In Sudbury.com’s ongoing efforts to ensure you have all the information you need to make informed voting decisions in the Oct. 24 municipal election, we have reached out to candidates for ward councillor and each of them to provide responses to a short questionnaire.
Besides a photograph, we requested a response from each candidate, limited to 200 words each, under each of the following three categories:
- Tell me a bit about yourself
- Why are you seeking election?
- What are your key platform points?
In the interest of fairness, candidates’ responses have been provided in full, with only minor corrections made for clarity and grammar. In the event a candidate went over the 200-word limit per category, their response was cut off to the end of the nearest sentence. In cases where candidates did not separate their response by the three topics, they were cut off at the 600-word mark to the nearest sentence.
The photographs provided have been included in this coverage, cropped to adhere to Sudbury.com’s sizing requirements.
Candidates were sent the inquiry on Oct. 4, at which time a deadline of Oct. 9 was announced. A follow-up email to those candidates who did not respond was issued on Oct. 11 with a noon deadline the following day.
Election day is Oct. 24, which will be preceded by two weeks of online voting and advance paper ballot opportunities. For a rundown of voting locations, click here.
Two candidates are vying for election in Ward 11, with Christopher Duncanson-Hales challenging incumbent Bill Leduc.
Although Duncanson-Hales did not return Sudbury.com’s inquiry for this story, he did speak with us in July, when he outlined his opposition to casinos, which runs counter to Leduc’s pro-casino stance.
Ward 11 includes the eastern half of Ramsey Lake and the Minnow Lake neighbourhood, encompassing 36.2 square kilometres of land. It has a population of approximately 13,973.
To find out whether you live in Ward 11, click here. The following is what came in for Ward 11.
Christopher Duncanson-Hales*
My name is Christopher Duncanson-Hales, candidate for Council in Ward 11. With my wife Melody and our three children, we've lived in Minnow Lake for over a decade. During that time, I have been an active community advocate, a professor at the University of Sudbury, served constituents in the offices of both the Sudbury MP and MPP, and built an online tutoring business serving students worldwide.
I am running for council to make a difference in my community's lives by listening to and acting on the needs and talents in our community. A priority that has re-emerged is the fact Minnow Lake is in a food desert. In 2018, a grocery store was promised and presented as a done deal. Four years later the done deal is not done.
These little projects have fallen through the cracks as our present council obsessed over big projects. Through regular monthly town hall meetings and frequent community issue-focused meet and greets, I commit to regularly consulting and communicating with residents through a revitalized Community Action Network so that similar community needs do not fall through the cracks.
I further commit to working with my fellow councilors to ensure we are focused on restoring our roads and infrastructure needing attention, and to determine what can be done to encourage responsible investment in our community that fosters growth and development while supporting practical solutions so no one is left behind by our pandemic recovery and rising cost of living.
Bill Leduc
I was born and raised here in Greater Sudbury and live in the Minnow Lake area. My parents are Hector and Marybeth. l have my older sister, Kathy, and my brother, James. l have two amazing children and three beautiful grandchildren. I'm a retired contract miner, now a city councillor representing Ward 11 full-time. l sit on several committees such as Conservation, Public Health, Community services, Emergency Services, Finance and Hearing, just to name a few. I am also on the senior advisory panel along with the Accessibility panel.
The reason I'm seeking re-election of Ward 11 and representing the citizens of Greater Sudbury is very simple and straightforward. I've been able to help residents resolve issues such as closing out building permits, getting trees/stumps removed, roadways/sidewalks plowed, dealing with bylaws, helping residents applying for Sudbury Housing or subsidies for housing. The list could go on and on for all the work that I've done over the past four years, but keep in mind there is much more work to be done and this takes time that in a course of four short years unfortunately isn't long enough.
My key platform points are very simple once again. l never supported spending $98.5 million dollars on a library/art gallery/multicultural centre. l think we as council have some great opportunities of investing in our local economy that would help revitalize our downtown without spending this type of money, such as looking at the Elm View mall and investing very little money to locate our library/art gallery/multicultural centre in that location overlooking Notre Dame/Paris Street. By doing this this will help our local businesses grow. We would also have ample parking and accessibility for everyone.
Housing has to be our top priority in leveraging the money we have with the federal and provincial governments to create the much-needed housing we need for our community. The other key factor is our roads and finding new technologies such as hot in place recycling that goes hand in hand with our commitments to climate change. The other new technology we are currently engaged in is our water and sewer relining programs which is going to extend the life cycle of our underground services.
Then, there's the big question of how we are going to stabilize our tax base moving forward so we can have a respectable tax rate and the answer is growth. How do we achieve growth? We need to have our economic development department with ambassadors located in Toronto/Montreal and Vancouver promoting the opportunities to investors to showcase the lifestyle of living in Greater Sudbury, which has 330 lakes. I believe I've touched base on several of the key issues that will help Ward 11 and Greater Sudbury move forward with a healthy and positive community.
*Editor's note: Christopher Duncanson-Hales' response arrived late and was added after this story was initially published.
