Sudbury's new city garage officially opens despite disapproval

Today is the official opening of a new garage for Sudbury transit buses and other city vehicles.

Even though this is a building the public will likely never be in, this project has been very political.

It was in the waning days of the John Rodriguez administration that the city bought an old warehouse for 5 million dollars.

Rodriguez used it during the 2010 campaign as an example of a smart move — unlike, he said, the general hospital property many Sudburians wanted the city to buy.

His successor, Marianne Matichuk, never supported the plans to turn the warehouse into a transit and fleet garage.

But city council was all for it.

"It is absolutely an amazing building,” Coun. Jacques Barbeau said at a council meeting this week.

Tours take place today

Also during that meeting, councillor Gerry McIntaggart lashed out at mayoral candidate Brian Bigger and his claims that the garage is over-budget.

"It's extremely disturbing. They're attacking our council, without justification. It's for personal advantage."

Bigger stands by what he said and noted the city has changed what’s to be included in the garage and that's why it appears to be on budget.

"I would expect that you would talk about — not only the money that was spent and the time it took — but also the promise of what work would be completed with that project,” he said.

Tours of the $28 million garage were to take place Friday.

Matichuk had this to say about the now-completed project:

"That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money for something that the public's never going to use. Close to $30 million and we still have an old building that we've re-done."

Supporters of Sudbury's new transit and fleet garage say it will save millions of tax dollars in the long-run, by centralizing repairs and maintenance of city buses and trucks.