Here are the 11 candidates running for mayor in Greater Sudbury

CBC Sudbury has contacted all candidates who want to be the next mayor of Greater Sudbury. We've done in-depth interviews with all, but also asked each candidate to tell us in 90 seconds or less why voters should choose them. We've provided their answers below.

Here are the 11 candidates running to be mayor in Greater Sudbury:

• Brian Bigger
• Cody Cacciotti
• Troy Crowder
• Bill Crumplin
• Jeff Huska
• Ron Leclair
• Dan Melanson
• Patricia Mills
• Rodney Newton
• David Popescu
• Bill Sanders

Brian Bigger

"Four years ago, it was obvious voters in Greater Sudbury wanted change. They chose a new mayor and they chose a new council and we've delivered that change. People wanted slush funds gone — they're gone. People wanted store hours addressed — we addressed them. We reorganized senior staff and we brought in accountability measures to ensure road projects were delivered better and would last longer. Over the last four years as your mayor, I've been meeting and listening to people from every corner of the City of Greater Sudbury and people tell me they want a new events centre. I can tell you it's coming. Maley Drive is millions under budget. We're in the midst of modernizing our downtown core and [residents] still want us to focus on roads and we've heard that. We've invested hundreds of millions of dollars on roads but only 9 cents out of every dollar that goes to the various levels of government comes back to municipalities. We need more dollars and I'm going to work hard to get it. What I'm also hearing is that people will want us to keep on moving forward. They want Sudbury to be more inclusive for all parts of our city. They want to see a better relationship with developers to make it easier to invest and build. They want to see stronger communications from our city to deliver messages clearly and avoid confusion. People want consistency and continued growth. It's what Sudbury needs and why I'm running for reelection to continue moving forward as your mayor."

Cody Cacciotti

"For the last eight years, I've been the operations manager for the Northern Ontario Railroad Museum out in Capreol. I've played a part in helping to develop that site as one of northern Ontario's premier tourist attractions. Right now, I feel our city is at a crossroads and I think it's time that we engage with some new leadership. I feel we need a new vision for our city that encompasses all communities and all neighbourhoods within Greater Sudbury, making sure that we are the place of choice for economic development. I feel that we must review processes related to business development and ensure that our city is indeed business friendly and properly positioned for some strategic growth. We know that our city is currently unsustainable with respect to infrastructure, so in order to stabilize our tax increases, we must grow our tax base meaning that we need to attract new, well paying jobs. We have to ensure that our citizens are getting the best value for dollar, which means using new technology to update the way in which we do business, making sure that we have projects that are shovel ready and ready for funding opportunities and that services being offered are solution driven and customer focused. I've had some great success in leveraging assets, coordinating resources, identifying trends and uniting a team around a common goal of growth and progress and I think that's why I would make a great candidate for mayor."

Troy Crowder

"Sudbury's been my hometown but I've also travelled because of hockey [and] because of business. But I come home every year and I realize the potential that's in this city. That's why I'm trying to make some change here. We have plans for this city that I feel are unrealistic. We have budgets that I feel don't achieve what they're actually trying to achieve. So for me, I'm looking at our wastewater projects, our new arena projects, our downtown projects and there are cost savings in all of those in the term of about $1 billion in cost savings, if we do these projects properly, that we can spend on the things this city needs. Ever since amalgamation, this city has gone in a bad direction. We need to help the outlying areas. We need to rebuild our economy. We need a place where people can actually work and live, and that's the biggest reason. I love this city and I think there's so much more we can do. We can do it quickly by making smart, efficient projects using developers dollars and other people's money, not just all ours [and] looking at ideas of recycling and reusing buildings instead of always building new. That's not the solution to our problems."

Bill Crumplin

"One of the first things that I would like to do, I guess it's my vision, is to ensure that we have more of our millennials stay in town. As a professor, I'm really tired of seeing our graduates leave every spring. Lots of bright, energetic individuals who have lots of plans and I'd like to have them stay. I'd also like to attract other millennials from other cities. I think we can do that if we make our economy more acceptable to what's going on in the 21st century. Things like digital fluency and being able to handle various types of open and big data. I think that would be very important. I also like to think that we have to take care of our seniors. These people ... made Sudbury what it is and I think we can make some changes to municipal taxes so that we can actually help seniors stay in their homes a little longer. So I guess in a nutshell, I'm looking at both ends of the spectrum. I want to look after our youth and I also want to honour what our seniors have done."

