Ward 11 candidate Amy Voz joins Love the North for an in-depth conversation about community, addiction, homelessness, housing, roads, infrastructure, taxes and the future of Greater Sudbury.
Voz says she is running because she has already spent years working at the community level. As Vice President at the East End Playground, she says she helped revitalize the organization, secure new grants and funding, and organize numerous community events. Her belief is that real change starts by rebuilding connection and involvement at the neighbourhood level.
One of the biggest issues she is hearing at the doors is community safety.
Voz currently works in addiction recovery and housing support, and says that gives her a first-hand view of the gaps in Sudbury’s system. She says people can be ready to enter detox, but available spaces may disappear within an hour. Even when someone successfully gets into detox, the next challenge is finding transitional treatment, long-term support and eventually safe housing.
She argues that recovery cannot be treated as a single step.
A person may need detox, transitional housing, treatment, financial support and then a landlord willing to work with them. Criminal records, poor credit, unstable employment and pest problems in available housing can all become additional barriers.
For Voz, that means homelessness and addiction cannot be solved simply by moving people around the city. The system has to support people through the entire recovery process.
Roads and infrastructure are another major concern.
Voz says Ward 11 includes highways, residential streets and school zones, creating a complicated road-safety environment. She points to long-discussed projects such as the Maley Drive extension and argues that better traffic planning could reduce congestion, improve safety and take pressure off smaller neighbourhood streets.
She also argues that Sudbury needs to stop repeatedly repairing the same infrastructure.
If a road is being rebuilt, Voz says the City should look at the water and sewer infrastructure underneath it at the same time, rather than paving the road and then digging it up again a few years later. Her approach is to think strategically and address multiple problems at once.
Voz also raises a broader point about Sudbury’s resource wealth.
She says enormous value has been extracted from the region for generations, yet residents are still dealing with deteriorating roads and aging infrastructure. She believes the City should push provincial and federal governments harder for investment, arguing that Sudbury is not only serving local residents — it is a major hub supporting industries and communities across Northern Ontario and beyond.
On the downtown Event Centre, Voz says she would not have prioritized a $200-million investment before tackling major mental-health, addiction and housing problems. However, with the project now underway, she says the responsibility shifts to scrutinizing exactly how the money is being spent and what return taxpayers receive for every dollar.
Property taxes are another challenge.
Voz says taxes are likely to continue rising, but she believes Sudbury needs to examine whether money can be redirected toward services that address root causes. She argues that better mental-health, addiction and housing resources could reduce pressure on policing and other emergency services over time.
Her overall message is that improving Greater Sudbury starts with strengthening the people and neighbourhoods that are struggling the most.
For Amy Voz, a healthier city begins from the ground up — stronger communities, better supports, safer roads, smarter infrastructure planning and closer scrutiny of how taxpayer dollars are spent.
#Sudbury #Ward11 #AmyVoz #SudburyElection #CommunitySafety #Homelessness #AddictionRecovery #Housing #Roads #Infrastructure #CityHall #GreaterSudbury #LoveTheNorth
Sudbury Ward 11: Amy Voz on Community, Safety and Fixing the Gaps in the System
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Description
Transcript ~4,028 words · ~20 min read
Amy Vaz, you're running for Ward 11. That's correct. I am. Tell us why you're running.
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I'm running not because I needed to come up with a reason to care about Ward 11, but because I've always cared about Ward 11. Yeah. Over the past several years I've been the Vice President at East End Playground. Okay. With the Neighborhood Hockey Playground Association.
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It was one of the field houses in Sudbury that hadn't received a lot of attention. We had a tried and true president and treasurer that was just carrying us through, but not a lot going on. Okay. And I single-handedly revitalized that. We've put on upwards of a dozen events in just this last year,(...) secured grants and funding that we had never secured before. Really? Yeah. It's been really positive. And I really believe fundamentally that if we want change, it starts at the community level. And I think that that's how we move forward is by rebuilding community and togetherness.
