Amalgamation of smaller communities into the nearby cities has been the rage in Ontario but it was done poorly in the Sudbury region. The current city of Greater Sudbury before amalgamation consisted of seven separate municipalities, together comprising the Regional Municipality of Sudbury. On January 1, 2001 the Provincial Government of Ontario dissolved all seven former municipalities in the regional government and merge them into the current city government. Early in 2006 residence of the former town of Rayside Balfour began to campaign for the deamalgamation of the city and a return to the former municipal government structure because they feel that municipal services in the outlying areas have deteriorated significantly. The city refused to endorse the petition to hold a de-amalgamation referendum. The referendum if passed would still require the consent of the provincial government. The Sudbury Council set up a advisory committee chaired by former Member of Provincial Parliament Floyd Laughren to find solutions for the concerns on municipal government services. The Solutions Committee held 20 meetings in the spring of 2006 in the numerous communities that were forced in to being part of Greater Sudbury.

The Solution Committee hired Gary Michalak to tabulate what Floyd Laughren said were thousands of complaints and in September of 2006 the committee held six meetings throughout the city to see if they had recorded the complaints fully and to find out whether there were more. The Onaping/Levack/Dowling meeting was held September 26.

As Gary Michalak explained afterwards, in the city of Nippising, Ontario they went through the same process and did it better. That's because they left in place the original local boards and the front line staffing in each community. In Sudbury the city regionalized everything, remove not only the mayors and councils of the region's, not only the top administrators but took all the a front-line staff away from each community. Before amalgamation if you had a problem you simply went to the staff member in whichever department it was and asked if he could fix it. Anything out of the ordinary and he suggested you'll have to talk to politicians first but explained how it should be done. Now there's no one. So who's getting the complaints now. The six elected city councilors. And they are being overwhelmed with the complaints. They don't have time to do what they should be doing which is creating policy. They are spending all their time mediating between the public and the now often faceless bureaucrats.

What's really sad is that small towns had regionalized previously. Dowling, Onaping, and Levack joined to become the community of Onaping Falls. That set of regionalization similar regionalized in six regions across the whole Sudbury basin in the mid-1970s worked and was needed because the changing economics of the region. Previously two of these three towns were company towns. Onaping was owned by Falconbridge for build for their workers in the late 50s. Levack was built in the 1920s and owned by Inco. And in those days the companies provided everything, not only the houses, and the maintenance of them, but even the community centers, the swimming pools, and the companies were paying bulk of the taxes to kept everything going. Some company bean counter decided that companies would be better off without having to provide the housing so they sold it off cheap to the workers. Some of the workers kept the houses some flip them for the cash. Some maintain them, some haven't. In one community south of here the mining company closed everything and totally bulldozed the town just to avoid the taxes. The municipalities that are left only have property taxes to do all the things that towns need to do but because the houses are cheap, the taxes were low. Mining companies continued the process of reducing their share of taxes by reducing their assessments through demolishing any unneeded buildings, and building of a new facilities such as maintenance shops underground where they are not be subject to property tax.

The old City of Sudbury a decade ago was losing population as is most of the North in Ontario. The only growth areas where the small communities around Sudbury. So the old city of Sudbury welcomed the provincial governments forced amalgamation of all these communities into a Greater Sudbury.

The second meeting at Onaping of the Solutions Committee was a tame one with only 28 people, including two city Councilor’s, (this is an election this year). But only three of the five members of the Solution Committee came out. And they did not sat in the front, nor do much talking. They are good people, they were chosen because of their interest in their communities and they should not be the flak takers.

What these members of the Solutions Committee proposed is to establish a second layer of subcommittees to find a solution to all complaints they had received. Three days of subcommittee meetings will be held with city staff members doing research. Six subcommittees will be set up. Their suggestions will be tabulated by the original Solution Committee and given to the new Sudbury Council after they are elected in November.

According to the city administration and members of the Solution Committee there report will be the first thing on the new city council's agenda when they do their strategic planning. What was not on the agenda of the Solution Committee meetings was deamalgamation.

