Greater Sudbury will soon begin dusting off its sports infrastructure to host the 2025 Ontario 55+ Summer Games this coming August.

The announcement was made Oct. 31.

The province said in a news release is its providing $235,000 to support the city’s hosting efforts. The games are expected to attract more than 1,000 participants who will compete in more than a dozen events over three days in August 2025.

Hosting the games is expected to generate more than $1.5 million in economic spinoff benefits for Greater Sudbury.

"We are thrilled to host the 2025 Ontario 55+ Games. This is an exciting opportunity not only to showcase our vibrant community, but also to draw visitors from across the province,” said Mayor Paul Lefebvre in a news release. “We look forward to welcoming the athletes and their families to Greater Sudbury in August."

The City of Greater Sudbury said this past August that it had been asked to bid on hosting the games, which council unanimously agreed to do.

At the time, City Leisure Services director Jeff Pafford said he was optimistic city facilities could accommodate the games and that there’s a volunteer base “well suited to be able to facilitate the games.”

When Greater Sudbury hosted the 2010 Ontario Summer Games, the city was required to build certain facilities, such as beach volleyball courts and BMX cycling track. This wouldn’t be the case with the 55+ Summer Games, Pafford said, which likely will only require “minor capital upgrades” to host.

A successful motion in August from Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin and Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent asked staff to “report back on necessary capital upgrades and funding resources,” in the event the city proves successful in their bid, so that report should be in the works. Additional capital upgrades to meet the games’ needs might make hosting more costly.

The three-day Ontario 55+ Summer Games will see participants compete in such sports as cycling, tennis, swimming, predictive walking, carpet bowling, shuffleboard, pickleball, slo-pitch, bowling, cards, bocce, pool, darts and golf.

Hosting the games is anticipated to cost $486,000, including a $45,000 contingency fund.

Costs would be funded through the Ontario Ministry of Sport Hosting Grant ($235,000), Greater Sudbury Development Corporation’s Tourism Development Fund ($90,000), registration fees ($90,000), sponsorship ($20,000) and the Tourism Event Support Program ($20,000). The $30,000 balance is expected to be funded from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation and FedNor, for which grants will be submitted now that Sudbury has won the right to host the games.

The Ontario 55+ Summer Games event used to be called “Activefest” and was first held in 1986 in Kitchener.

-with files from Tyler Clarke

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Ontario will provide $235,000 to support Greater Sudbury’s successful bid to host the games, the province said in a media release on Thursday.

Expected to draw more than 1,000 participants for almost 20 events, the games are expected to generate more than $1.5 million in economic benefits to Greater Sudbury and surrounding communities.

“Our government is proud to support the 2025 Ontario 55+ Summer Games in Greater Sudbury where our 55+ participants can showcase their abilities in competitions with their peers from across the province,” Neil Lumsden, Ontario’s minister of sport, said in the province’s release. “The games are another great example of our work to maximize the economic impact of sport tourism in Ontario and help older adults lead healthier, more active lives.”

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The 2025 Ontario 55+ Summer Games will provide a boost to tourism in the North and strengthen local hospitality industries, businesses, hotels and restaurants, the provincial government said.

“We are thrilled to host the 2025 Ontario 55+ Games,” Greater Sudbury mayor Paul Lefebvre said. “This is an exciting opportunity not only to showcase our vibrant community, but also to draw visitors from across the province. Hosting these games allows us to continue growing our capacity for large-scale sports tourism events, generating economic benefits and cultivating community collaboration. We look forward to welcoming the athletes and their families to Greater Sudbury in August. Together, we will create unforgettable experiences that celebrate the spirit of active living.”

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The Ontario 55+ Summer Games occur every two years and are delivered by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, in partnership with the Ontario Senior Games Association. Participants can go on to represent Ontario at the next Canada 55+ Games.

The ministry provides an annual grant of $110,000 to the OSGA for activities and programs that support the games.

OSGA is a non-profit organization that promotes a variety of sports, including slo-pitch, curling, cycling, lawn bowling, tennis, pickleball and golf.

