Service Cuts and Privatization of Services On The Horizon For the City of Greater Sudbury

Bill Cole, and his wife, Diane, owners/operators of Time Out Catering, have held the contract to run the canteens at the Valley East arenas for the past five years. During that time, Bill and his staff of six have “raised the bar” with respect to the quality of service found at arenas. The municipality receives a guaranteed annual payment as part of the deal, but Bill is satisfied with the business and is hoping to have his contract renewed for another three years.

His future will soon be decided by the City of Greater Sudbury as councillors and administrators try to find over $10 million in savings in order to balance their budget for the year. Early estimates project that these savings are needed just to maintain the status quo - a condition which many feel is not acceptable in light of the fact that residents already feel short-changed as a result of amalgamation and restructuring. City administrators are tossing around terms such as “service cuts”, “workforce reductions”, and “privatization of service delivery”, while attempting to refrain from any reference to “property tax increases”.

Time Out Catering is one small example of what “privatization” may hold for local residents. With the exception of the two arenas in Valley East and a couple of others in the district, all of the food service canteens have been taken over by the City of Greater Sudbury with all of the revenue going directly to the city coffers.

Anyone who has a chance to visit other arenas in the City of Greater Sudbury will understand why many local residents are upset at the prospect of Valley East losing the services of the Cole family in exchange for a city-run replacement. Valley East is still one of the only places where you can get a large cup of coffee for a buck, in a styrofoam cup which doesn’t burn your hand! City-run arenas usually give you a thin paper cup and charge you $1.25 for the something which resembles coffee. Virtually all other prices at city-run arenas are approximately 25% higher than in Valley East, and offer no where near the selection of products we have here. We have one of the few places in the City where you can still get a good order of french fries. The city-run canteens are operated by part-time employees who earn their wages and go home. They are not operated by an owner who is concerned about what customers are saying and who has responded to their requests by expanding his product mix. When customers have a concern or suggestion - Bill Cole listens because he is the owner. Who is the owner at a city-run canteen? Who cares about the opinions of customers?

Valley East canteens are always open during practices, figure skating and amazingly, at the end of late night games. This writer still finds it unbelievable that city-run canteens often shut down during the 3^rd period of a late night hockey game. Look at the lost business which is lost at the end of the game when spectators want that last cup of coffee, and players are looking for a pop and a chip for the ride home. Instead, the city-run canteens operate on a policy which dictates when to open and close. It doesn’t matter if there are a hundred people in the stands - when it is closing time, the gate is shut. It doesn’t matter if parents must be in the arena  over a half hour before game time, if the game is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m., the canteen will open at 5:30 p.m. Bill Cole, as a businessman, remains open as long as there is a demand for his services and a chance to do business.

Earlier this past year a midget team from North Bay played Valley East at Centennial Arena. At the conclusion of the game Bill kept his canteen open so that the out-of-town players could eat and get food for the long bus ride back to North Bay. He was told by the North Bay players and coaching staff that they had never seen such good service from an arena canteen. Bill Cole closed up at 11:30 that evening. A city-run canteen would never have done the same.

So as councillors and city administrators attempt to cut a massive $10 million from their budget, let’s hope that they don’t simply terminate the provision of some of the services we have come to expect. Let’s hope that they come up with a way of turning those endangered services over to the private sector. Bill Cole has shown that privatization in some areas is not really a bad thing. Whatever happens, let’s certainly hope that city administrators don’t get the idea that they can turn a profit in the same manner and try to take over a good thing. All this means is that the level of service will decline and we will have to listen to some $100,000 a year administrator and his secretarial staff complain about being overworked because of the problems of operating the food concessions at the arenas.

We should all be paying a great deal of attention to what goes on during budget deliberations during the next several weeks. The decisions will have a tremendous impact on the future of the City of Greater Sudbury.

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