Around 40 members of Steelworkers Local 6500 were present at the March 24 policy committee meeting at Tom Davies Square when councillors agreed the housing of temporary workers on Vale Inco property breaks city bylaws.
Earlier in the day, the city told Vale Inco its arguments for temporarily housing workers on-site were not valid. Vale Inco was told it has until the end of the week to reply to the city what options the company had to bring its housing arrangements into legal compliance with municipal zoning bylaws and provincial legislation. Otherwise, the city would have to go through the court system, Mayor John Rodriguez said.
Inside the council chambers, Ward 3 Coun. Claude Berthiaume also raised the issue during a discussion on whether the city should develop a bylaw to deal with illegal rooming and boarding houses.
“Are people allowed to sleep in an industrial area of the city?” Berthiaume asked.
Union members in the gallery expressed their frustrations loudly at times about the practice.
Eric Taylor, a Greater Sudbury senior planner, said under the city's zoning bylaws rooming houses or similar uses are only allowed in the central core of the city and not in industrial areas.
Berthiaume then asked what steps is the city taking to stop illegal housing. Doug Nadarozny, Greater Sudbury chief administrative officer, replied that under normal practice the owner of the property where persons were being housed would have to come on side with the city's zoning bylaws or stop the use.
“I brought this up more as a general point but it does apply to Vale Inco,” Bethiaume said the next day. “They are operating an illegal rooming house on their property. I know the Steelworkers would like us to throw (the replacement workers) out but it is not all that easy.”
On March 24, the City of Greater Sudbury issued a statement.
“Following complaints received by Greater Sudbury Fire Services on Friday, February 26, the City of Greater Sudbury undertook an investigation of Vale Inco facilities to ensure compliance with fire and building codes," the press release said. "Fire Services and Building Services each identified a number of issues with the facilities, and orders were immediately issued.”
“There was a long list of things,” Nadorozny said. “Some were relatively minor such as burnt out light bulbs. Other concerns were more structural.”
Nadorozny said the company immediately took interim steps to address the the issues related to fire code, including installation of smoke detectors and development of a safety plan. Building code officials also did inspections. One building was vacated under an Ontario Building Code order.
“Every fire and safety issue we raised has been fixed,” Nadorozny noted. However, he said the city is not allowing the company to build any more structures to extend the (housing) use that is already there.
“The zoning bylaw issue is the main issue. We have taken an appropriate amount of time to make sure we made a decision we could defend.”
City officials communicated to the company on March 22 that “worker accommodations on site do not constitute a legal non-conforming use.”
According to the city release, the company made a number of proposals to attempt to justify the housing of workers temporarily on site during the duration of the strike by Steelworkers Local 6500.
But according to the city release, housing workers on-site in company facilities is not a legal use, alternative forms of temporary accommodations such as rail cars and recreational vehicles to house workers “would not be permitted under City bylaws,” and use of administrative buildings for housing is not (allowed) under guidelines from the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
Nadorozny said the company was told to provide them with their intentions by the end of the week.
“We ruled that whatever way we looked at it we don't see (housing) use as being consistent with our zoning bylaw. So we have lobbed it back to Vale Inco saying no.. we are asking them to remedy the situation and bring themselves into compliance.”
Nadorozny did say though that as long as the company is moving forward to come into compliance the workers housed on site would not be forced out, as fire and safety issues had been dealt with already.
