Imagine a City

[Check Against Delivery]

June 17, 2009

Madam President, Mister Chair, Colleagues and Friends

I am pleased and honoured to be here this afternoon to present the 2010 Mayor’s State of the City address.  I want to express my appreciation to the Chamber and its members for providing this forum and I want to thank the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation both for sponsoring this event again this year and for their ongoing contribution to this city.  Since its opening in 1999, the Slots at Sudbury Downs have transferred more than $21 million to their host municipality.

This is my fourth State of the City address and it is an important annual opportunity to take stock of where we have been and where we hope to go as a municipality and as a community.  The past twelve months have been challenging in many ways but have once again demonstrated our community’s resiliency and our unrelenting collective commitment to build for the future.

As I prepared these remarks, I was reminded of a phrase from Michael Ondaatje’s iconic novel about the history of Toronto, In the Skin of a Lion.

‘Before the real city could be seen,” Ondaatje wrote, ‘it had to be imagined.” 

As you came in today, you will have noticed the displays of architectural concepts around the room.  This is where imagination comes to life and a city is born.  Of course imagination and city-building are pursuits not limited to those in the architecture profession, and this community has been truly blessed by those who imagined the city such that we can see it today.  Read the rest of this entry »

Building a Greater Community

[Check Against Delivery]

June 23, 2009

Mister Chair-elect, Madame President, Chamber Members and Fellow Citizens,

C’est pour moi un honneur et un privilège d’être ici cet après-midi pour prononcer le discours du maire sur l’état de la Ville de 2009. Je tiens à exprimer ma reconnaissance à la Chambre – à son président élu Steve Irwin et à sa présidente Debbi Nicholson.

I want to also thank our sponsors at OLG – Todd Hilton, Manager of the Slots at Sudbury Downs and Kelly McDougald, CEO of Ontario Lottery and Gaming – for helping to provide this opportunity.  It is a challenge to condense the happenings of this dynamic city into a six hour speech, but I will do my best.

Let me begin by acknowledging the presence of our local MPP and Minister of Community Safety, Rick Bartolucci and his wife Maureen.  Also with us this afternoon is former Mayor David Courtemanche, as well another former Mayor and a personal friend, Jim Gordon and his wife Donna. I am also pleased to welcome back my friend from the City of North Bay, Mayor Vic Fedeli and wife Patty.

Several of my fellow councilors are here today.  Although the Mayor is often seen as the face of Council, I am just one voice amongst 13 and the success we have had has been a result of the willingness of all individual members to work as a team.

Also integral to our city’s accomplishments is our municipal staff, led by our new Chief Administrative Officer, Doug Nadorozny. These people provide dedicated, professional service to Council and to the citizens of Greater Sudbury and I am pleased to publicly thank them for their efforts. Read the rest of this entry »

This statement was released on February 11, 2009

I want to take an opportunity this evening to speak directly to the people of Greater Sudbury.

As Mayor of this great city, both here at home and wherever I have had the opportunity to travel, I have always said that, “if you want to know anything about mining, you come to Sudbury!”  Mining built this community and, though we have made strong advances in economic diversification, mining remains at the heart of our local economy.

On Monday of this week, 686 of our fellow citizens lost their jobs with Xstrata Nickel, and we were reminded once again that being the Mining Capital of Canada means not only benefiting from the boom cycles in metal prices, it means dealing with the bust cycles as well.  This week’s news is a devastating blow to this city, and it will have ripple effects across many sectors.  Just six to twelve months ago, these same employees were spreading the good fortune of their nickel bonuses throughout the community, creating strong demand for housing, cars, recreational equipment and entertainment.  Now their financial pain will also be strongly felt.

Monday’s announcement was not entirely unexpected.  Read the rest of this entry »

As we celebrate our community’s 125th anniversary, it is an appropriate time to recognize the enormous contributions of working people to the success of Greater Sudbury.

From the first rough-necked navvies who laid down the tracks of the Canadian Pacific Railway around Ramsey Lake … to the Franco-Ontarien lumberjacks who wintered along the Spanish, the Vermilion and the Wahnapitae rivers and lakes … to the hardworking miners who came from all points of the globe to pull the nickel and copper from beneath our feet, this city has been built on the wealth created by hardworking men and women who were proud to call Sudbury home.

As these workers organized, their unions became active in addressing conditions, both in the workplace and across the community.

Greater Sudbury is seen as a world leader in industrial health and safety and in environmental restoration and organized labour has played a role in both of these important areas.

Joint health and safety committees have become a standard part of operations in local companies and we have seen dramatic declines in the rate and the severity of industrial injuries and diseases in this city.

The success in this area has made us a model for industrial health and creating a centre of excellence in occupational health and safety.

Working men and women continue to play a major role in enhancing our community. Support for the United Way, the Food Bank and dozens of other worthy community initiatives demonstrates the labour community’s commitment to helping those in need.

Contributions to education and health institutions ensure these facilities continue to provide the best opportunities and care for our citizens.

This Labour Day, take a moment to think of those whose sweat has provided us with the life we have today.

Take a moment also to think of how much working people contribute to our city each and every day.

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Last month, we celebrated Mining Week in Greater Sudbury, an annual event designed to promote the importance of the mining and processing industry to the community at large.  This event is useful and appropriate but we need to remind ourselves every week about the role that mining and processing plays in our local economy and the role that our city plays in this vital global industry.

The people of this community can take great pride in the successes of the economic diversification strategies that were launched a quarter century ago.  The dreams of the 1970s and 1980s are now reality and we are a significant government services centre, an award-winning tourism destination, a centre for education and health, and the leading service and retail centre in Northern Ontario.

At the same time, however, our mining, processing and mining supply and services sectors are driving the city’s economy to new heights and creating significant wealth for our province and for Canada as a whole.  As a city, it is critical that we understand and support this vital industry and that we develop strategies to ensure that we remain competitive on a global basis, well into the future.

Read the rest of this entry »