Two new faces, 10 incumbents on Sudbury city council

There has been little change around the table for Sudbury city council following the 2018 municipal election.

In addition to incumbent mayor Brian Bigger's re-election, all 10 incumbent councillors who ran again were re-elected, including two councillors who were acclaimed.

Geoff McCausland will fill the vacant seat in Ward 4, which includes Azilda and the Donovan.

Bill Leduc is the new councillor for Ward 11, representing Minnow Lake and parts of New Sudbury.

Kingsway arena the 'overriding conversation'

For many of the old and incoming councillors, the election was dominated by one topic — the Kingsway Entertainment District.

Acclaimed Ward 3 councillor Gerry Montpellier didn't have to campaign for his seat, but he said the new arena seemed top of mind for candidates and voters across the city.

Deb McIntosh, who was re-elected in Ward 9, said many voters had questions about the controversial project.

"At the door, on the phone, in the email, they wanted to know what your position was. Throughout, I would say that was the overriding conversation," McIntosh said.

While McCausland said the Kingsway arena wasn't as big an issue for voters in his ward, he was surprised by the "misinformation" when the conversation did come up.

"People think it's a four pad. It's a single pad. People think it's being paid for still by Dario Zulich. You know, it's $100 million public," he said.

Rehashing old issues?

McCausland wants to revisit the plan for the Kingsway Entertainment District and questions how the project will truly benefit the city.

Montpellier said he has always been vocal about his concerns about the estimated $100 million price tag.

"That could've been built in Sudbury for one half of that cost in many locations," he said.

McIntosh originally favoured a downtown location for the arena, but said she is on board with council's choice of the Kingsway, pointing to the arena's potential to attract talent to the city.

"There's no one solution to any of our problems. We have to try a number of things and it's hard because of course we're going to be criticized regardless of what we do at council," she said.

Leduc, whose ward includes the Kingsway site, is unequivocally in favour of the project.

"It's going to be a focus point for people coming to Sudbury through the east end," he said.

"It's going to create a lot of jobs for us right from the get-go. And it's going to generate a lot of money for us."

Whether or not the new council will rehash the Kingsway Entertainment District remains to be seen, but McIntosh isn't sure a vote to change the plan would get enough support at council.

"Not only that but, in order to change, what does that mean?" she said.

"What would be the cost of changing a decision? That would become the information we would want to have, if you were going to consider that."

Electronic voting raises concerns

Another issue that may be revisited by the new council is electronic voting.

While the rest of the province received election results on Monday, Sudbury's voting was extended an additional day due to problems with its online elections service provider, Dominion Voting Systems.

The company blamed an internet provider for a system-wide slowdown, that affected 51 municipalities across the province.

Montpellier, who voted against the city's decision to scrap paper ballots in 2017, described the situation as a "fiasco and a disaster."

Leduc said the combined electronic and paper ballot system that was used in the 2014 election worked just fine. That system would've been more expensive for the city.

"We have to go back to that system again," he said. "I believe we lost a lot of votes this year due to the fact that we left a lot of our seniors out of it."

McIntosh pushed back against the idea that all seniors weren't comfortable with online voting, but said she recognizes voters' concerns about the new system.

She suggested it might be worth spending the extra money to have paper ballots in the future.

McCausland noted the electronic system lacks the "ritual" of voting.

"You know, going in and filling it out, and then waiting as the polls are coming back in," he said. "I think if we lose that, voting might become not as special as it's supposed to be."

The new city council will be sworn in on December 4.

Official election results will be released once they have been reviewed by the City Clerk.

Unofficial Election Results:

• Mark Signoretti - Ward 1 (2,291 votes, 53.3 per cent)
• Michael Vagnini - Ward 2 (Acclaimed)
• Gerry Montpellier - Ward 3 (Acclaimed)
• Geoff McCausland - Ward 4 (1,503 votes, 38.18 per cent)
• Robert Kirwan - Ward 5 (1,807 votes, 50.19 per cent)
• Rene Lapierre - Ward 6 (1,649 votes, 36.78 per cent)
• Mike Jakubo - Ward 7 (2,347 votes, 51.95 per cent)
• Al Sizer - Ward 8 (1,822 votes, 45.79 per cent)
• Deb McIntosh - Ward 9 (3,170 votes, 61.85 per cent)
• Fern Cormier - Ward 10 (3,611 votes, 74.42 per cent)
• Bill Leduc - Ward 11 (2,317 votes, 48.6 per cent)
• Joscelyne Landry-Altmann - Ward 12 (2,237 votes, 62.52 per cent)