Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Saturday morning.
Hazardous waste project explained at Coniston community meeting
Between clarifying past mistakes and addressing traffic concerns, Green For Life Environmental representatives clarified on Thursday what they’re doing at the Coniston Industrial Park. The waste management company hosted a more than two-hour meeting at the Colonial Sports Bar in Coniston, much of which spent answering questions. Midway through the meeting, Ron Vaillancourt, born and raised in Coniston, elicited applause from the packed audience when he cautioned GFL Environmental Inc. staff, “Dot your i’s and cross your t’s,” adding, “You’ll never, ever, pull anything past the people of Coniston.” Vaillancourt shared that he worked at the since-shuttered Coniston smelter back in the day, at the same site of the present-day Coniston Industrial Park, and that he has seen firsthand how badly things can go when the environment is mistreated. Harkening back to the pre-regreening days of Greater Sudbury’s barren landscape, he told GFL staff, “We know what can happen when things go wrong.”
Sudbury health board addresses deadly Northern Ontario fungal outbreak
As the board of health for Public Health Sudbury and Districts (PHSD) gathered for their first meeting of 2026 it was the details of a northern-specific fungal infection, one that killed five people in 2021 in Constance Lake First Nation, that formed the majority of the agenda. Blastomycosis is a lung infection caused by the fungus blastomyces dermatitidis and though rare, the fungus has become an almost household name after a 2025 inquest into the deaths of Luke Moore, 43, Lorraine Shagansh, 47, Lizzie Sutherland, 47, Mark Ferris, 67, Douglas Taylor, 60. Held over four weeks, from Oct. 15 to Nov. 19, the inquest included 79 recommendations for the parties involved, and it was on these recommendations that the recently-appointed associate medical officer of health, Dr. Emily Groot, centred her presentation. Groot was at one time a regional supervising coroner for Northeastern Ontario and is also the program director with the Public Health and Preventive Medicine Residency program at NOSM University. The recommendations circled the challenges that arose in treating those affected, “challenges of communication, collaboration, timeliness and information sharing that impacted the community and their ability to access care,” said Groot.
Opinion: West, Gélinas pen open letter on Lifelabs lab closure
As MPPs for the ridings of Sudbury and Nickel Belt, we are writing to you today urging you to take action and keep Sudbury’s LifeLabs laboratory open. This testing facility plays an essential role in Northern Ontario’s health-care system. Minister, you know how important lab work is to get different health issues diagnosed, a treatment plan in place, monitor chronic illness or treat acute diseases and more. The closure of this laboratory will affect thousands of people across Northern Ontario, as the lab provides analysis for constituents in Sudbury, Nickel Belt, North Bay, Timmins and many rural communities. Furthermore, the shutdown of this laboratory will significantly prolong the time required for individuals and their primary care providers to receive essential lab results. With frequent highway closures during the harsh Northern Ontario winters, there is a real risk that samples could become unusable, necessitating retesting. This situation could lead to unnecessary delays in diagnosis and treatment, ultimately jeopardizing patient health outcomes. Prolonged wait times might also render test results unreliable, inaccurate or unattainable, posing the danger of serious infections being overlooked or nonexistent disorders being misdiagnosed.
Majority of city council silent on last week’s terminations
The city’s elected officials are largely mum on last week’s decision by city CAO Shari Lichterman to terminate the employment of five city managers and one junior staff member. Sudbury.com reached out to 12 of 13 members of city council by email on Monday, and by mid-day Wednesday had not received responses from eight of them. The 13th city council member we did not reach out to is Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc, whose unsolicited concerns regarding this matter spurred us to reach out to the balance of city council. Of the six members who did respond, three declined to comment. Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh said city council members “cannot and should not discuss personnel matters publicly,” which is a sentiment both Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin and Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre echoed.
Chelmsford woman guilty of attack on neighbour gets 4.5 years
A Chelmsford woman charged with aggravated assault after an attack on her neighbour has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison. Jessie Brave was arrested Nov. 22, 2024 after stabbing her neighbour, Josee Rouleau, in a violent attack that left Rouleau with what the judge on the sentencing described as “permanent disability.” Ontario Court Justice Pierre Bradley read his decision orally to the court on Jan. 15. It was a balance, he said, between what was best for justice, and what was best for Brave, who not only faces mental health struggles, he said, but also violence and suicidal ideations while at the jail, which was also routinely on lockdown and significantly overcrowded, said Bradley. The judge in the case, Ontario Court Justice Pierre Bradley, read an oral decision to the court on Jan. 15.
People You Should Know About: Raymond Landry finds homes for the homeless
Meet Raymond Landry. He does a job he wishes wasn't necessary. The co-ordinator of the Homelessness Network in Sudbury, he finds homes for the homeless, leading a team of 24 workers from various disciplines and agencies to address this scourge. Finding safe, secure and affordable housing for individuals is the first step to tackle related social issues such as addiction, mental illness and crime. Few people are as qualified for this Herculean task as Landry. After attending Rayside High School, a French-language secondary school, Landry enrolled in an electronics engineering program, then quickly changed his course of studies to social services, "because I was more of a people person than a numbers person," he said.
