Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Wednesday morning.
City data used to inform decisions is statistically irrelevant
Statistics culled from voluntary poll data, collected primarily online, are routinely provided to Greater Sudbury city council members in reports to help inform various decisions. The problem is, this data is statistically irrelevant to the municipality’s population as a whole. “When there’s no random selection and people get to volunteer for a survey, it’s basically just a glorified online suggestion box,” Nanos Research chief data scientist Nik Nanos told Sudbury.com. “It’s only representative of the people who actually decided to fill it out.” This voluntarily provided data follows the idiom, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” because only those interested in the topic at hand generally respond, which skews results in their favour. “You never make important decisions using something like that,” Nanos said.
Vagnini’s cause of death won’t be released publicly
Information on city councillor Michael Vagnini’s cause of death won’t be made public, this from the chief coroner's office in Sudbury. After searching for more than two weeks, Vagnini’s body was discovered in the late afternoon on Feb. 13. His truck and remains were located shortly before 2:30 p.m. at a seasonal residence on Reserve Camp Road on Atikameksheng Anishnawbek First Nation. After the police located Vagnini, the police’s missing person investigation became a death investigation, led by the coroner’s office. Sudbury.com spoke with Stephanie Rea, issues manager for the Office of the Chief Coroner, who said death investigations like these are similar to medical files, and are kept confidential. “We don't release the reports publicly, such as what the cause and manner of death would be," she said. “We give all that information to the next of kin.”
Visa cap, frozen tuition creating post-secondary ‘turmoil’
The current turmoil in the post-secondary sector was highlighted by Laurentian University’s interim president during meetings with the university's two governing bodies last week. This includes the lack of funding news for post-secondary institutions coming out of the Ontario government and the federal government’s recent announcement surrounding a cap on international students. Sheila Embleton said during the Feb. 13 senate meeting the sector has “been kind of put in turmoil, because of what you must have read about in the press about the international student visa caps.” “That's a really destabilizing thing for the whole sector, right across the country,” she said. “Universities, colleges, other kinds of post-secondary, like career colleges and so on. It's just completely unstable." During the Feb. 16 board of governors meeting, in speaking about enrolment numbers, Embleton said "the cloud on the horizon there, of course, is the international student visa cap for undergrads ... it does mean that there's quite a bit of uncertainty, volatility there with those numbers, and that has strong financial implications as well."
Rise of private health clinics should concern Canadians, NDP says
As the province grapples with a family doctor shortage, New Democrats are raising concerns about clinics offering health care to Ontarians for hefty fees. Last fall, the South Keys Health Center in Ottawa made headlines for its plan to charge patients $400 to be enrolled in its nurse practitioner clinics. At Queen's Park on Friday morning, the NDP raised the alarm about MDDirect, an "executive health" clinic in Toronto that charges patients nearly $5,000 per year. NDP MPP Jessica Bell said she is "concerned about ... the rise of private medical clinics in Ontario like MDDirect and what this means for the future of health care." "What we believe is that, in Canada, everyone should get access to good public health care based on nee
Sudbury health unit wants a merger, Algoma health unit says nope
Sudbury's board of health for Public Health Sudbury & Districts (PHSD) has voted in favour of a merger with the Algoma Public Health (APH) agency. Despite that, Algoma Public Health has said no thanks, and has voted against the merger idea. The PHSD vote took place Tuesday, following what was described in a news release as "careful review and intense deliberations" by the board of health, said a news release. Although the merger proposal would normally be submitted to the Ministry of Health, the opposing viewpoints of the two health units means that a merger proposal will not be submitted to the ministry. “Today’s Public Health Sudbury & Districts deliberations were in response to the Ministry of Health’s August 2023 announcement encouraging voluntary mergers and providing merger support funding for public health units. On behalf of Board members, I would like to extend our gratitude for the thoughtful and extensive work by both boards of health, the Medical Officers of Health, and staff from both public health units over the last few months to gather the information necessary to make an informed decision,” said René Lapierre, chair of the board of health for Public Health Sudbury & Districts, in the release.
Sudbury African Cabaret promises food, fashion and music Feb. 24
The African Cabaret is here to celebrate Black History Month on Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. at the Steelworkers Hall. The event will feature African food, a fashion show and master drummer and instrumentalist, Djely Tapa. African tradition is a large part of Sudbury history, and many immigrants arrive in Canada and seek the help of event host Contact Interculturel Francophone de Sudbury (CIFS) to start on the right foot. The organization helps new Canadians find employment, housing, daycare options and more, in order for them to get into the job market. Funds raised by the African Cabaret help make these services possible. Organizer Gouled Hassan said in a press release that he is proud to organize an event that holds space for all languages and culture of sudbury to dance as one community.
