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PHOTOS: Elbows Up rally in the Sault celebrates all things Canadian

SooToday

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Gordie Howe was the person that made "ELBOWS UP" famous. Ironically, he was a supporter of the Conservative Party and his wife ran as a Republican in the states. I know they call this bipartisanship, but this is blatantly a bunch of liberals gathering for a rally. Note Sheehan in one of the photos, not to mention our Liberal leaning Mayor and Frank O'Connor who is also a hardcore Liberal. Good to see people getting out, however, this term is now linked to the Liberals and is definitely not bipartisan.

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PUC ordered to disclose energy contracts and internal emails

SooToday

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How many companies does the PUC own stake in that ratepayers are on the hook for? We have a watermain relining company, an arborist company, and apparently they bought stake in a line company. Why are the ratepayers and majority owner not notified of the financials of all of these supposed revenue generating subsidiaries? When neighborhoods have lights flickering because there is not enough power or a lack of good power, why are we on the hook to fix it? How is evolutionary Smart Grid helping us? Has the EAF pulled more power than the PUC can supply them and now neighborhoods have flickering lights? Why are the higher ups driving unmarked electric vehicles home and why is the PUC paying to put charging stations in their homes? One employee lives approx 1km away and has an office job and a Lighting pickup truck paid for by PUC. It's unbelievable that us ratepayers are on the hook. It's hard to believe that the current president and CEO bankrupted the previous company he worked for.

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'They're going to get smoked' — Parent sounds alarm over back-to-school roadwork

SooToday

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Photo 2&3 literally show a pedestrian crosswalk not being used by students. It's everyone else's fault when stupidity takes precedence.

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Is this now the Sault’s favourite Instagram spot?

SooToday

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100% over budget, another great job by city staff! Yes, the stairs needed attention, but did we need to build a new elevator outside when there’s literally an elevator on the ground level at the west entrance of the building that has worked for years. They could have reconfigured the hallways inside the building to deny access to the remainder of the building for the public who used the elevators rather than building the new one outside. They could have also restricted access to other floors with key fobs given to city staff for access. There were much more affordable way to do this. The new elevator was definitely a decision that designers and city staff should be on the hook for. Let’s start holding our engineers and architects accountable when projects go over budget due to poor planning or budgeting. They have insurance for a reason. Also, give the contractor bonuses for finding cost savings rather than rewarding them for going over budget.

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Solicitor general praises Sault Police, blocks OPP takeover request

SooToday

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Mr. Spina seems to have made himself look incompetent again. Failed businessman, failed police officer, failed politician in 2 levels of government. Let's hope we have some better options in the next municipal election. This is a great signal that maybe we need to increase the city policing budget. Maybe the 15+ million we've spent on repaving Queen Street and the building the Downtown Plaza are good examples of how not to spend money. Get the vagrants out of downtown and maybe people will actually visit.

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MTO defends daytime-only construction for Highway

SooToday

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"Commuters" lol. You live in Goulais River. Plan to leave earlier and get home later. Same people that complain about the condition of the highway are now complaining that they're fixing it. Get over it. You pay dismal taxes in Goulais River (or anywhere north of the city for that matter). You should thank the remainder of the province for paying for a new road for you. There are only 2 seasons here- Construction and winter. Get used to it. It keeps people working and the economy moving.

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How the city's planning to rejigger Lyons Ave. and Wellington West

SooToday

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I think city council is on a common sense diet.

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Last call: Station Mall LCBO closing its doors for good this Sunday

SooToday

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The neighborhood folk downtown are the exact reason why this location is moving. If it were your business, I think you would be tired of the shoplifting too. Better to be in a neighborhood where crime is lower. Maybe this will help their shoplifting stats.

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Tax hike on Sault hotel rooms proposed to help pay for urban beach

SooToday

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This will cost millions. I am on board when we are in a financially stable position. The boardwalk link is nice, but for an extra 2-3 minutes, I don't think spending millions on this would make any sense. Architects, engineers, and politicians love spending our money. Hopefully they can do this one responsibly.

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Last call: Station Mall LCBO closing its doors for good this Sunday

SooToday

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I heard Costco is building it's first floating location on the St. Mary's River. That way they can float it to Toronto when the steel plant closes and this city is nothing but a ghost town. Got any styrofoam? Maybe we can float the mall down the river too.

