The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.
Northerners can’t seem to get any satisfaction from Queen’s Park. When we want our provincial politicians to do something for us, they don’t it.
Even when they finally look like they’re doing something right, they screw it up. This has been no more evident than since the Ontario Liberals presented their budget. This, of course, came on the heels of the government’s announcement that it was going to privatize the Ontario Northerland Transportation Commission.
Naturally, we thought, great timing. Here we have the New Democrats in a position to force the Liberals hands by using the budget vote as leverage in preventing the sale of the ONTC.
As we know, the NDP made some demands and the Liberals made some concessions but the issue Northerners were particularly keen on — preventing the sale of the ONTC — was not part of that package.
Apparently it wasn’t as much of a priority for our Northern provincial representatives as it is for the residents and industries that are based here.
And now we learn one of the things in the budget that was actually going to help our forest industry has been taken off the table by the Liberals themselves.
The Liberals had proposed to recognize the Crown Forest Sustainability Act as legislation which already fulfills the intent of the Endangered Species Act when it comes to managing Crown forest operations.
This was a point the Ontario forest industry had been trying to get across for several years. And now, it seemed, the province was finally acknowledging the already rigorous requirements under the CFSA did not need to be reinforced or duplicated through a second piece of legislation.
So what happens?
We contacted all three parties and it’s been difficult to get a straight answer only because everyone is saying something slightly different.
But from what we can gather, on Monday at the committee level, the Liberals decided to remove this provision with the stated purpose of reintroducing it in the fall.
Of course, there is nothing holding the Liberals from changing their mind.
Will the Liberals even still be in power by then?
Is it any wonder that a growing number of residents think Northern Ontario would be better off as its own province when, time and time again, the folks at Queen’s Park fumble the ball — even when it’s handed to them on a platter?