in the urban regions of southern Ontario, confirming a large geographic discrepancy. Dr. Sherilyn Houle, a professor at Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy co-authored the study. “Our biggest realization is that there are many communities that do not have local access to a pharmacy at all,” said Dr. Houle. “While medication can be delivered remotely and virtual care can be used for offsite counselling, access to vaccinations will need a more innovative approach," she added. Read the full story.
France Gélinas continues to fight Doug Ford over Bill 124
The battle against Ontario's Bill 124 continues and NDP health care critic France Gélinas is fighting on the front line. Although the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled in November that the law was unconstitutional, Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government is appealing the court's ruling. Bill 124 is the law Ontario passed in 2019 to put a one-per cent per year wage cap on certain public sector wages in Ontario. It meant that nurses, for example, could not negotiate any wage hike higher than one per cent per cent for a three-year period. Gélinas, the MPP for Nickel Belt, said the appeal only confirms that Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones are fully aware that Bill 124 is contributing to the health-care staffing crisis by contributing to lower wages and disrespect for hospital workers. She said Ford's decision to ignore the court and to appeal the decision is "a slap in the face" for public sector workers. Read the full story.
SPG’s ‘Spelling Bee’ a ‘charming little show’
Sudbury Performance Group chases away the early-winter blahs with their family-friendly production of the “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” The show runs Jan. 12 through 21 at Thorneloe University Theatre. First running on Broadway in 2005, the musical comedy features music and lyrics by William Finn, based on a book by Rachel Sheinkin. The show won two Tony awards, and a Disney film adaptation is in the works. The show centres on a fictional spelling bee set in a geographically ambiguous Putnam Valley Middle School. Six quirky adolescents compete in the bee, run by three equally quirky grown-ups. “It’s just a charming little show that really speaks to both children and adults,” said Mark Mannisto, the show’s director. Mannisto, who calls “Spelling Bee” his passion project, said the show was staged at Sudbury Theatre Centre many years ago, and that’s where he first saw it and fell in love with it. Read the full story on Sudbury.com's home page.
Pursuit: Linda Tenhunen aims to improve youth swim coaching
Like any good coach, Linda Tenhunen is on a perpetual search for knowledge. Thankfully for the Nickel City Aquatics, the retired physician who balanced her volunteer duties as club head coach with the busy demands of her career for quite a while does not limit her never-ending quest for information to simply the technical understanding of the four major strokes. Tenhunen was recently selected as one of just two inaugural recipients of the cash award that is attached to the Clifford Barry Follow Your Heart Excellence Project, a Swimming Canada initiative that honours the long-time coach who was instrumental in the development of Olympian Victor Davis, but equally at ease with those just getting comfortable in the water. It’s that latter stream that so appealed to Tenhunen, her passion rewarded with a $5,000 grant to address some of the challenges seen at the entry level for athletes to the sport. “Clifford Barry was very interested in grassroots coaching and was very involved in coaching at the grassroots level – and above,” noted the local woman, who was also feted with the Lea Bredschneider Award (Swim Ontario) in 2021.“One of the things that I have noticed over the years is that there is lots and lots of programming – webinars, seminars, etc ... – that are for higher performance but not a lot of programming for grassroots coaching, novice coaching, coaching at the development level,” said Tenhunen. “As a non-swimmer, for me, I have had to seek hard to get information on that stream.” Learn more here.
Snow predicted for Wednesday
Wednesday will be cloudy. Snow beginning in the morning. Amount 2 to 4 cm. Wind up to 15 km/h. High of -7 C. Wind chill -17 C in the morning and -11 C in the afternoon. Nightfall will bring periods of snow. Low of -6 C.
