Sudbury Ward 9: James Borg on Roads, Affordability and Putting the Basics First

(...) Municipal elections coming up shortly and in studio today we have from Ward 9 James Borg James. Good to see ya Good to see you my friend. So why are you running in Ward 9? What's up? Well, I need good people in politics, especially the municipal level(...) grounds on people That can relate to problems that the city has and the city has many problems, especially the roads(...) and road infrastructure and upkeep of roads and that was the whole real reason why I ran for the election in the first place(...) and Then when I got in when I put my name in there, I thought it was just one of a day and one up Right. Yeah, that's what I thought right cuz I was running from my area. So I live in the 537 corridor And then(...) I found out why we got Coniston and we got the south end so I said wow Okay, so now I'm going to bat for several communities, right?

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Geographies one demographics is another it's you know, it's totally different Financials another one right? Yeah, so it's societal right there is so

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Coniston's like a town in itself when the oldest towns in the separate, right? So it's its own little identity perfect subdivision just a lot of old infrastructure, which is okay But we could fix it up and make it more beautiful right out a few more bus stops then we got the south end Well, wow what a prestigious area in a Sudbury. It's one of Sudbury's most thought after communities very private very posh a lot of professionals live there and they have some issues too a lot of its roads and infrastructure and bike paths and and general upkeep of the place and I'd like to keep it status quo for them and keep it very private because it's a private area, right? So you want to keep your private?

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private

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Emolence in there right so you keep it status quo You mentioned roads

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What do you(...) what are you finding with the roads like are they being kept up

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Are we not spending enough money on roads? Yeah, we're not we're not we have recently

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They made some good little pavement patches on the Kings way there and on the 17 bypass going into Sudbury from the 17 bypass off of(...) 17

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So that's good. That's a start, but they're main roads, but all the other roads in Sudbury including the one I live on Which is a dirt road?

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They need fixing they need upkeeping and all the dirt roads in Sudbury. There's a lot of

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dirt roads in Sudbury, right all around the outskirts the whole the whole Exterior of the Sudbury Central is all rural pretty much. So we got a lot of dirt roads and they need to be like, you know graded in the summertime and of course in the winter time the snow has to be cleared and all that and It's just they weren't doing a good enough job Right and the main reason why I ran is I had a few nice cars and they were all destroyed Right because of the roads Make(...) a lot of money

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Yeah

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So is there is there a gap in the monies that they're spending on roads like in the last few years they've been spending But well anywhere from what I can gather between 51 and 53 million dollars on roads Whereas they need to spend in order to keep the roads at status quo. They need to spend about 81 million. So we're There seems to be about a $29 a $29 million gap

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Where's that money gonna come from in order to keep the roads just sustained Well,(...) didn't they find almost like

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What was it? 83 84 million dollars and the city hall there and that they had to set aside for the road maintenance and they put it towards this

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So called event center or slash arena, right so there's 83 million right there I'm not saying spend all 83 million dollars on roads. No because we couldn't we can hire some more police and more police cars(...) We can spread the money around Also, they would they allocated 100 million dollars. This is this is the comical thing. Okay, I'm trying to be funny But I'm not because this is good Sudbury's comical(...) This is their tax money. It's comical. So imagine spending

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100 million dollars(...) on a renovation(...) Inside a building

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Yeah, the library yeah, that's right yeah the so-called library guess where it is Inside city hall(...) where the council meeting hall is So I guess we're not gonna do council meetings in city hall no more That's crazy. You have a city hall and we're not gonna have a council hall meeting the more Have the normal council chambers where they have the yeah, apparently that's where it's gonna go

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That's what I thought(...) That's what I'm assuming. That's what everybody's saying

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Why I went there but everything's all newspaper dot you can't see inside the glass and it's under construction(...) so that's the only place under construction, so

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If it walks like a duck and squawks like a duck it must be a duck If there's smoke there's fire. Yeah, exactly right. No, it's just it's just asinine like I mean come on you got City Hall You gotta have council meetings. I've been there six years. I go to City Hall Maybe once every six months every time I go there. It's during the daytime, and there's never a council meeting going on They go on at(...) nighttime, oh because it's a part-time job

