8 years ago
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sudbury ·
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It was undoubtedly only a matter of time that Uber would bring its controversy to the doorstep of the Greater Sudbury Area. The city has said that it is at least willing to consider regulating Uber, but will need to create a new bylaw to do so … it is a luxury that other municipalities in Ontario and Canada have not afforded the U.S. based ride-sharing firm.
Other cities have shown that exploring the idea of a new bylaw is easier said than done. Edmonton successfully created a bylaw that Uber agreed with, only for an auto insurance problem to scupper the company’s legalization in the Albertan city. Other cities have seen Uber pull out of markets in protest at what the company perceives as unfair regulations, Calgary being the most notable.
So, Greater Sudbury has a balancing act to perform, but it is one the city says it is willing to perform. The local government has said it is going to try and create a balanced bylaw, one that can accommodate Uber without alienating the traditional taxi service, which sees Uber as an unfair competitor.
The new vehicles-for-hire bylaw is still in its infancy and the council is sending out a report to assess a way to tread a line towards pleasing all parties.
“The recommendation in this report responds to the motion by council to consider regulations that find a middle ground which allows Uber to serve as broker for its drivers and allows the conventional taxi industry to function more like Uber,” the report says.
“This includes restricting ride share drivers to app-based activity while allowing conventional taxi’s the flexibility to use traditional dispatch, hail and taxi stand methods in addition to an app similar to the ride share sector.”
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8 years ago
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sudbury ·
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Greater Sudbury is at the center of the largest infrastructure project ever awarded in Ontario as Sudbury Liberal MPP Glenn Thibeault announced on Monday morning the Highway 69 project. The project will involve the four-laning of 14 kilometers of Highway 69 from north of Highway 607 to North of Highway 522, the work is budgeted for $173.4 million.
The project will be the largest infrastructure operation ever seen in the province and will involve the construction of 10 bridges and two exchanges, including four major structures over the Pickerel and French rivers. J & P Leveque Brothers Haulage Ltd. of Bancroft will helm the project and will take five years to complete the work.
Another project linking Highways 64 and 607 will open later in 2016 and it will eventually be linked to the completed Highway 69 project announced today. The idea is to create a four lane ribbon of road that will connect Greater Sudbury with Toronto, and Thibeault said at the OPP headquarters that negotiations to complete other sections of the route are still ongoing. After the completion of this project there will still be 68 kilometers of Highway 69 that need to be expanded to four lane roads.
“We’re getting closer and closer, each and every day, every time a shovel goes in the ground,” said Thibeault.
The Highway 69 project announced on Monday will begin this winter, with workers clearing land in preparation for construction to start in the spring. The provincial government promised to complete the entire Highway 69 route between Sudbury and Toronto by 2021 and says it remains on course to meet its deadline.
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8 years ago
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sudbury ·
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Uber’s rise in Canada caught governing and regulatory bodies off guard and there has been a scramble to sort out the mess. Greater Sudbury is being urged to avoid such confusion by preparing in advance for the UberX service to arrive in the city.
Ward 9 councilor Deb McIntosh thinks the situation seen in other jurisdictions can be avoided and is pressing Greater Sudbury to prepare now. She has tabled a motion that would see the city’s current taxi bylaws assessed to gauge how the arrival of Uber in the Sudbury area could affect the city. She has called for the city staff to report back in spring with their findings.
Over the last year Uber has risen in Canada’s major cities, most of the time receiving a less than warm welcome when doing so. Regulators were caught off guard and the result sees Uber Canada operating without any regulatory license, its drivers effectively operating illegally and without sufficient auto insurance.
While the country is slowly moving towards accepting Uber, it is clear that when the ride-sharing service enters a new market it brings plenty of discord with it. McIntosh thinks this could be avoided in Great Sudbury.
“I’m hoping to avoid what’s happening in other cities,” McIntosh told the Sudbury Star. “That was the instigation for me to put this motion forward, to prevent conflict. I wanted us to be proactive rather than reactive and just waiting until it gets here.”
Uber’s expansion in Canada has been rapid and the service is currently available in 12 cities around the country, with a focus in Ontario. The U.S. based company said there are no plans to expand to Sudbury, but it seems covering the entire province is a logical goal.
“While we don’t have specific launch plans for Sudbury at the moment, I can tell you that Uber aims to expand to communities across Canada and we’re always looking at what’s next,” said Susie Heath, an Uber representative.
