Shared headquarters a possibility for Sudbury emergency services

The City of Greater Sudbury is looking into options to create a shared central headquarters for police, fire and paramedic services.

The Greater Sudbury Police say that there are a number of issues with the current headquarters on Brady Street, the main concern being safety, because officer, accused persons and visitors including victims and witnesses have to use the same elevator.

The city says fire and paramedic services are also facing challenges at the Lionel E. Lalonde Centre in Azilda.

City councillors say this creates an opportunity to explore the options to see what a combined headquarter could look like. City staff will work with Sudbury police and come back to council with a report that includes shared central headquarters as an option.

"It's not going to create a divide between the core of Sudbury and the outlying areas. The outlying areas are still going to remain the same, they're still going to have their services," Ward 11 Counc. Bill Leduc said.

"We're just trying to bring everything under one roof to make it much more cost effective for Sudbury and the residents."

Ward 6 Counc.Ren Lapierreagrees that it's an option that should be looked at.

"All the services are looking for newer centres, some are in much worse conditions than the others, it's not a change in service levels, it's not a change in staffing level, it's just to have a conversation between all our city services to see is there any value to building a bigger station to house everybody together," said Lapierre.

Leduc says this idea is still in the early stages and that shared headquarters does not mean anyone will lose their jobs, but it could mean closing some older fire stations.

However, not all councillorsagree with this idea.

Ward 3 Counc, Michael Vagnini says this plan sounds too similar to the fire and paramedic optimization plan that council shelved in April 2017.

"The whole thing about optimization is going to end up back on the table, because I hear it going from 25 stations down to 15 stations and this is just talking about the same thing all over again," he said.

No date has been set for city staff to report back to council.