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Thunder Bay

Law society paves way for Ontario’s first new law school in 43 years [in Thunder Bay] – Tracey Tyler (Toronto Star – May 11, 2011)

Tracey Tyler is the legal affairs reporter for the Toronto Star, which has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on Canada’s federal and provincial politics as well as shaping public opinion. This article was originally published May 11, 2011.

In many ways, the future of the legal profession isn’t on Bay St., he [Beardy] contends, but closer to major mining exploration projects in the James Bay lowlands known as the “ring of fire.” Northern Ontario is rich in diamonds, gold, platinum and a recently discovered deposit of chromite, a mineral used in stainless steel production and expected to be in high demand in countries with rapidly developing economies, including China and India, Beardy said.

Grand Chief Stan Beardy of Nishnawbe Aski Nation likes to joke about seeing a sasquatch in the forest behind his home in Muskrat Dam in Northern Ontario.

But when he looks some 600 kilometres south and into the future, Beardy sees a law school, one that will boost the ranks of First Nations lawyers and support economic development in the north.

That vision is inching closer to reality now that the Law Society of Upper Canada has approved a proposal from Lakehead University to open a law school in Thunder Bay. The university says the school would give preference to northerners and First Nations applicants.

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Resource Rents, the Ring of Fire and the Future – by Livio Di Matteo

Livio Di Matteo is Professor of Economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  Visit his new Economics Blog “Northern Economist” at http://ldimatte.shawwebspace.ca/

May 9, 2011

American historian David Potter’s book People of Plenty argued that resource abundance shaped the American attitude towards possibility and opportunity.  Abundant resources set the stage for wealth accumulation and created a society that believes that everyone can become rich through their own work and effort and that initiative and opportunity are the key to social mobility and success. 

In Canada, we also have a tradition of resource abundance but it has generated not so much an ethos of aggressive individualism but one of more government involvement in the economy.  Indeed, the resource rents from natural resources have played a role in government finance whether it was late nineteenth century Ontario’s forest sector (which generated at its peak 20-25 percent of provincial government revenues) or energy in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador today.

As Herb Emery and Ron Kneebone have recently written in Alberta’s Problems of Plenty (May 2011, Policy Options), in the Alberta context the main role of resource abundance and resource rents has been to augment both private and public consumption. 

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Plan Nord Versus Grow North: Quebec’s Northern Policy Trumps Ontario’s – by Livio Di Matteo

Livio Di Matteo is Professor of Economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  Visit his new Economics Blog “Northern Economist” at http://ldimatte.shawwebspace.ca/

May 9, 2011

Quebec has just announced its own northern growth plan and it appears to be more focused and concrete in resource allocation terms than the recently released Ontario Northern Growth Plan.   Ontario’s Northern Growth Plan was “a call to action and a roadmap for change” organized to provide policy direction for growth around six principles: (1) a globally competitive economy, (2) education and skllls for a knowledge economy, (3) aboriginal partnership, (4) networks of social, transport and communications infrastructure, (5) sustainable environment and (6) innovative partnerships to maximize resource potential.

The plan had detailed checklist for short, medium and long-term actions that required implementation and of course more planning including regional plans within the region.  Indeed, if one could summarize the Ontario plan, it is simply a plan to rule all plans and the planning is not over yet.  The major resource announcements that accompanied it were five million dollars for a policy institute (on which little has been said since) and a few million dollars to begin integrated transport planning.

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Will the [Harper] Tories please the [Ontario] North? – The North want in! – (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – May 6, 2011)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This editorial was originally published on May 6, 2011. 

“Second, Harper is anxious to encourage economic activity and the
North’s Ring of Fire mining development is just the sort of success
story he admires and will want to brand Tory blue. …

… Make FedNor independent again, give it a northern minister like
Rickford, and let the Conservatives practise the efficient government
that they preach.” (Chronicle-Journal Editorial – May 6, 2011)

AMONG the theories floating around after this week’s election is that, besides a split between left and right and another between Quebec and the rest of Canada, the results suggest a form of class distinction between urban and rural Canada.