(...) how is the door knocking going?(...) The door knocking has been really receptive. Yeah. It has. It has.(...) Obviously, you know, finding that sort of balance of what the right time is. Yeah. To receive the most(...) people and to be able to have those conversations. Yeah. For people to have time to have those conversations. Yeah. Certainly.(...) And, you know,(...) because Ward 11 is such an interesting ward, you know, there's times I go to streets where I'm confident that they are my ward and there's already door knockers for other wards. Oh, really? Yeah, certainly. So Ward 8, you know, touching and Ward 10 has happened more than once in different parts of. So you're bumping into people from other wards. Yeah. Who I think are not understanding where the lines are for their wards. The boundaries. Exactly. Okay. So I'm going to places where I know are Ward 11. Yeah. But there's(...) door knockers or handouts or they've spoken with people who they thought were their(...) their choices. Yeah. And there's been a big education piece of letting them know that. No. You're at the wrong house. Exactly. Okay. Exactly. Or they. Yeah.
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What(...) are they saying when you talk to them? What are they what are they concerned about? The biggest concern is for me, you know, when I first started doing this and started asking people, you know, almost this time last year,(...) it was roads. That was everyone's biggest go to(...) this actually going to people's homes and having those conversations. It's(...) it's cleaning up our city,(...) trying to come up with solutions for our homelessness and and addiction(...) problems and(...) and making sure that the community is safer for our children. Okay. It's been a big one. Have the(...) how the rats come up at all? Obviously, the rats are certainly a concern. But again, the rats are something that you could go to one house. Yeah.
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And you go to the next house and they do not. They claim to have never seen a rat. Correct. So it's the rat are a bit of a hot topic.(...) And so, you know, I I kind of wait to hear what people have to say. But certainly there have been houses where it's a huge issue for them. But it's not every house, whereas every house does have the concerns about(...) safety and just overall well being of our city. Okay. So when it comes to safety and the open drug use, what would you do? If, you know, should you become councilor, what would you do? What would be your approach in cleaning up? Sure. Well, I currently work in addiction recovery and homelessness support or housing support rather.
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So I see where a lot of the the holes are.
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We need to increase facilities. We need more detox facilities.
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Me and some of my teammates sometimes we have people asking for help, but we can't get them into detox fast enough. Really? The space is open up and the time is so finite. You have maybe an hour to get that one person gets discharged. There's maybe an hour of time to get that next person in.(...) Otherwise it gets filled. It gets filled right away. It gets taken. And then, you know, sometimes people go into these systems and they don't have the supports to come out of them. Right. So we can go into detox and that's wonderful. But then if you come out of detox(...) and you don't have,(...) you know, the supports and safe places to go and recover now,(...) you're like you're likely about to repeat the same cycle to relapse into it. Yes. And I mean, you know, relapse is is something that,(...) you know, needs(...) a lot more education around as well. You know, just because the healing process isn't always linear. Right. And so that's why we need a lot of help of educated people who can see that problem and can be that support and reduce that that continuation of that cycle. Now, that being said, let's say this person particularly wins the lottery.(...) We get a call that there's a space open. So we get on the phone, please, please, please, please, please. We have somebody here who we really believe in. Do not let that space go. Now, first, let's again continue. We're in the best case scenario. We're able to get that person, drive them there across the city, get them in. OK, wonderful. Now they've detoxed. This person will say is very, very lucky.
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They're going to be allowed it afforded a space in our transitional housing. But that would be something that's a temporary housing for up to a month. Right. While they wait for a long term treatment program. So this person has to be lucky several times in order to get to, you know,(...) then the place of where I would come in and help them now find that housing support piece so that they can go and live independently and become part of, you know, of contributing members of society again. And in their in whatever capacity that looks like for them. Right. So then we have another challenge of finding housing. Hmm.(...) Tell me more about that one. Well, there's not a lot of options. So certainly something like, again, if this person were to have won the lottery several times over the program that I worked for now offers, we provide them with a subsidy to help pay for safe housing. OK. Right. And so that often works in conjunction with other programs like O.D.S.P.,(...) Ontario Works, et cetera. And so still with those two combinations of things, we're looking at housing for around, you know, maximum fourteen hundred dollars a month. And that's often one bedroom or bachelor.(...) And then(...) oftentimes we're looking at, you know, because we can offer that that support piece(...) with the agency. We have a little bit more luck, you know, securing those(...) landlord agreements.