All that can be hoped for and what was hinted that is the establishment of Community Action Networks, groups of volunteers that will keep the politicians on their toes and keep issues of importance to the outer areas in front of the city Council. One big change this election is that instead of two Councilor’s being elected in each of the six wards there will be 12 wards with one Councilor each. But already areas such as Onaping Falls feel the boundaries have been set up so the largest community in the ward, Chelmsford has the greater chance of sending their representative to Council.

Gary Michalak at the Onaping meeting said that the first thing he would do was briefly review the results of the earlier meetings. "Our difficulty was pulling all the ideas together into theme areas to be able to work with the information. We wanted to make sure that what we put in the report is perfectly as you stated it. You may have other concerns we can add to the list as well. There are still opportunities for more feedback on the issues that we might have missed since the last session."

"First I'm going to give you citywide observations first" said Gary Michalak. This is a collection of seven or eight of the key issues, and the barriers, and the recommendations. Sort of like the top 10 on the hit parade coming from the 20 community consultations. It will give a feeling of where everyone is coming from. We will then be asking for your support. Anyone that's interested in letting their name stand to be one of the six workgroups should sign up. We will meet in October and November for approximately 4 meetings. We want you to help us look at all this data within each of these themes and then work with the solutions team to develop a report that is going to City Council at the beginning of January. I had a meeting with the CAO, senior management and they recommended we be first on the agenda of the new year to make sure the new council has our information so when they go to strategic planning they will have all the data at their fingertips. This shows the support that we are getting from senior management.
The timeline started April 26 when Floyd Laughren was appointed by city Council. In May setting up the process was adopted by Council. On May 30 the first meeting was held and it was in Onaping and it was a hot evening, with the temperature over 100° in the shade. On June 29 the last of the committee meetings was held and it was in Chelmsford. After each session we did a report that was driven from the flip charts and the workbooks, there were also phone calls and letters. There was a lot of data. The question was how to shape the data. September 18 was the first of feedback sessions.

People were ecstatic about the fact that amongst the 20 places we held consultations; we went to very small communities as well as larger ones in the outlying areas. At the original meetings we asked four critical questions. The first question was what were local issues, for instance in Onaping, Dowling and Levack. We asked the same questions at the 20 meetings. Then we asked about the critical citywide issues. That data too went on flip charts. Then we asked what the major barriers were preventing us from moving forward. What was stopping us from growing? We collected that data. Finally we asked for recommended solutions, and the folks gave us their ideas and thoughts on how we could knock down the barriers, to move the city forward. The workbooks we handed out had the same four questions. Those were for the folks that did not want to participate publicly but wrote their ideas down for us. Those were the four questions we facilitated at the 20 sessions.

What we did then was look at the information and see which had the most hits, the most mentions, the issues that came up over and over. One of the first was governance, access to policy makers. Lack of representation from members of Council, the loss of local committees, be it libraries or economic development was the biggest problem. It is now difficult to access people at City Hall. You were once able to knock on the door of the local town hall and speak to the mayor or town or city staff. That was the number one issue.

The second dealt with volunteer and nonprofit organizations. Many of the local groups felt there was a lot of red tape, a lot of bureaucracy. The support we had for local groups in the past does not seem to be there now. For example if you are running a special event, before you could knock on the local public works door and get the grader down there to clean up the yard for the special event. Now it's harder with a larger city.

Then we said what do we do with the rest of all the issues. The decision was to align them with the four city departments. Once we get to the problem-solving stage we are getting staff to resource these teams. They're not the decision-makers but they are going to do research, give us reports, look at information that's been collected, and the different studies that have been done. So we decided to use the four departments (community development, growth development, corporate services, and infrastructure and emergency services.)

Gary Michalak said they took the top issues and challenges from all the communities and created a single list. What was on the list?

Increased hall user fees are restricting use. This was deemed to be an issue for Community Development services-leisure. Increased sports user fees are restricting use. Again something to be dealt with by the Department of Community Development. Volunteer hours spent on basic maintenance have been lost.

Issues to be dealt with by the Department of Corporate Services include high taxes with less services, tax increases, inappropriate wealth distribution through taxes.The loss of grants with only one application, the loss of casino revenues, unfair calculation of wastewater. Our tax increases are paying for city the no taxes increases the city has had for last 10 years.

