How I Make Decisions
Sudbury doesn't always need to spend more money. Sometimes we need a better way of doing things.
The problems aren't a secret. The question is how we're going to solve them.
Measure what is actually happening.
Question whether the existing system makes sense.
Fix the underlying problem, not just the symptom.
Spend more only when the evidence shows it is necessary.
The proposals below apply that approach to real problems facing Ward 8 and Greater Sudbury. They aren't simply promises about what I want to improve. They explain how I believe we can improve it.
A Cleaner Sudbury — A Waste Strategy Built for Our Community
Recycling only works when the garbage actually ends up where it belongs.
Greater Sudbury's waste strategy should be judged by what is actually happening in our community. If garbage is accumulating on properties, along roads or being dumped in wooded areas, we need to determine why — and whether our current two-bag, every-other-week collection system is producing unintended consequences.
Greater Sudbury is not Toronto. Our geography, travel distances and mix of urban, suburban and rural communities mean our waste system should be designed around how Sudbury residents and businesses actually use it.
My proposal: Review collection limits and frequency, illegal dumping and sanitation trends, landfill accessibility, and ways to move residential and commercial traffic through our landfill system more efficiently — including examining a dedicated commercial scale or lane.
Sudbury needs a waste strategy designed for Sudbury.
- Whether the two-bag, every-other-week garbage limit is producing the intended results.
- Illegal dumping and roadside garbage trends before and after collection changes.
- Whether garbage is being stored improperly or accumulating between collection dates.
- Sanitation, neighbourhood cleanliness and pest/vermin concerns.
- Whether bag limits or collection frequency should be adjusted based on evidence.
- Continued support for recycling, Green Cart organics and responsible waste diversion.
- Whether landfill access can be made faster and more efficient for residents and businesses.
- A dedicated commercial scale, lane or processing system at the Sudbury landfill so commercial vehicles and residential vehicles do not unnecessarily delay one another.
- The economic cost of commercial vehicles and workers sitting in landfill lines.
- Whether different parts of Greater Sudbury require different approaches because of geography, distance and settlement patterns.
“Recycling only works when the garbage actually ends up where it belongs.”
“Sudbury needs a waste strategy designed for Sudbury.”
A Cleaner Sudbury — A Waste Strategy Built for Our Community
Recycling only works when the garbage actually ends up where it belongs.
Greater Sudbury's waste strategy should be judged by what is actually happening in our community. If garbage is accumulating on properties, along roads or being dumped in wooded areas, we need to determine why — and whether our current two-bag, every-other-week collection system is producing unintended consequences.
Greater Sudbury is not Toronto. Our geography, travel distances and mix of urban, suburban and rural communities mean our waste system should be designed around how Sudbury residents and businesses actually use it.
My proposal: Review collection limits and frequency, illegal dumping and sanitation trends, landfill accessibility, and ways to move residential and commercial traffic through our landfill system more efficiently — including examining a dedicated commercial scale or lane.
Sudbury needs a waste strategy designed for Sudbury.
- Whether the two-bag, every-other-week garbage limit is producing the intended results.
- Illegal dumping and roadside garbage trends before and after collection changes.
- Whether garbage is being stored improperly or accumulating between collection dates.
- Sanitation, neighbourhood cleanliness and pest/vermin concerns.
- Whether bag limits or collection frequency should be adjusted based on evidence.
- Continued support for recycling, Green Cart organics and responsible waste diversion.
- Whether landfill access can be made faster and more efficient for residents and businesses.
- A dedicated commercial scale, lane or processing system at the Sudbury landfill so commercial vehicles and residential vehicles do not unnecessarily delay one another.
- The economic cost of commercial vehicles and workers sitting in landfill lines.
- Whether different parts of Greater Sudbury require different approaches because of geography, distance and settlement patterns.
“Recycling only works when the garbage actually ends up where it belongs.”
“Sudbury needs a waste strategy designed for Sudbury.”
Growing Sudbury & Expanding the Tax Base
Control costs on one side while growing our community, investment and assessment base on the other.
Growing Sudbury & Expanding the Tax Base
Controlling costs is only half the equation. We also need to grow Sudbury.
Keeping property taxes manageable requires City Hall to spend taxpayers' money more effectively—but it also requires a growing tax base. More appropriate housing, new businesses, expansion of existing businesses and new investment can generate additional assessment and municipal revenue while creating jobs and opportunities in our community.
My goal is not growth at any cost. We should pursue development where the long-term economic and tax benefits justify the infrastructure and municipal services required to support it.
Spend smarter. Grow the tax base. Reduce the pressure on existing taxpayers.
Growing Sudbury & Expanding the Tax Base
Sudbury cannot control taxes through spending restraint alone. We also need to grow the number and value of homes, businesses, industries and investments contributing to our municipal tax base.
Controlling costs remains important, but there is another side to the equation: economic growth and assessment growth.
A growing tax base allows the cost of municipal services and infrastructure to be shared across a larger assessment base rather than continually asking the same taxpayers to absorb increasing costs.
Growth Has to Be Built
Economic growth does not happen simply because a municipality says it is “open for business.”