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However, if these people were to be doing this on their own, oftentimes we're looking at criminal records, we're looking at low,(...) low petty crimes. There could be there could be criminal history. Absolutely. We're looking at bad credit scores. We're looking at low and(...) long employment history, often a little bit dodgy. So there's a lot of barriers, even though they've gone through perhaps sometimes two years of treatment. OK. Right. And now(...) we're held up at the other side. And then often we get them into housing. Now, let's say we do. We've won the lottery again. We found a landlord who was willing to work with us and take on this client.
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Now, oftentimes what we're running into and, you know, some landlords are incredibly, incredibly receptive. Not all of them live here in Sudbury, right? So some of them are in Toronto and we're having we're building those relationships with someone who's not necessarily in Sudbury. But that doesn't necessarily mean they're not receptive. What I'm saying is that we often then are facing a lot of issues as Sudbury is changing. Things like bed bug infestations, things like cockroach infestations, things like rat and mice infestations. So when I look at the issue of the rat problem in Minnow Lake, I see it as a greater problem across Sudbury. And yes, certainly Minnow Lake is facing the brunt of specifically rats right now, but it speaks to a greater problem throughout our community. And so then we're having to, you know,(...) that is an incredible mental load to go through a bed bug infestation that can take upwards of months, perhaps years. And that's everyone in the building working together with a receptive landlord who and(...) pest control companies(...) to have to do that spray. Like it's(...) a lot of work just to get to that point. So it's a lot of support that people need to get(...) reintegrated and back into our communities.(...) That's(...) pretty in depth.(...) Obviously you have a lot of knowledge in that area,(...) which can be really helpful if, you know, in pushing council as to where to go because I'm(...) sure that(...) based on the previous councils, they may not(...) know a lot of this stuff. Or reach for that kind of information. When it comes to the roads and infrastructure,(...) how are things in your ward and where are you seeing things?
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Well,(...) again, the ward 11 is(...) a(...) big area. Yeah. And, you know, parts of that are highway parts of that are residential streets. Part of that is lots of schools. Right. And so we have a complex road safety(...) issue. And, you know,(...) looking forward and looking back as new construction happens, you know, like just before(...) you go into the bypass, everything had become is gets bottleneck there. Those are things that were decisions that were made long before. Like the bypass going up the big hill? Yes, correct. And so, you know, that should have always been a two lane(...) more safety. I was saying that thinking that yesterday coming from the south end, exactly. Going down the hill. We were up at all, not quite to the bridge, but we were pretty close. And it was just had to wait until you could go before you could go. I was thinking to myself, this should have been two lanes(...) turning left to go back into town and a dedicated lane for the people going to going eastward. Exactly. That would have been an easy shoe in because there's space there. There is. And the reality is, is those were plans that, you know, that the melee extension, those were all part of those plans. So when you come through that extension, it should continue, right? And bypass all of Minnow Lake, essentially. Those were plans that were put into place before I was even born and they still have not come to fruition. Right? And so we're still living with unsafe roads in the meantime.
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That would shave off a ton of time for people that want to get to the melee extension. It absolutely would. And it would create a lot less traffic in our smaller residential roads within Minnow Lake and make things a lot safer. Right? So there's a lot of things like that. Those are some really big picture things. A lot of the US cities have highways going around them. Exactly. Even London, UK. That's right. One big highway going around it that takes almost forever to cover. Yes. Yes. And, you know,(...) we already have an incredible amount of road to cover for, you know, our(...) winter(...) snow removal.(...) So we're talking about adding more more road to that. However, I think that it would also increase the longevity of the other roads. Right? Yeah. By reducing said traffic, we've had some very unfortunate situations in Ward 11 where we have had two fatalities.(...) And,(...) you know, so I think that there's an education piece that also needs to just(...) be more instilled. I taught school bus safety training program years and years ago, and those things just aren't as prevalent anymore. And I think that how we do those is coming back to those field houses, our community centers, and being together. And everyone, you know, it takes a village, everyone looking out for one another, and feeling that connectedness, I think, is(...) also imperative to the safety of our roads. When it comes to the budget,(...) our budget's around, I think it's about $850(...) or $880. No, is it even $800? It's(...) almost $800 million a year. It seems to be growing and expanding like a balloon that just never pops.(...) What's going to take the pop? Or can we actually start with something like a zero-based budget that was(...) mentioned a few years ago by another different counselor where you start from(...) zero and you build your way up?