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so

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So that circles back around to You running for you know the position of a full-time counselor. Yes

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Well anywhere else in Ontario a counselor mayor runs full-time, right? This is news to me in Sudbury. We have a part-time job as a counselor Hey, I don't know that's that's crazy. You're supposed to be doing a job You're supposed to be putting in least eight to ten hours a day.(...) I'm there for the people

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moving on to What do they have next(...) the for affordability Affordability issue for people here in the north in the north we end up paying more For just about everything correct being property taxes food(...) energy and Whatever else is whatever else that we consume

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from a municipal standpoint what can you

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Where are you on the affordability of living here in the north? Well, things are getting a little bit crazy. Yeah, it is no. That's a good question So we're kind of handcuffed because to answer that question

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You have to ask the suppliers that provide everything you just mentioned right so I don't produce bread, right?(...) There might be some bakeries in town, right I would suggest that people in Sudbury start buying local So there's like a finished bakery for instance on

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Regent Street, right(...) beside Eddie's restaurant(...) Why not? Start buying your bed there right and it's a little cheaper and stuff like that and

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Yeah, you could yeah, but today's good on butter would put me butter taste good Even when you toast it, yeah

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Okay, so you're saying to buy local yes Okay, that's one way right because now you're not getting the shipping costs right now another problem with buying local

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Farming we need more farms in the area whether between the corridor from North Bay to Sudbury

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past going

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East on Mark's day near past marks day(...) Start buying the produce from those guys those farmers and encourage more farming right even throw more money You have North Bay and Sudbury It doesn't have to be a Sudbury issue through I have North Bay throw money into the project diet, you know to To encourage farming make it easier for farming Lessen the red tape right so I got mumble bylaws right so I'm about loosening the red tape including bylaws and permits when you say red tape, what about the building controls the stuff going down on you know when you're trying to build a house or Businesses wants to set up shop here. There's a little bit too much red tape from what we understand Or it's just too many hurdles that sometimes businesses look at other communities or cities to move to

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That's exactly right. It's a combination of all the above right and even I'm hearing there's problems with the businesses and that we already have(...) They have issues. They have issues relating to

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their tax bill(...) upkeep(...) they got a deal with

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The homelessness because downtown news there's homeless everywhere, right? So, you know, you got to walk around a homeless person just to get in the door of a shop Yeah, and there's look don't get me wrong. I feel sorry for the homeless. Okay, but It's it's getting too much. We got to provide a source To get them on homeless, right? We got to put them in a place like a rehab, right(...) and Give them rehab rehabilitation rehabilitation

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To get off whatever they're on to help them up if they're not on anything

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Encourage them and lift them back up under feet again So if you were if you're the counselor for Ward 9, how would you go about getting that to happen? What would you be your input because remember you're one vote out of 13 exactly. So there you go So you asked a million dollar question there. So as a counselor, I'm working for my ward, right? Which is Ward 9. So if you look around Ward 9(...) Where I live in the world, there is no homeless Okay, the 60s owners to homeless(...) The South then the majority of it there's no homeless You see homeless near the four corners Okay, and maybe by the Walmart, right which is Ward 9 more or less and I've never seen homeless in Coniston either But it is a Sudbury issue So when you're a counselor, you're right. You got a vote on issues outside your ward, right so(...) You my vote would cast(...) Would make a difference. It's one of 13 exactly right? I think the mayor has two votes, right?

