Sudbury mayoral candidates weigh in on emergency services to outlying communities

With just one week before voters hit the polls, emergency services in Sudbury's outlying communities are becoming an election issue, and mayoral candidates are speaking up about the re-emergence of two thorny subjects: amalgamation and 2017's optimization report.

In 2017, city council saw a staff report the Fire and Paramedic Optimization Report that recommended the closure of 9 of the city's 24 fire stations, including Copper Cliff, Lively, Beaver Lake, Azilda, Vermillion Lake, Falconbridge, Val Therese, Coniston and Red Deer Lake.

Public outcry surrounding the closures eventually prompted council to leave the report off the table.

But it's still a sore spot for some residents in these smaller communities, and part of a larger trend that sees taxpayers feeling like they are paying more for fewer services.

Don Gravelle, a first-time candidate for mayor, told CBC News that most voters he meets while canvassing door-to-door on the outskirts mention 1999 the year of amalgamation as the tipping point.

"People aren't seeing any police whatsoever, and when they do, if they do need to call police, it takes a minimum of an hour to get out there," said Gravelle, who has been focusing his campaign in the outlying areas.

"And at that point, they don't feel safe."

In other areas, especially communities that could eventually lose their station, Gravelle said people are concerned about fire services.

"Throughout the external areas, the fire department, it's all volunteer and it's less than half- staffed," he said. "So we need to work on changing the hiring practices. Not the standards, just the practices to make sure that we can get everybody trained."

In Beaver Lake, for example, Ralph Prentice chairs the Beaver Lake Fire & Services Committee. It's been years of asking the city what the future holds for the community's fire hall, to little avail.

"They're saying [closing Beaver Lake] is financial, but we're on the other side of that saying we need something close to us here because of our fire insurance," Prentice said.

He added that new families are moving into the community, but it's unclear if newly constructed homes can be fully insured without proximity to a fire station.

In Beaver Lake, the fire station was staffed by volunteer firefighters. But dwindling numbers of active volunteers has also raised concerns about the viability of that particular location.

"I know we're on the outskirts of the Greater City of Sudbury, but we haven't had an active hall for a while, and they're telling us that we don't have enough volunteers.
Prentice said.

"Well, if you haven't got an active hall, then you haven't got people volunteering."

In Capreol, Randy Crisp, a former RCMP officer and outgoing chair of the Capreol Community Action Network (CAN), said the shrinking police budget has been a "craw in his side."

"If you don't have the money, you don't have the personnel," Crisp said. "Therefore you don't have people that can go out and patrol in the streets, giving people a sense of security by seeing them drive up and down your back alleyor, stopping into the local restaurant like they used to, back in the day."

Although the community has a good relationship with Sudbury's police service, prior to amalgamation, Crisp said, Capreol had its own police that were more familiar with the community's nuances.

"You saw them more often," Crisp said. "But now it's based on the call and the need. It's incident driven, basically and if you don't have any incidents, you don't get a whole lot of policing."

"I think the people in the communities are very upset about that."

Candidate Mila Wong said she'd like to see services police and fire combined in those communities.

"I want people to get value for what they're paying for," Wong said, adding that under her watch, police and fire services would fall under command of the same "chief of emergency services.

"These people who are now firefighters in Valley east or or Capreol will also be the police presence in that community, because right now there's no police presence.

"Their roles will be different, they will be into community supports, and a presence."