For the first time this election season, 10 of the 11 candidates running for mayor butted heads in a debate Wednesday at College Boreal.
Brian Bigger, Cody Cacciotti, Troy Crowder, Bill Crumplin, Jeff Huska, Dan Melanson, Patricia Mills, Rodey Newton, David Popescu and Bill Sanders spent three hours fielding questions from members of the audience and the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, who put on the event. Candidate Ron Leclair was not in attendance.
As the incumbent, Bigger was the main target of the candidates, who questioned what the city was doing on a range of topics, from the Kingsway Entertainment District to the city's long-term plan to spend $1.3 billion upgrading the aging water and sewer system.
Melanson, who finished second in 2014, said Bigger made a lot of promises when he was a candidate.
"I hope after this debate there will be promises made that are actually kept," Melanson said.
Mills said she made a committment at the start of the race to “listen, learn and lead,” and she has done that. Taxpayers want city hall to respect their tax dollars and spend every cent wisely.
"I'll make sure we're spending money on the right things," she said. "I'm not going to offer promises, I'm offering proven performance."
Mills said the lack of leadership and lack of transparency are the biggest problems Greater Sudbury is facing.
"I've been to thousands of doors and I hear it all the time, 'What's going on at city hall? We don't know what's going on at city hall.' We work for taxpayers and we need to be more accountable to the people we work for."
She proposed separating the Greater Sudbury Development Corp. from city hall, to give it the power it needs to attract economic development.
"We need to give them the autonomy to do the jobs we gave them to do," Mills said.
For his part, Bigger said he hopes voters will give him another mandate to finish the agenda they started the last term, "delivering positive change" that Sudburians voted for in 2014.
"The last four years, you've finally seen a council working together for you," he said.
He said they got rid of councillor slush funds, Maley Drive is nearly complete and millions under budget, the Kingsway Entertainment District received council approval and they are planning to develop an arts district downtown called The Junction.
"Our roads are getting better, and you can see it,” he said. “We have a lot of road to cover still, but we're getting there."
He accused his opponents of speaking in generalities and “buzzwords,” but said voters want substance.
"I hope tonight is about more than platitudes."
Crowder described himself as the biggest fan of Sudbury “you'll ever meet," and said the city needs to take advantage of its geography.
He proposed using the old hospital as a long-term care home, along with a new hotel by Ramsey Lake, something the city sorely needs.
Crowder also said Greater Sudbury needs to be smarter with its spending. For example, he said Capreol has two ice pads in their rink. That's more than the community needs, and he said Laurentian University wants to build two ice pads, but needs a commitment from the city to rent time.
Why not close one ice pad in Capreol, save operating money, and support LU's plan, Crowder said. The city could have two new rinks at no cost and save money "instead of spending more money ... all the time."
Huska questioned spending on the KED and the Junction, arguing they are “wants, not needs.” He said resources should be directed to improving the roads, which he said are worse than ever, using Superpave, a more expensive but much more durable form of asphalt.
"That's what we should have on all our roads," he said.
Crumplin proposed killing the KED, and repurposing the existing arena instead, along the lines of Maple Leaf Gardens.
"I don't think we need to invest all that money out on The Kingsway," Crumplin said. "And it would be kinda cool. Anyone can have the newest arena for four or five years. We could have the oldest arena in the league, and make it something special."
He also called for a “pedestrian mall” downtown to attract more people there, where cars would be banned from certain streets.
"That would go a long way to bringing people downtown.”
When asked about his stance on the KED, Cacciotti said he didn't like the process and the way it was approved, and especially the way it has divided the community.
But he said the city needs to respect the legal appeals currently being dealt with and then make an informed decision.
"It's not honest for me to choose a side until the appeal comes back," Cacciotti said.
Sanders seemed upset in his comments, taking issue with my column calling for an end to mudslinging, with my livetweeting of debates, and with the fact he hasn't been invited to debates next week.
Popescu, who Bigger tried to have banned from the debate for his controversial past comments, stayed out of trouble for the most part, although he was cut off at one point.
"You steal from God, he'll rob us blind," was a typical sentiment he expressed Wednesday.
Mills challenged Bigger over the $1.3 billion the city's water/sewer system would need in the coming decades. What is his plan to avoid those costs, Mills asked.
"What is the concrete plan?" she asked.
"This is a large document,” Bigger replied, saying the masterplan is hundreds of pages long. “What part of the plan would you like me to describe?"
"What's the city's plan for the next two years?" she replied.
"The city's plan is to continue working on repairing the watermains and implementation of metering systems and working towards district metering in our community," he said.
They have plans to line the city's underground pipes using a technique that can extend the life of the pipe for another 50 years at a low cost.
"We're taking a proactive approach," Bigger said. "We're leaders in relining water pipes in the province."
Melanson said not enough is being done to stop the leaks, meaning more than two billion cubic metres of treated water is lost every year to leakage, or 28 per cent of all the water we treat.
"We don't have leakage rates similar to other communities," Melanson said, saying the amount is double the rate of other communities and contradicting an earlier statement by Bigger. "If we repair our leaks, we won't have to look at additional capacity for the foreseeable future."
Bigger said that's not true, that Sudbury's leakage rate is not out of whack and asked Melanson where he was getting his information.
“That's not my understanding.”
Other hot takes from Wednesday's debate:
- Huska wants to freeze development charges and find ways to lessen the burden on new home builders to spark more development.
- Melanson said dealing with red tape at city hall is too difficult for builders – even getting a permit is a long and difficult process. Greater Sudbury should see what other cities do to speed things up and bring those policies here.
- Crowder said the biggest challenge facing the city is that we have an aging population and not enough jobs or attractions to keep young people here.
- Crumplin said the cost of doing business here should be at least as competive as North Bay. "We have to match development fees with our competitors."
- Mills said 60 nursing job cuts at Health Sciences North is alarming and we need to lobby Queen's Park to restore funding. "We are dependent on the province for more money."
- Bigger said they experimented with giving free bus rides to seniors, but are now focused on finding ways to make transit affordable for lower-income people regardless of age.
- Crowder said that, whatever the public statements, Sudbury was never in the running for the chromite smelter planned for Consiston. "Noront (Resources) was never coming here. That was a political ploy."
In closing remarks, Melanson said there are many challenges facing the city, but said there are more good things than bad.
"We need to start concentrating on the positive aspects of living, working and playing here in Sudbury," he said. "We tend to be very down on ourselves sometimes."
He also committed to looking at decentralizing some services to outlying communities, so they don't feel alienated and underserved.
"At least they have the services they had before amalgamation," he said.
Mills said if elected, she would be transparent and open, making it easy for voters to judge whether she has fulfilled her promises.
"If you believe we all deserve a greater say in how our community grows and attracts and retains our next generation of citizens, and if you truly believe in transparent government, then we have a lot in common," she said. "I believe we deserve better. Our hard-earned tax dollars need to be treated with respect, our roads need to be fixed right the first time, and our communities in every part of our city need care and attention."
Crumplin said he was impressed by the large crowd at Collège Boréal for a three-hour debate, and was glad to see that residents are engaged in democracy.
"This auditorium was full,” he said. “That is so energizing to me."
Bigger, in his final remarks, said he hoped voters would re-elect him, something that hasn't happened since the amalgamated city was created. That has meant each new city council has to start over.
"If this election is about one thing, it's not stopping what we've started," he said. "It's my goal to see all of these projects through. As a council, we delivered for all of you across the entire City of Greater Sudbury, and we did it together.
"We brought change as a council. This is not the time to reshuffle the deck."
Watch the full replay of the debate here.
