What could have been a very contentious meeting inside Sudbury’s city hall, ended in a civil way on Tuesday evening.
There were several “hot-button” issues on the agenda for council to deal with and we were promised ‘fireworks’ with issues surrounding the downtown Business Improvement Association and the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation, but things ‘fizzled’ out pretty quickly.
It all started with a rather dramatic protest from members of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4705.
The CUPE members called it ‘Occupy Council,’ after negotiations fell apart between their team and the city.
Upon hearing the matter raised, the group stood up in chambers and turned their backs on councillors before leaving the gallery.
In another surprising turn of events, Mayor Brian Bigger deferred his motion about dissolving the board of directors of the Economic Development Corporation and replacing them with councillors, citing further study was needed.
"We were surprised by the mayor's motion because we had not completed the GSDC governance review. At this stage, we're happy because it allows us to do the work that we had started." said Pierre Zundel, vice-chair of GSDC.
Before getting to Councillor Bill Leduc's motion that would change a by-law and prevent the city from being sued by its downtown B.I.A. over the Kingsway Entertainment District, the meeting ran out of time.
"I think I'm building up momentum with the rest of my colleagues on this motion. They all realize that we're not trying to disband the B.I.A. We're trying to move forward with the B.I.A. and get them to realize what their potential here is for Sudbury." said Leduc.
The mayor's motion around the economic development corporation will be on September 10, while Leduc's motion on the B.I.A. will now be pushed to next month.
Thursday marks two years since council voted in favour of the Kingsway site for a new arena and entertainment district.
