Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Saturday morning.
Municipal asset renewal a ‘critical’ risk, cautions Sudbury CAO
The City of Greater Sudbury’s infrastructure gap has already been well-established, but a new report by city CAO Ed Archer adds gravity to the situation. The city’s underfunding of asset renewal carries a “critical” risk level, according to the report, with “major” consequences. Intended to support city council’s 2024-25 budget deliberations, Archer’s report highlights what risks exist within municipal operations. “The corporation cannot completely avoid risk, nor eliminate it,” Archer’s report notes. “Every activity carries some risk, and municipalities are continuously exposed to a wide spectrum of risks. It is important to understand council’s perspective on the acceptable balance between risk mitigation and timely, low-cost service efforts.
Sudbury-designed construction robot prepping for first home build in 2024
By early 2024, Steven Beites believes his research team will have a working robot that can pick up and place modular housing panels in the construction of a single-family home. It will just be a prototype at that stage, and there will be plenty of work still to do before the machine can be deployed to a build site. But it will mark a major milestone for the multi-year project that's poised to help revolutionize the residential construction industry in Northern Ontario. “The focus is really to assist when it comes to construction,” said Beites, an associate professor at Sudbury's McEwen School of Architecture. “So, how do we start to integrate automation into the construction process as a way to design faster and design more cost-effective buildings.”
Algoma Public Health to study merger with Sudbury health unit
A majority of Algoma Public Health board members voted Wednesday to seek provincial funding to study the feasibility of a voluntary merger with Public Health Sudbury & Districts. However, the motion to proceed with the feasibility study wasn’t approved before much discussion and did not pass unanimously. “At this point in time the decision is certainly voluntary,” said Dr. Jennifer Loo, APH medical officer of health and CEO, addressing the board. However, Loo said “there is a risk, certainly, of future provincial directions to engage in non-voluntary restructuring.” The Ontario government announced in August that funding will be offered to public health units that want to merge.
Success: Airport CEO Giovanna Verrilli has a plan
In the not-so-distant past, a successful executive could look forward to two-hour lunches and a martini or two charged to a cushy expense account. Fast-forward to 2023. Things have changed. Successful CEOs, such as Greater Sudbury Airport CEO Giovanna Verrilli, have become experts at multi-tasking and are more likely to be eating takeout lunches at their desks. Luckily for her, there is a great little restaurant in her building. The Fly Sudbury Café & Lounge opened last summer. Owned by Ranjodh Singh and Lakhvir Singh Mann, it offers Canadian food as well as Indian and Mexican dishes. The previous restaurant had closed during the pandemic.
Northern students still told to avoid Laurentian: consultant
Guidance counsellors are telling students to avoid attending Laurentian University following its 22-month insolvency. Area school boards didn’t even return LU’s invitation to participate in consultations for its 2024-2029 strategic plan. This according to a consultant hired by Laurentian to draft its strategic plan, who spoke Nov. 21 during a meeting of LU’s senate. Chris Loreto of StrategyCorp responded during the meeting to senate members’ thoughts on the draft of the strategic plan, and they had a lot of them. The draft strategic plan focuses on everything from faculty and student recruitment to alumni donations to extracurricular offerings to varsity sports. Laurentian interim president Sheila Embleton said StrategyCorp is in the final stages of gathering feedback, and it’s expected the strategic plan will receive final approval from LU’s board of governors in February.
Sudbury filmmaker screening doc on intimate partner violence
Following Greater Sudbury council passing a motion declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic, Sudbury Indie Cinema is screening a film Nov. 25 focusing on the topic. Local filmmaker Emilce Quevedo presents her first feature documentary “We, the Women.” It’s a very personal story crafted by Quevedo over the course of several years in an attempt to unravel and end an inter-generational legacy of abuse suffered by multiple generations of family members, including her grandmother, mother and all her aunts. That being beaten by your male partner was somewhat normalized in her family in rural Columbia terrified her as she herself wed. Saturday, Nov. 25 marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and in Sudbury, Indie Cinema will be presenting the local premiere of Quevedo’s powerful documentary.
