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Northern Ontario Separation and Alienation

Ontario and Quebec communities banding together to counter Greenpeace’s messaging – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – August 12, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Mayors from the member communities of the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) met with representatives of communities in Northern Quebec, as well as the forestry industry and First Nations in Timmins on Tuesday afternoon.

The diverse group came together to discuss ways to counter the messaging of environmentalist groups about forest industry practices. Much of the discussion revolved around one group in particular: Greenpeace, which the Ontario mayors have already gone so far as to accuse of “eco-terrorism.”

“We decided as communities, industry stakeholders, and First Nations to talk about what the current issues are that affect us in Northern Ontario where we are under attack by environmental groups,” said FONOM president Al Spacek. “We feel strongly that it is a campaign of misinformation about how we conduct forestry in Northern Ontario. We know we adhere to the highest Canadian and provincial standards.

“We want to develop a strategy to get that message out, so we can defend our culture and the lifestyle we’ve been practising up here for generations very sustainably.”

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CN pulls the plug on Algoma passenger train – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 10, 2015)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

The search is on for a new operator to take over a Sault Ste. Marie-to-Heart passenger train service after Canadian National Railway (CN) announced it will cease operations on July 15.

The repeated inability of Railmark Canada and its president-CEO R. Allen Brown to obtain financing led CN, the track’s owner, to finally terminate the service.

The same issue cropped up in June, forcing CN to step in and take back a popular sister service on the same line, the Agawa Canyon Tour Train excursion, from the hands of Railmark after a satisfactory agreement couldn’t be reached.

For the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and a regional stakeholders group, it’s back to the drawing board with a full-out scramble to find a replacement operator during the height of the summer tourism season.

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We’ll manage mining, thanks – Editorial (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – July 8, 2015)

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

Southern Ontario environmental groups should lobby more extensively in their own backyard before briefly flying over and criticizing development in ours.

Last week, Toronto-based Wildlands League said that mining exploration in the Ring of Fire has already caused damage to the Far North’s ecosystem. It released aerial photos showing exploration activity — rudimentary mining camps and a runway.

Wildlands claims that the photos challenge the idea of mining exploration having little impact on the area. What would Wildlands have exploration companies do — drop their employees into the bush by helicopter to sleep on the ground and conduct staking operations without cutting a single tree? The “impact” is a minor intrusion on a massive area of the Far North.

Meanwhile, one has only to look at the constant expansion of urbanization north of Toronto to see what new housing and strip malls can do for the environment — destroy it. The steady advance of development has gobbled up thousands of acres of once productive farmland and wildlife habitat.

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Northern [Ontario] mayors lobby for infrastructure funds – by Gord Young (North Bay Nugget – July 6, 2015)

http://www.nugget.ca/

The mayor’s of Northern Ontario’s largest cities want a portion of the province’s planned infrastructure investment outside of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area to be used to help pay for projects in their communities.

Mayor Al McDonald said the Northern Ontario Large Urban Mayors group – consisting of North Bay, Sudbury, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay – have agreed to lobby the province during upcoming infrastructure consultations for a share of the provincial funding.

The province is holding consultations across Ontario this summer to help determine how to allocate $11.5 billion of a $15-billion investment outside the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas as part of a long-term infrastructure plan.

And McDonald said the mayors’ group will ask that a portion of the funding be earmarked for municipal infrastructure needs, specifically large critical projects and those that will help boost economic development.

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Joining forces against ‘eco-terrorism’ – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – June 10, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Mayors from Northern Ontario and Quebec are banding together in a fight against they describe as the “negative impacts from environmental extremism.”

Forestry companies have been targeted by special interest groups like Greenpeace for harvesting within the Boreal Forest which spans across the country including much of Northern Ontario.

Hearst Mayor Roger Sigouin, Cochrane Mayor Peter Politis and Timmins Coun. Mike Doody, who is also chairman of the North Eastern Ontario Municipal Association (NEOMA) were among the leaders who attended a recent meeting in Ottawa involving mayors from 22 communities in Ontario and Quebec.

These three along with Timmins Mayor Steve Black held a press conference at city hall Tuesday to discuss their aim to raise awareness of what they feel is an attack on communities that rely on resource-based industries.

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Northern Ontario’s next boom must come from within – by Livio Di Matteo (Waterloo Region Record/Troy Media – June 3, 2015)

http://www.therecord.com/waterlooregion/

Livio Di Matteo is professor of economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

Ontario’s north has experienced slower economic growth than the rest of the province for decades. Its shrinking economic role within Ontario — rooted as it was in natural resource extraction and processing — is a constant economic and political issue that has vexed politicians and community economic leaders for nearly 50 years.

