Good morning, Greater Sudbury.
Here are some stories to start your day.
Leduc left hanging on motion to provide warm spaces to eat for city's vulnerable citizens:
A motion to provide warm spaces in the form of trailers for some of Sudbury's less fortunate hit a snag Tuesday night, as discussions were halted when council voted not to proceed past the three-hour mark of their meeting. Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc and Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan tabled a members' motion on Nov. 10 that looks to establish nine-hour-a-day warming station services where the city's homeless can eat their meals and have access to on-site social services. "Last week we approved funding for the YMCA, CDS (Centre de Santé) has created a warming station so has the YMCA, SACY (Sudbury Action Centre for Youth) has created two to four beds and a youth warming station, which is all great," said Leduc. "The unfortunate problem here is that our most vulnerable population at the present time has nowhere to eat their meals. The (Elgin Street) Mission and the Blue Door (Soup Kitchen) reached out to me and Independent Living (Sudbury Manitoulin) has stepped up to the plate on this." The motion asks that city staff prepare and execute a service agreement with Independent Living Sudbury Manitoulin on a single source basis for an amount not to exceed $175,000 that provides nine-hour per day of warming stations up to April 31, 2021. Get the full story here.
Ontario daily case total jumps again over previous day, 1,426 new cases reported:
Public Health Ontario has again reported a record number of new COVID cases with 1,426 new confirmed cases included in Wednesday's update. Including Nov. 11, the past five days saw the five highest daily case counts ever reported in the province. The province's public health agency has also confirmed 15 more deaths, including four people between 60 and 79 years old, and 11 people over the age of 80. Seen of the people who died were residents of long-term care homes. There have been 30 people hospitalized with the coronavirus since Tuesday and three COVID patients have been admitted to intensive care units. There were 198 new school-related cases reported Wednesday, including 116 students, 21 staff, and 61 unidentified cases. There have been 3,063 school-related cases reported by the province to date, and 1,033 of those cases were reported within the last 14 days. Get the full report here.
Mayor Bigger will bring suggestions to council on ways Sudbury can honour Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek:
Greater Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger says he's open to ideas and suggestions of how the city can honour the memory of Alex Trebek. Speaking with Mell and Chris of 92.7 Rock recently, the mayor told the morning show hosts that he has seen online petitions about how to honour Trebek, the former Sudbury resident who passed away on Nov. 8 from pancreatic cancer. "I have seen that theme continue on social media in Sudbury and so (I'm) absolutely interested in any petition that's brought forward and I'd be happy to bring it forward to council," said Bigger. The morning show hosts brought up a petition they started back in 2019, when it was announced that Trebek had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, to have Sudbury's main library branch on Mackenzie Street renamed in honour of the Canadian icon. "We just think the library, a library, would be the perfect choice given that Alex Trebek was a voracious reader and had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and isn't that what libraries are all about?" said Mellaney Dahl. Bigger acknowledged the connection between Trebek and the city's libraries, and said the opportunity was one that would be worth looking into, though he's not in any rush at this moment in time.
Val Caron Pita Pit temporarily closes dining room as a precaution:
Pita Pit in Val Caron is temporarily closing its dining room in light of the increase in COVID-19 cases across the city. “We care about the well-being of our guests and staff,” the restaurant wrote. “We have the public’s best interest in mind, therefore, we will be closing our dine-in option only at this time.” In-store takeout orders are still available, as are call-in curb-side pickup options. Customers entering the restaurant are required to wear a mask, “as our store policy and (Public Health Sudbury and Districts) states it is absolutely mandatory to do so.” Furthermore, there is a limit on the number of people waiting for orders inside the store, and customers are asked to maintain physical distancing of two metres or six feet while in the store. “We would like to thank you all for your understanding and continued support during these unprecedented times,” said the owners in a post on Facebook.
Hwy. 144 driver who was ‘swerving all over road’ fails to stop for OPP, eventually arrested for impaired:
A 42-year-old Sudbury man who refused to stop for the OPP while allegedly driving drunk on Highway 144 is facing several charges. The Nipissing West OPP responded to a traffic complaint regarding a possible impaired driver travelling southbound on Highway 144, north of Halfway Lake Provincial Park in Antrim Township at 4:20 p.m. Nov. 9. A short time later, the officer located the vehicle on Highway 144 and observed it swerving all over the road. Police followed the vehicle for several kilometers while attempting to stop it, just south of Halfway Lake Provincial Park, but the driver failed to stop. The pursuit was then terminated. While patrolling in the Cartier area at 5:30 p.m., the officer observed the suspect’s vehicle again southbound on Highway 144 and followed it as it turned onto Old Cartier Road. The vehicle was subsequently located parked along Lochhead Drive in Cartier Township. The driver attempted to leave, but the vehicle was in park. The officer managed to open the driver's door, reached inside and was able to shut-off the engine. The driver resisted arrest but after a brief struggle, was eventually taken into custody.
Northern medical school launches five-year strategic plan:
The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is not sitting still. Pandemic or no pandemic, NOSM Dean and CEO Dr. Sarita Verma said the school is moving forward with a new five-year strategic plan despite the fact the plan was conceived amid a time of uncertainty. NOSM announced details of its new plan -- The NOSM Challenge 2021-2025 -- through an online video conference Tuesday morning. "Even before the COVID-19 crisis, we were witnessing a worsening in health equity issues; rapid technological change, growing economic interdependence, and frankly, mounting political instability, which continues and conspires to make the future increasingly murky," she said Dr. Verma. She added that when the pandemic hit, a lot of medical schools opted for efficiency at the expense of innovation. Verma said NOSM was already poised to immediately address the challenge of the pandemic with virtual education. "At the same time we were already pivoting towards the realistic future of virtual health education and population based research. We were all ready and we still are ahead of the curve," Verma told the online audience Tuesday. More on this story here.
Remembrance Day: Read Sudbury woman’s poem ‘Open Letter To An Old Soldier’:
Sudbury.com received a request to run the poem “Open Letter To An Old Soldier,” written by Sudbury’s Julia Eckert-MacLean in 1974. “It has been published many times in the Northern Life and Sudbury Star over the last five decades since it was first written in 1974,” said her son, Stephen MacLean, in an email to Sudbury.com. “Seventy years ago at the age of 20, my father had been mining in Levack when the time came to become a soldier in the Korean Conflict 1950-53. “Every year growing up, our family was down at the cenotaph in Memorial Park for Remembrance Day. One such cold November day in 1974, standing along Minto Street, we learned to stand at attention, and experience a small part of the sacrifice given in times of war, at 11:11 a.m. while the bugle sounded.That day, my mother, a teacher and poet, penned the attached poem that grew out of that day’s experiences.” You can read Julia's poem here.
Thursday Weather:
Mix of sun and cloud for Thursday with showers possible tonight. Mostly cloudy this morning, clearing by afternoon. Daytime high will get up to around 8. Partly cloudy into the evening with a 30 per cent chance of showers. Overnight low will be 2. For current weather conditions, short-term and long-term forecasts visit Sudbury.com's weather page at www.sudbury.com/weather.
