Eliot Perrin is a PhD student working under the supervision of Dr. Steven High at Concordia University. His research project stems from my father’s hometown, the Northern Ontario mining community of Sudbury, and the challenges facing residents as the area grapples with deindustrialization and the effects of decades of mining and smelting. He is also a Core Member of Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. Other research interests include heritage preservation, community activism, and urban history.
Project Statement:
My PhD dissertation “We think no more of Inco’: Deindustrialization, Urban Renewal and Community Identity in Sudbury, Ontario” examines how Sudbury pursued a post-industrial identity, a process that only accelerated in the wake of massive layoffs in the mining industry. Anticipating international competition in the nickel industry would effect local mining operations the city pursued economic investment in its city centre, using an urban renewal project to demolish a Francophone neighbourhood associated with the city’s pioneer past in favour of a mall. The mall’s opening coincided with major layoffs, accelerating the need to diversify the city’s economy. Given that the local landscape had experienced decades of degradation as a result of smelting, the city and mining company embarked on a major regreening initiative that provided employment while also allowing the city to promote outdoor recreation. Capping this shift towards a tourism economy was the opening of Science North, the province’s second largest science centre. Amidst these developments, Sudbury city council continued to embrace a new identity based on community environmental reclamation that relegates its mining heritage to a distant, polluted past, despite the fact that mining operations continue to take place in the region. While a source of local pride, area regreening further erases industrial heritage and working-class communities, as well as the toxic legacy of 150 years of mining on residents’ bodies.