The crisis in the forestry sector and its more capital-intensive production methods have also led to reduced northern employment. Whereas in 2003 there were 373,000 jobs in northern Ontario, by 2013 the number had decline five per cent to 355,000. Even the favourable unemployment rates in major northern urban centres are illusory, given that they reflect a shrinking labour force.

Compare that to Ontario as a whole, which saw employment grow 11 per cent over the same period despite the manufacturing malaise.

One response from northern Ontario to the employment decline has been to rely more on government. But public administration, health and social assistance, and education together already make up nearly 30 per cent of employment in northern Ontario, compared to 24 per cent in the province as a whole.

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[Northern Ontario – Iroquois Falls] Small Town Shut Down – The Agenda’s Steve Paikin interviews Michael Shea, Jamison Steeve, Madge Richardson and Stan Sudol (March 11, 2015)

http://theagenda.tvo.org/ Resolute Forest Products is shutting down the newsprint mill in Iroquois Falls, Ontario, a move that will result in the loss of 182 jobs , continuing to erode livelihoods in a town of just 4600. The forestry company essentially built Iroquois Falls a century ago and was its largest employer. Like many other single-resource …

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NOACC NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO ASSOCIATED CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE (NOACC) SUBMISSION TO STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE & ECONOMIC AFFAIRS PRE-BUDGET CONSULTATION (January 20, 2015)

http://www.noacc.ca/

The Northwestern Ontario Associated Chambers of Commerce (NOACC) is the “voice of business” representing the interests of nearly 2,000 members from Kenora and Rainy River in the West to Marathon and Greenstone in the East. We appreciate this opportunity to outline our concerns on a number of topics.

Skills Gap

The Province needs to address the skills gap. Two major trends are creating skills shortages. The first is the aging of the population and the departure of baby boomers from the workforce. The Conference Board of Canada’s long-term economic outlook projects that by 2025, one in five Canadians will be 65 or older. The second trend is that jobs are becoming increasingly specialized, which in turn demands more educated and skilled workers. The evidence is clear that the rising shortfall of skilled workers and the growing mismatch between the skills required and those available has evolved into a skills crisis affecting both the Ontario and the Canadian economy. Funding is vitally important to address the training and skills needs of Ontarians in all sectors.

One area that needs further attention is the apprenticeship system – the Ontario system uncompetitive with other resource-based Provinces. Many skilled trades require 4 journeypersons to train 2 apprentices, which leaves both small companies and rural communities at a disadvantage and does little to address the growing shortage of skilled trades. We believe that the current ratios are too high and should instead be comparative to Alberta and Saskatchewan levels of 1 journeyman to 3 apprentices.

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PoV: Sudburians victim of political shell game – by Don MacDonald (Sudbury Star – November 12, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

When it comes to developing the Ring of Fire, or building the Maley Drive extension, Sudburians are getting to watch the old political shell game. It’s not a game they want to play or one in which they can get any satisfaction.

During spring’s Ontario election campaign, Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne promised $1 billion to help develop the infrastructure the Ring of Fire needs, such as roads and power. She promised to strike a board to oversee the development of the Ring of Fire within 60 days of getting elected.

Wynne also promised $26.7 million as the province’s share of extending Maley Drive. The city has already committed $26.7 million; all that’s needed is for the federal government to come up with its $26.7 million.

Maley Drive is important to the city because the extension would reduce traffic on Lasalle and The Kingsway, and divert heavy ore and other trucks.

The Ring of Fire is important to Sudbury — but also Northern Ontario and, in fact, all of Canada — because it may be home to $60 billion in mineral wealth. It could create thousands of new jobs and lots of new tax revenue. Sudbury, being the centre of mining in Ontario, can only stand to benefit by opening up the Ring of Fire, a large swath of land in northwestern Ontario containing chromite, nickel, copper and platinum.

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Join Manitoba: Northwest Ontario would prosper by linking with our neighbour – by Karl Lehto (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 1, 2014)

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

1. We have three powerful cabinet ministers in Northwestern Ontario representing both federal and provincial governments — Greg Rickford, Mike Gravelle, and Bill Mauro — yet we are still floundering with indecision and with poorly planned decisions made for us in our capitals.

2. Ontario has a mysterious and stubborn resistance to interprovincial trade and co-operation, particularly with power from Manitoba and Quebec, yet the reasons are never explained to us.

3. We have a big problem: Toronto is just too far away and almost totally focused on southern Ontario with its millions of people and associated problems. Queen’s Park is broke, broken and struggling.