Corporate Services to have to deal with the issue of red tape and gaming offices killing local nonprofits groups. The Department of Growth and Development will have to deal with property standards not being enforced. The Department of Growth and Development will have to deal with growth being city focused with little in the outlying areas. The infamous rock tunnel costs and the elimination of developmental fees will also have to be dealt with. The department will also have to look at tipping fees creating satellite dumps.

The biggest problems dealt with governance

The biggest problems dealt with governance. Access to policy makers. The criticisms include loss of local committees, economic, rec, library, heritage etc. Another issue was that one size does not fit all are policymaking doesn't work. People feel there's a loss of democratic decision-making. The loss of local committees means a loss of developmental leadership. Local leaders are not being developed. There's no vehicle in place to deal with day to day issues. Centralization of most services was not a preferred option. The lack of working partnerships with schools, the province, and the feds was an issue. The loss of local staff has created a faceless city. The loss of not having local political representation has been felt. The loss of community identification and pride was noted. So many losses. The one group that the centralized city tried to organize to work in local areas, the Citizen Action Networks are not being recognized for their potential. They need more responsibility to deal with local planning and budgeting. The citizens say the footprint for the city is too large to manage. There is a lack of common vision. Is the amalgamation to be in the form of a mosaic or a melting pot. Citizens feel there was a lack of strategic planning to deal with implementing the amalgamation. There was also griping over bureaucrats salaries and the growth of the $100,000 club, there are now over 50 city bureaucrats earning $100,000 plus. Amalgamation was supposed to save money

The Department of Infrastructure and Emergency Services was criticized for its potholed roads, lack of snow plowing, summer maintenance delays and dirty ditches. Excessive salt and sand is being used on roads. Fire equipment was taken from local stations in rural areas during amalgamation and replaced with inferior equipment. Policing and patrolling is inadequate.

An issue to be dealt with by nonprofit volunteer associations, lack of volunteer recognition.

All departments are being criticized for the city staff about not being aware of local conditions excess redtape in accessing local services, and the use of outside consultants for local decisions.

Here was one observation from the Onaping crowd."Too bad this wasn't ready before the election then we would know where the candidates stood.
Gary Michalak said the debate was to present this report to a council which has four weeks left or do you present it to a council that has four years left?
(This has always been the citizen's dilemma. The old politicians wishing to be reelected will certainly sound responsive even if they don't have time to implement the citizens wishes before the election. The new council after the election as no need to be responsive and they can hope the citizens forget the issues over the next four years)

The decision, said Gary Michalak was to present it to a council which has for years. The existing council could take this and say fine thank you very much and with a whole new council it could get lost in the shuffle. We are very hopeful and the meeting we had with senior staff was very promising. I think some of these recommendations are doable, and not expensive.

Was there anything missing in the general summary asked Gary Michalak.

Local Issues

Some of the issues pertaining to our local area were missed noted the citizens at Onaping.
Local issues in Dowling brought up at the original meeting in May, included no job opportunities for local youth, use of a seven month contract without making the jobs full-time. Last-minute decision making for rental of the hall. Surcharges on the plate suppers at the hall were too high. There is no designated animal control person in town. And some of the dirt bikes in the winter, and snowmobiles are out of control. The sludge trucks from Kelly Lake were caught dumping locally. This is in issue for the bylaw and policing department. The Economic Development will have to deal with a lacklocal industry. Infrastructure should deal with the East End subdivision in Dowling that has no sewer or water. There are leakages of water on the Main line. And the kids have no way to travel intercommunity. This is a problem to be solved by Infrastructure.

Some of the issues for Dowling were listed as critical. They include no standard for hall rentals. An unfair distribution of wealth. The philosophy of population density driving the placement of dollars. Residents noted there is a loss of grants as there are a few grant applications from the outlying areas.
The city's Department of Community Growth will have to deal city produced brochures that do not promote local assets or special events in this area. While there has been a major emphasis on Sudbury's downtown, there has been little thought about our downtown. There are no job opportunities for local youth. No attraction to local industries, we do not feel part of the city. The water rates are out of control and excessive use of salt and sand on roads is eating away the culverts.

