Sudbury - Downtown Safety, Taxes & EMS: Derek Young’s Plan for Ward 10

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Hello, everyone. It's Eric here from Love the North, and the municipal election's coming up very soon. This is an open call for all candidates, whether you're running for mayor or whether you're running to be a councillor in one of your wards in your community. Here, Derek Young is here with us, and he's running from Ward 10? Yes, correct. Okay, Ward 10. Derek, why are you running? Well, I've been involved in our community for well over 20 years. Yeah. This is my third campaign for city councillor. So, I bring, like, 20 years of community building to our city. And I really do love our community and care about it. And I just want to see a much better sub-bree, and also want to build on the forward momentum that's happening in our city as well. Okay. So, you've been down the election, or you've been down the canvassing road before? Oh, yeah. So, it's not new to you? No, no, it's not new. And, you know, like, when I first ran,(...) I'd actually ran in Ward 12. And every campaign that I ran, I ran with purpose. Okay. So, Ward 12 was an area that I drew up in at the time. Yeah. And it was an open ward when Dr. Delariba had retired. Yeah. And then from that point, you know, it was a good campaign. You know, I think I finished third out of four or five other candidates. Yeah. So, not bad. You know, it was a good first go, and I was only 28 years old at the time. And it was suggesting, like, get involved in committees and(...) stuff like that. So, one of the first boards that I joined was the(...) Sub-Bree Arts Council. And then(...) that led to a position becoming open at the downtown Sub-Bree BIA. Yeah. And at the time, our Arts Council office was downtown. So,(...) that kind of started my community involvement, getting involved in different boards. And then from there,(...) it led to experiences with Theodore Cambrian and helping to also establish the downtown indie cinema. Okay. So, Ward 10. Where is Ward 10? So, Ward 10, basically, if you think about the TD Bank building on Elm Street. Yeah, right downtown? Yeah. So, that side of Elm Street goes all the way up Lorne,(...) past the beer store. Yeah. All the way down Regent Street to the Four Corners, the Loyola Loches Road. And(...) then it incorporates part of, like, the area around All Nations Church, Lake Ramsey. Does it cover Science North? Yes. Okay. So,(...) it's a huge war. It's about 21 square kilometers. How many people live there? 16,000. Oh, I think you've taken the cake so far. 16K out of everyone that's come through. Yeah, and so it's a very diverse neighborhood as well. Yeah. So, you have the majority of the downtown that's represented by Ward 10. Okay. Because it's just that small strip opposite the Rainbow Center.

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So, that side of Elm Street would all be part of Ward 12. Okay. But basically the core of the downtown and the majority of it is part of Ward 10. And then(...) Bell Park, Kingsmount, Wembley, Riverside, all of that area is part of the Ward as well. So, I would assume you're out there door knocking? Yes. I started door knocking and it's just been really good so far. You know, we're hearing a lot from the neighbors around public safety and community well-being are some of their top concerns. And of course, when it comes to downtown homelessness and some of the(...) challenges that are happening downtown, that's now sort of migrating out into some of those other neighborhoods like the Bell Park area. Yeah. Okay. So, how do(...) you see a way of cleaning up the downtown, the homelessness, the drug use, maybe energy court? How would you(...) try to sway the others to(...) clean it up? Because it is a topic of... everyone talks about it. Absolutely. And it's not an(...) issue that is unique to downtown Sudbury. It's a North American phenomenon that's been compounded since the pandemic.

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But my campaign really focuses on what I'm calling Plan 180,(...) which is a 180-day plan to start turning Sudbury around. And in that campaign, we're talking about Proud to Call Home.(...) That's my main platform around the homelessness. And in that platform, we want to do very simple things. We don't want to reinvent the wheel. We already have a roadmap to end homelessness, although not perfect.

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That plan is in place and it is to get to net zero homeless by 2030, which is only three years away.