4. We have another big problem in the Northwest which affects each and every one of us. Cheap, clean and safe power is the critical economic engine that drives us all. Cost is presently spiralling totally out of control.

In 11 years irrational energy planning has tripled our power rates and we are billions of dollars worse off today. Manitoba has offered a great alternative which we ignore.

5. Historically, we in the Northwest have been treated as a hinterland with a bone occasionally thrown at us to keep us in line.

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A voice in the wilderness barks again for the Northern Ontario Heritage Party – by Roy Macgregor (May 29, 2014)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

NORTH BAY, ONT. — ‘Just give me a minute to put my teeth in!”

It has been a wild week for 82-year-old Ed Deibel of the Northern Ontario Heritage Party. The clock on the wall behind the double-screen computer on which he hammers out his missives on how the North gets shortchanged has ticked past 2 p.m., the deadline for registering as a candidate for the June 12 provincial election, and he is getting a bit jittery waiting for the confirmation from Elections Ontario that eventually does come.

Teeth in, the man known for decades more for his bark than his bite is ready to go. “On Monday I wasn’t a leader, I wasn’t a candidate, the party was going to be de-registered,” he says. “Now I’m a candidate … and I guess I’m the leader.”

There were only two registered candidates on the NOHP ticket, but then a group of disenchanted northerners in the riding of Thunder Bay-Atikokan rounded up 25 signatures, enough to get a name on the ballot, and they asked if the old leader of the often-dormant party would let his name stand.

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Northern Policy Institute talks Ring of Fire infrastructure (CBC News Thunder Bay – May 20, 2014)

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/ The fledgling Northern Policy Institute [NPI] will soon release research on the Ring of Fire that deals with issues such as road access versus rail access to the mining region. The think-tank was established to do independent studies on big issues affecting northern Ontario. “I’ve had opportunity … to hear [Matawa First Nations negotiator] Bob …

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Ontera vital to growth in Northeastern Ontario – by Wayne Snider (Timmins Daily Press – April 8, 2014)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – The ONTC saga came to a head late last week in the form of an announcement by Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle.

Gravelle said the provincial government would be selling off Ontera and keeping four other divisions of the Crown agency.

Thus ends the two-year debate on divesting the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, which was introduced in the provincial spring budget of 2012 — and supported by both the Liberals and NDP.

At the time, the plan was to shut down the Northlander passenger rail service and sell off the remaining pieces of the ONTC.

In reaction to the following outcry by Northerners, Gravelle — to his credit — formed an advisory committee with stakeholders to look at completing the rest of the plan. Gravelle later said that privatization wasn’t the only possible solution for dealing with all of the ONTC’s assets.

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PoV: Grits tried to fool us, but ONTC gets reprieve – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – April 6, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

It’s impressive to watch the magnitude of the climb down the Ontario government is doing on the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission. To what end remains to be seen.

Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle announced Friday that four divisions of the ONTC–buses, the Polar Bear Express, rail freight and refurbishment services –will continue to be government-owned and run. At issue is almost 1,000 jobs in the North, nearly 600 of which are based in North Bay.

In March 2012, the Liberals said the sale of the ONTC was a necessity that would save $266 million over three years. This would be needed to achieve some of the far-reaching cost-savings required to balance the province’s budget by 2017-18. The Drummond Report briefly alluded to the ONTC, advising that its services “could be provided more effectively and efficiently through private-sector involvement.”

The North was expected to do its part in budget savings and the ONTC was a heavily subsidized operation. Hence the storied Northlander passenger train between Toronto and Cochrane ended in September 2012. But two things happened. There was a massive and sustained revolt along the Highway 11 corridor, especially in North Bay –a Tory-held riding that was once Liberal– and in Timmins.

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Stakeholders rally to save passenger rail – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – March 21, 2014)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Stakeholders have one month to delay CN Railway’s decision to stop running passenger service between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst. In January, the company announced that, because $2.2 million in federal funding for passenger service had been cut, the service provided by Algoma Central Railway would halt on March 31. CN has since extended that deadline to April 29.

A new working committee, spearheaded by Sault Ste. Marie and comprised of communities, First Nations, tourist operators, and cottage owners, is seeking a one-year extension to give stakeholders a chance to come up with alternatives to sustain the rail line over the long term. The group has hired a part-time coordinator, Dave Murphy, who has worked for the Sault’s Economic Development Corporation and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund.

“Our first objective is to secure the one-year extension of the funding for the continuation of the passenger service, which is scheduled now to cease April 29 in the absence of any extension,” said Joe Fratesi, Sault Ste. Marie’s CAO and chair of the Algoma Passenger Rail Stakeholder Committee.

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