Levack's concerns include the cost of cemetery plots increasing from $300 to $900. The loss of a home for the local doctors. The need for local skateboard park, the continual threat of closure for recreation facilities. Playground equipment and facilities that are in disrepair and a lack of programs for local teens. Young adults that have nothing to do. Ice rates have tripled. The Cenotaph Park is being trashed. The lack of a local library especially for students was noted. The lack of information on tax distribution was an issue. Levack has been designated as a no growth area. This is a problem for Community Development. Another main issue no intercommunity transit. Unless you have a car you can get nowhere. Sidewalks are treacherous to walk on in the winter and overall sidewalk replacement is inadequate. Quads are taking over the walkways. The water distribution is not good , the bills for sewer and water is not clear to the average citizen and there is scum now seen on the local Onaping river. The water supply could be contaminated.

Some citizens were angry that local garbage barrels are now gone. There's no local garbage site. And the town lacks a grocery store. This last one was considered to be a problem for the private sector to solve.
Levack's critical issues include the new ice making machine having been taken to the city as part of the amalgamation and never returned. Residents feel on the defensive, fearful of closures. There is a lack of information on tax distribution. Where have the savings on amalgamation gone. There's no local staff doing the work. And the staff in the city have a poor attitude towards the outlying area. We are treated as small town, poor cousins. We are paying major taxes to the city and seeing few returns. There's a lack of opportunity for public input. There's been a loss jobs through the loss of local department heads. Instead of roads being repaved they are being patched.

Onaping residents noted that the path connecting Onaping and Levack is not cleaned. The local parks are not as clean as they were before. The playground equipment does not been updated and is now in poor repair. There have been poor standards for beautification in the town and continual threats that the recreation facilities will be closed. The boat launch at the Boy Scout camp is not being maintained. The High Falls tourist site is open to late in the year. Fees for local seniors playing bingo have increased from $7 to $15. The local ski hill is not being promoted while the city's Adanac hill is. The loss of medical staff and who is to deal with this issue worried some residents. Onaping has a very localized problem lack of information on the local mall. Has a city taken it over for taxes? .
Onaping has not been designated as a growth center. The transit is inadequate for seniors, the rates are too high and not equitable with what other people pay in the city. There is a dual standard. The low water pressure may not be enough to handle fires and the water is brown and rusty.
Critical to Onaping residence of the loss of schools and the extra busing for children. The amalgamation cost savings are not a reality. All programs and services are determined centrally. The city is too large an area for the council to cover. Our small town priorities have gotten lost in the shuffle. One size for all bylaws do not work. Local issues are not being heard. Complaint calls are not being handled well at the department level.

What was missed? One of the residents said that the owner of the dairy bar had purchased a blue garbage barrel and city workers took it and replaced it with a recycling box. They do not want a recycling box they want their barrel. Another barrel was taken away from a private residence and put in the center of the park to collect garbage. That is theft.
Gary Michalak suggested the barrels were city property. The local resident said they were paid for by the property owners. "I phoned the city and they said it was the Parks Department. Parks Department said how do you know it was us"

Nothing is being done about barking dogs, was a fresh issue mentioned. "I called the dogcatcher and we were told Onaping is too far for them to go."

"I have a handicap, and I was told I have a service available to me called Handytrans but about five times out of 10 whenever I call, and I a week in advance to arrange for a ride into Sudbury for medical appointments they tell me I live too far, I am out of the district, and they have no room for me."

"The services there, are but not for me. This service is for Sudbury. On paper Onaping is included. There was an article in the Sudbury Star couple of weeks ago saying how well they are doing, with the new buses and the new drivers, but the service to Onaping is haphazard at best. I have had to miss medical appointments, MRI appointments, because I was told I live too far away and the bus is already full with handicapped people from the Sudbury area that have to go to the hairdressers."

The rusty water was also an Onaping issue brought up at the meeting. The resident had a letter from the local MP. He congratulated the city of Sudbury for paying attention to her issue, but nothing has been done to date.

Excessive use of salt on sand on our roads is a problem. I was told we should not use more than 30 to 32% salt and the remainder sand. The cost of salt was risen from $140 a to $170. The old bridge over the Vermillion River was destroyed by the excessive use of salt. I took a roll of film showing that the salt breaks down the concrete. You will see the same story on the overpass going into the city.

Gary Michalak said they know the issue, other communities have mentioned it, and a report will be made.

Another resident said the Onaping swimming pool does not have any schedule time for adults in the evening. There should be.

