2014 city council

By Nick Liard

No changes will be made to the Healthy Community Initiative Funds in Sudbury.

There were four options for Sudbury City Council last night, but in the end city councillors voted to keep the funding the way it was.

Ward 11 Councillor Lynne Reynolds wanted to see the funds abolished, but was outvote.

She feels the funds encourage Ward-centric thinking and not ‘big-picture-thinking’.

Ward 5 Councillor, Robert Kirwan says the HCI Funds aren’t just about making councillors popular in their wards.

He says none of the previous problems with the funds still exist since a new city council was elected.

Mayor Brian Bigger voted in favour of moving the funds out of councillors hands, and says this may not be the last we hear about HCI funds.

He says it’s important to remove any element of the perception that the funds could be political or that a councillor could be politically motivated to support a project.

The funds for 2015 were frozen until a decision was finally made, now the often called “slush funds” will be divided equally among the 12 wards.

Fifty-thousand dollars will be given out to each councillor to use for community projects in their respective wards.