Greater Sudbury needs to ask what actually makes companies, developers and investors choose one community over another: available and serviced land; predictable development approvals; competitive municipal costs; reliable infrastructure; access to skilled workers; transportation and communications infrastructure; reliable and competitively priced energy; and a municipality willing to work with investors to solve problems.
Connect this directly to the separate “Building & Development Without Unnecessary Red Tape” proposal. Reducing unnecessary municipal barriers is one part of growing the tax base, but it is not the entire economic-development strategy.
Build on What Sudbury Already Does Well
Greater Sudbury already has a major advantage: our mining and industrial economy.
Instead of viewing mining only as an industry we already have, ask how we can use that existing industrial base to attract more of the economic activity surrounding it.
This can include additional mineral processing, mining technology, equipment manufacturing, research and innovation, advanced manufacturing, data centres and other industries that can benefit from Sudbury's existing industrial expertise and infrastructure.
The objective should be to capture more of the economic value associated with the resources, knowledge and industries already present in Northern Ontario.
Ward 8 — Neighbourhood Priorities
Local Problems. Measurable Results.
A Public Ward 8 Project Tracker
Residents deserve to know what is happening in their neighbourhood.
Too often, people hear that a road, drainage, sidewalk, traffic-safety or neighbourhood project is planned, but then have difficulty finding out where it stands, when it will happen, what it will cost or why it has been delayed.
I propose a simple, web-based Ward 8 Project Tracker where residents can follow significant neighbourhood projects from identification through completion.
For each major project, residents should be able to see information such as:
- the project and location;
- the problem it is intended to address;
- current phase — identified, planning, design, tender, construction or completed;
- approved or estimated cost;
- anticipated start and completion dates;
- whether the project is on schedule;
- significant changes in cost or scope; and
- when a project is delayed, why and what is holding it up.
The tracker should distinguish between approved projects and identified neighbourhood issues that have not yet been funded or scheduled.
That matters.
If a resident reports a recurring drainage problem or dangerous pedestrian location, the concern shouldn't simply disappear into City Hall.
Residents should be able to see:
Problem identified → assessed → priority established → funding required → scheduled → completed → result evaluated.
This isn't about creating another bureaucracy. Much of this information already exists within the municipal system.
It's about making City Hall more transparent and giving residents an easier way to hold both their councillor and the City accountable.
If City Hall says a project is coming, residents should be able to see where it stands.
Drainage & Flooding — Fix the Cause
Recurring drainage and flooding problems should be documented and mapped so we can identify patterns instead of repeatedly treating each occurrence as an isolated complaint.
Where problems recur, determine the cause.
- Is it maintenance?
- A blocked or inadequate ditch or culvert?
- Insufficient stormwater capacity?
- Grading?
- Aging infrastructure?
- Changes associated with development?
- Or an extreme weather event beyond what municipal infrastructure could reasonably handle?
Different causes require different solutions.
Significant problems should then be prioritized using evidence such as frequency, severity, public safety, property impacts, infrastructure condition, number of residents affected and the consequences of delaying corrective work.
The objective isn't simply to respond when flooding happens. It's to understand why it keeps happening and, where reasonably possible, prevent it from happening again.
Safer Streets & Pedestrian Connections
I support pedestrian crossings, traffic calming and other safety improvements where evidence demonstrates they are warranted.
Priorities should consider vehicle speeds, traffic volumes, collision information, pedestrian activity, schools, parks, seniors, transit stops, visibility, existing pedestrian connections and recurring concerns from residents.
And after an intervention is installed, measure the result.
If traffic calming is intended to reduce vehicle speeds, measure speeds afterward.
A safety project should have a reason for being installed and a way of determining whether it worked.
Winter Mobility
Living in Northern Ontario means accessibility cannot stop when the snow arrives.
Roads matter, but so do sidewalks, pedestrian crossings and transit stops—particularly for seniors, students, people with disabilities and residents who do not drive.
I want Ward 8's highest-priority winter pedestrian routes identified and municipal service expectations made clear.
Then measure whether those expectations are actually being met.
Where recurring problems occur, determine whether the issue is equipment, scheduling, route prioritization, weather conditions or something else before deciding what additional resources are required.
Again, the principle is:
Measure the problem first. Fix the process where possible. Spend more when the evidence demonstrates it is necessary.
Protect Ward 8's Community Voice and Community Assets
Ward 8 has residents and volunteers who have invested years of their time improving parks, neighbourhoods and community spaces.
As Greater Sudbury changes the way community organizations interact with the City, Ward 8 must retain an effective way for residents and neighbourhood groups to identify priorities, advance projects and access available municipal programs and funding.
As councillor, I would work to ensure that transition does not mean losing the local knowledge, volunteer energy and community voice that already exist.
I also want us to maintain the neighbourhood assets taxpayers have already paid for.
Parks, playgrounds, trails, roads, sidewalks and other infrastructure should not have to deteriorate to the point of expensive replacement before maintenance becomes a priority.
Sometimes the smartest infrastructure investment is not building something new.
It's protecting what we already own.
Local Problems. Measurable Results.
There will always be more requests than available municipal dollars.