A Dowling resident who owns apartment buildings in Chelmsford said that as owners they pay for private garbage pickup. But what are they to do about a coach that appears on the sidewalk and all the tenants say it's not theirs. The city refuses to pick it up. What do I do? (One of the city Councillor's presence at he would look after it, and did.)

The Onaping shopping mall has been taken over by the city because the owner could not pay the back taxes said one of the residents, the city is now collecting the rent, the building is deteriorating, and the city is not fixing it. The roof is leaking and some tenants of moved out. The city assessed the building at $1 million. The building does not seem to be for sale. Something should be done in

Volunteers are not being appreciated by the city. I've cleaned up downtown Levack for two years. I bought the garbage can for the Cenotaph Park because the city wouldn't give us one and the city said we can't even have a garbage can outside the arena

Gary Michalak noted that other areas have Community Action Networks that are picking up on the local issues. They are keeping them alive. What he was saying was this area should have an active Community Action Network. It Is the Squeaky Wheel Syndrome.

A former elementary school in Levack has been purchased to become a senior citizen's apartment, but the would-be residents concerns are lack of medical facilities and grocery stores in the area. What can be done?

This Greater Sudbury thing, why don't you call it Sudbury asked one of the resident. There are discussions about renaming it, said Gary Michalak. The three options are Sudbury, Greater Sudbury, or don't you Sudbury at all. Some say just call it Sudbury, others say just call it Nickel Basin.

We are supposed to be part of the so-called city of Sudbury, but we have to pay extra just to go to Dowling on the bus. Our children going to university have to pay extra busing to get in. So they might as well live in Sudbury.

The city bought new buses. What did it cost to have them painted.

If you call line 911 or the fire department from Onaping or Levack where does that call go to and where will the services come from? How much time will it take?
The 911 operator is to a police Station in Sudbury. If you need an ambulance they call them from their. Ambulances are distributed throughout the city. Chelmsfords is one of the centers. There is a strategy but that if there's a call in one area, ambulances from other areas are called in on backup. Some residents of the meeting spoke of how well the emblem service is working. They only took three minutes to get to me. There is a unit with paramedics that's spent part of the day in Levack, Onaping and Dowling. There is a first response team in the area.

Are the bylaws the same throughout greater Sudbury, I'm thinking about snowmobiles said one resident. Gary Michalak said the city is discussing the issue with the ATV Association. They're developing bylaws now. They researched other municipalities to get the best information available. Hopefully there will be a common bylaw dealing with ATVs.

Major barriers

The major barriers noted in the spring meeting in Dowling where that "they are not listening to us, there is no representational Council, there is too much bureaucracy without access to local staff., there is a poor attitude in dealing with customer complaints" There is a lack of local groups to speak on behalf of the neighborhood. There is no more input into five-year plans. Local economic development is lost. Our economic ideas are not getting to the top. The issue of liability coverage is overrated. The city has made excessive use of outside contractors. Big business is now raking in all profits. The little guy in the trenches is getting very little. There's a lack of creativity i.e. the use of wind power. People in Dowling felt that their tax dollars were going out with very little in return. The two dollar bus fare is not being practiced across the city.

Citizens in Levack suggested major barriers preventing programs include poor attitudes of some city staff. They said some internal departments are not very helpful. There's no planning for the big picture. There isn't an ability to get at local issues. Neighborhoods no longer have any power. The term outlying areas is not appropriate. Levack being the most outlying of all the areas is sensitive over that one. Specific issues include local transit not permitting kids to travel intercommunity. The garbage policy is too hard on families. A policy of police triage when city is first is not right.

Residents of the spring meeting in Onaping suggested barriers preventing programs include the fact they were better off before amalgamation. Barriers include the poor attitude of the city staff attitude in dealing with the outlying areas. The distance factor is just too far. The one-size-fits-all amalgamation is not working.. The area is not better off with amalgamation. They're is little return for the tax money being collected. Any decision-making at the local level has been lost. Major funding for the downtown is needed. The population base has not been able to promote the local economy. The idea of uniformity has not worked well. The community is still angry at loss of local equipment, the local ice making machine was lost to the city and it was paid for by local resident. Onaping feels budgeting staff in the city are not aware of local building conditions. Any short-term gains on amalgamation were not invested into the local facilities.

