Good morning, Greater Sudbury.
Here are some stories to start your day.
Fedeli attacks 15 years of 'reckless' Liberal spending:
Ontario Finance Minister Vic Fedeli said the government has already made a small dent in the province's deficit, but warned Thursday that more pain is coming to deal with the budget shortfall. Despite years of economic growth, Fedeli said the Liberals left a massive $15 billion deficit, which it tried hide using one-time revenues and accounting manoeuvres. That leaves the province vulnerable to the next economic downturn, risking social and other programs Ontarians rely on. “The results are staggering,” he said, of the line-by-line budget review. “We have to fix this financial mess … We must live within our means and pay down our debt.” The budget review already found $3.2 billion in savings, offset by $2.7 billion in tax relief, but overall deficit is down to $14.5 billion, Fedeli said. Find the full story here.
Edgar Burton Food Drive is on! Kids Helping Kids food drive campaign celebrates a decade:
It was really kids that were the original motivation behind the Edgar Burton Christmas Food Drive three decades ago, specifically Edgar Burton's three daughters Lynn, Christine and Jennifer. They were involved in collecting food for the needy at their school, and one of them asked their dad, a machinist at Inco Ltd. (now Vale) if he could start a food drive at his workplace. That was the origin of the Edgar Burton Christmas Food Drive, which is 31 years old this year, and collects about a quarter of the Sudbury Food Bank's yearly food supply, or enough to keep it going until spring. Last year, that amounted to more than 100 tons of food. A decade ago, Burton launched the Kids Helping Kids campaign, which involves local schoolchildren in the Christmas food drive. Sadly, Burton passed away from cancer in 2010, but his legacy lives on through the food drive. “It's so, so important to have children (involved),” said Burton's wife, Sharon Burton, speaking to Sudbury.com Nov. 15 after the food drive's launch. “The children are the ones that are going to keep it going. I'm just so proud of them.” Hundreds of kids from local schools attended the food drive launch at the New Sudbury Centre, singing songs and placing food items into a donation box as well as enjoying a visit from Santa Claus.
Never forgotten: Granite bench a permanent memorial to 3 Sudbury teens killed by drunk driver:
On June 21, 2009 — Father's Day — local teens Jazmine Houle, Steven Philippe and Caitlin Jelley were struck and killed by a drunk driver as they were walking alongside Municipal Road 80 in Hanmer. More than nine years have now passed since that sad day, and several citizens and business owners have banded together to create a permanent memorial for the teens. A granite bench, etched with the image of each one of the children, will be installed at the crash site alongside the memorial garden and three crosses that are already there. The official bench dedication takes place Wednesday, Nov. 21 at the corner of Municipal Road 80 and Centennial Drive at 2:30 p.m. The public is welcome to attend.
New Seniors Minister gets an earful in Sudbury on how to support older people:
It's not only a new job for Filomena Tassi, the federal minister of seniors, it's a brand new ministry, having been created last summer by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. So Tassi is travelling the nation, finding out what priorities Canadians have when it come to our growing seniors population – expected to reach 36 per cent in Sudbury, compared to 25 per cent across Canada. She was in Sudbury on Wednesday, where she got an earful from seniors groups and advocates about what needs to be done to help greying Canadians. “The only way to do that is to get input from Canadians,” Tassi said, as she led a discussion at the Parkside Centre, flanked by Sudbury MP Paul Lefebvre and Nickel Belt MP Marc Serré. Serré is the MP responsible for Canada's work to develop a national strategy for older Canadians. In May 2017, his private member's bill, M-106, was passed in the House of Commons, paving the way for the creation of a National Seniors Strategy. Full story can be found here.
Sudbury is apparently one of Canada's coziest cities:
Sudbury, apparently, is among the 55 coziest cities in Canada. That's according to a list put out recently by Expedia.ca. What exactly is a cozy city? It’s a place with attractions that provide warmth, relaxation, and community, the website said. It’s a city with a welcoming hotel at the end of the night. It’s a town that says, “You’re family here.” To help create the annual coziest cities report, the website looked at Expedia.ca hotel data. Each location chosen has at least 100 reviews, with a comfort score of 3.5 stars and higher. A few Sudbury businesses were given a shout-out by the website, including the board game cafe Let's Scrabbalatte and Imagine Cinemas Downtown Movie Lounge. “Some towns are meant for rainy days, and Sudbury more than rises to the occasion,” reads information under Sudbury's ranking. “This destination has tons of coffee shops, indoor activities, film festivals, yoga studios, and a board game cafe with the A+ name of Let’s Scrabbalatte.
Now part of hockey history: We chat with Hockey Hall of Famer, and Sudbury boy, Joe Bowen:
He may be a literal hall of famer, but that doesn't save Joe Bowen from a lot of good-natured teasing from his co-workers Jim Ralph and Paul Hendricks. “We call ourselves the Seinfeld group,” Bowen said with a chuckle Wednesday, on the phone from California where his beloved Maple Leafs are on a road trip. “Any time any of us get a head that's a tad bit too big for their sombreros, we get brought right down to earth with the chirping that goes on.” Known for his 'Holy Mackinaw' call when something on the ice catches his eye, Bowen was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame's media wing Monday. He's called more than 3,000 Leafs games, but growing up in Sudbury in the 1970s, Bowen was the voice of the Sudbury Wolves. He says he knew for a long time he wanted to be in broadcasting, and got his start calling mostly basketball games at the University of Windsor's student radio station. It wasn't glamorous, but it let him work out the kinks in his delivery. “I kind of honed a little bit of my skill because you were allowed to make a lot of mistakes and you were own best critic,” Bowen says of Windsor. “But even in high school, I knew I wanted to do this. So I guess I did prove to myself that I could do it (at Windsor).” Read the full story here.
Friday Weather:
Snow in the Friday forecast, changing to periods of rain or snow near noon. Some good news if you're sick of the cold already as Friday's high will be plus-2. Mainly cloudy tonight with 70 per cent chance of flurries. Overnight low will fall to -5, feeling like -9 with the wind chill. For current weather conditions, short-term and long-term forecasts visit Sudbury.com's weather page at www.sudbury.com/weather.
