Madame Chairperson, fellow Councillors, Ladies and Gentlemen.
 
I want to thank you all for coming this afternoon and I want to thank the Chamber for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today.  I want to also express my appreciation to George Revie and his team at Persona Communications, who are here today to tape this event for broadcast this Thursday evening.  As you know, Persona also broadcasts City Council meetings, and their efforts make it easier for citizens to understand our city and how it operates.
 
As I stand here today, I am mindful of the fact that I am blessed to be Mayor of this wonderful city, and doubly blessed to be Mayor at such an exciting time in the history of our community, our country, and our world.
  
Ten days ago, we celebrated a birthday to mark the 125th Anniversary of the founding of the community we now know as Greater Sudbury.  It was a tremendous event!

I reflected that day upon how far we have come as a community and what a debt we owe to our forbearers.  In our community’s history, thirty-three men – and one woman – have served as Mayor of Sudbury or Greater Sudbury, and many, many more have served as mayor or reeve of our constituent municipalities.  

Our 125 year relationship with this land is but a blip in the history of our aboriginal cousins.  It is important that we acknowledge the strong relationships we have with our aboriginal community and the strong ties we all share with the land we live on.  Aboriginal peoples are the fastest growing segment of our community and it is fitting that one of the signature events in this anniversary year was the first ever Northern Aboriginal Festival.  I congratulate the organizers and our partners at Laurentian University and Cambrian College.

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The trillion-dollar Sudbury Basin is the richest mining district in North America and among the top ten most strategically important in the world. Sudbury is located in the Canadian province of Ontario, whose annual 10.5 billion dollar mineral sector is the largest in the country. About half of Ontario’s mining activity takes place in the Sudbury Basin.

In 2008, Sudbury is celebrating its 125th anniversary. For over a hundred years, the courageous and innovative men and women of this community have successfully produced the nickel, copper, PGMs and other metals that the modern industrialized world needed. Most industry experts will feel there is at least another 100 years of production in this amazing mining camp.

Mayor John Rodriguez considers himself to be a man of the people. 

John was born in Guyana, South America, where he received his elementary and high school education.  John emigrated to Canada in 1956 and attended Teachers’ College in Toronto and began his teaching career in St. Catharines, Ontario.  He and his wife, Bertilla, moved to Coniston in 1962 where John was appointed Principal of St. Paul School.   John graduated from Laurentian University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and Spanish Literature.  During this time, he was also active with the Provincial Catholic Teachers’ Union having served as its President in 1968, and was a member of the Board of Governors of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation.

John was elected to the House of Commons as NDP MP for Nickel Belt in October of  1972 and was re-elected in 1974, 1979, 1984 and 1988.  John was an active MP both in and out of the House of Commons where he served on many committees over his 18 year career.

John entered the realm of municipal politics when he was elected to the Coniston Town Council in 1971 before it became part of Nickel Centre.  John’s second foray into local politics came in November 2006 when he was elected Mayor of Greater Sudbury.  He came into office with the belief that our municipal staff are our city’s greatest asset.  Now, after spending time with hundreds of employees at their workplaces, his belief has become a conviction.   To acknowledge the importance of our staff’s contribution, Council has designated 2007 as the ‘Year of the Employee”.

As part of Mayor Rodriguez’s Inaugural Address, he committed to and has established four advisory panels in his first 100 days of office.  These panels include:  Municipal Mining Revenues, Performing Arts Centre, Health Cluster and Multi-Sport Recreational Complex.
       
John and his wife, Bertilla, have five sons and five grand children.  In his leisure time he enjoys reading, gardening and horses and is a patron of the local arts.

John feels privileged to represent the citizens of Greater Sudbury as their Mayor.  He is proud of this community and looks forward to an unprecedented period of growth and vitality.

With the First World War, in Canada there was considerable agitation over what was coined the “Nickel Question.” One of the problems that arose pertained to the refining of nickel in Canada. For some, it may have been regretted that our nickel industry was controlled by foreigners. However, for a variety of reasons, it was argued that the refining at least should occur in Canada.

By the outbreak of The War, the necessity of nickel for modern warfare was established. Nickel was necessary for automobile parts, cartridge cases, bullet coverings, heavy ordnance, rifle barrels and armour-plate. Of course, its value was recognized by all of the then major powers. Canada had the new materials that in 1890, were mined by two foreign-owned companies. Yet, if the refining continued outside Canada, this country and the province of Ontario had no control over the ultimate destination of “the product”.  For some, this was not satisfactory.

Evidence suggests that on numerous occasions federal and provincial governments had examined and indeed promoted the refining of nickel in Canada. In 1886, a committee of the House of Commons refused to report a bill authorizing the Canadian Copper Company (C.C. Co.) of Ohio to operate in Canada until its promoters indicated that they would build a refinery.

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