Gary Michalak wanted to make sure the community agreed that all the issues mentioned at the Spring meetings were in his summary. All the data will go to the six working groups. We will still be able to trace the issues to each community as well as work with the information under the six themes. The themes include 1. government/access to policy makers 2. Volunteer/nonprofit organizations. 3 communications/corporate services. 4 community development services. 5 growth development services. 6 infrastructure and emergency services.

There was criticism over the number of bureaucrats now making over $100,000. Gary Michalak suggestively within a 10 years with inflation even secretaries would be making $100,000 and that will be considered normal.

Question. Why can't this report be placed at the post office is so everyone can read them, or take them home. Why should I have to pay $8 to go to Dowling to see the report in the library? There is no outlet for local government services in Levack or Onaping.

One of the resident suggested that the Community Action Network could be a conduit for the information, or it could be provided at schools, or over the Internet.

Gary Michalak said there is an issue with public notices being thrown in the garbage. We have to be selective where we put them. But people should be able to get them if they want. Communications and corporate servers will have to look at it.

Why is it we hear in the media of the city Council and the mayor decide to do something and the cost is reasonable. One instance was $6,000,000f or road repairs and within a few days it jumped up to $41,000,000. Maybe somebody needs a course on money management.

Suggested Solutions

Suggested suggestions at the Dowling meeting in the spring include. Council bringing city information to local residents. A directory of who he is who in each department. Sensitivity training provided to the staff to improve citizens services. Better contract management to assist in curtailing costs. A local group be formed to identify and solve community problems. Council meetings to move around and being held in the outlying areas. City staff should have 24 hours to respond to a citizens inquirys. Water leaks in the system must be found to save money. Local nonprofit groups should be provided with the resources to be able to do their jobs. Special events insurance for nonprofit groups should be studied. Bylaws should be created and enforced to manage ATVs. A committee should be created to change the name of the city. Local economic development committee should be formed. Tipping fees for personal garbage should be eliminated. 200 pounds per week limit for garbage should be eliminated in favor of 2400 pounds per year. A composting center should be opened locally. Regular police surveillance should be practiced. A shuttle bus should be initiated to improve transportation services. And a strictly local issue, a crosswalk has to be installed to get across the highway.

Solutions suggested by Levack residents in the spring include the creation of a community newsletter showing what's happening in the city. A report should be prepared showing the contributions in taxes versus the programs being returned. There should be answers to the ever increasing operating costs. An ombudsman should be in place to assist in providing citizen satisfaction. One of the key suggestions, a ward representing the former municipality of Onaping Falls should be created. A 5-year amalgamation strategy plan should have been designed. The city should be more inclusive when creating public policy. The Community Action Network should be rebuilt to take an active role in coordinating local actions. Respect for the folks in the outlying area has to become common practice. The sidewalk repair must be considered a priority. Local communities should get back to a pre-Amalgamated services. Bylaws enforcing the appropriate use of ATVs must be put in place. Signs should be installed to control the inappropriate use of ATVs. Local economic development representatives should be located in the service centers. Local economic development committee should be recruited. Businesses in the city should be encouraged to serve the area. Mini garbage bins should be located strategically throughout the town. A skateboard park should be installed in Levack. A community group to work with youth and should be recruited. No or low cost for intro hockey should be subsidized by the city. An ice capacity report should be prepared to demonstrate sound operation. This area should be promoted for future economic development. A statement should be prepared saying that existing facilities will will not close. A local home should be purchased and converted into a small library. Transit service should should be offered on Sunday. Intercommunity transit services should be offered.

Onaping at the spring meeting said the city should provide support for the establishment of a local newspaper. Local residents and businesses should be encouraged to support the newspaper. A local hotline should be created to assist citizens in getting good information. A tax report should be prepared to show revenues in and spending out. There should be recognition for the financial contribution made by local industry.

