The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.
Drummond Report calls for privatization
Since 1902, the Ontario Northland Railway has been providing transportation, supplies and a life link to the countless communities that dot the Northern reaches of the province.
Recently, the government commissioned a report to assess the provincial deficit, make suggestions for cost cutting and provide a five-year fiscal plan. The result was the Drummond Report.
The report raises a number of issues for Timmins-James Bay MPP Gilles Bisson, the most prominent being the future of Ontario Northland.
“The problem is that when the government commissioned Drummond to make his report, they essentially said to him, ‘you can only look at the expenditures side of the budget sheet, you cannot look at the revenue side,’” he said. “How do you balance a budget a if you don’t look at the revenue side?”
For Bisson, this strange decision-making process has resulted in what he feels amounts to scare tactics on behalf of the ruling Liberals, setting sights on essential services like Ontario Northland.
“The Drummond report forecasts that the deficit would go from $16 billion to $30 billion in five years, if the government did nothing,” he said. “They (Liberals) wanted to present a worst-case scenario of what could happen if the government did nothing to intervene.”
According to Bisson, Conservative Leader Tim Hudak agreed with the report completely, setting wheels into motion that could derail Ontario Northland.
“There is mention in the report where Drummond says part of Ontario Northland could be privatized, namely because some parts are the company are profitable,” Bisson said. “The problem with this idea is that if you strip away all of those parts, all that you will be left with is the parts that are subsidized.
“It will increase the amount of subsidy to run Ontario Northland and eventually the government is going to say, ‘this isn’t money well spent, lets get rid of this.’”
Bisson’s concerns rotate around communities like Moosonee, which are only accessible by rail. With no Ontario Northland, he struggles to see what Moosonee will be left with.
“What we will probably end up with is rail service from Moosonee to Cochrane, purely because there isn’t a road leading up there,” he said. “But as for everything else, I’m just not sure.”
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