“The Ontario Senior Games Association is excited to partner with the City of Sudbury to host the 2025 Ontario 55+ Summer Games,” Daria Thompson of the OSGA said. “The OSGA is proud to lead an organization that helps enhance the skills, health, and well-being of participants through a broad competition that attracts recreational athletes from across the province.”

Ontario’s ministry of sport leads a competitive bidding process to select a host municipality for each of the five provincial multi-sport games, including the Ontario Summer and Winter Games for youth, the Ontario 55+ Summer and Winter Games and the Ontario Parasport Games.

Greater Sudbury hosted the 2010 Ontario Summer Games.

A surprise closed-session vote of council this week ended Ed Archer’s run

Listen to this article 00:07:02

In the wake of this week's news that city CAO Ed Archer’s eight-year career with the city was over, neither Mayor Paul Lefebvre nor Archer himself would say why the decision was made.

The news was delivered via a media release issued during the Oct. 22 city council meeting.

After the meeting, Lefebvre clarified to local reporters that it followed a closed-session vote of city council members prior to that night’s public meeting.

The reason for this decision?

“We can’t talk about that under the Employment Act of Ontario,” Lefebvre said.

“We don’t make these decisions lightly, and I’d like to thank Mr. Archer for his eight years of service,” he added. “Our city has improved under his leadership, and now, council wants to look across the country for a new CAO that will bring us to our next level and next steps as a city.”

Sudbury.com connected with Archer by phone, who said that while he was surprised by council’s decision to end his employment, it’s a reality for city managers.

“If you monitor the municipal sector, you know CAOs serve at the pleasure of council, and in this case serve at the pleasure of a Strong Mayor, so that’s the circumstance,” he said.

Through the Strong Mayor powers bestowed upon him by the province, Lefebvre maintains the power to hire and fire the city CAO.

“We’ll close out the relationship and move on wishing each other well, I suspect,” Archer said.

“We had good results, the organization is in a better place than it was when I got here, and I look forward to seeing where it goes from here.”

Any discussion regarding severance pay has yet to take place, Archer said, noting that it would be within the parameters of his publicly available employment agreement.

Its termination provision stipulates that although the city can terminate employment at any time with cause, any other termination of employment would include severance pay of 24 months after six years of service.

Archer has been CAO since March 2016, and his 2023 salary was $297,160, meaning his severance pay in this scenario would be almost $600,000.

The city declined comment regarding the matter of severance pay, citing it as confidential. The mayor’s office declined to provide any additional comment regarding how the decision to terminate Archer’s employment was made, since it took place during a confidential closed-session meeting.

Corporate Services general manager Kevin Fowke was named interim CAO.

Although a media release noted that further announcements regarding the recruitment process and transition plan would be made in the coming weeks, Lefebvre clarified to media that it would be an open-ended national search.

“The idea is certainly to look for someone who’s going to continue down the path of our long-term strategy we’re doing,” he said, pointing to social issues around addictions and homelessness and economic growth as key priorities for whomever they end up hiring.

“We have a great team at the city, there’s lots going on, so we’re looking for somebody to come in and continue on the positive steps we’re taking as a city”

In conversation with Sudbury.com, Archer pointed to a few highlights during his time as CAO which stick out, clarifying that any accomplishments he listed were a shared effort by staff.

During his time, the field of knowledge and responsibilities held by 311 staff expanded, increasing the number of first-call resolutions from around 45 per cent to 75 per cent.

“They have a much broader scope to their work, they’re more cross-trained and able to do almost any transaction in the corporation,” Archer said, noting that the One-Stop Shop was also created at Tom Davies Square, which consolidated more than a dozen service counters to one location, reducing the headcount and “enriching the jobs of the people who are there.”

The city’s budget process changed since Archer took over in 2016 to fuel city council members with more information prior to making decisions.

“When I got here, all councillors talked about was how much things cost and how to get to a bottom-line tax level that was acceptable, and there was no discussion about service,” he said. “I think the conversation has flipped. Certainly taxes are still important, they always will be, but I think people understand that services drive costs.”

Various management tools have been put in place to do things like track how much time staff members spend on each task, which helps determine actual costs and what fair user fees should look like, a reconfigured public transportation system was created called GOVA Transit, and the Greater Sudbury Housing Corporation is undergoing governance changes.