Jeff Huska

"What I'd like to see happen in this city if you were to stand in the centre of downtown Sudbury and start looking south, you'd see that the old St. Joseph's Hospital has been completed into Panoramic buildings that they wanted originally. I sat down with the owner of Panoramic and I truly believe we can come to some conclusion. Looking past that, you see Bell Park with active cultural, social events going on for the community. A little farther than that, you've got the NEOKids building is going to be completed. We need to work toward that as well as a learner's centre (at the hospital) and a PET scanner that's going on now. If you can really see far, you'll notice that there is Kivi Park — I'd like to see the bus routes go all the way to Kivi Park so that when a woman gets off with her stroller and her two other kids, the oldest possibly with a bike, they can go around that area and come back onto transit and leave the area. I'd also like to see areas like Lively, Valley East, Garson and some of the other outlying areas have carpool areas for going in and out of the main core and bike routes all the way into the main core of the city. This would work great when it comes to our carbon footprint and reducing it. I also truly believe that if you're looking out west from the city you're going to see a lot of work going on, a lot of development. That's because we're going to move the development charges. There won't be an arena out near the city dump because it's going to be downtown where lots of cultural events are going on. We'll work with the LGBTQ community and make sure that we get recognition for being a community that's active and supporting them. I think that Sudbury's a great place to live and I think we can make it the place it needs to be."

Ron Leclair

"Being raised in low income housing since birth, there were many challenges growing up. I have seen discrimination, abuse, alcohol and drugs, peer pressure and crime. Without these challenges, I would have never known my limitations that made me the man I am today. Strong morals and beliefs that were instilled in me from my parents, I managed to get my education and become a productive member of society. I have been self employed as a taxi broker for 14 years to present that allows me to interact and listen to the concerns of the people from Sudbury on what matters to them. I am a strong believer that everyone has choices in life but there are consequences to go with that choice that not only affects you but everyone else around you. So, remember Sudbury, when it comes time to electing your officials to represent you, I hope you can put your trust in me to get the job done as 'The People's Mayor.'" 

Dan Melanson

"I've been involved in the community for a very, very long time [as] I was born and raised in Sudbury [and] I've seen a lot of changes over the years. Some of the stuff that's been going on in the recent history in the last 15 or 20 years has been quite troubling with regards to the lack of forward momentum and vision for the future of the city. I think it's reflected in a lot of the attitudes that we're seeing coming forth these days with regards to negativity about one part of the town or another. The animosity over amalgamation is still ramped. I think what's needed is a leader that can try and bring the city together, all the parts together and form a common goal to pull forward and advance our city. I think I have the ability to be able to do that. My background in business is one of consolidating different companies and bringing crews that previously worked against each other competitively and bring them to pull together in the same direction. I've been quite successful in doing that and I think that will serve me well in moving the city agenda forward and getting everybody on the same song sheet."

Patricia Mills

"It's all about money. It's about taxes and how they are being spent. People are starting to realize it's not okay to have a tax increase every single year at 3.5 per cent or higher. It's not okay. Keep it at the rate of inflation. No one's looking at growing our pie,a bigger piece of the pie. We should spend more on attracting good economic development. We've lost NorOnt, and that was a big loss for this community. I've talked to businesses that are going to North Bay. They're development-friendly, there's a lot less red tape. And we lost an expansion of a company that wanted to be here. They went to Sturgeon Falls and took 80 high paying jobs with them. We just lost 60 nurses at HSN, high-paying jobs. Let's hope they don't leave our community. Then we've lost 60 families. We have so many innovative companies here that are doing business around the world. We don't promote enough. We don't promote internally and we don't promote enough externally."

Rodney Newton

"I've been a steel worker, worked in the railroad and there's some issues that we have to start looking at. We have a drug problem. We have some mental issues that are caused by these issues and I'm looking to try and help the city of Sudbury in a way where we can get a rehab centre going. And that's a goal that I've been trying to get for a long time. I have 71 acres on the outside of Sudbury which I think would be a good place for a rehab centre that we need. We have issues with people that are going for counselling for 60 or 30 days and then they come back and that's not helping these people. These people are addicted [and] it takes years to get where they are and it's going to take years to get them back on their feet. This is where we're going to fix the city of Sudbury. You fix the people, we're going to fix the city. I think if we all work together on it, and this is what I've got to offer for the city, we're going to look into how spending is taking place and why we're walking on streets and sidewalks like they are. We're going to concentrate on putting money where needed. If we all work together on this, I think we can accomplish it. We can try to get the right people that are going to fix the mess that we're in."

David Popescu

"I'm not trying to get elected, I'm trying to glorify God's name. The more we turn our back on God, the more he judges us. We're suffering greater climatic problems then ever before, not only with our roads system but even in property damages. God curses us for calling evil good. Now, we're about to endorse a casino. We have to undo all the Godlessness contained in libraries and the sin we're promoting in the name of arts that promotes Satanism, actually. We're guilty of a lot of evil in God's site. Right now, today, God's driving millions out from North Carolina. These are judgments controlled by the hand of God. He promises to destroy the wicked in three main ways: with war or violence, plagues or famines or disease and with catastrophic death and that's what's going on the more we fail to acknowledge Christ our creator."

​Bill Sanders

"Why would I run for mayor you may ask? Well, it's because I want to serve this community. I want to serve the people of the city because it's the people that count. I want to fix [the] roads because the people of the city ride those roads. I'm not interested in an arena, whether it's out on the Kingsway or whether it's downtown. We have an arena. What we need are roads and a strong arts community that's going to promote economic development."