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Yeah. I often think that sometimes we have to...(...) if something is not working, what can we do to flip it on its head? Is there another way to look at this and(...) achieve what we're trying to achieve? Right? And so I think that that is a creative approach. And I think that that(...) way of doing things would allow us(...) time to(...) kind of scrutinize exactly what those projects are going to be, what they're going to look like, and help us to create streamlined processes, which I think is going to be imperative.(...) Because when we look at those budgets,(...) sometimes our roads are getting... we're redoing the same roads.
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We'll fix a road and then we have water issues. We need to be looking at that in a strategic long-term. If we're going to pull up this road, what's the likelihood that the water issues systems underneath? Let's tackle this all at once. Instead of going back two, three, four times, I think that that would be one really good way to(...) finesse the budget or scrutinize it a little bit more. So is it practical to try and be... when you're always reacting to something that happens, a water main break, and you've got to dig up that road that you just paved not too long ago, how close could the overall city be in approaching a proactive road? Or is that even reality?
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Well, we have such an... we have an aging infrastructure in Sudbury. In terms of the whole history of the world, we're not that old. But Sudbury's not new either. And(...) the reality is, with all of the resources that have been taken out of Sudbury, our roads should be paved in nickel. We shouldn't even be having these conversations. So much money has come out of Sudbury that these things should have been done all along. You've hit an interesting point there. I don't think anyone else has brought up(...) the fact that we're resource rich. And like you just said, there's so much money leaving(...) Sudbury, let alone the north. That's right. That are... how do you... where did you come up with that? Because that is something that is happening.(...) That's just living my life in Sudbury. I've lived here my whole life. I've...(...) you know, I come from a family of construction workers and(...) carpenters and truck drivers and miners. And I've listened to those conversations my whole life. Those are the working people. And that's how they felt for years and years. And they're still talking about it? Because we can still see it. It still hurts to see so much of our resources leaving Sudbury. And you know, we're...(...) Timmons, like, we're... there's other areas that are, you know, going to be surpassing us soon, right? If not already. And(...) so that's... that's the problem that we've now put ourselves in, right? So I think we need to really revise what is going out and what is coming in. And are we getting(...) properly...(...) you know, are we getting our share of the pie out of that sort of thing? Right.
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I think that that's a part where... a place where we could start to lobby the parental and federal government, right? Because yes, we need help fixing these roads. We don't have big budgets. But it's not just Sudbury using our roads. It's everywhere around Sudbury. We are a hub. Whether we like to admit that or not. And for better or for worse.(...) That's the reality. And so, again,(...) Sudbury is not just for Sudbury. The rest of Ontario needs Sudbury. Yeah. Or the world. The world. That's right. That's right. And so we need good roads. Yeah, there's no reason why we shouldn't have it. No, there's not. You're hitting all the right notes on that one because it's something that(...) we've heard over and over. And that's...(...) it's(...) pretty much 100% truth with that one.(...) Shifting gears over to the event centre and the downtown. Yeah. Where are you on that? The event centre seems to be circling again in the...(...) you know, it's a hot topic for the election. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, again, I live in Minnow Lake right off of Le Mike Street. So this has been something that we've been talking about for... Years. And it's(...) factored into conversations of whether...(...) you know, like property evaluations and what that's going to look like. And it's been a lot of fear or built up concern about what that's going to look like. And then there's been acceptance and then there's been let down and then there's been excitement. And then, you know, like we've been on a roller coaster of emotions in Minnow Lake wondering whether this is going to come to fruition or not. Yeah.
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We always... but again, we always knew that it would because like I was saying earlier, that bypass and those melee extension plans were always part of that. Minnow Lake has always known we're on the precipice of change, but we're patient. We're a patient part of the city.