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8 years ago
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sudbury ·
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A proposal to raise the water rate in Greater Sudbury has had a negative welcome according to an online poll conducted by the Sudbury Star. The plan set in motion earlier year is to raise the water rate in the city by a sizeable 7.4 per cent, but residents are not exactly in support of the idea.
The decision to raise the price of the city’s water rates was reached by the city council on Jan. 5th, with fees set to raise through the year. On average Greater Sudbury residents will have to fork out $71 per year for their water on top of their current rate.
The poll was conducted among 457 readers of the local news outlet and showed that the majority think the planned raise is simply too much to pay. Asked “Is a 7.4 per cent hike in Sudbury’s water rates too high?” a conclusive number of 88 per cent said yes.
53 per cent, which amounted to 53 readers of the Sudbury Star, found the rate hike acceptable, while 2 per cent (8 readers) answered “not sure”.
The local government says that the increase in rate will add some $600,000 to the water-wastewater capital budget, allowing for the improved maintenance current services.
You can check out the full poll results and some reader explanations as to why they think the proposed hike in water rates are too high by visiting the source link for the Sudbury Star below.
SOURCE
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8 years ago
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sudbury ·
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Workers in the Greater Sudbury area felt the economic pinch during 2015 as Statistics Canada announced on Friday that the city lost some 5,000 jobs (a 2.4 per cent rise) through last year.
It was a worrying close to 2015 for Sudbury too, with unemployment rising for the sixth consecutive month, moving to 8.4 per cent from 8.2 per cent in November. It will not make happy reading for workers to see that Sudbury is currently an exception in Ontario at the moment as the province was the only one in Canada to see jobs growth in December. Province wide there were 35,000 new jobs, with unemployment falling to 6.7 per cent, a 0.2 per cent decline, but in Sudbury it is a different story.
Between November and December 900 jobs were lost in Sudbury. Statistics Canada announced monthly figures showing 79,300 people were working full or part-time in the Greater Sudbury metropolitan area (CMA) during December, down from 80,200 in November. The number of Greater Sudbury’s workforce also fell to 86,600, down from 87,400.
Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce released its Ontario Economic Update 2016 in December, acknowledging in the process that 2015 had been a rocky year in terms of employment levels. However, the Chamber is confident that growth will arrive this year, although it is predicted be slow:
“Over the next two years, Sudbury can expect roughly 0.5 per cent employment growth per year, with government services, retail-wholesale trade, and manufacturing each contributing,” the chamber said in a release. “The unemployment rate will improve slightly over the next two years as population outflows are offset by a modest rise in the labour force participation rate.”
“Greater Sudbury experienced a difficult year in 2015, but the next two years are projected to be more positive,” Karen Hourtovenko, chair of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, said in a release. “I am hopeful for the future of Greater Sudbury. Despite being a difficult year, we also saw examples of great local success stories. The best way to drive economic growth moving forward will be to make strategic investments in infrastructure, entrepreneurship, innovation and technology.”
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8 years ago
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sudbury ·
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Law enforcement in Sudbury is continuing to warn of the dangers of the road for pedestrians, stressing ways for people on foot to stay safe. Greater Sudbury Police is on a yearlong initiative to raise safety awareness in a bid to reduce the number of collisions on the roads and the amounts of accidents involving vehicles and pedestrians.
A rise in incidents over the Christmas period spurred the police force into action and the result is a yearlong program to address the issue. The Holiday Season always sees a high rise in road accidents and other traffic related incidents, but the Christmas period in Sudbury in 2015 was especially alarming for emergency services.
“Pedestrian collisions are preventable,” reads a statement from the police service. “Throughout this initiative and for the remainder of the year, the Greater Sudbury Police Service will provide safety information to drivers, motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.”
Community partnerships will see the Greater Sudbury Police engage the public with awareness programs and meetings, while data analysis will help law enforcement identify problem areas in the cities, such as intersections where the most incidents occur. The police say they “work collaboratively to make improvements through education, engineering and enforcement.”
A Traffic Management Unit is constantly analyzing data on collisions in the Greater Sudbury area, and is looking into way to keep motorists and pedestrians safe. Intersections are hotspots, with data in 2014 and 2015 showing that most incidents take place at intersections. Pedestrian collisions are on the rise, but the data reveals that the majority of cases shows that drivers are typically at fault.
“Greater Sudbury Police officers will continue to enforce road-related laws by enforcing speed limits and watching for impaired and or distracted drivers,” the police service states.
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