The city of Greater Sudbury will be reopening its municipal boat launches on May 13, just in time for the May long weekend.
Greater Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger made the announcement on Tuesday afternoon, citing the province's loosening of restrictions on boat launches.
"Previously the wording on the provincial site was it was only allowable for individuals to launch a boat to access their primary residence and that's what we implemented," said Bigger. "Today it says it's to enable individuals to access their place of residence and/or their other property."
The mayor asked city staff to move forward on reopening boat launches and setting out guidelines for when they are open for use.
"It always seems much easier than it is; a number of our boat launches have docks so we also need to establish the docking systems along with opening," said Bigger.
Sudbury residents have been outspoken about the closure of the city's boat launches, along with the partial closure of landfills, which are only open to commercial businesses and not to residential waste.
"I'm hearing a lot of feedback from the public on the landfills and with the reopening of businesses to curbside business and the recognition of better weather and more and more people outside, I've asked staff to look to reopening our landfill sites," said Bigger.
"It is on its way, but again that involves coordination with our contractors and our staff on those sites and we need to take a coordinated approach to manage the numbers at the landfills so that we're following the directions of our medical officer of health."
Bigger says that any decisions to reopen city services will be done at the advice of Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, medical officer of health, Public Health Sudbury & Districts, as well as with guidance from the province.
A furthter point of contention among residents as the spring weather starts to make its way to Greater Sudbury, is the fire ban that has been in place since April 3 (https://www.sudbury.com/local-news/sudbury-fire-ban-remains-in-place-despite-low-fire-risk-2338610).
Sudbury falls within the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry's restricted fire zone, and while not mandatory, Bigger said that he was asked by the MNRF to implement a fire ban for the municipality.
"We received calls from the ministry, asking us to implement our own bylaws so we can enforce our own bylaws," said Bigger.
"Even if our fire chief removed our bylaw and our ability to enforce, the provincial fire zone still gives the MNRF the ability to enforce within the city limits so it would really have no effect on anything if we were to remove our fire ban."
Ontario Premier Doug Ford hinted that there may be some further loosening on restrictions ahead of this Victoria Day weekend, with an annoucement involving trailer parks expected this Thursday, Ford said that owners of trailers and campers should expect some good news this Thursday.
This message comes shortly after Ford loosened the leash on those with cottages, indicating that it was acceptable for families to go to their cottages so long as it was just immediate family.
Sudbury and the surrounding area is home to a number of RV and mobile home parks and if restrictions are loosened to allow for these parks to open, the city could see an influx of visitors from outside of town.
"It's absolutely a balance and I will rely on the advice from our medical officer of health," said Bigger. "What exactly is the right balance, so far has been following provincial direction on these orders, so we'll see if they (trailer parks) open up, and see what we feel is reasonable to open up as we move forward."
Greater Sudbury remains under a state of emergency in conjunction with the province's state of emergency which was extended to June 2 today, but Bigger says that should trailer parks open this weekend, local health officials will ultimately make the call for Sudbury.
"Dr. Sutcliffe is providing the advice and really has the authority to make a local call," said Bigger.
"I'm in constant contact with Dr. Sutcliffe and the rest of the COVID-19 response team and the executive leadership team at the city. We truly are evaluating on a continuous basis."