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Yeah, I think that was what it was right and are we still under the mayoral controls Meaning it's like an emergency measure by the mayor

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Emergency emergency powers Emergency or they call it strong mayor power strong mayor powers. That's it. Yeah They have(...) those(...) abilities to do what's been given to them from the province so the(...) extra-lateral

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Decisions that they can make(...) so

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Going with that the the event centers, you know, they said that(...) there's

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Not all the Decisions that you're gonna make are exactly in Ward 9 You're gonna have to make decisions and vote for this things that go on in other communities. Correct. Yep as for the event center

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Did council get it right and(...) with it with with where they're at now and where they want to go or Could the next four years change something? Well in the next four years if I get in My votes gonna be building it's gonna be against the event slash arena because first it was an arena announced an event center. What is it?(...) Explain that one, right? This is gonna half an event center half an arena Or is it gonna be an arena with the fancy name of the event center? So I don't want it built where it is

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number one(...) Number two, you're always trying this figure around 200 million, right? It's not 200 million. It's gonna be like 450 million bucks(...) And if you build it tonic head it would be better.(...) I Don't know why they didn't do that in the first place We're looking at in the first place that there's land there and everything else first off to build a good size arena

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You're not gonna have the amount of parking downtown, right? What I would do is I would put a police station and a fire hall on the bottom(...) Okay, maybe a couple stores on the second level Okay with a ramp going up(...) and Ten story parking lot(...) Okay, so eight stories or nine stories of parking the second floral stores and First level you got your police and fire department

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Where the(...) hole is right now at the yeah so-called event center and then I would move it to

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The kid and I would say okay. I would open the doors for private investors in Toronto, right? I gave a lot an interview before I said downtown(...) So I'm from down south so when I say downtown, I mean Toronto Alright, but you could open up to local millionaires here We have a lot of people that made a lot of money in the mining industry Give them the first shot(...) To have a piece of the pie. Alright, so in my idea the taxpayer Taxpayers wouldn't pay a dime and it would be a private investment with mr. Zulich. So mr. Zulich

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We can take a slice of the pie himself. He owns the team(...) and have other people Put in millions of dollars as an investment on a return on a bigger arena and when I'm talking big arena, okay

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I'm not talking the Mickey Mouse arena. They're planning

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No less than 16,000 that's right

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Yeah, that wasn't the herd oven in 1927 when they built maple leaf gardens And now that place is

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Leaves games. Yeah, it was the home for the Leafs for many years until they built a(...) better arena Right, but when the reason why it's got to be 16,000 seats people. This is the thing

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So if I want to bring a CDC Okay, or the Rolling Stones or somebody like that or the who or anybody and big a big legendary rock and roll band Or even a big legendary country band

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a Country it's not so bad. It's easier to bring a country Performer but rock and roll(...) They have amplifiers. They have a roll crew. They have a lighting team. They have trucks coming in right? They got a payroll that they got to pay You need space for(...) that you need some money so money comes from ticket sales and ticket price and Then everybody you could pay the band the band could pay their staff and the rest is for the the people who own the piece of the pie right(...) and also

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There is two more NHL teams coming in

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Each team in the NHL carries two farm teams Sudbury can apply for a farm team for an NHL team

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I think so. I think so(...) sure You know without going too far off topic what's your between a farm team and Packing the arena versus the Sudbury wolves and packing the arena no difference The only things ones are professional team and one isn't right Not really you play on when the one team's not playing the air team goes in and I would even throw in a Woman's hockey team on a professional level the woman's Well, why not? Why not? And when you're not using the arena have rock and all concerts come in have the circus come in have different events like that come in

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Yes, which we don't have in Sabrina they never even see it there's none in Sabrina ever

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There's the one downtown that's only three stories It(...) is Okay

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What would that do so you add more parking for downtown then what well you got parking downtown now You could park a car safely have security there and in the meantime until we get the homeless problem corrected and And then we can revive downtown, right? Good(...) idea around Elm(...) and Elgin

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Certain areas. Yeah Durham, right? Yeah, listen the red tape first off make it easier for business to come in the Sudbury I do business, right? So maybe the first few years

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Go easy on the taxes, right? Just say look your estimated tax is gonna be X amount of dollars. That's what what's forecasted Right, but since you're moving in you since your brand new business a startup(...) For the next two years. It's gonna be half the price

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Okay, and then you make up the taxes afterward it's an incentive and it's it's it helps(...) the business Get in business, right?(...) Yeah, I'll something I get going(...) Okay

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Safe streets and all that stuff is that something that is a standalone Thing to work on or does it happen after other things happen?(...) well streets is a it's all you can't

