SUDBURY - Highway safety, supportive housing, health care and policing were key themes during this week’s Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) conference in North Bay.
So described Mayor Paul Lefebvre upon arriving back in Sudbury on Wednesday.
“The theme we’re hearing a lot from our friends in Northern Ontario is highway safety,” he told Sudbury.com of the conference, which saw municipal leaders from throughout the region gather to prioritize points of advocacy.
“As we develop as a main hub of mining, that means a lot of folks live in Sudbury, but they might also live in mining camps throughout the north, and they travel by road. Safety is in all of our interests.”
A key point of local advocacy is with the four-laning of Highway 69, Lefebvre said, adding that the province has clarified that they’re working on getting it done.
“We’re waiting for the next steps on that one,” he said.
Another point on the highways front is with the province’s pledge to three-lane Highway 11 from Temiskaming Shores to Cochrane — a pilot project which Lefebvre said might end up extending to other highways throughout Northern Ontario to help make things safer.
“A lot of folks from Sudbury are on the road in Northern Ontario all the time, so the more we can advocate for safer roads, wider roads, passing lanes, the better.”
During this week’s conference, a FONOM resolution called for the province to create a deputy or associate minister responsible for Northern Ontario transportation.
On the health-care front, advocacy is about attracting physicians and upping capacity, and when it comes to policing, FONOM is advocating for provincial funding for municipalities.
Supportive housing has been a topic of discussion Lefebvre has been striving to further for years, including his appearance at last year’s FONOM conference, which was held in Sudbury. At that conference, Mental Health and Addictions Associate Minister Michael Tibollo told Sudbury.com that he was “110-per-cent” on board with Greater Sudbury’s work to build a 40-unit transitional housing complex on Lorraine Street.
Since that time, this provincial government support translated into funding, with the province committing $6.3 million annually for three years in HART Hub funding for homelessness and addictions efforts in Greater Sudbury.
These funds will go toward programming at the transitional housing complex, upping on-site services to 24/7, plus the creation of an as-yet undefined downtown project.
The transitional housing complex will open soon, and Lefebvre said partner organizations are well on their way to establishing a downtown program, which he’ll be receiving an update on soon.
Meanwhile, although a step in the right direction, he said the programming is not enough.
The chronically homeless people who take residence at the transitional housing complex aren’t just tenants, he clarified, “they’re in the program, and if they fail the program we have to remove them,” which points to a clear gap in services.
“If they fail from the program, what do we do with these individuals, and if they graduate from this program, where do they go?” he said. “They can’t go back to where they were before, or we’re just creating a cycle. We’re cycling them through the system, and we’ve just added another layer to the cycle.”
Although such projects as an affordable housing complex under construction on Pearl Street will offer places for transitional housing graduates to move on to, Lefebvre said it’s not enough.
“We have to continue to focus on supportive housing,” the mayor said, pointing to this as an ongoing point of advocacy, since any type of non-market rental units needs government support to make happen, and the municipality can’t do it alone.
That established, Lefebvre said he’s optimistic that the provincial budget being tabled on May 15 will address the need for housing, and that the federal government would also begin announcing pots of funding municipalities can apply for, per commitments made during the recent election.
“We’re going to start seeing opportunities,” Lefebvre said. “I’m already working with the team here to see how we can work with our partners to advocate together to get that funding to assist the members of our community as well.”
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.