City Council Meeting Wrap-Up – November 28, 2023

At a special City Council meeting on November 28, Council approved plans for the development of a Cultural Hub at Tom Davies Square. This will involve retrofitting both 200 Brady St. and 199 Larch St. to include a new Central Library, the Art Gallery of Sudbury and the Sudbury Multicultural and Folk Arts Association.

The project will provide residents with a variety of services in one convenient centralized location, and supports the City’s commitment to accessibility, environmental sustainability, multiculturalism, social inclusion and culture.

To make room for these new services at Tom Davies Square, a Municipal Services Relocation project will move some municipal services from 200 Brady St. to the provincial tower at 199 Larch St. This is made possible by post-pandemic changes to the Province’s business operations, which has made a significant amount of space available within 199 Larch St.

The new direction for the project stems from a Council resolution in February 2023, where Council directed staff to explore alternatives for the Junction East project, in order to balance the achievement of project goals with the economic realities faced by the municipality. Through this analysis, a retrofit of Tom Davies Square emerged as the best cost-effective alternative for the project. This allows the City to consider the cost savings for additional capital projects to further enhance quality of life for residents.

Creating a Cultural Hub at Tom Davies Square provides several benefits including enhancing the number of services for residents in one location, making use of existing municipal assets and realizing operating cost savings compared to building a new facility.

Transforming the existing City Hall facility serves as a catalyst for further downtown revitalization by establishing an accessible, inviting, contemporary, people-oriented space for connecting residents to each other as well as to art, information and technology. It also contributes to municipal economic development and tourism goals.

Council approved amended resolutions, changing the total project budget from $68.8 million to $65 million. This includes up to $37 million in municipal funding, with funds provided by debt already secured for this project. If funding from Cultural Hub partners and/or external funding sources is less than anticipated, Council approved the provision of additional municipal funds up to the approved budget amount, using funds from the previously secured debt for this project, to an upset limit of $64.5 million. 

Staff will now work on issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the design of the new Cultural Hub and Municipal Services Relocation projects. It is expected that the RFP will be awarded in early 2024 and schematic design work will begin in Q2 2024. The design for the renovated facility will continue to follow and build upon the vision and themes identified during the Junction East community engagement process in 2021.

For full details, read the November 28 Report to Council. For more information on the Cultural Hub at Tom Davies Square and the City’s other Large Projects, visit www.greatersudbury.ca/largeprojects. 

Enterprise Risk Assessment Update for 2023

Divisions and departments regularly assess risks that could affect the achievement of municipal service objectives. At this evening’s meeting, Council received an update on the City’s key enterprise risks for 2023 and any changes to these risks since 2022.

The City uses an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework to manage risks. This reflects the corporation’s progressive efforts to manage enterprise risk and apply a thoughtful, forward-looking approach to planning and decisions.

Since 2022, key enterprise risks have generally not increased despite changes in influencing factors and increasingly challenging operating conditions.

The likelihood of two risks has decreased as a result of work undertaken to address those risks:

• The risk of global connections and business attraction/development efforts being insufficient for ensuring Greater Sudbury’s economic competitiveness has been reduced due to outreach efforts and relationship management with senior levels of government and the private sector.
• The risk of existing human capital management policies and practices being insufficient for attracting, managing, developing and retaining top talent to support existing and future operations has decreased due to the successful introduction of several enterprise changes via the Human Capital Management Plan.

For more details on these and other items from this week’s meetings, visit www.greatersudbury.ca/city-hall/mayor-and-council/meetings-agendas-and-minutes.