Don’t say “You can’t fight city hall” to the Lively Ski Hill Planning Committee or the Nickel Centre Seniors Club, with both community groups coming out triumphant tonight.
Not that the old adage is entirely apt in either case, with both groups working with city staff to achieve their respective goals.
For the Lively Ski Hill Planning Committee, it was their successful push to keep their community’s recreational amenity open and municipally operated.
The Nickel Centre Seniors Club made a successful push to procure the shuttered Falconbridge fire hall building.
In both cases, city council members were unanimous in granting both community groups the results they sought.
“Very excited” by the news, Ward 2 Coun. Eric Benoit told Sudbury.com that there are a lot of “big dreams” when it comes to what the Lively community still wants to achieve at the ski hill.
Tuesday’s vote, he said, is “exactly what you hope for when you give the community a chance and they prove that they’ll set up and use the amenity, and it’s amazing.”
Benoit represents the Lively area and has been working with the community group for the past several months. He routinely attended the Friday Fun Nights which the community hosted at the ski hill throughout the 2024-25 season to help drum up interest.
In Falconbridge, area city council representative Natalie Labbée (Ward 7) worked with the Nickel Centre Seniors Club to help them secure the shuttered fire hall across the street from their existing club building. The old fire hall will be used to expand their already popular woodworking shop, plus provide multipurpose space, a maker space and artists studio.
Labbée praised the seniors’ dedication earlier this week, and during Tuesday’s meeting also held up the Lively group’s efforts as an example of what community groups can achieve.
“It’s a testament of what can happen when people come together for a cause they’re passionate about,” she said.
“I was not on council when council decided to close the ski hill in Capreol, but I was very much in support of seeing another outlying community could try to make a go of it and use the equipment,” she said. “I think it’s going to be a good thing, especially to show other outlying communities that if you pull together for a project, some really great things can happen.”
Labbée’s comments are in reference to the old Capreol ski lift, which has been relocated from the permanently closed hill to the Lively Ski Hill to replace the hill’s end-of-life lift.
Benoit said that he anticipates the repurposed lift will be operational in time for the 2025-26 ski season.
The planning committee of city council met in closed session on Monday, during which they voted to give the Nickel City Seniors Club the Falconbridge fire hall, which city council voted to close last year. They reiterated this decision point during Monday’s open meeting, and city council as a whole was unanimous in ratifying this decision at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Under the city’s arrangement with the seniors, they’ll be able to retain the building for as long as they’re using it for its intended purposes, after which it would fall back into the city hands.
The Lively Ski Hill decision stemmed from a municipal report which recommended that the city continue operating the hill, proceed with the Capreol ski lift retrofit and hold off on chalet repairs until they know what they’re doing with Meatbird Lake Park funds.
In reaction to its low use, city council put the hill on the chopping block last year, which inspired a community push to prove its viability. Where there were 715 total visits in the 2023-24 winter season, the 2024-25 winter season saw 4,052 people hit the slopes.
Tuesday’s votes were without Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre and Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann, who were both absent.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com