Sudbury councillors need to 'earn' votes, taxpayers group says

The Greater Sudbury Taxpayers Association says its goal this year is to create better informed voters in the city.

The citizens group unveiled a plan on Mondayto post platform information on its website and host debates in each of the city's 12 wards.

The association was founded by people who worked on the campaign of Mayor Marianne Matichuk, but President Dan Melanson said that fact has distracted too much from the group's message.

[I] would have hoped that people would have gotten past that, he said.

It really has nothing to do with the work that the GSTA has been doing for the past two-three years.

To confirm its neutrality, Melanson said neither he, nor anyone else on the association's executive, will be involved with any candidate's campaign this fall.

Melanson said the association plans to focus on the voting record of the 12 incumbent councillors.

"What we need to do is we need to have these councillors earn the right to be a councillor, as opposed to just getting it by virtue of the fact of how much recognition their name gets, he said.