One such example is Ontario where much of the south, including wealthy Toronto and its suburbs and the burgeoning technology centres, voted Conservative while the North mostly picked the NDP.

A superbly tailored Tory campaign convinced economically-conservative minded voters to choose the offer of stability while large sections of the have-not hinterlands opted to register their disapproval of Conservative and Liberal approaches by supporting the social democratic message of Jack Layton and the NDP.

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Fix No. 1 [Trans-Canada] Highway – by Livio Di Matteo and Wayne Simpson (National Post-April 27, 2011)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This article was originally published in the Financial Post section on April 27, 2011.

Livio Di Matteo is professor of economics at Lakehead University. Wayne Simpson is professor of economics at the University of Manitoba. (Financial Post)

The Trans-Canada is far from the world-class Interstate Highway System that exists in the United States

The federal election has highlighted the need for transportation infrastructure in Canada’s Far North with the recent federal budget’s announcement of $150-million for an Arctic highway between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. While the goal of a national highway system from sea to sea to sea can be seen as an important nation-building goal, the fact remains that the east-west Trans-Canada Highway system is still inadequate despite its crucial role as a national transportation artery.

While much of Highway 1, as it is known in much of Canada, is four lanes, it is still deficient in parts of Eastern and Western Canada. Moreover, even what is four lanes is still a far cry from a world-class highway system, as exists in the U.S. Interstate system or the European autobahns.

Canada is the largest developed country in the world without a system of fully grade-separated roadways that allow uninterrupted traffic flow between its major urban centres. The key roadblocks include the two-lane stretches from the Manitoba border to Sudbury and much of the route between the Alberta border and Kamloops.

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[Boreal Forest Agreement] First Nations caught in ‘the big (land) squeeze’- Peggy Smith (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal-April 9, 2011)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This letter to the editor was originally published on April 9, 2011. 

Conservation has become a new form of development and
colonization that further restricts and ignores First
Nation rights to land and a way of life.
(Peggy Smith-Thunder Bay)

I have to disagree with Stephen Kakfwi (Boreal Forest Agreement: It’s Time to Forgive and Move Forward). First Nations in the boreal region of Northern Ontario are not in control of their lands.

The Province of Ontario has long ignored the treaties that First Nations signed over 100 years ago. Those treaties (Robinson-Huron, Robinson-Superior, Treaty 3, Treaty 5 and Treaty 9) were, in First Nations’ view, about sharing lands and resources.

While colonizers got rich on extracting resources from First Nation lands, First Nations were excluded from those benefits and spiralled into poverty and alienation from their lands — up until recently First Nations were not even allowed to cut firewood on Crown land without a permit. Even on federally-owned reserves, historically First Nations had to ask the Minister of Indian Affairs for permission to cut green wood.

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Cutting through the fog [Aboriginal, Industry and Environment Relations]- (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal editorial – April 10, 2011)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This editorial was originally published on April 10, 2011. 

AS the chasm of trust between Aboriginals and the rest of Canada widens, every effort to shrink it deserves encouragement. Two such initiatives have surfaced, and while one remains in play, the other has been batted away.

For decades, relations between conservation groups and the forest industry have been poisoned. Greenpeace banners hung from pulp mill smokestacks vividly portrayed an absence of will and trust.

So when 21 forest companies and nine environmental organizations quietly came up with the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement last year there was cause for celebration. The pact would regulate forest management practices across 72 million hectares of boreal forest and protect 29 million hectares from development.

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Does the Northern Ontario Need a Provincial Minority Government? – by Livio Di Matteo

Livio Di Matteo is Professor of Economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  Visit his new Economics Blog “Northern Economist” at http://ldimatte.shawwebspace.ca/

“A majority government is in many respects an elected dictatorship and once Rome
has spoken, the case is closed.  A minority government, because of its inherent
fragility, is much more open to debate and compromise.” (Livio Di Matteo-April 5, 2011)

In light of a federal election that may yet provide us with another minority government, it is useful to contemplate whether a minority government at Queen’s Park might not be a useful development for Northern Ontario.  While majorities provide stable government, they also provide an environment where it can sometimes be difficult to get your point of view across especially if your region is marginal in terms of its share of population and electoral seats.

