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Good morning, Sudbury! Here are seven stories to start your day

080720_AP_chapters_masks
(File)

Good morning, Greater Sudbury.

Here are some stories to start your day.

Plenty of masks being used in Greater Sudbury Wednesday:

The region’s top doc said she’s impressed and proud with the way Sudburians are accepting the idea they should be wearing a mask when visiting local businesses. “Of course this is difficult, and we have been getting some grumblings, which is understandable, but on the whole, people are recognizing that we all have to play our part,” said Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, medical officer of health for Public Health Sudbury and Districts. With Wedsnesday, July 8 as the first day of masks being made mandatory in Greater Sudbury, as per directives issued July 7 by PHSD, it would seem the majority of residents are donning face coverings. Well, that actually depends on where you look, but at the New Sudbury Centre, around 2 p.m., most shoppers were wearing a mask or face covering of some sort. Others had masks around their necks, while others simply had no masks at all. It wasn’t exactly busy in the shopping centre, as one would expect in a pandemic, and stores were only allowing a certain number of customers in at a time. Security guards were also making an effort to educate shoppers on the new guidelines announced by the health unit. It was a similar scene at the Silver Hills area off The Kingsway. Many of the businesses had greeters who were educating the public on the new requirements. The employees we talked to said there were very few people who showed up without masks or some sort of face covering, and some who did readily accepted a mask. Others weren’t so understanding, choosing to ignore the offer, telling employees they just weren’t going to wear a mask. Get the full story here.

City backs away from hard stance with Downtown BIA, agrees to work more collaboratively:

A debate that spanned two city council meetings wrapped up on July 7, with council voting in favour of a more collaborative approach to working with the Downtown Business Improvement Area. The move comes in the wake of the auditor general's audit of the Downtown Sudbury BIA, which was presented in September 2019. The auditor general recommended that, among other things, the city update its relevant bylaws to identify activities of the BIA that fall outside of the board of management's legislated mandate. This audit came on the heels of some contentious times between the city and the BIA after council voted to move the downtown arena to the Kingsway Entertainment District, with the BIA joining a legal appeal to the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal as well as the Superior Court, which the BIA eventually pulled out of. Under the Municipal Act BIAs may be established to oversee the improvement, beautification and maintenance of municipally owned land, buildings and structures in that business improvement area, and to promote the business improvement area as a business or shopping area. Council has the authority under the Act to dissolve a BIA in their entirety under section 214 of the Act or change the board or continue with the boards as they exist now. Rather than take the most extreme measures, staff recommended a pair of resolutions, the first will amend bylaws that will require both of the city's BIAs — Downtown and the Flour Mill — to report annually to city council. The second resolution instructed the City of Greater Sudbury to work collaboratively with the Boards of Management to develop a memorandum of understanding that would include requirements to govern the operation and activities of the boards. More on this story here.

Masks required at city facilities, on buses, but retailers not required to turn maskless customers away:

Visitors to all city facilities and riders on all GOVA transit buses will be required to wear a face covering of some kind as of July 8, as per the directive from Public Health Sudbury & Districts. But when it comes to retail locations, business owners in Greater Sudbury are not required to turn a customer away who refuses to wear a mask, though they are required to have a clear policy in place. All public transit and business owners and operators in Sudbury and districts must have policies in place to stop people from entering if they are not wearing a face covering. These instructions were issued under the authority of the provincial Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act to ramp up efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Find out more here.

Webinar details the significant impact COVID-19 will have on business as more people return to work:

Members of the Sudbury business community were given step-by-step instructions July 7 on how to get themselves and their workers back on the job in a safe and healthy manner. The event was a webinar hosted by the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce entitled Safety Insights for Getting Back to Business during COVID19. Businesses were told this will include adapting to a whole new regimen of health and safety procedures along with getting used to working in a cleaner and disinfected environment. Speakers included health and safety consultants, a labour ministry inspector and a representative of the WSIB commenting on what to expect with regard to COVID-19 compensation claims. Ayden Robertson, a health and safety representative with Workplace Safety and Prevention Services, said employers need to recognize the COVID-19 hazard and understand the risk it presents of causing respiratory sickness to employees. He said the virus is being spread primarily through respiratory droplets or by people touching infected surfaces and then their own mouth, nose and eyes. He said employers will need to assess how workers might come into contact with the virus in their workplace and then assess the risk of infection, the risk of credibility for any business that ignores the threat the virus poses,  as well as the risk of how it might affect the financial viability of one's business. More on this story can be found here.

Back Roads Bill: What's up with all those 'height of land' signs in the North?

You’re headed to your next back roads adventure and you see those distinctive green and white highway signs announcing the water flows in different directions.  Strange thing though there’s never any water by the signs. . .There is a moose and a bear figurine and an elevation number. On one side it says the water flows to the Atlantic Ocean and on the other to the Arctic.  What’s that all about? It’s a line alright. There are personal and physical boundary lines; some are well demarcated, some are invisible.  Sometimes these lines indicate physical features or reflect the social limits of peoples. A “height of land” is a region of high ground that may act as a watershed boundary. Heights of land were important in the historic fur trade for their influence on the determination of routes and portages and they have affected many transportation routes since then. Drainage boundaries were important to Indigenous peoples in defining territoriality, as they were later to European colonists. It is a line that traverses Northern Ontario. The height of land line follows an irregular course of some 2,250 kilometres across Ontario, ranging from 32 to 280km north of Lakes Huron and Superior. Full story here.

