Sudbury mayor Brian Bigger responds to critics after State of the City address

The Mayor of Greater Sudbury, Brian Bigger, focused on progress and collaboration during his fourth state of the city address yesterday — though he didn't touch on the divisive Kingsway Entertainment District debate that highlighted much of his term.

At times, Bigger's address sounded a lot like a pre-election speech.

He told a large crowd at the Chamber of Commerce event at the Caruso Club that the city more than doubled its capital roads budgets during his term, to a total of over $300 million dollars.

He also looked ahead to construction projects like La Place des Arts, as well as the Junction, a combined downtown library, art gallery, and convention centre.

"2017 saw the highest value in construction [...] in the history of our city, so we're going to continue to build on that and encourage more investment to create jobs," said Bigger, adding the total construction value for the year exceeded $394 million.

Bigger said Sudbury has seen successes in tourism, education and health, too.

He spoke about growth in the film industry under his term, and the increasing importance of Science North as a popular attraction.

"With an investment of only $100,000, we saw over 115,000 non-local visitors to Greater Sudbury last year with a spin-off of just shy of $27 million. Talk about a return on investment," said Bigger.

He noted high school student enrolment has reached 16,099 (up 6.7 per cent). That included a 25 per cent increase in international students over the fall of 2017.

Twenty-one family physicians began practicing in Sudbury over Bigger's term, with 17 more committed to set up shop in the community over next three years.

Critics speak out

With biomedical technologist Jeff Huska entering the race, there are now four candidates officially running for mayor in Greater Sudbury.

Among them is Patricia Mills. She attended the mayor's address, and responded to Bigger's assertion the city's roads budget more than doubled.

"If you ask anybody in the last four years are the roads better? They're not. So it's not I'm against the spending, I'm all for the spending, but we need to spend our money wisely," Mills told reporters.

The other mayoral candidate with a hat in the ring, Cody Cacciotti, was also on hand Wednesday.

He said Bigger is taking too much credit for work done at the grassroots level by arts, culture and tourism organizations.

"That's where the recognition should go back to is the groups and the people who are driving a lot of these projects forward," said Cacciotti. "We need a leadership group that's going to foster those types of relationships."

Bigger replied to some of his critics, saying the city's recently acquired AA credit rating is evidence that its investments to improve living conditions in the community have been "reasonable and responsible."

"Our borrowing is not out of line with other municipalities across the province," said Bigger.

"Because of, I guess, our bench strength in financial understanding, we're comfortable with moving forward with the financial plans that we've developed."

Staying away from Kingsway debate

It wasn't until prompted by reporters that Bigger spoke about the Kingsway Entertainment District, a project which flared a heated downtown versus suburbs debate that continues to simmer in the community.

Council voted overwhelmingly in favour of building a new city-owned arena in the East End suburbs on the Kingsway last summer — but only after a proposal to place it downtown was narrowly defeated in a 6-6 tie that very same night.

After his speech Wednesday, Bigger responded that council's support for the location of the arena and events centre is unequivocal.

Bigger added he's hopeful appeals currently under review by the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal will go the city's way to allow construction on both the city-owned arena and a privately owned casino on the Kingsway to move ahead.