Sudbury mayor gives first state-of-the-city address

Wednesday, the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce held its first state of the city address with new Mayor Paul Lefebvre.

In his address, Lefebvre mayor reflected on his first six months in office. He addressed gaps and efforts the city is making in a number of areas, including housing, industrial land development and labour challenges.

He also talked about efforts to develop a committee to consult with other municipalities across Ontario about best practices.

“Look around the province -- what are the best practices that are out there when it comes to development at the planning levels from a city perspective?” Lefebvre said.

“So asking folks that have worked on Ottawa, Kingston, Windsor -- across the province, looking at what are their bylaws like, what processes do they have that were don't have here. How can improve to make it easier?”

Lefebvre also talked about making Sudbury a key supplier in the evolving battery electric vehicle sector.

“We are very fortunate now that we have battery plants down south,” he said.

“They will need our resources from northern Ontario, but we want to do more of that added value here in northern Ontario. So having those conversations with Vic Fedeli, George Pirie, the federal government, as to making sure whatever we can keep more of in northern Ontario we can.”

To address a number of challenges, especially labour shortage, Lefebvre wants to increase the population of the city to 200,000 by 2050.