A personal note kicked off Tuesday’s city council meeting, with Deputy Mayor and Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann taking a moment to explain Mayor Brian Bigger’s absence.
Bigger’s father had been admitted to hospice and the mayor was at his bedside alongside family, she relayed, sending his regrets for having missed the meeting.
“I know we are all thinking about the mayor and his family during this very difficult time,” she said before launching into the night’s city council business.
The past several months have been difficult, Bigger told Sudbury.com this week, but affirmed that he has continued to work behind the scenes and remains up to date on municipal business.
Although this week’s city council meeting was the third in a row Bigger has missed during the past month, he said he had every intention of attending until an unexpected medical emergency arose at the last minute.
“These are not things that timing was predictable,” he said, adding that similar situations have come up in advance of past meetings.
The mayor’s chief of staff, Hugh Kruzel, said that Bigger had expressed interest in attending this week’s meeting but was talked out of it.
“For the good of his father, that’s what this is all about,” Kruzel told Sudbury.com, adding that they posed the question of whether he’d remember this week’s city council meeting in the long term or being with his father during a critical moment.
Despite missing meetings of late, Bigger said that he has continued talking with staff and has tuned into meetings whenever possible, even if it has been to view livestreams after the fact.
Bigger credits Landry-Altmann and fellow Deputy Mayor (and Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer) with picking up the slack.
“The role of a deputy mayor is to represent the city and the mayor’s office at public functions and in chairing council meetings – that’s why the role of deputy mayor exists, and I’m very fortunate to have two experienced deputy mayors who have been doing a great job of stepping in when required,” he said.
As for recent public appearances, such as the grand opening of NOSM University and a provincial funding announcement for a municipal roundabout presented by Minister Greg Rickford, Bigger said he is currently reluctant to attend group gatherings due to COVID-related concerns.
He is the primary caregiver for both of his senior parents, who relocated to Sudbury from southern Ontario during the pandemic to be closer to him, and he doesn’t want to risk spreading the virus to them.
Between his parents’ house where his mother continues to reside and the hospice centre where his father is being cared for, he said they’re both high-risk environments for COVID-19.
“These are tough decisions, and I’m sure many people have been in similar circumstances,” he said. “I’m fortunate to have both of my parents alive, but they’re at a very critical point in their lives and I am balancing both the mayor’s role and the caregiver role at this time.”
A series of similar absences were explained similarly late last year, when Bigger issued a written statement outlining the challenges in his personal life and spoke to the public’s concerns regarding his absences at the start of a committee meeting.
The Municipal Act notes that the office of a member of municipal council becomes vacant if the member “is absent from the meetings of council for three successive months without being authorized to do so by a resolution of council.”
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