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Weather plays a factor for painting lines on roads: traffic manager

SooToday

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The city sold an almost brand new line painting machine that was used for 1 season for about 40% of what they paid for it. All because the guy in charge didn't want to do his job. Our "competent" city workers also thought it was a good idea to clean the paint tanks into a catch basin at PWT on Sackville, causing an environmental investigation when Fort Creek was running bright yellow. Utter incompetence at the city as per usual.

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Portion of Peoples Road closing for six months

SooToday

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Did you maybe consider that it's not possible or not economical for them to leave a lane open? We will be just fine with the extra drive to the store or work for 6 months.

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Hollingsworth calls for mayor’s resignation from police board

SooToday

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Ponytail,The police board, association, and chiefs have told council that if their budget was increased to allow for more officers, we wouldn't need to pay our existing cops double time to come in for overtime. This would greatly reduce the cost overruns. Look at what they paid in overtime last year. The former chief has called for reform so we aren't arresting the same people daily, weekly, or monthly. This is also causing huge cost overruns. The police needed to install bodycams on all officers then hire civilians to oversee the systems. This caused and will continue to cause cost overruns. I don't know the exact figure, but ask a cop how many calls 100 specific people have caused in the last year. I think you might change your mind.

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Last call: Station Mall LCBO closing its doors for good this Sunday

SooToday

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It's not ownership. There wasn't even speculation of poor ownership when this decision was made. Over 2 million in losses per year due to shoplifting. I'd be moving too.

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Poor road conditions cancel area school buses

SooToday

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Schools don't have wheels on them either. They will be fine. Roads are more than passable for cars and pickups. Get to work.

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Weather plays a factor for painting lines on roads: traffic manager

SooToday

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Typical response from someone who has no accountability at the City. Provincial Line Painting (name of the company) had our entire city done in less than 48 hours last year. Same weather we had been getting for the last 2 months. No reason why it's taking this long for a different contractor to firstly show up, and secondly, complete the project fast. Also, why are we paying the contractor to re paint lines on the roads that are getting torn up this year? McNabb- East of Black Rd, Great Northern Rd from 3rd Line to Wigle Street, Wallace Terrace from underpass to Korah Rd. Just to name a few. Kilometers of streets that are going to be torn up eventually. I'm sure someone at the city could have done their job and saved us some money.

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Sound quality curse continues to plague city council livestream

SooToday

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Why are we letting staff make it public how much this will cost? Why not keep the number quiet and see what local contractors come in at. Giving a budget price makes this less competitive as contractors now know how much the city is willing to spend rather than what it will actually cost. Our municipal tax dollars hard at work.

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City moves to fill in Sackville Road ravine

SooToday

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Too bad Provenzano vetoed this during his time as mayor. His excuse was that the city was not in a financial position for it at the time, yet he pushed the plaza through when it was an even worse time for the city coffers. How much more is it going to cost now (post covid). Funny how the Sackville extension would have opened up development land for residential units. Provenzano must have had a bone to pick with the developer. Either way, happy to see it coming back to the table. Next, extend Willow Avenue through to Old Garden River Road where the private fire/ambulance road is so we can avoid Northern/GNR and 2nd Line/GNR intersections.

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City considers roundabout at Second Line and Goulais Avenue

SooToday

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Can we not avoid the purchase of private property and just time the lights better so more traffic can pass through? Can we wide the road a bit each way to allow for a dedicated right hand turn lane? Maybe remove the left hand turn lane, make it a straight through and left hand turn lane, and make the far right lane a dedicated right hand turn lane. I truly believe this can be fixed with timing the light properly. Heading west, it's the last light before city limits, so there's no concern there. Letting the east/west green run and extra 30 seconds in the cycle will allow more traffic to pass through. Yes, north south traffic will need to wait longer, but that's a small price to pay compared to millions being spent on a roundabout and purchasing abutting property.

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More construction work planned on underpass storm sewer

SooToday

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Do we even recall that the city repaved the entire underpass on their own approximately 5 years ago and now it already needs to be done again? Is no one asking why their crew isn't being held to account as much as a private firm?

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