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So, we want to be able to reassess that plan, what's working, what's not working. And there will be some recommendations coming forward in the very early term of the next council. And then, obviously, downtown clean streets is a part of that. So,(...) my plan is also calling for dedicated crews to our downtown. Yes, we have public work screws in our downtown, but they're not dedicated. And the sidewalks and the streets get swept once on Sunday night, and that's it. So, if you think about downtown as an outdoor shopping mall, cleanliness, vagrancy, social disorder, wouldn't be tolerated in a shopping mall, and it shouldn't be tolerated in our core either.(...) But it's important that we work with our social agencies, like the Go Give Project, Canadian Mental Health Association. There is a lot of good work that is happening in the downtown. And in the city as a whole, like lots of forward momentum with new constructions, housing builds. And that's some of the stuff that we want to capitalize on. And the other part to this, I'm proud to call home, is that(...) we want to establish a new program, which is called(...) our Changing Hearts program. And basically, it's modeled after the Change for the Better campaign in Winnipeg, as well as(...) taking from the best practices of the welcoming streets program that was run by downtown Sudbury. And basically, what it would do is provide opportunities for(...) vulnerable(...) communities that are reliant on panhandling, to have jobs and life skills, training, so that we can start addressing some of the panhandling issues too. But everything downtown has to be done with a compassionate approach.

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But we also need to balance that out, because(...) public safety and the economy go hand in hand. And so what's happening in our downtown, it's also having a negative impact on the businesses in the downtown, and people wanting to come downtown. So it's a complicated issue,(...) but it is something that public safety is about.(...) So I know you mentioned, was it Winnipeg? Yes.(...) How's the program working there? So you see really good success stories. So part of this program was that it could be as simple as

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allowing a street person an opportunity to have a job in the winter, where their only job is to do snow removal and to keep the sidewalks clean and shovel up the parking meters.

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But what it's doing is it's giving them skills, it's giving them employment opportunities and training. And then from there,(...) we've seen one example where there was an individual who was on this program, he's now housed. He's living in his own apartment, cooking his own meals, simple things that we take for granted every day that he's like, wow. He can do it. I live in my own apartment, I can cook my own meals, and there's hope, right? So(...) those are some of these success stories that we're hearing. Even a couple weeks ago when it was(...) overdose awareness day,(...) we heard a story from a fellow from Wirkele, Mekong.

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And he had come to Sudbury and(...) he(...) was down on his luck and he wanted help. And he was lying on the floor at Rizul(...) and just banging on the floor and he wanted to help you. And finally, he was able to get the help that he needed.(...) They sent him to a treatment program in North Bay through the CMHA. He was there for three months and he'd been sober now for at least four months and returned to Wirkele, Mekong to see his kids who he hadn't seen in ten months. And so those are some of the success stories that we heard that are coming out of the good work that's being done by organizations like the Go Good Project. These are good people and they're beautiful souls, but we just need(...) to balance it and take care of these people with dignity and compassion. Sounds like they just need a little, not a hand out, but a hand up. Absolutely.

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And that's what I'm hearing, even from organizations like Chicago McQuay,(...) they have a mobile outreach team. And twice a week on Wednesdays and Thursdays they're outside the Elgar Street Mission and there's a nurse on site. So they go to the mobile clinic and some of the street people can get basic care for open wounds, sores on their feet, that type of thing. And then they also can meet with an elder, so there's that cultural component as well. And(...) one of the elders said to me, "We have the zero tolerance.(...) People respect us because we respect them. And if they want the service,(...) we'll give the service to them." Yeah, it's a two-way street. Absolutely. And those that generally want the help are very appreciative of it. Okay.

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Coming away from the social part of things, when it comes to roads and infrastructure, another(...) topic that people do talk about.

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We are in the north. It's tough to, you know, we do have freeze-thaw cycles in the winter and all that stuff.(...) What are you hearing from the residents when it comes to roads and infrastructure and that sort of thing? So roads and infrastructure, these are operational issues that are predominantly dealt with by staff.