Helpers: Meet Vince Perdue, the volunteer who co-founded Sudbury Rocks!!!

“I’m a bit of an accidental volunteer,” says Vince Perdue when describing how he drifted into volunteering and became indelibly involved in community work. Perdue grew up in Lindsay, a farming community in central Ontario’s Kawartha Lakes region. His family owned and operated a beef farm. “My dad was a forward thinker,” said Perdue. “Not only did he invest in state-of-the-art farming equipment, he also provided neighbouring farmers with customized harvesting services.” For Perdue’s Irish ancestors, farming was a way of life. His grandfather established the family farm on Pigeon Lake in 1917, where the next generations of family raised cattle. “By the late 1960s, however, we were no longer farming and had moved to ranching. And, by the mid ’70s, our property transitioned into a Norway Spruce tree farm. The family who purchased the land from my parents still maintains and cherishes it as natural forest.” Born in 1950, Perdue is the third eldest of 12 children. As young adults, he and two brothers settled in Greater Sudbury, having found jobs with Inco Limited (now Vale). His other three brothers and six sisters remained relatively close to the original family homestead. Read this week's installment in our Helpers series here.

Essential Worker of the Day: Truck driver Tyler Schraeder:

Sudbury.com is recognizing Tyler Schraeder as Wednesday's Essential Worker of the Day. Schraeder is a truck driver for Farquhar Dairy and delivers milk products to the Sudbury area. "He is passionate about his job," his girlfriend Tina Champagne wrote. "Tyler works overnights and he loves his job. He is very proud of what he does. Because of delivery people like him we have cream for our coffee, milk for our cereal and of course ice cream his favourite. I want to thank him for all his hard work that he does for our family and the people of Sudbury." Do you know an essential worker who deserves to be recognized? Say thanks to someone you know who is a front-line health care worker, cashier or truck driver by nominating them for Sudbury.com's Essential Worker of the Day. Email us a photo, their name, their job title and your words of thanks to [email protected]. Please only send photos and information with permission.

Thursday Weather:

Crank up the air conditioner, it's going to be another hot one. A mix of sun and cloud for Thursday with the high soaring past 30. Temperature will feel like 39 with the Humidex today. A few clouds in the sky this evening. Overnight low will be sitting at 19. For current weather conditions, short-term and long-term forecasts visit Sudbury.com's weather page at www.sudbury.com/weather.

Current Weather

Light Snow

Light Snow

-8.5°C

Pressure
100.9 falling
Visibility
12.9 km
Dewpoint
-11.3 °C
Humidity
80%
Wind
SSE 5 km/h

Radar Satellite


Hourly Forecast

Today
3 AM
-9°C
Chance of flurries
Today
4 AM
-9°C
Chance of flurries
Today
5 AM
-9°C
Chance of flurries
Today
6 AM
-9°C
Periods of snow
Today
7 AM
-8°C
Periods of snow
Today
8 AM
-8°C
Periods of snow
Today
9 AM
-7°C
Periods of snow
Today
10 AM
-6°C
Periods of snow
Today
11 AM
-5°C
Periods of snow
Today
12 PM
-4°C
Periods of snow
Today
1 PM
-2°C
Periods of snow
Today
2 PM
-1°C
Periods of snow

7 Day Forecast

Chance of flurries

Tonight

-9 °C

Mainly cloudy. 40 percent chance of flurries overnight. Wind up to 15 km/h. Low minus 9. Wind chill near minus 12.


Periods of snow

Tuesday

1 °C

Periods of snow. Amount 2 to 4 cm. Wind up to 15 km/h. High plus 1. Wind chill minus 13 in the morning. UV index 1 or low.


Flurries

Tuesday night

-8 °C

Flurries. Amount 2 cm. Wind becoming west 20 km/h gusting to 40 near midnight. Low minus 8. Wind chill minus 14 overnight.


Snow

Wednesday

-5 °C

Snow. High minus 5.


Cloudy periods

Wednesday night

-17 °C

Cloudy periods. Low minus 17.


Sunny

Thursday

-5 °C

Sunny. High minus 5.


Clear

Thursday night

-13 °C

Clear. Low minus 13.


Chance of snow

Friday

0 °C

A mix of sun and cloud with 60 percent chance of snow. High zero.


Chance of snow

Friday night

-14 °C

Cloudy periods with 60 percent chance of snow. Low minus 14.


A mix of sun and cloud

Saturday

-2 °C

A mix of sun and cloud. High minus 2.


Cloudy periods

Saturday night

-14 °C

Cloudy periods. Low minus 14.


A mix of sun and cloud

Sunday

-2 °C

A mix of sun and cloud. High minus 2.


Yesterday

Low
-8.8 °C
High
-2.4 °C
Precipitation
0.0 mm

Normals

Low
-9.8 °C
High
0.5 °C
Average
-4.7 °C

Sunrise and Sunset

Sunrise
7:28 AM
Sunset
7:36 PM

Record Values

Type Year Value
Max 2012 20.3 C
Min 1986 -23.7 C
Rainfall 1986 13.6 mm
Snowfall 1983 18.7 cm
Precipitation 1983 30.4 mm
Snow On Ground 1959 140.0 cm

Based on Environment Canada data