Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Friday morning.
Anti-’renoviction’ motion tabled by Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin
In an effort to tackle so-called “renovictions,” Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin is asking city council to endorse her motion seeking a means of preventing bad-faith residential tenant evictions. “We’re having a very real housing crisis, and we have so many homeless people,” she told Sudbury.com, describing renovictions as one reason some people end up homeless. Renovictions are residential evictions wherein tenants are evicted using N13 notices (and L2 applications), which allow landlords to evict residents to perform renovations. Though some are legitimate, they have also been criticized for being done in bad faith, as a means of evicting low-paying tenants and replacing them with tenants who will pay higher rental rates as a means of bypassing legislation which limits rental rate increase. Fortin was turned onto the issue last year, when an elderly resident in Sudbury’s Donovan neighbourhood reached out to her because she’d been handed an N13 eviction notice.
Surplus Carl A. Nesbitt school hits the open market at $2.17M
The old Carl A. Nesbitt Public School building has been posted for sale on the open market, at a listing price of $2.17 million. In the listing, it is described as a 27,510-square-foot brick building in New Sudbury, with more than 3.72 acres of land fronting Roy Avenue, Lamothe Street and Leon Avenue. The building includes 14 classrooms, offices, resource room, storage rooms, boys and girls washrooms and a gymnasium. The Rainbow District School Board declared the building surplus in 2023, in advance of Lasalle Elementary School opening. Provincial legislation requires school boards to “first offer surplus property for purchase or lease to a list of public sector bodies ... before the property can be sold or leased on the open market and helps to facilitate the property remaining within the public sphere where there is a need and a financially viable proposal.” As such, the Carl A. Nesbitt Public School’s availability on the open market indicates other public sector bodies, such as school boards and the City of Greater Sudbury, opted against purchasing it.
Parking rates increase at Sudbury’s Health Sciences North
For the first time in eight years, parking rates are going up at Health Sciences North (HSN) on Ramsey Lake Road and the Sudbury Outpatient Centre on Regent Street. The information was revealed on the hospital’s website. The new rates went into effect on Monday. As of Feb. 5, 2024, HSN said these rates will be set at $4 for the first hour, $3 for the second hour, $2 for the third hour, and a maximum cost of $11.50 for a day pass. Previously the cost of parking was $3 for the first hour of parking, $2 for the second hour, and $1 for each additional hour to a maximum of $10 per day. "Metered parking (main and south entrance) rates remain unchanged at our sites at $2 per hour," said the HSN parking page. Weekly passes will be eliminated and five-day and 10-day passes are being introduced at a reduced rate, said HSN. These passes will be available for purchase from the Finance Offices at both sites. The five-day pass will be $28 and the 10-day pass will be $50.
COVID-19 vaccine had no adverse effect on newborns
A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that the vaccination of pregnant women with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines was not associated with any increased risks of adverse events for the newborn babies. The study was carried out "to evaluate the risks of neonatal adverse events after exposure to COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy," said the article published on Tuesday. The study included more than 94,000 infants exposed to COVID vaccine during the mother's pregnancy and more than 103,000 control study infants born between June 2021 and January 2023, the authors reported. The findings were that "vaccination during pregnancy was associated with lower odds of neonatal intracranial hemorrhage, cerebral ischemia and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and neonatal mortality," said the report. "Meaning, in this large population-based study, vaccination of pregnant individuals with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines was not associated with increased risks of neonatal adverse events in their infants," the report continued.
'No ice is safe ice': OPP warns against snowmobiling, thin ice
The Ontario Provincial Police is warning people to take cautions after investigating four snowmobile deaths this season. Despite many of the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs trails remaining closed due to weather, the OPP said it continues to see snowmobilers looking for trails. “I’ve seen plenty of vehicles hauling snowmobiles looking for trails,” Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said in a social media post on Tuesday. “Most of the trails are closed across the province.” The OPP’s warning about the weather impacting snowmobiling comes just a few days after a man in Georgina died shortly after falling through the ice on an ATV. York Regional Police have also dealt with two other snowmobile and ATV-related incidents in the last three weeks. No ice is safe ice, said Schmidt, and the OPP has seen an increase in snowmobilers going through ice. This has especially been an issue with underlying water currents or air pockets being able to create thin ice, even in the coldest temperatures, which snowmobilers can’t see until it’s too late. In the past 10 years, 158 snowmobilers did not make it home to their families in what were almost all preventable riding incidents, OPP said in a media release.
SSO to reveal its new director Saturday
Sudbury Symphony Orchestra will reveal its next artistic director during a Feb. 10 string quartet “Bohemian Rhapsody Across the Atlantic” show. “Be the first to learn which of the five talented applicants was chosen and be the first to learn about what the new artistic director has in store for the Orchestra, all while taking in the third installment of the acclaimed Chamber Series Concerts,” said an email from SSO. The finalists in the search are Josh Wood, Jamie Arrowsmith, Michael Hall, Bill Rowson and François Koh, all of whom have presented concerts to local audiences in the last few symphony seasons. The “Bohemian Rhapsody Across the Atlantic” show takes place Feb. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Place des Arts. Join the SSO quartet for a small social after this performance at Le Bistro inside Place des Arts, for a perfect night out of the cold. This concert features the quartet performing the works of two Bohemian (Czech) composers that journeyed across the Atlantic.