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you can't say like we're gonna tackle one project and we're gonna work on the roads because When you're driving on roads every day, it loosens the ash road

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And weekends to Asheville and then we got a pothole and then we got infrastructure problems, right? Another thing in the wintertime Nobody's talking about So(...) you got a sewer system in Sudbury(...) It's probably been built what in 1910s and 20s and 30s(...) It's aging. So on any given day

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Something can go pop and when it goes pop you got water Spreading everywhere and that usually happens in the wintertime when it's minus 30 minus 25(...) So now you got a scanning ring

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With a water issue and it's hard to fix those in wintertime, but it's got to get done That would be like an emergency you have to go in there and fix the infrastructure so when the infrastructure collapses When it does that should be your number one problem because now you're gonna have you can have traffic issues You can't go on that street. It's blocked Right. It was an accident today on highway on the bypass. I was driving my wife to work

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It could nobody can get through it was around 6 30 in the morning. So I had a backup turn around go back of your well(...) and It's infrastructure. So infrastructure problems(...) are caused by weather age usage(...) and environment winter, right so The work that gets done to the roads is it reactive or is it preventative?

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It would be a bit of both and and another thing I'm calling for too is okay So I'll give you the 537 for instance Let's look at the road between Finney Road up to the highway 17 because that's a city run road

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Finney Road is

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About three kilometers down from highway 17 on the 537 so it'd be south Want(...) to put a yes

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That's highway 17 like highway 17 and Hill So when you when you're going down highway 17, you turn on Hill Street

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That streets Hill Street, it's also(...) The 537. Okay, it's confusing but Sudbury is confusing

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So further down about two three kilometers from highway 17 Going south there's a street called Finney Road. It goes west. It's a dirt road

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Around there where the new construction stopped

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That's the boundary. So where the new construction is right now that they fixed(...) But it wasn't Sudbury that fixed it. It was the ministry of transport Ontario fixed it Because that section of road which is the majority of the road(...) The Ministry of Ontario fixes that part. It's the only highway in Ontario then has a shared responsibility with a city(...) and We got it in Sudbury, right? It's unheard of anywhere else, but we got in Sudbury But Sudbury can't even maintain a three kilometer stretch

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Right. It's pothole after pothole as patch on top of patch What needs to be done in that section because the aging infrastructure(...) The whole Asheville needs to be ripped out and done all over(...) with good Asheville

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Like

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Don't we have an Asheville company in Sudbury?

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Well, give them the job first but tell them we want the better Asheville right to make it last longer

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When you're out door knocking where people talk when you're out door knocking in you know, the three different Jew graphical areas that you got to cover Well,(...) let me correct you there so I'm handicapped

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So I can't stand or walk longer than 20 minutes.(...) So I haven't been really door knocking

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I'm trying by the web. I'm trying by the web Meet and greets when I'm out in the belt. I meet people I talk to people I introduce myself Right. That's how I'm trying to tackle and if people want to get in touch with me And if they want to get a group together in their backyard, I'll come I'll come and talk to people, right? The(...) roads

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Especially in my area, right? They want better grading all the time on a regular basis because it's a dirt road and they want the 537 fixed right properly, right?

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They're also there's believe it or not(...) One of my campaign platforms is a water refilling station somewhere in Wanapate village and on the city waterline(...) They want a water fountain(...) and the people in my area want a water fountain because there's no city water coming in

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It's a different animal because everyone wrong

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They don't even have the electricity like Sudbury has we have Ontario hydro. Yeah, okay We have no fire hydrants. We have no water line coming in. We have no natural gas line No,(...) it's not lower it's about the same actually took a sharp rise

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After amalgamation, right? Everybody's taxes went up and they've been in status quo paying the same level and they keep on going up and up and up Right. So it's not a lower tax bill

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Despite the fact we got less services

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Well, the money money is going to City Hall probably in the other wards, right because In my ward in the rural area. We don't have too many services Yes Every second week and we're lucky we're rural because With the garbage pond somewhere else in the city has we have animals(...) so animals eat rodents

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So we're pretty lucky that way. We don't have a rat problem, right? We have we have a lot of animals. They'll pick off the rats when they see them, right?

