Good morning, Greater Sudbury.
Here are some stories to start your day.
Larry finally returned his library book — only 49 years late:
Greater Sudbury Public Library is trying to connect with a man named Larry who recently returned a book 49 years late. The book, “Great Moments in Chess”, was apparently taken out by Larry in 1970, and returned to the local library's Copper Cliff branch. It was accompanied by a note on the signout card inside the book (do you remember those?) that said, “Librarian: sorry - I’m an outrageously slow reader...but here’s the book back.” The library shared a photo of the extremely late book return on its Twitter page on April 26. Jessica Watts, lead of the Coniston, Copper Cliff, Garson and Lively libraries, said the library shared the story because it's a light-hearted story in the face of recent provincial cuts to library services. “It gives us a chuckle,” she said. Watts does have Larry's last name, but the library hasn't yet publicly shared this information. She's done a search of current library patrons, but he's not listed in the database. She said she and other library staff are currently investigating other avenues to find Larry. Find more on this story here.
Sudbury joins dozens of Ontario communities in protests against Tory gov't:
Unseasonably chilly weather and blowing snow didn't stop close to 60 Sudburians from rallying at Tom Davies Square on Wednesday for what's become known as the May 1st General Strike Against Doug Ford. Gathering in protest of the Ford government's recent budget announcement that includes cuts to a number of different services in Ontario, were representatives from Unifor, OPSEU, legal aid, Fiérté Sudbury Pride, local educators and more. With cuts to a wide breadth of services, the overarching goal of Wednesday's rally was to unite those from all sectors affected by cuts and form one unified voice, one of the organizers said. When the annoucements about cuts started coming down, I think people were in these isolated silos and were focused on how the cuts impacted them directly," said Sam Pitzel, who organized and led the rally. "More and more, people are realizing that there are other groups out there in the same fight and I think it's important to stand together in solidarity. There's quite a long list of organizations that are being affected by these cuts." More on this story can be found here.
High Life, Sudbury's second cannabis store, still waiting for its license:
Business is, to put it mildly, brisk at the Canna Cabana, Greater Sudbury's retail cannabis store in the South End. Since opening April 20, lineups outside the store at the Four Corners have become the norm, with legal weed buyers facing long waits to make their purchase. It's something Anton Lucic knows well. The owner of the city's second cannabis store – located on Marcus Drive – said Tuesday he's as impatient as anyone to start serving customers. Lucic is still waiting for his license to operate from the province and is keenly aware he is losing money every day his store is closed. While allowed to open April 1, retail cannabis stores had to wait for their operating license before they can place an order with the Ontario Cannabis Store. A total of 25 stores were approved for the initial series of openings, and as the calendar turns to May, just three of them haven't opened – Lucic's High Life store in Greater Sudbury, the Tweed store in Wellington and the Fabulous Leaf store in Oshawa.
Glencore charged for May 2018 incident that saw workers injured with acid:
Glencore Canada Corporation faces five charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act stemming from an incident on May 9, 2018, that injured three workers at its Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations. “The Ministry of Labour investigation is completed and charges have been laid,” said MOL spokesperson Tristan Austin in an email. Greater Sudbury Police said at the time they received a call about the accident at around 9 p.m. on May 9. A 56-year-old man was transported to hospital in critical condition and a 55-year-old man and 46-year-old man were treated by paramedics for non-life threatening injuries. The charges were laid Feb. 15, 2019 against Glencore Canada Corporation, as an employer, and an individual supervisor. Full story here.
Innovation centre planning $4M expansion in Sudbury:
NORCAT is planning a $4-million expansion at its Sudbury underground centre to meet growing demand for the development, testing and commercialization of new mining technologies. Situated northwest of the city in the community of Onaping, the underground facility was established in 1997 at the former operating Fecunis Adit Mine, previously owned by Falconbridge (now Glencore). Don Duval, NORCAT’s CEO, noted the organization is the only non-profit regional innovation centre globally to have an operating mine dedicated to helping startup companies develop, test and demonstrate emerging technologies in an operating mine environment. The $4-million expansion calls for an addition of just over 12,000 square feet, which will include new offices for technology companies, demonstration space, and meeting rooms for buyers and sellers to conduct business. Full story here.
Provincial downloading will increase cities' costs, mayors warn:
The mayors of the biggest cities in Ontario – including Greater Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger – are calling on the Conservative government to delay parts of the Ontario budget until talks with municipalities take place. Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie, chair of the Large Urban Mayor’s Caucus of Ontario (LUMCO) released a statement Tuesday warning the impact on cities will mean millions in new costs that will mean service cuts or property tax increases. “Big-city mayors from across Ontario are extremely concerned that the Government of Ontario is engaging in downloading by stealth — implementing funding and governance changes to municipalities without any consultation, after cities have already approved our budgets,” the statement reads. “This amounts to millions of dollars per year in funding reductions to vital, front-line services including public health, policing, library services, child care, tourism, and flood management. This is on top of a cap on Ontario gas tax funding and ongoing uncertainty with major changes to ambulance services. The Government of Ontario is effectively forcing municipalities to consider tax increases or service cuts to absorb the download in services it has proposed.” Finance Minister Fedeli said the government would not raise taxes, the mayors say, and the budget says changes and costs need to be sustainable for both local and provincial governments. More on this story here.
Thursday Weather:
Mainly cloudy today with chances of some rain this morning. There's a 60 per cent chance of drizzle early in the morning with risk of freezing drizzle. High will be sitting around 7 today. Cloudy tonight with some rain beginning in the evening. Overnight low will drop to around 3. For current weather conditions, short-term and long-term forecasts visit Sudbury.com's weather page at www.sudbury.com/weather.
