When amalgamation was forced upon the region on January 1,
2001, it signaled the end of the "City of Valley East" - the
name which we had recently acquired in an effort to show the rest of the
world just how proud we were to be part of this great municipality.
We wanted to shout out to everyone that we were not just a town, but a
full-grown city with all of the elements and spirit you would expect to
find in a city. Our shouts of joy were short-lived.
Amalgamation was heralded in with promises of great things to come. The
City of Greater Sudbury would indeed bring us all together as a united
body and lead us into the promised land.
Well, it’s been almost three years since the famous take-over
occurred, and all we have is disappointment and confusion.
Thankfully, the impressive road signs along the major entrances to our
community were not lost. Even though the word "City" has been
removed, the signs still welcome people to the ‘Valley East’. It is
time for local residents to become mobilized by those signs as we are
about to celebrate our 100th birthday. It is time to take
action which will bring back the "community spirit" which was
once so proudly displayed in the ‘City of Valley East’.
As I stood beside the sign along Hwy. 69N, (in the photo above), I was
immediately overcome by a tremendous sense of pride. My wife and I have
lived in Valley East since 1974, raising three sons in this community, and
we have always been ready to defend it’s image and reputation to all who
would listen.
Valley East was once a leader in the Sudbury Region - one of the
fastest growing communities in Ontario. What happened?
When amalgamation took away our name, unfortunately, we also allowed it
to take away some of our spirit. We sat back and resolved ourselves to the
fact that we had lost the war.
Well, we can’t get our name back. We won’t ever be called a city
again, but we certainly can recapture that ‘community’ spirit. And
that is just what we intend to do with the help of our neighbours.