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And then they bring their recommendations to council and then council will review those on a case-by-case basis.

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So I think roads is a given, right? Like these aren't really, I think,(...) well, they're issues that are important,(...) but they're operational things that we just have to stay on top of. But along that vein,(...) one of the programs that I'm proposing is a downtown construction mitigation program. So, again, lots of good work happening downtown with the Elgin Greenway, the building of the new arena, so on and so forth.

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But unfortunately, that is having an impact on some of our independent business owners, especially on Elgin Street.

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You have businesses, as an example, Acosta, Mexico, Canada, where all summer long she's had a big hole in her front door and... Right at the front door? Right at the front door.

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So when it comes to trying to access that business, it's very limited. And as a result of the downtown construction, she also lost a revenue source because... That's a big hit. Yeah, because skip to dishes drivers... Can't get in there? Can't even get in to pick up now. So she's lost a revenue stream and now she's doing crowdsourcing just to be able to pay rent.

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So under this construction mitigation program, it's something that we're modelling after the City of Brampton. And it would basically be a combination of City and the BIE working together to establish a fund where businesses are able to apply for funding. In the City of Brampton, they can apply for $14,000(...) up to three times a year. This is money that could be used for either(...) paying some of their operating expenses, putting additional money into marketing, or trying to diversify their(...) business outlook for alternatives so that we're mitigating the impact of downtown construction, especially on independent business. Okay.

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Taxes. That's another item. It's a necessary evil.(...) And from what I gather,(...) through the other guests that have been through, taxes this year in 2026 have been set at 3.9%.

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And they were at 3.9% because it was an election year.(...) But in order to achieve that 3.9%, they had to take money from their reserves. And after everything was tallied up, the residents ended up with a 3.9% hike. The reserves are still empty.

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The reserves have to be replenished.

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The(...) taxes are most likely probably going to be going up. It's possible that they're going to be going up.

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With everything else that's happening in the awesome world that we have today, affordability,(...) where are you on the tax issue?

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What can the city do? What can council do to make sure that still(...) people can pay their taxes on time? Right. So I think one of the big things around taxation is that(...) it's one revenue source. And in the city budget, the tax levy makes up 47% of the overall $800 million budget that the city has.

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So, hang on, before we go any further, so the taxes make up about 47%(...) of the budget? Or their votes? So out of the $800 million budget for the city of Sudbury, 47%(...) of that is the tax levy. So the other remaining 53% is either coming from other government grants, transfer payments.(...) Not from the citizens.

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While(...) not from the tax, like on your property tax, 47% of your property tax is what makes up that $800 million. The balance is coming from service fees, it's coming from federal provincial transfers, other forms of grants and so on. So I think most importantly, it's recognizing efficiencies in the budget.

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And trying to do our best to balance out different business cases. And because, you know, people do have expectations as well. So(...) one of the things that we're looking at is the recommendation coming to city council again early in the new year to look at the hiring of two new bylaw officers. Because in the city of Sudbury we have 1,377 calls per bylaw officer. How many? 1,377 per bylaw officer. So almost 1,400(...) calls per bylaw officer? We have 12 bylaw officers in the city of Sudbury. And we're twice the provincial median average of 12 cities similar to the size of Sudbury. So what I would be looking at is just saying, okay, so as opposed to just hiring two new bylaw officers, because we have this increase in calls. How do we look to reduce the number of calls? How do we look for efficiencies in the bylaw and how we're delivering bylaw services? And from what I've heard recently, a lot of those calls are related to animal control. Okay, interesting. You know, so at one point we used to contract out the animal control services.(...) So(...) that's just one example.

