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Budget 2025: Levack arena safe, three fire halls to close

The first day of City of Greater Sudbury 2025 budget deliberations concluded with a tentative 4.8% tax levy increase, which could change when deliberations pick up again tomorrow
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A flyer from the union representing volunteer firefighters in Greater Sudbury urges area residents to support keeping the Copper Cliff, Val Caron and Falconbridge fire stations open. The city’s elected officials voted to close the stations by the end of the month, during Monday’s budget committee meeting.

The first day of Greater Sudbury budget deliberations capped with a tentative 4.8-per-cent tax levy increase and several business cases approved to change service levels.

Anything could change when budget deliberations pick up again Tuesday afternoon, but coming out of Monday’s meeting it appears the Levack arena is safe from closure.

It also appears as though three fire stations, including those in Copper Cliff, Val Caron and Falconbridge, will close by the end of the month.

These two cost-saving measures proposed by city staff received the brunt of public discourse leading up to this week’s budget talks.

The I.J. Coady Arena’s potential closure inspired Onaping Falls Recreation Committee chair Carrie Morin to pen an open letter to city council, and at least 1,900 people to sign a petition opposing the idea.

During Monday’s meeting, no members of city council chose to champion the business case to close the arena and no one opted to defer it to next year’s budget deliberations.

As such, pending the majority of city council doesn’t change their minds on Tuesday, the idea is effectively dead.

For now, anyway.

Its closure is still expected to come up as an option whenever the proposed Hanmer twin pads open, at which time four ice pads are slated to close, including one yet to be identified.

“It’s pretty much what we expected, just because of what has happened in the community since this news came out,” Morin told Sudbury.com by phone after Monday’s meeting.

In addition to the online petition, she said area residents have been writing letters to the mayor and city council members advocating for the community arena.

City council members were well aware that area residents were not happy with the proposal, Morin said.

The proposed closure would have shaved approximately $219,306 from the 2025 budget and $337,828 in subsequent years, plus whatever capital costs come up, including $580,000 in budgeted but unspent capital work.

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Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre championed a successful resolution to close three fire halls by the end of the year, including those in Copper Cliff, Val Caron and Falconbridge. Tyler Clarke / Sudbury.com

Meanwhile, the business case to close three fire halls and shave a projected $73,833 from the city’s annual budget was championed by Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre and supported by a strong majority of city council members.

As such, Copper Cliff will amalgamate with Lively, Val Caron will amalgamate with Val Therese and Falconbridge will join Garson at their respective stations.

Leading up to Monday’s meeting, CLAC, the union representing volunteer firefighters, voiced their opposition to the halls’ proposed closures in a media release lamenting the city’s lack of meaningful engagement with the union and volunteer firefighters. 

The consolidations were already scheduled to take place as part of the city’s $164.6-million emergency services revitalization plan, but not until after council-approved infrastructure work has been completed.

With Monday’s decision to expedite these closures, firefighters at the closed halls will move into existing structures before new Lively and Garson stations are built and the Val Therese station is extensively renovated.

“This is not a cut in service, this is a change in where they’re responding from,” Lapierre said during Monday’s meeting.

“They’re just changing the location as to where they’re responding from. We have massive infrastructure debt and caseload we have to work on, and this is part of that plan.”

During Monday’s meeting, Ward 7 Coun. Natalie Labbée said that she’s concerned about volunteers leaving. Fire and Paramedic Services Chief Joseph Nicholls confirmed that some members have said they plan on leaving the service when stations amalgamate.

“What we need is more volunteers, not less,” she said, adding that there are “too many negatives for a 0.02 per cent,” in reference to the tax levy impact of a $73,833 reduction.

(On that front, a one-per-cent change to the tax levy equals approximately $3.55 million.)

Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent said closing the stations earlier than they’d initially planned would contribute to the “erosion of trust” among volunteers. 

Deputy Chief Nathan Melin clarified to city council members that Val Caron currently has 11 members, including seven active members. Of these seven, only five meet minimum meeting requirements. Falconbridge currently has two active members, and Copper Cliff has seven, including one on long-term leave, four who met annual minimums and two who are not certified and not yet signed up to participate. These members will be invited to continue working out of the Val Therese, Garson and Lively stations, respectively.

Throwing her support behind closing the stations early, Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin said, “I know it’s not popular, but the change is coming,” while Lapierre said that whether the communities oppose the station closures now or later per the initial timeline, they’re going to oppose it.

Copper Cliff-area residents are charged career firefighter rates, who arrive at the scene of emergencies first, but have a volunteer station anyway, Lapierre said, due to “old practice and old culture.”

“Career (firefighters) in Copper Cliff and career in The Valley are beating all volunteers to those calls,” Nicholls said. “They’re immediately available to respond.”

With the stations slated to shutter by the end of the month, Nicholls said they’d be posted for sale as surplus properties as quickly as possible.

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A budget ticker is pictured on a screen overlooking council chambers showing the city’s elected officials where they were at by the end of Monday’s finance and administration committee meeting, at which they started deliberations for budget 2025. Tyler Clarke / Sudbury.com

Greater Sudbury city council members are slated to continue budget deliberations on Tuesday. City council members have suspended regular procedure, so any decision, including those made on Tuesday, can come up for a re-vote with a majority support of city council members instead of the two-thirds typically required.

However, with city council members offering a strong majority support on the fire hall closure decision, and no members willing to champion the Levack arena closure idea, these two outcomes from Monday appear to be safe bets.

Monday’s meeting is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. and can be viewed in council chambers at Tom Davies Square. The meeting will also be livestreamed and available by clicking here.

Sudbury.com will publish an in-depth report on Tuesday’s meeting by that evening, and an in-depth report on the decisions made throughout budget deliberations later this week.

Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.

 



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