2020 Budget

Further Improve Transit, housing and senior services.

The new transit system simply isn’t working as previously anticipated. Most of your riders have worse service, and it’s causing undue stress on riders and GoVa employees/drivers. The service was meant to be improved to allow more frequent busses, better evening and Sunday services and better routes. What happened is the opposite. Less busses, less frequent busses, some efficient routes were taken away, busses are too full, didn’t account for amounts of students (foreign and other), it’s more difficult more those with mobility issues, transfers are not connecting properly and drivers are confusing times and providing the wrong information, mothers with strollers are being left behind when busses are too full (not safe in winter), more shelters are needed, windows should not be covered with ads (not seeing out of windows causes motion sickness/nausea, elderly get confused and people with disabilities get anxious), having to take 2-3 busses to destinations when only needed 1-2 before, etc. Listen to your riders, we take the bus everyday (I have for over 20 years and it has never been this bad). Those responsible for the overhaul are clearly not riding the bus and ruined a system that just needed some improvements. Need a re-do! As for housing, lists are currently a 5 year wait for geared-to-income housing. There are many people in need (students, single people that work minimum wage, seniors, low income workers, etc). They need affordable housing now, not in 5 years. This is horrible. The city also needs to consider various health issues and needs regarding the elderly when it comes to housing. If a married couple can’t sleep in the same room due to medical issues and need 2 bedrooms, they shouldn’t be forced to take a one bedroom unit just because they’re married! Shame! Everyone has different needs, and those needs need to be considered, especially when there are medical documents provided with doctor’s signature. That shouldn’t be ignored.

Reduce plowing/grading costs

Some roads in outlying communities pass through multiple municipalities - City of Greater Sudbury, Markstay-Warren, etc. Each municipality sends its own vehicles to plow its own section of road. This is true for Kukagami Lk Rd, Woodland Rd, and others. This means sometimes driving 10's of kilometers to plow 1 km of road; not a very efficient system. I suggest entering into agreements so that you can plow other municipalities' roads in some areas, and they can plow CGS roads in other areas, and thereby cut down on staffing costs.

invest in HSN & promote Sudbury as medical referral of the north via telemedicine

keep supporting green energy

Stop spending money we don’t have.