Residents suggest a name change be seriously considered. My greater Sudbury doesn't make it. Onaping suggests a governance review is needed to determine appropriate representation. Council meeting should move out of Tom Davies Square. Designated staff should be put in place to serve local residents. A report on how to deal with a rusty water in Onaping is required. A European tax model should be adopted and taxes should be reduced when you improve your property. Lighting at the light tower has been out and is very dangerous. All equipment bought by the city should be returned. There should be annual facility inspections take place with five-year capital forecasts. Property standards must be promoted and enforced. It should be negotiations on the proposed telephone company cut in long distance rates. There needs to be a report on the status of the local Plaza. Local assets should be listed and promoted as part of the city promotion packages. There should be consideration for a reduction in price rates. The city should provide dedicated staff to promote local facilities. A report should be prepared on police services. Mobile police platoons could be created to move around communities. A neighborhood watch should be reintroduced. The snowplowing policy should be an established as it was before amalgamation.

One of the key recommendations said Gary Michalak is that local boards be reinstated. This was a major issue. Rental rates are also a concern in all communities. The fees have skyrocketed. The city is doing a report on how to deal with that issue. The lack of a two-way communication in consultation is a problem. Insurance liabilities are a problem. Anytime you book a facility the city legal people are saying you can't do it. The question is, is there to much legal control on everything.

People across the city have noted that the promotional "my Sudbury" campaign did not include the word Greater. That was offensive for many people in the outlying areas. A suggestion at the meeting in Onaping why don't you call it "my greedy Sudbury".

Lack of police presence was another issue that showed up in most of the communities. The lack of surveillance and cars moving around communities after amalgamation was noted.

Many local volunteer groups felt their needs were not being met after the amalgamation. Previously you could access information quickly and get support. But that was no longer available after amalgamation.

This community and the community of Capreol felt there was no way they would ever get representational Council due to the way the wards are set up. That's not necessarily true, said Gary Michalak, I can give examples of where people from smaller communities have won elections, but the chances of that happening are short if you don't have the right numbers.

Centralization of services has been considered a problem. But what we have to remember folks, said Gary Michalak is that we did not have all the services at the local level. Do not confuse what was there before with what we have now. Previously we only made decisions on local roads, fire department, municipal waste, parks. All the other things were decided on the regional level.

Decision-making is now done by the city Council. There are two schools of thought. If the people of Onaping Falls want to pave their roads with gold, let the citizens of Onaping Falls pay for it. But that's not happening. What is happening is the city government is saying they own all the facilities, all the roads everything. The cost of everything is to be shared. We own your wonderful walking trails as citizens of Sudbury.

One size does not fit all. It was an issue at an earlier debate in another community. The policy is to send the snow plows out when there is 8 cm of snow. But you can have 8 cm of snow in Levack of only 2 cm in Sudbury. But where are the calls to come from. Maybe you need snow watchers out here to call the city and then snowplows would be out. This is not happening now.

There has been much criticism that the harmonization of rates for the halls and recreation is not fair. An outside volunteer task force looked at it, the recommendation is that we look at it again.

Facility closures are a major issue. People are saying they want to know if the facilities are going to close this year or the year after. They want to know if it's on the radar screen. With schools we know when they come off on the list. We want to know, if our facility is running right, that it will stay open. That was the public sentiment everywhere. People are not certain now what the city is going to do with their facilities. They want a guarantee. If there is going to be a notice of closure, citizens want adequate time to see if there's alternatives available.

Communication is not adequate. The communication team will look at it. Thunder Bay has a wonderful newsletter that has been developed by City Hall and goes out to each citizen. They get a pretty good snapshot of what's happening. There are best practices out there that we could look at said Gary Michalak .

Increasing taxes and decreasing services. The guarantee under amalgamation was lowering of taxes with the service is remaining the same or improved .Gary Michalak said there may have been tax savings but it didn't take long for that money to of been eaten up by cost-of-living increases and stuff like that. There are some reports on it that will be studied.

Major emphasis is placed on downtown Sudbury. Citizens in outlying areas are saying they have their downtowns too and they want developmental dollars as well. Outlying areas want to be part of the economic development strategy. The dilapidated mall for instance said Gary Michalak is a problem if the city is not recruiting other people to take it over.

Water rates have been a problem in outlying areas. Waters coming in they are being charged for sewer rates on the amount of water going back as sewage, but the water doesn't necessarily go back as sewage. A lot of it goes up the garden but residents are still being charged. There are solutions, 2 meters, but that's expensive. Another solution does portable water coming in for drinking and another water system for watering everything else. Again very expensive.

