Vote to disband Greater Sudbury Development Corporation board deferred

A controversial motion that would see the dissolution of the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation has been deferred by city council.

The motion, put forward by Mayor Brian Bigger, was supposed to be debated during Tuesday's city council meeting. If passed, it would see the GSDC board of directors replaced by city councillors.

Current and past members of the board have expressed concern about the motion. The Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to the mayor and council asking it be delayed until more consultation is done.

At the meeting on Tuesday, Bigger says he's been asked a lot of questions about the motion since bringing it forward. As a result, he says he decided it would be best to defer the motion until those questions can beanswered properly.

"I had conversations with the board of directors at GSDC, there's been a lot of conversation about my motion and many people had questions," he said.

"In order to facilitate answering them I'd like to defer my motion pending a staff report which would outline what the GSDC board would look like."

Bigger says the extra time gives city staff time to prepare a report that would explain what the changes would look like.

"As I requested in the motion, they would bring back a terms of reference, staff recommendations on what a cabinet might look like, how all of this would work in finer details," he said.

"That way council has all of the information that they would need to make an informed decision at that time"

The motion will be brought back to council in September.