Good morning, Nickel City! Here are stories to start your day
Key Northern leaders gather in Sudbury this week:
Sudbury is hosting a handful of provincial ministers and municipal leaders throughout Northern Ontario this week.
The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities’ sold-out annual conference is taking place at Sudbury’s Holiday Inn and Conference Centre from May 6-8.
Featuring more than 250 delegates, the conference has been titled “Unlocking the North’s Potential.”
FONOM president Danny Whalen described the conference’s title as “recognizing Northern Ontario as a vital economic force for the province’s future,” in its agenda.
In the agenda, Greater Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre describes the event as offering “a diverse and balanced mix of session topics that connect to all of us here in the north as we look to prosper in the years to come and embrace what makes each of our communities unique.”
Included among the three days of presentations are speeches by Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra, Mining Minister George Pirie, Long-Term Care Minister Stan Cho, Mental Health and Addictions Office associate minister Michael Tibollo, Natural Resources Minister Graydon Smith, Transportation associate minister Vijay Thanigasalam,
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Dog rescued from island on Saturday
It was a win for the ducks but not for the dog, said Greater Sudbury deputy fire chief Jesse Oshell.
He was commenting on a bit of canine misadventure that took place Saturday while the German Shepherd and its owner were out for a hike on the trails near Laurentian Lake.
"And it was ducks one - dogs zero. The dog was chasing some ducks out to an island on Lake Laurentian and either became tired or affected by the cold water obviously -- the water is still extremely cold -- and the dog was unable or unwilling to leave the island once it was there," said Oshell.
He said the dog's owner was not successful in convincing the dog to leave the island, likely because the water was just too cold. That's when the fire rescue people took action.
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Vale explains new hiring program:
A Vale mine manager said the shortage of miners in Sudbury prompted one of Canada's largest mining companies to change its approach to hiring new workers.
Colin Pegues, the general manager of the Copper Cliff Mining Complex, was the keynote speaker Friday at the annual mining week business lunch in Copper Cliff.
The event was sponsored by Greater Sudbury Development Corporation and Modern Mining & Technology Sudbury.
Pegues outlined how a rejuvenation at the Garson Mine about five years ago resulted in an urgent need for hundreds of new workers.
"So all of a sudden, we needed to head into the market to find 300 skilled employees," he said.
Pegues said it was not considered fair for Vale to flood the market with new jobs and take away from local contracting and mining supply and service providers in the city. He said Vale realized it would have to rethink the hiring process for attracting new workers.
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Resident launches appeal against Algonquin Road structure
An area resident has filed an appeal with the Ontario Land Tribunal in opposition to city council’s October 2023 approval of a six-storey retirement complex on Algonquin Road.
The appeal was filed on April 18, and a five-day hearing regarding the proposed South End building is set to commence by video on Sept. 16.
The City of Greater Sudbury isn’t involved in the appeal, as a city spokesperson said they’d be defending the same position as the developer.
They don’t typically participate in the appeal process for third-party appeals of this nature, “to ensure taxpayers are not paying for costs associated with private development applications,” they added.
Although most details behind the appeal won’t be known until statements of facts are filed this summer, last year’s public hearings shine a light on what they’re likely to consist of.
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Ollie North is the new skateboarding group in Sudbury
There’s an advocacy group for various sports in Greater Sudbury, so why not skateboarding?
Local skateboarders asked this question, and then something about it, forming the not-for-profit Ollie North Skateboard Association, which officially launched on Thursday.
“There’s been an active skateboarding community in Sudbury since the ’70s, so there’s always been a good scene in Sudbury, but it’s always lacked a collective voice,” association director Nico Taus told Sudbury.com during the group’s launch.
“Here we are, and we’re here to get to work, not only to help advocate, but also to have fun and support our existing scene.”
The group hosted a gathering at the Tom Davies Square courtyard on Thursday to introduce themselves to the community. It was a strategic location for the launch, Taus said, since they intend on serving as a collective voice for skateboarders when it comes to municipal projects.
Although the City of Greater Sudbury has been working to improve access to skateboarding facilities through their revitalization of outdoor courts, Taus said the collective voice of Ollie North will help fine-tune these efforts.
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Sudbury Alerts planning emergency testing on May 10
If you receive an emergency notification on your phone at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 10, it’s very likely only a test.
The City of Greater Sudbury is testing its Sudbury Alerts emergency notification system as part of Emergency Preparedness Week (May 5-11).
All homes and businesses with publicly listed phone numbers will receive a test notification on their phone. Those who have signed up to receive emergency notifications via text, email, teletypewriter or mobile number through the city’s website will also receive a test notification.
The test notification on May 10 will appear as 705-805-9360. Text notification will arrive from 89362 or 89364.
“It’s a good idea to include the number in your phone’s contacts and name it Sudbury Alerts so you always know when an emergency alert call is coming in,” the city said in a media release.
The city also asked people to follow instructions carefully and to not phone 311 or 911.
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