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We've had no choice but to be.(...) So(...) with all that being said,(...) you know, I would have not endorsed a $200 million investment in our downtown core before we invested in mental health services and some... some... attacking some of the bigger things that we need. We're on par with Vancouver in terms of statistics for homelessness and jogging. That's shooting pretty high. That's incredible. Is it really that close? It's... we're actually maybe worse. These tastings?
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I'd like... that was a statistic some of our co-workers... a co-worker of mine who was just there shared. And so we were kind of looking through some of them and yeah, in a lot of terms. Subree is... it's really bad. But we... you know, when things are this bad, I think that it gives us an opportunity to be leaders in this, right? And we can...(...) we need to try something.(...) We have to do something. So anyways, again, I think that that... the downtown core, we have so much work to do.(...) An event centre was not the first thing on my priority list. However, we're here now.
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I wouldn't, you know, halt production at this point. The money is spent. I think that if I'm elected that my job is going to be scrutinizing where those dollars are being spent, how they're being spent and what's the return on investment for every dollar that we're spending. That's a good way to put it. For one thing,(...) I don't believe that the council, current council members have the finished(...) a class B estimate as it's called. They don't have that yet. So although 200 million has been earmarked, they're already over at whatever that number is now. And plus over the 30 years, what's the interest going to look like? What's the real... whose grandchildren are going to be paying for that? Exactly. Exactly. And the thing is, is that the longer we take to do these materials, supplies, wages, labour, everything is increasing. So like there has to... we can't drag this on. We have to... you know, these things have to be...(...) they need to move quickly, but they need to move strategically. Right?(...) Because like you're saying,(...) we likely already are over. And(...) I mean, 200 million, you know, doesn't sound like that much these days. It is. But if we're talking a world class entertainment center, I don't know that that's what we're going to get for $200 million.
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Hmm.(...) Property taxes keep going up and they're... they're probably going to go up again. The reserves are kind of empty. The piggy bank for the reserves are empty. They were used to... in 2026 to keep the...(...) the property tax increase to a reasonable amount. However, it's like borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. That's right. Where do we go from here?(...) Well,(...) I think that if we had better resources and we had... and we were(...) putting more towards the mental health, the addiction and housing issue and separate, we wouldn't have to levy so much of the... so much of the tax levy for policing. I believe that our police need to be paid well. It's not an easy job. And especially with, you know, things that I've shared, clearly if...(...) they're dealing with a lot. They're dealing with a lot in China and they're going to be imperative in this. But I don't believe that it's just adding more police. I'm downtown often for my work and I see a lot of police officers and I've seen a huge increase and even just in working with the police over the last several years, I've seen(...) a change. They have a new chief and I think that,(...) you know, this... getting back into community, I think that that's high up on their priority list. And they're very receptive.(...) Anyways, I think(...) we need to keep... obviously that's the thing. Property taxes are going to increase, but(...) we need... can we shuffle this a little bit, right? Like policing took up 2.5% of the 3.9% increase, I believe. Really that high?(...) Yeah. Okay.(...) Right? And so then all of our other service workers, so(...) I think 0.5%.(...) Those are... those numbers don't really make sense to me. How can we get the house in order?
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We start from the ground up. We start with our weakest(...) community members. We start with our... the ones that need our help the most. We get them healthy and then that's... that will...(...) that will spread. That will catch on. And the healthier our... our least healthy members are, the healthier we can all be. The happier we can all be, the safer we can all be.
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Any final words that you want to say in order to, you know, reach out to your prospective constituents?
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You(...) know, this has been an incredible experience getting to meet so many community members in this way.
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I'm going to host a meet and greet this coming Tuesday after Thanksgiving long weekend. I kind of went back and forth. Do I maybe do it before Thanksgiving and give families some extra topics to talk about? Yeah. Or do we... do maybe I let those families have those conversations and then I can answer some questions later. So I've settled on Tuesday at the East End playground. And so anybody can come and I, you know, if I've missed you while door knocking, I am going to go back out and door knock again. Even though the online voting is about to start.
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I love Minnow Lake. I believe Minnow Lake needs to grow, but I also believe that we need to protect what makes it special to begin with.(...) And I believe that I'm the right person for this job. Amy, Vos, thanks for
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