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That's right, right

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But there's there's a lot of issues there's some

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So again to the water filling station(...) The reason why people want it is we're on well water and septic So from time to time two things happen happen to me two years ago. My water pump froze for a week(...) in The dead of January, right? So I'm like freaking out man. There's no water right? So I'm getting buckets of snow and melting it Homeowner issue you're gonna have a heat trace on it. If you know what's gonna freeze you gotta have a heat trace on it Or you you know, you live up in the bush. I just called the bush. I live up the bush and I'm on a well. I have septic and you got to do what you got to do to make sure you have water

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That's just the way I see it yeah, well why heat tracer is there yeah, but what happened to hit the well inside the well right so the pipe going down about maybe

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Four feet down where the pump is dad froze

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it was just unbelievable cold never happened before(...) and I did change the top Afterward because I had an older top and the guy said that's probably what caused it But it's froze just the same. So what I'm getting at is when you don't have running water Yeah, people don't want to go to Middle Lake to get their water. They want it somewhere close by Somewhere in Wanna put a or Coniston at least where you can get push the green button and water comes out with city water Yeah, I wouldn't want to put in Coniston. I would the need is in the 537 corridor Okay, because that's the rural area. That's where all the rural people live Get some of these people are walking to get water(...) That's another issue. Right? That's old school because their car broke down because of the roads, right? Right and they don't have a job because they don't have no car Okay, it's uh, you know problem after problem Good(...) question, why did the chicken cross the room?

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Because the farmer had no fence Avo(...) look at my(...) web page. It's starborn flame(...) Books calm

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The message is I'm gonna be providing better bus service because we haven't talked about that So I'm gonna provide new bus lines. Can I talk about that for you? Yeah

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Okay, so(...) Here's some new things. I'm trying to get done for the community

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I want safety in all our communities. I want to represent the people's needs and concerns and issues

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Okay fixing roads we talked about but I want a better bus service to Coniston Including a bus stop at the toll Blake Arena(...) and even go further down

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East(...) I Want a new bus line going down region Street all the way? Self to highway 69 and ending at the one-up store

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So that's that's a new bus line completely and here's the big one.(...) I A new bus line going west on Kingsway from Ontario, Northland into Coniston into Want to pertain into the 60 zone the Norfolk motel and the community by the Norfolk Hotel

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To the trading post(...) and that's going to open up Sudbury to new business because at the training post on uncook a gaming lake road

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communities from Mark's day and Hager and places like that instead of driving the Sudbury(...) They can get a ride and be dropped off at the bus station Or the bus stop and pay your four bucks or five bucks or whatever the bus is And get in a Sudbury to their girl groceries For(...) sure there is I used to drive a cab and last summer I drove a cab regards and taxi(...) and Business for me was going to those communities and I loved it. I loved it because it's taxi driver It's a good fare right but at the same token you're you know

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It's it's your private providing a service for misery just like a car repair shop is doing right You're providing service for misery, right? So if you want to lessen the people's misery Well, this is a great way to do it. All right, and look at what people from want of a day There's a lot of old people. There's a lot of handicapped people They(...) got to take a taxi in the Coniston to my groceries. There's no grocery store in a lot of a day

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Yes,(...) they got a they got a pharmacy I used to pharmacy they got a beer store their liquor store they got a Chinese restaurant plus they got(...) They got the pizza pizza across the street Right and they got to Tim Warren's right and at least it's something right but at least they can get there by the bus They don't have to spend 65 bucks on a cab fare, right?(...) That's right, right

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So, yeah, that's why I want to I want to make things a little easier for our community All right, and when I'm voting for other issues to reflect the city,(...) I want to vote with logic Okay, and sensibility. Let's look at the library. Okay

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Picture a hundred million dollars in an existing building(...) All right. It's unheard of Right a hundred million bucks. We can buy a You know a 10 to 12 14 story condo right easy(...) Wow, the candidate came through here and said that they could

