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City releases 1,655 pages of KED-related documents

With parts of the collection widely circulating on social media, the City of Greater Sudbury has published hundreds of Kingsway Entertainment District-related documents online, material they had initially issued on April 29 to a private citizen via a Freedom of Information Act request
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For those interested in a peek behind the curtain, the City of Greater Sudbury has published online a 1,655-page freedom of information request featuring internal correspondence. 

The full document was posted to the city’s website this afternoon and can be found at the bottom of their Kingsway Entertainment District page, which can be accessed by clicking here

A private citizen’s freedom of information request resulted in the city compiling these documents, which the city presented to the resident on April 29. It requested certain communications related to the KED.

“In line with the city's commitment to transparency and open government, these records are being posted for public review,” the city notes on their website. 

The records posted online are the same as those provided to the requester, minus their personal information, which has been redacted in adherence to the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection and Privacy Act. 

“The freedom of information request was specific in the records it sought, therefore these records do not represent the entirety of internal discussions about the KED,” according to the city. 

According to a social media post by Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan earlier this year, the FOI request sought correspondence between city Strategic Initiatives, Communications and Citizen Services director Ian Wood, CAO Ed Archer, land developer/Sudbury Wolves and Sudbury Five owner Dario Zulich and Gateway Casinos. Correspondence between Kirwan and Zulich was also requested.

As an outspoken proponent for the KED, Kirwan is a frequent target of its opponents. 

“All the hype about the documents that were obtained from the city is for nothing,” Kirwan posted on social media last week, upon reviewing a report of the freedom of information request as reported by another local media outlet. “There is nothing in those documents that mean a thing to the outcome of the decisions made by city council in supporting The Kingsway location.”

Sudbury.com has not yet reviewed all 1,655 pages, but a preliminary read of several key pages highlighted by anti-KED activists appear to follow the steps city administrators took to make good on city council’s direction to proceed with the KED. 

Part of this work has included combatting various points of misinformation about the controversial project, some of which Sudbury.com strived to clarify in an article published late last year, which can be found by clicking here.

On June 27, city CAO Ed Archer emailed his colleagues to note that anti-KED activists’ goal “remains the same – to slow, and eventually stop, the work.”

“While it is infuriating that citizens would feel they have license to do this, here we are,” he continued, urging the creation of a “strategy for countering the incessant attacks.”

The freedom of information request’s overall page count includes hundreds of pages worth of KED-specific and budgetary reports that have already been made publicly available.

While the name of the requestor was withheld by the city, it has become common knowledge both on social media and in emailed correspondence by activist groups that it was Hazel Ecclestone, a key figure behind an anti-KED petition presented to city council last year. She reportedly spent more than $3,000 for the documents.

In an email shared with city councillors and local media, Friendly to Seniors Sudbury chair John Lindsay offered that Ecclestone deserved praise for her freedom of information request.

“Regardless of whether you support the KED or are opposed as citizens we are entitled to know all information which is or should be available and not have to resort as private citizens to access this information which in the case of Ms. Ecclestone was quite expensive,” Lindsay wrote. “Again, our thanks for her efforts and money expended in the interests of disclosure of the truth for the benefit of democracy and her fellow citizens.”

Sudbury.com will continue to review these documents.

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


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Tyler Clarke

About the Author: Tyler Clarke

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