Sudbury city council urged not to scrap controversial ward funds

While it's been a contentious issue in the past, Sudbury city council heard mostly one side of the debate over the $50,000 ward funds on Tuesday night.

The majority of the speakers represented community groups who listed how they've benefited from access to these taxdollars through the Healthy Community Initiative (HCI) fund assigned to each councillor.

"The negativity around HCI funding seems to be rooted in the past," said Cody Cacciotti from the Northern Ontario Railway Museum.

Arthemise Camirand-Peterson from the New Sudbury Community Action Network argued that the controversy over the funds was largely based on misconceptions.

"The public was swayed by the term 'slush fund'," said Camirand-Peterson. "This should not be an issue."

While opponents have long argued that the funds were used by incumbent councillors to buy votes ahead of the next election, Darren Stinson challenged anyone to point to an expenditure that lead to vote getting.

He also suggested that those commenting on internet news sites were responsible to the controversy surrounding the funds.

"We have to stop listening to the blog trolls, these denizens of toxicity," said Stinson. "We have to stop being negative. They're not slush funds."

Some speakers did call for changes to how the HCI funds are distributed.

Some suggested that councillors should not have direct control over the $50,000 and that citizens should vote through some form of participatory budgeting.

In the past, some councillors have suggested the money be spent only on city projects, but representatives of the Beaver Lake Sports and Cultural Club argued that non-profit community groups need access to that money to stay viable.

While many candidates ran in the last election on scrapping the HCI funds and it was a pet issue of the Greater Sudbury Taxpayers Association over the last term, there were few voices from that perspective on Tuesday night.

The one speaker to call for the scrapping of the funds was Barry Van Horne.

"I don't understand why we're even here. It's not a good thing. It causes friction" said Van Horne, identifying himself as "just a taxpayer."

Van Horne accused the council of going against its word, claiming that most of them campaigned on scrapping the funds. With his voice raised, he pointed his finger directly at Mayor Brian Bigger, taking a few steps from the podium toward the mayor sitting a few metres away.

A majority of the current councillors told CBC during the election that they want to keep the funds, with some tighter controls on how the money is spent and possibly taking them out of the individual councillors.

Major changes to what the $50,000 can be spent on were brought in by the previous council in 2012.

This new city council will now consider what it wants to do with the funds, with it expected to come back at a regular council meeting in the coming weeks.