Sudbury city hall undergoing major restructuring

Greater Sudbury is making changes to its organizational structure over the coming months, in part due to vacancies and pending retirements.

"The structure puts an additional emphasis on the strategic issues that council is navigating that staff needs to help them to navigate," said interim CAO Kevin Fowke.

Greater Sudbury is searching for three new GMs to oversee the newly structured departments. The changes come in the wake of the dismissal of CAO in October. (Photo from video)

The city is searching for three new GMs to oversee the newly structured departments. The changes come in the wake of the dismissal of CAO in October.

An overview of the four departments and key changes can be found here.

Former city councillor Robert Kirwan expressed his thoughts on the changes in a social media post.

"(Mayor Paul Lefebvre) made it clear that if he was elected, he would change the direction of the leadership in the city," Kirwan said.

"Most of us just thought that he meant to change the CAO, but few of us anticipated such a huge shakeup of the entire organization. Whether this turns out for the benefit of the City of Greater Sudbury is yet to be seen, but there just seems to be too much power in the hands of one person under the strong mayor legislation."

One of the most notable changes is the new emergency services and community well-being department, bringing together housing, children services, fire and paramedic services, which will now have its own separate chiefs and two deputy chiefs.

"In the case of fire, we had a part of a general manager's attention with two deputy chiefs and a couple of assistant deputy chiefs for about 500 people and a service that spans the entire geography of … the city, " Fowke said.

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"So having a sovereign sort of a chief accountable for those services adds an additional leader to the organization. But it also ensures that the thought that's being put into the delivery of those services and the sustainability of those services."

The addition of the two positions will cost upwards of $500,000 but notes there will be no job losses from the switch moving forward.

The implementation of the new structure will follow a phased approach over the next several months.

As vacancies are filled, they’ll be placed in the updated organizational structure with the hope of having everything in place by the end of the first quarter.