The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
In an effort to put life into Northern Ontario’s economy, the region’s five largest municipalities will host a summit with the province later this year. “We’re looking towards the end of the year (for the Northern Ontario Summit). We’re just looking at the logistics now,” Mayor Marianne Matichuk said Tuesday from Ottawa, where she’s at the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference.
The three-day conference brings together 1,600 people from across Ontario. Councillors Fabio Belli, Claude Berthiaume, Doug Craig, Evelyn Dutrisac, Terry Kett and Andre Rivest are there as well.
Matichuk, along with the mayors of Timmins, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay, presented their Northern Priorities Document to seven provincial government ministers.
The document includes six items the mayors believe are necessary for Northern Ontario to thrive: A cohesive relationship between municipalities and all government ministries, reliable infrastructure funding, affordable energy, workforce development with a focus on immigration, more money for research and resource revenue sharing.
While the seven ministers (Linda Jeffrey, Michael Gravelle, MPP Kevin Flynn, David Orazietti, Charles Sousa, Brad Duguid and Michael Coteau) were “very willing to listen,” no concrete promises were made, Matichuk said.
“At this time it’s a little premature, but (the ministers) did mention there are a lot of issues that have been spoken about, and they’re issues that are common to a lot of people in the North.
“They were very willing to move forward with some of the ideas. But until they’ve looked at the whole paper, they really can’t commit to anything,” she added, calling the presentation by the five mayors “precedent setting.”
“It’s the first time five mayors have come together to do this.”
“We had an excellent meeting with our provincial representatives,” Timmins Mayor Tom Laughren said in a release. “It was great follow-up to the premier’s message yesterday, which was about working closer with municipalities.
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