Brian Bigger is a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
politician who was the mayor of
Greater Sudbury
Sudbury, officially the City of Greater Sudbury is the largest city in Northern Ontario by population, with a population of 166,004 at the 2021 Canadian Census. By land area, it is the largest in Ontario and the List of the largest cities and to ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
from 2014 to 2022. He was elected in the city's
2014 municipal election. Prior to serving as mayor, Bigger served as the first Auditor General for the city.
Background
Born and raised in Sudbury, Bigger attended high school at
St. Charles College,
["Mayoral profile: Bigger believes in value for money "]
''Sudbury Star
''The Sudbury Star'' is a Canadian daily regional newspaper published in Sudbury, Ontario. It is owned by the media company, Postmedia. It is the largest daily paper in Northeastern Ontario by circulation.
History
The ''Sudbury Star'' began as ...
'', October 24, 2014. and studied marketing at
Cambrian College and commerce at
Laurentian University
Laurentian University (french: Université Laurentienne), officially the Laurentian University of Sudbury, is a mid-sized Bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, incorporated on March 28, 1960. Lau ...
.
He is a
Chartered Professional Accountant
Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA; french: comptable professionnel agréé) is the professional certification, professional designation which united the three Canadian accounting designations that previously existed:
:* Canadian Institute ...
,
and worked as an accountant and auditor for
Sears Canada
Sears Canada Inc. was a publicly-traded Canadian company affiliated with the American-based Sears department store chain. In operation from 1952 until January 14, 2018, and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, the company began as Simpsons-Searsâ ...
and the
Regional Municipality of Halton
The Regional Municipality of Halton, or Halton Region, is a regional municipality in Ontario, Canada, located in the Golden Horseshoe of Southern Ontario. It comprises the city of Burlington and the towns of Oakville, Milton, and Halton Hi ...
["Bigger granted leave to run for mayor of Sudbury"]
''Sudbury Star
''The Sudbury Star'' is a Canadian daily regional newspaper published in Sudbury, Ontario. It is owned by the media company, Postmedia. It is the largest daily paper in Northeastern Ontario by circulation.
History
The ''Sudbury Star'' began as ...
'', August 1, 2014. until he was appointed to a three-year term as the city of Greater Sudbury's
auditor general
An auditor general, also known in some countries as a comptroller general or comptroller and auditor general, is a senior civil servant charged with improving government accountability by auditing and reporting on the government's operations.
Freq ...
in 2009.
["Auditors serve up savings". '']Windsor Star
The ''Windsor Star'' is a daily newspaper based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Postmedia Network, it is published Tuesdays through Saturdays.
History
The paper began as the weekly ''Windsor Record'' in 1888, changing its name to the ''Bo ...
'', March 4, 2011.
As auditor general, he identified significant waste in the city's management of road maintenance, including scheduling inefficiencies and overbilling by outside contractors,
as well as uncovering an illegal practice of paid shift trading taking place among employees of
Greater Sudbury Transit
GOVA, formerly known as Greater Sudbury Transit, is a public transport authority that is responsible for serving bus routes in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada and area. The network is the largest in Northern Ontario, comprising 41 routes operati ...
.
In 2011,
Greater Sudbury City Council
Greater Sudbury City Council (french: Conseil municipal du Grand Sudbury) is the governing body of the City of Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
The council consists of the mayor plus a twelve-person council. The city is divided into twelve wards; ...
held an
in camera
''In camera'' (; Latin: "in a chamber"). is a legal term that means ''in private''. The same meaning is sometimes expressed in the English equivalent: ''in chambers''. Generally, ''in-camera'' describes court cases, parts of it, or process wh ...
meeting about whether to renew Bigger's contract for a second three-year term; during the meetings, they took the unusual step of deciding to hire an outside auditor to audit Bigger's office.
["City Issues: What Sudbury's Mayoral Race Means to the Rest of Ontario"]
. ''The Agenda
''The Agenda with Steve Paikin'', or simply ''The Agenda'', is the flagship current affairs television program of TVOntario (TVO), Ontario's public broadcaster. Anchor Steve Paikin states that the show practices long-form journalism. Each hour- ...
'', October 17, 2014. Bigger's contract was renewed, but several citizens of the city filed a complaint with the
Ontario Ombudsman
The Office of the Ombudsman of Ontario is an independent office of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario.
Role
The office's jurisdiction includes more than 500 provincial government ministries, agencies, corpor ...
about the closed-door meetings.
Ombudsman
André Marin
André Marin is a lawyer who served as Ontario ombudsman from 2005 to 2015.
Personal
Marin is a graduate of Carleton University (BA 1985) and University of Ottawa (LLL 1988, JD 1989).
Career
After graduating from law school, Marin became an ass ...
investigated the matter, ultimately finding that council was within its right to hold a closed meeting as it was a personnel matter involving a city employee, but criticized many of the councillors in his final report for refusing to cooperate with his investigation.
As a result of Marin's report, city council voted to reject any oversight from the ombudsman's office.
Politics
Bigger stated that by summer 2014, he was beginning to consider running for mayor to combat the obstruction he had faced in his role as auditor.
In August, he requested a leave of absence from his job as auditor to launch a campaign for mayor.
The request was granted.
However, council then faced a further controversy when, rather than hiring or contracting a temporary auditor general to continue audit operations during Bigger's leave of absence, it simply suspended the office and reassigned Bigger's assistant, senior auditor Vasu Balakrishnan, to the finance department.
Bigger's campaign for mayor was based on a platform of openness, transparency and accountability.
["Bigger elected mayor in Greater Sudbury"]
''Sudbury Star
''The Sudbury Star'' is a Canadian daily regional newspaper published in Sudbury, Ontario. It is owned by the media company, Postmedia. It is the largest daily paper in Northeastern Ontario by circulation.
History
The ''Sudbury Star'' began as ...
'', October 27, 2014. His campaign promises included identifying budget savings in order to deliver a zero property tax increase in his first year as mayor,
reinstating the provincial ombudsman as the investigator of complaints about council activities,
and implementing new ethics guidelines for city councillors and staff modelled on the Vaughan Accord implemented by
Vaughan
Vaughan () (2021 population 323,103) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increas ...
mayor
Maurizio Bevilacqua
Maurizio Bevilacqua (; born June 1, 1960) is a Canadian politician who was mayor of Vaughan from 2010 to 2022. He was a Liberal member of Parliament (MP) from 1988 to 2010 and was one of eleven candidates for the 2006 leadership contest, but d ...
in 2011.
On election day, Bigger garnered 46 per cent of the vote.
He was reelected to a second term in the
2018 municipal election, the first mayor to be re-elected to a second term in office since the municipal amalgamation of 2001.
In October 2022, he withdrew from the
2022 Greater Sudbury municipal election
The 2022 Greater Sudbury municipal election was held on October 24, 2022 to elect a mayor and 12 city councillors in Greater Sudbury, Ontario.Mary Katherine Keown"New rules intended to 'level the playing field' among Sudbury's municipal candidate ...
several weeks after having registered as a candidate, citing the need to spend more time with his family due to the declining health of his mother.
[Mary Katherine Keown]
"Brian Bigger drops out of Greater Sudbury's mayoral race"
''Sudbury Star
''The Sudbury Star'' is a Canadian daily regional newspaper published in Sudbury, Ontario. It is owned by the media company, Postmedia. It is the largest daily paper in Northeastern Ontario by circulation.
History
The ''Sudbury Star'' began as ...
'', October 4, 2022.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bigger, Brian
1958 births
Mayors of Greater Sudbury
Canadian accountants
Canadian auditors
Living people
Laurentian University alumni
Cambrian College alumni