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And then if you look at two like things, one of the things that happened in the budget this year too, as a part of the cuts to make things work, was the city eliminated the Civic Arts and Culture Fund from the tax levy. Okay. We do have a municipal arts and culture charter that I was a part of back in 2006.(...) And when we look at things like arts and culture, those are the quality of life things like(...) that attract people to the community. For example, I was part of the session back in 2006 with Glenn Murray,(...) who used to be the mayor of Winnipeg. And he came to Sudbury when Dave Cordomont was mayor and we did a whole session on municipal culture planning. And he said, you know, politicians at election time tend to focus on police pipes and pavement. As long as that's taken care of, we're good. But when you ask businesses, why did you choose to locate Winnipeg? The answer was, well, there's things for our employees to do outside of work. So those quality of life issues are also important. And when you look at an 800 million dollar budget,(...) the Civic Arts and Culture Fund has been stagnant for the last 20 years. And I think it's somewhere around $887,000, I think, is the magic number.

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And then for every dollar that's invested in the arts, it's creating $9.40 in new economic development.

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Yeah, that's a great number. I(...) know the,(...) yeah, that's a good number because the normal(...) multiplier is seven out of every dollar. The economic multiplier is seven. So if you're getting nine in that area, that's, it seems like it's pretty good. Yeah, and that's just on what the city is investing. But then if you look at GDP,(...) it's somewhere around $4. So for every dollar that is invested in the arts, those arts organizations are generating additional $4 in earned revenue. So those might be things like ticket sales or leveraging other grants or sponsorships and so on. Okay.

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The arena, do you think the, do you think council got it right the last term?

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I believe so. You know, like the shovel is in the ground. It is an exciting time for our city. And, you know, that new arena will be opening in 2028. And it's about time. And actually quite interestingly, 2028 will also be said we started in 50th anniversary.(...) Okay. So that might be a really neat tie in for that. I was sort of thinking about that, like, 2028, that's going to be said we started 50th anniversary. 150th. Does time ever go?

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Let me see what else we can have here. Is there anything else that we missed?

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We(...) could talk a little bit about what's happening around paramedics. EMS? EMS. Okay.

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So let me just, I got to make a marker here.

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I'll just have it fade out and then fade back in. So it looks all(...) normal.

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So when it comes to EMS services, fire, police, ambulance,

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how can we make services better?

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I know that's an open-ended question, but are we spending enough? Do we need to change up anything in the way that we're going? Like(...) the ward that you're in is downtown.(...) And well, it's such a big, it's such a big area. It covers,(...) it covers a lot of people. It does. So(...) what direction would you want to take the,(...) you know, EMS services in your area? Right. So when you look at Ward 10,(...) the police station's downtown, the fire station's downtown, the hospital's in the ward. All of the other supports that are around that. So whether it be places like St. Joseph's Villa,(...) hospice, there's all kinds of really amazing things that are happening in that ward as it relates to healthcare. But one of the issues that I've really embraced is that(...) very early in this campaign leading up to the election year, the Sub-Repair Medical Association and CUPE sounded the alarm on the fact that they're having some very unique challenges in the paramedic service as it relates to retention, recruitment, employee morale.

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In our paramedic service, we have 169 paramedics in Sudbury. And they're covering 3200 kilometres of road. And with those paramedics,(...) they're experiencing a lot of burnout. Yeah. Employee morale isn't what it is.(...) We have 50% of our paramedics have less than 5 years' work experience. That's a lot. That's a lot.

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20% have been on the job less than one year. So now the city has taken some initiatives like hiring a wellness officer because when you think about, and this is why things like the homelessness and getting that right, getting that housing first strategy(...) in place and meeting people where they're at and giving those supports, that's why that's important because now it's having a ripple effect on all the other services. So when you think about the number of times that fire and paramedics are responding to medical emergencies and overdoses and that, when you're responding to the same person two and three, four times a day, you know, that does-- Same person? Same person sometimes. And that's taken its toll on people's mental health.

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So it's important that(...) they have the right training to be able to deal with these types of things too. And like especially based on those numbers, like 50%(...) less than 5 years, 20% less than one year. And this is what they're seeing on the job, right?