That's why residents deserve to know not only what Council decides, but why one project was prioritized over another.
Use evidence.
Establish priorities.
Make the information public.
Track progress.
Measure the result.
And when something isn't happening when residents were told it would:
Tell them why.
That's the kind of transparency and accountability I want to bring to Ward 8.
Building & Development Without Unnecessary Red Tape
Don't Lower the Standard. Lower Unnecessary Barriers.
Greater Sudbury should be a place where people want to build, invest, expand businesses and create jobs.
When a developer or business considers investing in our community, the cost of construction matters.
Taxes matter.
Servicing matters.
But something else matters too:
Can they predict how long it will take to get an answer from City Hall?
Speed is not the objective by itself.
Predictability is.
Businesses can plan around a timeline.
They can't plan around uncertainty.
We Have Already Started Modernizing
Greater Sudbury has already taken important steps.
The City's PRONTO system allows planning applications and supporting documents to be submitted digitally and allows applicants to track the status of their applications.
The City also uses the Sudbury Planning Application Review Team—SPART—to bring different municipal departments into the pre-consultation process.
Those are positive improvements.
My proposal isn't to replace systems that are working.
It's to use those systems to measure where the remaining delays actually occur and continuously improve the process.
Measure the Approval Process
For significant development applications, City Hall should be able to answer some straightforward questions:
How long did the application take from submission to decision?
How much of that time was spent under City review? How much time was spent waiting for additional information from the applicant?
Which departments or outside agencies were required to review it? How long did the application remain at each stage?
How many times was additional information or a revision requested? What caused those requests?
Could different reviews have occurred at the same time rather than one after another?
Which requirements are imposed by provincial legislation or other authorities—and which are municipal requirements that Greater Sudbury actually has the power to change?
These aren't questions intended to blame City employees or developers. They're management questions.
If we don't measure where applications spend their time, we can't know where the system needs improvement.
Separate City Delays From Applicant Delays
This distinction is important. Not every delayed development application is City Hall's fault.
An applicant may submit incomplete information. Engineering drawings may require revision. A required study may be outstanding. Market conditions or financing may change. Outside agencies may also be involved.
That's why simply publishing the total number of days an application took doesn't tell us enough.
We should distinguish between time attributable to the municipal process and time attributable to the applicant or outside requirements.
Make Departments Work Together
Development applications can involve:
• Planning;
• Building Services;
• Engineering;
• Drainage;
• Transportation;
• Fire Protection; and
• Outside agencies.
Some of that review is absolutely necessary. But we should continually ask whether every part of that process has to happen sequentially.
Where reviews can legally and practically occur at the same time, they should. Where departments repeatedly request similar information, we should determine whether the submission process can be improved so applicants know what is required earlier.
Track the Projects That Never Get Built
I also want the City to pay attention to applications that don't reach the finish line. Not every abandoned development is caused by municipal policy.
Projects fail because of financing, construction costs, market conditions, servicing limitations and many other factors. But where possible, we should understand why projects are being withdrawn or abandoned.
If the same municipal barrier repeatedly appears, Council should know about it.
Report the Results
I would ask City staff to develop meaningful performance measures for development approvals and report them regularly to Council. Not simply how many applications were received.
I want to know: How long are they taking? Where are the delays occurring? Are we getting better or worse? What recurring obstacles are being identified? What has been changed as a result?
And where appropriate, establish clear service expectations so applicants have a reasonable understanding of what happens next and when.
A Cleaner Sudbury — A Waste Strategy Built for Our Community
Recycling only works when the garbage actually ends up where it belongs.
Greater Sudbury's waste strategy should be judged by what is actually happening in our community. If garbage is accumulating on properties, along roads or being dumped in wooded areas, we need to determine why — and whether our current two-bag, every-other-week collection system is producing unintended consequences.
Greater Sudbury is not Toronto. Our geography, travel distances and mix of urban, suburban and rural communities mean our waste system should be designed around how Sudbury residents and businesses actually use it.
My proposal: Review collection limits and frequency, illegal dumping and sanitation trends, landfill accessibility, and ways to move residential and commercial traffic through our landfill system more efficiently — including examining a dedicated commercial scale or lane.
Sudbury needs a waste strategy designed for Sudbury.
- Whether the two-bag, every-other-week garbage limit is producing the intended results.
- Illegal dumping and roadside garbage trends before and after collection changes.
- Whether garbage is being stored improperly or accumulating between collection dates.
- Sanitation, neighbourhood cleanliness and pest/vermin concerns.
- Whether bag limits or collection frequency should be adjusted based on evidence.
- Continued support for recycling, Green Cart organics and responsible waste diversion.
- Whether landfill access can be made faster and more efficient for residents and businesses.
- A dedicated commercial scale, lane or processing system at the Sudbury landfill so commercial vehicles and residential vehicles do not unnecessarily delay one another.
- The economic cost of commercial vehicles and workers sitting in landfill lines.
- Whether different parts of Greater Sudbury require different approaches because of geography, distance and settlement patterns.
“Recycling only works when the garbage actually ends up where it belongs.”
“Sudbury needs a waste strategy designed for Sudbury.”