Someone needs to make a decision already

In Greater Sudbury, there are a number of things we do really well.

But where we might shine the brightest is coming up with plans. We love plans, especially strategic ones. We love vision statements and visioning sessions. We're lousy with them. We absolutely love paying consultants to tell us things we probably already know, but like to hear repeated back to us, as reassurance perhaps. 

We definitely love reports. We love having reports done up, especially if we can find a shelf somewhere to put them on.

But what we don't love all that much in Greater Sudbury, it seems, is making decisions.

We need a new arena, but can't decide where to put it or how best to achieve it. We want venues for our city art gallery and space for the Sudbury Symphony, but can't make a multi-use arts and culture centre a reality. We want to revitalize our downtown, and developed a plan to do it, but have taken only a few stuttering steps to make it happen.

We have all these wonderful plans for how Greater Sudbury could be, but have trouble moving from vision statements to shovels. And that's really a shame, because Greater Sudbury really should be the crown jewel of Northern Ontario cities.

And now we have yet another plan on the books. The city's most recent — From the Ground Up 2015-2025 — contains some good ideas, but these good ideas are in equal measure to nebulous goals without any real direction for how to achieve them.

A major plank in the document is the so-called "Everest Goal" of creating 10,000 net new jobs by 2025. A lofty goal, to be sure, and one that requires Greater Sudbury's population to grow by 30,000 people — 30,000.

Nevermind that between 2001 and 2011 the population grew by only 5,000. The plan says we can attract the extra 25,000 with good, high-paying jobs, community amenities (like a new Sudbury Arena), a healthy downtown and a vibrant arts and culture scene that is served by the necessary infrastructure for arts and culture to thrive.

Do you see where I'm going with this? Without follow-through, without someone making a decision, strategic plans like “From the Ground Up” are essentially useless, a waste of time, money and ideas.

Don't get me wrong, vision statements and strategic plans serve a valuable purpose. But that purpose is served only if we follow through and make some choices.

I believe Greater Sudbury is the best city in Northern Ontario, the type of place that gives Canada its charm. 

It's an amazing synergy of urban and rural. We have more than 300 lakes in city limits, for goodness sake. The boreal forest and the Canadian Shield collide in our backyards.

Juxtapose all the nature that surrounds us with a thriving movie industry, hockey rinks and public parks, art galleries and restaurants galore. There's a new pulse downtown. And we're still the mining capital of the world.

As a transplanted Sudburian, I have to wonder why — with this incredible thing we have — we don’t take ownership of how great Greater Sudbury truly is and how much greater it could be.

Mark Gentili is the managing editor of Northern Life and NorthernLife.ca.