Good morning, Greater Sudbury.
Here are some stories to start your day.
What the …? Stolen vehicle found abandoned on old trestle bridge:
A Sudbury resident whose stolen vehicle was found abandoned and burned on an unused railway trestle over the Wanapitei River was able to have the vehicle winched off the bridge this week. Meanwhile, images of the vehicle posted to Facebook have racked up some 12,000 shares. During the evening of Dec. 7, Bryce Croteau reported to GSPS that he was driving in Garson when a tire on his red Honda (the vehicle appears to be a Civic) blew. He pulled the vehicle over at the intersection of Falconbridge Road and Goodwill Drive and called a tow truck. GSPS told Sudbury.com Croteau left the area, only to receive a call sometime later from the tow truck company saying there was no vehicle at the location indicated. It appeared the vehicle had been stolen. Croteau posted a plea to Facebook, asking anyone with information regarding his vehicle to contact him. More on this story here.
Special weather statement: Sudbury could get up to 25 cm of snow this weekend:
Environment has issued a special weather statement for Greater Sudbury and the surrounding area. Up to 25 cm of snow could hit the Nickel City this weekend and Environment Canada is advising residents of the possibility of poor road conditions due to accumulating snow and poor visibility due to local blowing snow. Snow could start as early as Saturday morning and last into Sunday. The heaviest snow is expected to hit Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning. "A snowstorm appears increasingly likely for eastern Manitoulin Island to North Bay. This corridor is where confidence is highest in the largest snowfall amounts," said Environment Canada. "Strong winds in addition to fresh snow may create local blowing and drifting snow in exposed areas." This special weather statement could be upgraded to a snowfall warning
Chelmsford man facing 40 child pornography charges:
Greater Sudbury Police Services arrested and charged a 30-year-old man from Chelmsford on Dec. 10 with accessing and possessing child pornography. The Internet Child Exploitation (I.C.E.) Unit was recently notified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that a person in Greater Sudbury had been accessing and possessing child pornography online over a period of several years. On Dec. 10, the GSPS I.C.E. and Computer Forensics Units in conjunction with the Emergency Response Unit and Intelligence Unit executed search warrants at two residences in Greater Sudbury. As a result of the investigation, 30-year-old Justin Philion of Chelmsford was arrested and charged with the following offences: Access Child Pornography (37 counts), Possess Child Pornography (three counts). He was scheduled to appear in Bail Court on Dec. 11 to answer to the charges.
Sudbury Public Health working on plans to distribute COVID-19 vaccine:
As plans are now underway to introduce the new Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine throughout Canada, Public Health Sudbury & Districts is heading up the distribution and vaccination programs in this part of Northern Ontario. “With Health Canada’s recent approval of the Pfizer vaccine and several other vaccines undergoing federal review, all three levels of government are preparing for vaccine distribution. Public Health is leading the local collaborative planning that it will take to actually get the vaccine into people’s arms," said a news release from PHSD Friday morning. With the federal government acquiring the vaccine and the provincial government preparing to send it out across the province, PHSD said the job involves several key players in the city to get the vaccine to the people. Get the full story here.
Ontario expects 90,000 Pfizer vaccine doses Monday, vaccinations to begin Tuesday:
Ontario is expecting 90,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to arrive in the province by Monday, with vaccinations to begin as early as Tuesday. In a briefing this afternoon, General Rick Hillier (retired), the head of Ontario’s COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Task Force, provided information on the rollout, saying the focus in the beginning will be on those region’s in the red and grey zones of the province’s pandemic severity ranking. Noting that this will be the biggest vaccine rollout in Canada’s history, Hillier warned the public the complexity of the plan means there will be hiccups. “There will be bumps … but we’ll be better on the other side,” he said. Ontario has developed a three-phase implementation plan to receive, store and administer COVID-19 vaccines as quickly as possible, the province said today. Phase One begins Dec. 15 with a pilot project in Toronto and Ottawa, under which more than 2,500 health-care workers will be vaccinated under a pilot program. More on this story here.
Ministers vow to protect Sault-Sudbury freight rail service:
Four provincial cabinet ministers didn't tip their hand on the immediate future of a Sault Ste. Marie-to-Sudbury rail line as a deadline looms on Dec. 18 for a Montreal short-line carrier to drop freight service. But both Sault MPP Ross Romano and Energy, Northern Development and Mines Minister Greg Rickford acknowledged the 278-kilometre line remains "critical infrastructure" that must be protected to serve industrial shippers in northeastern Ontario. "These are critical parts of Northern infrastructure and we're going to do everything in our power to protect them," said Romano, the minister of training, colleges and universities, who's been working on the Huron Central file since 2018 with Rickford and Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney. The three ministers and Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli, the minister of economic development, job creation and trade, hosted a Dec. 10 webcast to unveil Connecting the North, a draft transportation plan for this region. The plan contains 67 "action points" pertaining to ongoing highway four-laning, support of Far North remote airports, moving ahead with restoring passenger rail in northeastern Ontario, and expansion of Ontario Northland bus routes in northwestern Ontario and into Manitoba. Find the full story here.
Winning Sudbury2050 design reimagines downtown as futuristic greenspace:
The McEwen School of Architecture has announced the winners of the Sudbury2050 Urban Design Ideas Competition. The designs varied widely in their approach and their design solutions. All of them represented creative and often provocative thinking about the City of Greater Sudbury and its future, said the architecture school. Each presented a different story about the city. Rarely does a community get the opportunity to be the focus of an international design competition, said a press release. The winner of the $50,000 Open Category top prize was the Montreal-based design collective Collectif Escargo, made up of designers Karyna St-Pierre, Julie Parenteau, Émilie Labrousse and Pierre-Yves Diehl. Their winning design, entitled Sève (sap), envisions a downtown core bursting with growth, greenspace, flowing water and glass. Check out the video submission that accompanied Collectif Escargo’s entry here to see what we mean.
