Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Saturday morning.
Uncertainty surrounds provincial desire to merge conservation authorities
Should the province proceed with amalgamating Conservation Sudbury with other Northern Ontario conservation authorities, Carl Jorgensen hopes they each retain their local focuses. “The staff that work in Sudbury know the Sudbury watershed, they know the soils here, the water here and the landscape,” the Conservation Sudbury general manager told Sudbury.com on Thursday. “They know their watersheds intimately because they're there every day. … I don’t think the government wants that to go away. I think the intent is to keep that happening, but what that will look like, I don’t know.” Jorgensen said he hopes local offices will remain open and local expertise isn’t lost in the shuffle to create larger organizations. Sudbury.com caught up with Jorgensen following Thursday’s Future-Ready Development Services Ad-Hoc Committee meeting of city council at the Lionel E. Lalonde Centre in Azilda.
Laurentian faculty hoping for ‘fair deal’ after CCAA concessions
Laurentian University and the union representing its faculty sit down at the bargaining table next week to try to hammer out a deal for the first time since a contract was signed “under duress” in 2021, during the university’s time under creditor protection. More details of the negotiations will be provided at a press conference to be held by the Laurentian University Faculty Association (LUFA) on Nov. 17, Sudbury.com has learned. The university’s last contract with LUFA, which had a five-year term retroactive to July 1, 2020 and ran to June 30, 2025, was overseen by court-appointed mediator Justice Sean Dunphy as part of the university's insolvency restructuring. Fast-forward more than four years, and the two sides are in bargaining again, this time without insolvency law involved. Asked if there could be a strike, LUFA president Fabrice Colin said “job action is always a possibility. As you know, that’s adding pressure to the employer for a fair deal.”
Removing speed cameras ‘one of the dumbest things’: GSPS board chair
Automated speed-enforcement cameras are no more, which Greater Sudbury Police Service board chair Gerry Lougheed called “one of the dumbest things.” Between the moment they became active on March 22, 2024, to the end of the year, the city’s six automated speed-enforcement cameras resulted in the issuance of 12,796 tickets. Last year, Greater Sudbury police officers issued 868 speeding tickets, fewer than three per day. On automated speed-enforcement cameras issuing so many tickets, Lougheed said, “It’s pretty obvious there’s a lot of speeding going on and people need to slow down.” As for police issuing so few in comparison, he said, “when we have a traffic cop with a cruiser at the side of the road, they can only take so many vehicles to the side of the road, can only give so many tickets and be there for so long.”
City grapples with event centre parking crunch
To replenish some of the 271 parking spaces eaten up by the event centre’s construction boundary, city council is considering a $500,000 expenditure to create 185 new spaces. These spaces, spread throughout the city’s downtown core, are considered a temporary measure while the $200-million event centre building takes shape. The event centre is anticipated to open in mid-2028. In a report city council members will vote on during their Nov. 18 meeting, city Corporate Services general manager Kevin Fowke notes that planning for longer-term parking demands is “underway,” with his report highlighting “interim, temporary parking supply initiatives which enable adequate, safe parking solutions that support event centre construction space requirements.” Another interim fix proposed is free GOVA Transit service for people attending ticketed events at the Sudbury Community Arena during the event centre’s construction to the arena’s immediate east.
Police seek Sudbury man who allegedly dragged officer while fleeing traffic stop
Greater Sudbury Police are on the hunt for a local man who allegedly fled a traffic stop on Oct. 31, dragging a police officer a short distance in the process. On Oct. 31, officers from the Integrated Traffic Safety Unit (ITSU) and Patrol Operations were conducting a RIDE (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere) check at the roundabout on Lasalle Boulevard at Frood Road. “Around 11:45 p.m. officers stopped at vehicle at the check point and while speaking with the driver, officers detected signs of impairment,” a GSPS press release states. “Upon asking for the driver’s identification, it was determined that his driver’s licence was expired and that he was a prohibited driver.” The driver refused when officers ordered him to turn off vehicle and exit, police said in the news release. “An officer opened the driver’s door to affect an arrest, however, the driver drove forward striking the officer and then dragging him a short distance before the officer was able get free,” GSPS said. “The driver then fled the scene in the vehicle.” The officer sustained minor injuries as a result, police said.
GSPS operation arrests 21 people at notorious Paris apartment complex
A somewhat notorious apartment complex in the city’s South End was the focus of a recent operation by Greater Sudbury Police Service that led to the arrest of 21 people and the recovery of some $150,000 worth of stolen goods. Dubbed “Project Paris”, the initiative focussed on an apartment complex located at 1920 Paris St. and 1960 Paris St. (the 1960 address is commonly known as Rumball Terrace, though that is no longer the official name of the two buildings on the site, which are 1960 A and B). That complex, and the 1960 Paris address in particular, has been the subject of regular police attention for several years. Most recently, 1960 Paris was the site of a recent drug bust, but it is also the location where a double murder occurred earlier this year. In a Nov. 13 news release, GSPS said Project Paris resulted in the arrest of 21 people on outstanding warrants or on new charges. "In response to concerns expressed by residents and community partners at 1920 and 1960 Paris Street, officers conducted Project Paris between October 27 and November 7, 2025," said the news release.