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One of my cousins is a fire captain in the city of Ottawa. And when firefighters graduate,(...) they don't teach them the things you're going to see when you respond to a motor vehicle accident. So first day orientation in the fire hall, it's like, hey, we responded to an accident yesterday. Six people died, two of those bodies were cut in half. Yeah. This is what you're going to see in this job. Are you prepared for that? Well, I signed up to fight fires.(...) There's a few other things that come along with that. Yeah. So,(...) but I've definitely embraced the QP 911(...) with that sounding the alarm on the response times. Because like, even when it comes to things like cardiac for arrest,(...) response times for paramedics should be about six minutes. Okay. The city of subway said a target that about 70% of the time we're going to be hitting those six minute targets, but it has been as low as 60 to 65%.

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And part of what's also happened with the paramedics is that,(...) and this is where like the hospitals, the city, the province, we all need to work together because now when a paramedic brings someone to the hospital, there's not a hospital bed available. Those paramedics have to wait with that patient in the hospital until the bed becomes available, which essentially puts that ambulance out of service. Yeah, basically. So these are some challenges that we have to deal with. And these are the things, honestly, Eric, that I focused my campaign on. So plan 180 is basically focusing on three pillars. I'm proud to call home(...) prosperity for all and protect Sudbury. And(...) these are the things that I want to be talking about because like things like, like roads, taxes, their operational issues, they're a given. These are things that we want to try and offer the best possible service to our, to our citizens, but also minimize and mitigate some of the,(...) the impact and the risk when it comes to taxes. But we can't, those can't be on public safety and community well-being.(...) Economic development. How do we get more businesses to come to Sudbury? So, and open and employ people. Right. So there's a lot that's actually been happening in the city like over the last year.

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Like Sandvik just built a new 85, well they are building an 85 million dollar. Oh towards Garson. Oh towards Garson, yeah. So that's a huge investment. And then(...) just recently there was one of the economic development magazines. I forget the name of it, but they just recognized Sudbury as one of the top locales in the country for economic development. So I think that economic development is important. And when you look at the growth of our city, like we're pushing 192,000 people right now. 192? 192,000. Did that come out from the latest census?(...) I don't know that the census data has been released yet. Right. Based on the economic development numbers, Sudbury's population is pushing 192,000 people. So that's a very(...) large amount of growth in a short period of time. And that's only within the last four years.

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I didn't know it was that high. I still thought we were hovering around 165 like the sign says when you're rolling into town.

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But(...) on the economic development side, again(...) there's a lot of independent business that are in the downtown. So they need to be supported also. And again that's why things like this Housing First strategy and all of this,(...) creating a better environment for businesses to thrive and flourish in the downtown is important. And you know, there is a lot of good that's happening downtown also. Things like the(...) new arena, the patio program, the S Theatre which comes from away, shattered box office records. Over 10,000 plus tickets sold. It is now I think the largest single box office for S Theatre and possibly for live theatre in Northern Ontario. So(...) there's a lot of good that is happening. And(...) you know that's why even too like in my campaign every Monday morning I'll start the week off with a good Monday morning. It's usually a feel good news story about something fun that's happening in Ward 10. And then at the end of the week I'll follow up with like a Friday Fuzz just highlighting some of the things that are happening in Ward.

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Sometimes we get so caught up in the noise that we really aren't paying attention to what's going on around us.

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Yeah that's easy to happen to just get lost in the noise. Yeah and sometimes it's nice just to go sit at a dark theatre and get lost in that instead. And you can just disappear. Any last(...) words before we close off that you want to(...) talk to the people in Ward 10? Well I want to thank you Eric for the opportunity today and we're really excited about this election. And(...) really trying to put forward a positive campaign(...) that is focusing on the good that is happening, the forward momentum that is happening. But also balancing that out with some of the reality of what we're seeing on the streets also. So oftentimes I'll refer to February as the tale of two cities. The best of times and the best of times. And that could be any more true right now for our course. So I'd invite people to visit our website, downtownderekyoung.com Or follow us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at downtownderekyoung. Alright Derek,