The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper and Brian MacLeod is the managing editor. brian.macleod@sunmedia.ca
Northern Ontario has never been homogeneous. Its vast geography and the rivalries among municipalities make it a hard political animal to tame.
And that makes life difficult for Premier Dalton McGuinty. Developments over the last couple of years show that. The closure of Xstrata’s Kidd Creek Metallurgical plant in Timmins in 2010 saw 600 jobs lost as the work moved to Quebec, in large part because of the high cost of power in Ontario.
In March, the government announced it will privatize the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission — which provides some rail, bus and communications services in the North — putting 1,000 jobs in question. And last week, Cliffs Natural Resources, the U.S. firm that’s first in developing the massive Ring of Fire chromite deposit in northwestern Ontario, announced it would build its ferrochrome smelter in Sudbury, bringing about 450 jobs.
All this affects the government in different ways. Cliffs could process its material anywhere in Canada, but in choosing Sudbury, the company said its deal with the province on the cost of power makes Ontario palatable. That left people in Timmins wondering if the province offered a similar deal to Xstrata. And although First Nations in the Sudbury area welcomed the smelter, several First Nations near the Ring of Fire were incensed, vowing to fight the decision. But it’s the ONTC announcement that has several northern municipalities rebelling.
They say they were never consulted. Venerable columnist John R. Hunt has called for a “good riot.” Englehart, population 1,519 and home to the dispatch service for Ontario Northland railway, may lose half its community’s income. Mayors from Cochrane to North Bay — which has about half the ONTC jobs, including a railcar refurbishing operation — have condemned the province. They’ve formed a committee to demand a meeting with McGuinty, who has so far been silent to their requests. They’ve launched a coupon campaign in newspapers seeking support for their quest for a meeting.
They reminded McGuinty of his 2002 promise not to sell the ONTC. Several communities lowered their flags to half-staff for a day to stress that Queen’s Park is “killing the North.” (It was a tacky gesture, and shouldn’t be emulated by others, but northern mayors insist it was necessary to get the government’s attention).
The province argues privatizing the ONTC was suggested in the Drummond report to help the province tackle its $15 billion deficit, that private companies provide bus services to many communities, that cancelled rail service will be replaced by buses, and that Northerners will not be inconvenienced by changes in transportation.
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