Gaming regulations are too restrictive. It was a major issue in many areas. . The irony all the gambling in Canada due to the parliament passing one line of legislation allowing allowing a single lottery in 1967.

What is never been debated is whether Sudbury is one city or a city of cities. Are we one city or do we still recognize Onaping Falls, Rayside Balfour, Waldron. Some people think we should, some people think we shouldn't. It will be a debate by council to determine whether we are a single city and will remain My Greater Sudbury and take down all the signs for Onaping Falls of Rayside Balfour or Waldron. That's the debate they have to have but it's very difficult, explained Gary Michalak. Some of the meeting suggested take away the greater city part. Others questioned how mail is going to be delivered if the names of the smaller communities are lost. Gary Michalak said they will never take away Levack Onaping etc., they be there forever. Those are federal jurisdictions. What could change is Onaping Falls or Rayside Belford. What the Walden community action networks group has said they will fly the city flag first, but also the Waldron flag second. And they will fly the eight flags of the smaller communities that made-up Waldron. They are proud of their history and want it remembered.

Supportive community action networks are important. There seems to be two or three more ready to be organized. My hunch is, said Gary Michalak there will be a lot more community action networks after the election. The idea is starting to catch on.

Local committees should be reinstated where feasible. Is it important to have a local library board, or a local museum board, or a local Economic Development Authority. The government's team will look at that

How to give information to the people has been a concern. People have said the city's first webpage is not very easy to use. Could it go by word code. For instant if you want to know arena rental rates you just type it in.

Reporting on annual capital projects. That was done this year. For example in Azilda there was over $1 million in capital road improvements. This hasn't happened in a while. If the city is going to improve the local roads, or work at the library or park we should know about it. The total amount for Ward 2 was was $3.2 million. Rayside Belford's total allotment on roads in the past was $33,000. And this year we had over 2 million. There has been some improvement.

We know the back history said one of the residents, Inco created Levack, and Falconbridge made Onaping. The company made this building and many others. People started selling land in Dowling and others moved in, bought lots of build homes. Why is it that the new road map does not even show Levack on it.

People said that when they call the city they do get wonderful service at the entry level. But the closer you get to the top, the response was less. Many people have suggested sensitivity training for the staff. There should be policies that the staff have to report back within X. amount of working days on any issue brought to them.

One of the suggestions everywhere is people want to know what is happening in their community.

Many people are angered at the tipping fees. At one time you brought your garbage to the dump and it was not an issue. Now people are being charged and they are creating satellite dumps (dumping anywhere).

A key issue is snowplowing standards. The team that will look of infrastructure may take a snapshot of the most remote resident in Onaping Falls and talk to the person that was responsible for doing the snowplowing before. Find out when they got out there during a snowstorm. That gives you a snapshot of what was happening. Find out how long it takes now and study the gap, the amount of extra time. But remember last year when we had the major storm, said Gary Michalak other towns were closed down but Sudbury was still functioning. The question is can we get close to the pre-amalgamation standards in snowplowing. That will be the goal.

At one time some municipalities gave the halls free one night a week to community groups. Meeting space was free. This is no longer available. But it will be studied.

Gary Michalak asked volunteers to sign up to become members of the solution work groups. Anyone running for the municipal elections was not allowed to join. We want to keep politics out of it. But that's the irony it is all political.

The solution committee wanted to have one member from each of the former area municipalities in each of the solution groups. That will be six people on six groups or 36 people. One person from each of the community service teams will be included. They will either chair or find a chair within the group. Also included will be 1 to 3 staff persons from the city to help provide research or do reports, and find any kind of data needed by the team. That's what the workgroups will look like. An organizational session is planned for October 12 then there will be three sessions October 19, November 2 and November 9. They will be at one central location so Floyd and his team can go from group to group and see if anything is needed. Teams will be charged with developing a report which will go to the community solutions team that will ultimately make the final decision of what they bring to Council. That's the process. From the 20 consultations in the spring, to these sessions, to the final report to Council. It all boils down to the top recommendations will go forward .

There is an irony that even in trying to find a solution to amalgamation the solution group used the six former areas there were amalgamated as a base to choose volunteers.

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