A lot of work has been done behind the scenes, but one thing Archer is particularly proud of has been the amount of context staff have been providing city council to help in their decision-making processes, to “minimize the risks and see what the implications of their choices were before they made them and avoid back-tracking or second-guessing.”

With the news of his terminated employment fresh, Archer said he’s not sure what his next step will be, but that he still has a lot to contribute so has no plans to retire.

“I’m proud of my time here. I think we did good work, and I believe at least the majority of councillors feel the same way,” he said. “I look forward to what’s next.”

Archer has been criticized by some city council members in recent months for approving last year’s wage hikes to managers in pay groups 15 to 18, which were as much as eight per cent in addition to their regular three-per-cent increases.

City council members’ criticism came despite Archer increasing wages using the delegated authority afforded to him by a unanimous vote of city council members and the fact the increases were in line with existing council-approved parameters to bring them up to designated levels after having dropped below an approved list of comparable municipalities in recent years.

City council later voted to withdraw this delegated authority.

Coun. Natalie Labbée was Archer’s most outspoken critic, penning an open letter asserting that if she were CAO, she would resign over the wage-hike issue.

City integrity commissioner David Boghosian later admonished Labbée for publicly maligning Archer, and wrote in a report on her conduct that Labbée’s comments “were motivated by a desire to distance herself from the decision in order to salvage her own political fortunes.”

Prior to Sudbury, Archer served as chief financial officer and interim city manager at the City of Regina from 2014-16. Before that, he was general manager of Community and Corporate Services at the City of Barrie from 2007 to 2014.

Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.

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Greater Sudbury has ended the employment of CAO Ed Archer, Mayor Paul Lefebvre announced suddenly Tuesday evening.

No reason for the decision was given in a news release from the mayor's office, only that Archer was being let go "effective immediately."

"The mayor thanked Mr. Archer for his years of service and contributions and wished him well in his future endeavours," the release said.

"We appreciate Ed’s commitment and contributions over the past eight years," Lefebvre is quoted as saying in the release.

"Mr. Archer helped to navigate the city through significant challenges and change during his tenure."

Lefebvre also said that Kevin Fowke will assume the role as interim CAO, but added that further announcements regarding the recruitment process and the transition plan will be made in the coming weeks.

In comments to CTV Northern Ontario's Amanda Hicks, the mayor said he couldn't comment on why Archer is being replaced.

"We can't talk about that under the Employment Act of Ontario. That being said, as I said, we don't do these decisions lightly," Lefebvre said.

'I want to thank Mr. Archer'

"And I want to thank Mr. Archer for the eight years of services that he brought from where our city has improved under his leadership."

When asked about the terms under which Archer was being let go, he said it is being done under the contract he signed with former Mayor Brian Bigger.

"We're following the contract that was signed previously by Mayor Bigger and Mr. Archer in 2016," Lefebvre said.

"So we are obligated to follow that. It is a public contract. Anybody can have a look at that."

Under that contract, if Archer was terminated without cause, he would be entitled to two years pay as severance, or about $600,000.

"The search for a new CAO will begin shortly, with a national recruitment effort underway to identify a candidate with the vision and leadership skills necessary to support Greater Sudbury's long-term goals," the mayor said in Tuesday's news release.

Archer attracted criticism earlier this year when it emerged that managers at the city were receiving an 11 per cent wage increase.

Some city councillors said they were aware of a five to eight per cent increase, but were not informed of an additional three per cent increase given in April of this year.

That led to strong public criticisms of Archer by some on council, which led to an investigation by the city's integrity commissioner.

It also led councillors in May to revoke the CAO's authority to adjust the pay structure of all or some categories of non-union employees, meaning that wage increases will have to go through council.

In addition, a motion presented by Coun. Fern Cormier was approved requiring the salaries for non-unionized staff to be posted online as a means of increasing transparency.

On Tuesday, the mayor said that "the city is well-positioned for growth and job creation, and we are confident that with new leadership, we will better prosper, innovate, and achieve the best for our community."

With Files from Amanda Hicks.