[thewave46]

To get Sudbury to 200,000 in 20 years.

At current growth rates (~3%) it hits ~190k in 2041 from 2021. Essentially, one would have to hit just over 4% growth in between censuses to hit 200k.

Admittedly, not exactly super-difficult.

So, what could do that? Well, an easy one would be to do what has been happening for the last little while. Cash-in on people cashing out of Southern Ontario, especially those who had family connections in this region already. Continue luring people from other places in Northern Ontario who have family ties up here to Sudbury, where they can pursue a bigger-city career but yet be within automobile travel reach of their hometown.

So yes, the 400 extension helps. So does improving Ontario Northland. Lots are still sort-of cheap and there's lots of land for SFH and mid-plexes on our arterial roads in the city.

Downtown Sudbury died awhile ago, when they foisted the Eaton Centre/super-sized redevelopment/suburbia on it. At this juncture, downtown needs human-scale redevelopment. Which means vacant blighted buildings come down and smaller-scale apartments/homes go up. It is unlikely to happen and the current culture of the city doesn't support it. So, it rots.