City of Greater Sudbury's Credit Rating Upgraded to AA+

The City of Greater Sudbury’s credit rating has been upgraded from AA to AA+ with a Stable Outlook from Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Global Ratings. This follows S&P’s review of the framework it uses for analyzing institutional credit ratings.

The credit rating is an assessment of the municipality’s financial health based on factors such as historic financial performance, policies, economic growth and long-term plans. It provides a signal to lenders of the city’s capacity to meet its financial obligations, and influences the interest rate paid on any future debt the City takes on to fund investments in new or replacement assets that support growth and economic activity throughout the municipality.

“I am proud that we have earned an improved credit rating of AA+” said the Mayor of Greater Sudbury. “This is reflective of the commitment made by our City Council to implement forward-thinking policies that make the best of our resources in a way that allows us to be resilient, strategic and deliver positive results for our residents.”

Greater Sudbury is one of 21 municipalities that received an upward revision to its credit rating. S&P Global assessed the operating environment for municipalities as “extremely predictable and supportive.” S&P also cited the ability of Canadian municipalities to maintain financial resiliency over time, including during a significant stress scenario, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only did municipalities – including Greater Sudbury – scale back services and cut expenditures to mitigate the financial impact of the pandemic, but senior levels of government also provided extraordinary support to cities that helped alleviate financial pressures. As a result, the City of Greater Sudbury’s credit rating improved from AA (Stable) to AA+ (Stable).

“This is clearly good news and a vote of confidence from a knowledgeable source in the city’s financial policies and plans” said the Councillor for Ward 7 and Chair of the Finance and Administration Committee. “City Council and staff work well together to follow a long range financial plan, with strategies for asset renewal and for managing daily service demands that remain affordable for our community. The pandemic’s challenges have changed over the last two years, but they have not gone away. I am confident we will continue to successfully work with our community partners to navigate the inflationary pressures the pandemic introduced, and that our community’s strong economic performance will continue.”

S&P Global will complete their annual review process in August of this year, with the 2022 credit rating report expected in the fall.

The full report from S&P is available at www.greatersudbury.ca/creditrating.

-30-

Media Contact:

communications@greatersudbury.ca