Prime Minister Mark Carney was in Toronto this week selling Canada as a place that still builds things.
asserted
that → sell → things
The prospectus for his inaugural investment summit runs to 167 projects: mines, ports, LNG, data centres, powered by the usual nation-building adjectives.
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prospectus → run → adjectives
Nobody in that room had to plow the roads that get the ore to the smelter.
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that → have → smelter
Paul Lefebvre does.
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Lefebvre → do → ?
Lefebvre, Greater Sudbury’s mayor, is asking Ottawa and Queen’s Park a rude little question: if this city is going to carry a national industrial load, why does the profit leave town before the potholes are filled?
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potholes → ask → town
Mike Harris-era amalgamation in 2001 glued seven municipalities into one; people live from one edge to the other.
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people → glue → other
“We have roads going everywhere,” Lefebvre says, “rural roads that are very costly to maintain.”
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that → have → roads
To get that ore to the smelter, Lefebvre says, the trucks run about 70 kilometres, all of it on municipal pavement.
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trucks → get → pavement
Nine operating mines, more coming, two smelters — the whole circuit lies inside city limits.
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circuit → operate → limits
“This does not exist anywhere else in the world,” he says, meaning both mining and processing inside a 50-kilometre radius.
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he → exist → radius
Sudbury’s camp is not remote so companies pay the higher rate.
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companies → pay → rate
That revenue does not land at Sudbury’s Tom Davies Square; it goes to Toronto’s Queen’s Park.
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it → land → Park
Corporate income tax goes to Ottawa.
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tax → go → Ottawa
The city is left with property tax on the assessable surface land and buildings — to support a road network built for a national supply chain.
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city → leave → chain
Lefebvre will not join the bar-stool chorus that the mining companies should simply be shaken down.
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companies → join → chorus
“Mines are paying their taxes and their royalties,” he says.
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he → pay → taxes
The frustration is aimed at the split of revenues.
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frustration → aim → revenues
“Help us help the province grow this,” he tells me.
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he → help → me
He even likes Carney’s new capital-cost break.
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He → like → break
He just cannot pave 3,600 lane-kilometres with applause.
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He → pave → applause
Trying to squeeze more from the assessment roll has already failed.
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Trying → try → roll
After the last big Municipal Property Assessment Corp. review a decade ago, the value of assessed mining properties in Sudbury was cut by about 47 per cent.
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value → assess → cent
The city spent years at the Assessment Review Board and lost in 2025.
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city → spend → 2025
There is a provincial consolation prize; the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund is real money for small, rural and northern places.
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Fund → be → places
The funding available to a community is also capped at $10 million.
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funding → cap → million
This startles me; I still think of Sudbury as the poster child for Big Nickel.
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I → startle → Nickel
In the last world war, International Nickel and the Sudbury workforce supplied on the order of 95 per cent of Allied nickel.
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Nickel → supply → nickel
In February 1942, C.D. Howe told Sudbury nickel workers that if production there stopped, “the whole character of the war will be changed.”
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character → tell → war
In the early 1960s, the same city put up a ring of civil-defence sirens and sent kids under their desks at school.
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city → put → school
We are happy to call the place strategic; we are less eager to pay for the roads that still move the metal.
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that → call → metal
Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford heads the provincial government and two NDP MPPs hold the local ridings in Sudbury.
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MPPs → head → Sudbury
Lefebvre is running for re-election as mayor on Oct. 26.
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Lefebvre → run → Oct.
“My job as mayor is to develop good relations with the province,” he says, “and I’ve done that.”
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I → develop → that
The ask on the table is to designate Greater Sudbury as a special economic zone (SEZ) and park some of the mining-tax stream where the trucks actually roll.
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trucks → designate → stream
There’s an important distinction: Ontario’s new SEZ law is a permitting tool; it does not, by itself, redirect royalties.
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it → ’ → royalties
That part is still a negotiation, the mayor explains.
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mayor → explain → ?
Lefebvre encourages Indigenous participation in the mining sector, and has taken his pitch to the chiefs of the two First Nations whose communities sit in and around the city.
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communities → encourage → city
“They were shocked when I told them, ‘No, no, no.
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I → shock → them
We don’t get direct benefits,’” from the province or the companies.
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We → get → province
Operating Sudbury mines and smelters did not turn up among the named Investment Summit files.
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Operating → operate → files
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