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You know to(...) build a new fire hall in two of the communities

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Could be done and maybe it was even three

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There(...) you go and we need a firehouse right we don't need volunteer firehouse we need real fire So is the money downtown being spent wisely? No Well,(...) it's it's overspending. It's uh, no logic and the projects that you're doing right? It's no logic. It's

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It's it's the saying that the rural people told me(...) It's the same old shit show day in Dale. Nothing will change. Nothing will change to me You're wasting your time Jimmy. Nothing's gonna change and I'm going no, maybe I can do something, right? Yeah All right, but they call it the shit show like I'm sorry for calling that shit show But that's what they're telling me you asked me what the people are saying A(...) lot of people say Jimmy go for it try to do what you're doing

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But you're probably not

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Going to make a big change that's what they're telling me and I'm trying to be operative opportunistic and Maybe we get some other counselors out there because there are other good counselors or counselor candidates That haven't gone in look at Aaron Washburn Ward 7, right? He's a great guy(...) And there's existing counselor counselors are pretty good too, right?

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And if you have a combination of good people with logic Right and you don't make a decision either. Sometimes somebody says, okay, we're gonna make a new library here Well,(...) hang on a second here(...) What only let the people vote on it?

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Why don't you have a referendum where the people votes on the project?

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that would make the tax dollars go further and it would curb the

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The uncensible logic to what they're doing, right? Come on people a hundred million dollars for a library inside City Hall that would that would say there's no gonna be no more council meetings Council meetings should be taped like you're taping me(...) Every council meeting should be taped a cable 10 news Okay, put on YouTube and then everybody can review the meeting plus rewind

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No(...) Where's their YouTube channel that has all the council meetings?(...) I'm not sure(...) I Don't think there is

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That should be done James last question, how can we get more people to get out there and vote? What would be your words words words of wisdom to everyone? well, the words of wisdom is

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There's that's like saying okay when that when is the next solar flare gonna happen it's I don't know It just happens when it happens, right?(...) If you want to vote come on and vote make a change for your city, right? And I know if you vote for me, I will listen to you. I'll come to your house I have my notepad here. I'll take my pen. I'll write down information and I'll go to bat for you, right?(...) And just come on and vote everybody vote everybody. It'll host any vote. All right Yeah, because we want to make a difference. Why are we spending more money? We're talking about tax dollars So let's have good counselors and they're with a good mayor and save people money(...) if the projects go on my friend(...) We're gonna be the most in-debt city in all of Canada(...) Okay

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We don't want to be that that's if you put the population to the amount of money we're spending the highest

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Sudbury It(...) looks it's looks about like eight hundred and fifty million by the time everything's all said and done All the(...) projects if they keep on going the way they are So that means at the end of the day

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Minds you gotta come from somewhere. Where does it come from tax dollars?

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Tax dollars or you do something else?(...) I Don't know we have to analyze that situation, right?

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In the States, I don't even want to say it. They do other things, right? They do stuff like they have tolls and stuff like that. All right, but that's gonna inconvenience the people right? It's got to piss off the people, right?

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But(...) I don't know we have a speeding problem

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Yeah, a lot of residents are caught talking Coniston are talking to have a speeding problem In Coniston(...) itself, right

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Okay, so what's well speeding cops tickets right generates money, right? I know we have no more speed cameras, but(...) You got to do something, right?

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Kelly Lake Road where it meets out view this is in the south end. I'm not sure if this is part of Ward 9 but they put in the bumps that(...) Happen so often(...) And I find that slows that slows traffic down it does it does it but the bumps are okay

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Until winter hits because when him winter hits then you got infrastructure problems too because when they plow(...) In my plow the bump out right and then cause more problems, right?(...) It's a very difficult situation

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solve

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to be you know, everybody Steps on it once in a while in their life, right?(...) when I was younger, I got a lot of tickets, right(...) and Just your insurance rate goes up and You got to pay more money to the city, right?(...) But what else can the city do? Right?

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It's something we got to solve right

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One vote at a time one vote at a time my friend James, thanks for coming in. Thank you, sir.

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