Consider the last decade in Northwestern Ontario under a provincial Liberal majority government.  Despite persistent lobbying by Northerners for something to be done about the forest sector crisis, the provincial government (even with cabinet representation from the North) took a long time to recognize the problem and by the time it offered some relief, much of the sector had shut down.  Then there was the Far North Act, which sequestered large sections of the North from economic development with very little debate. 

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Boreal Forest Agreement: It’s time to forgive and move forward – by Stephen Kakfwi (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal-April 4, 2011)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal  is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This opinion piece was originally published on April 4, 2011.

Stephen Kakfwi is the former premier of the Northwest Territories and former president of the Dene Nation.

Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Stan Beardy recently called for the termination of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (NAN Targets Boreal Agreement, Chronicle-Journal, March 22). While I agree that the process to reach that agreement was flawed, and that the announcement could have been handled better, I believe it is time for collaboration, not conflict.

Finding a way to protect our land and ways of life is essential if we want to survive. As Aboriginal people, we are first and foremost survivors. Since Europeans first arrived here in 1492, Aboriginal peoples have had a near-death experience. The spread of epidemics decimated our population, the invaders took our land and diminished our natural resources.

Ever since, native peoples have fought hard to take back our land and regain control of our lives. We even fought and changed the Constitution of Canada so that we could govern ourselves.

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Keeping Thunder Bay in the picture for Ring of Fire refinery – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal editorial (March 15, 2011)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal  is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This opinion piece was originally published on March 15, 2011.

MAYOR Keith Hobbs is trying hard to position Thunder Bay as the logical location to process chromite from the giant Ring of Fire mineral deposit far to the north. In competition with officials from other Northern Ontario communities, Hobbs has made a good case.

Thunder Bay has the services, the manpower and expertise, the transportation and the electrical energy needed for a project of this size. And sizable it will be, requiring enough electricity to power a community of 300,000 people. It will be the largest single user of power in the province, which puts enormous pressure on the provincial government to provide what Cliffs Natural Resources, the main Ring of Fire developer, refers to as “a key input. The availability of a large, reliable, long-term and cost-competitive supply of electricity is a key consideration in siting the ferrochrome production facility.”

Cliffs identifies Timmins, Sudbury and Thunder Bay as potential locations, though it has gone so far as to use Sudbury as its base case model for planning purposes because it is already an important mineral processing centre. Hobbs has gone to some lengths to ensure Thunder Bay remains fully in Cliffs’ consideration and he’s got an Ontario Power Generation plant as one ace along with a Seaway port that Sudbury does not have.

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Another plan for the North [Ontario] – by Livio Di Matteo (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal, March 12, 2011)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal  is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This opinion piece was originally published on March 12, 2011.

Livio Di Matteo is a professor of economics at Lakehead University. Visit his Northern Economist Blog at ldimatte.shawwebspace.ca.

“What is more telling of this plan is what is not specifically mentioned: nothing on tax
incentive zones, nothing on a regional energy grid, nothing on regional government,
nothing on ever completely four-laning the Trans-Canada Highway.”
(Livio Di Matteo, March 12, 2011)

The release of the Northern Growth Plan is the latest installment in a long list of plans for Northern Ontario’s economic development stretching back now almost half-a-century.

The Northern Growth Plan joins an esteemed list of contributions that include the Rosehart Report (2008), Embracing the Future (2002) and my personal favourite — Design for Development — which was released in the 1970s — and confused many people about what the provincial government actually had in mind for the North given its designation of Thunder Bay and Sudbury as “primate” growth centers.

The current plan is again the result of many years of work and consultation and is “a call to action and a roadmap for change” organized to provide policy direction for growth around six principles:
• a globally competitive economy,
• education and skills for a knowledge economy,
• aboriginal partnership,
• networks of social, transport and communications infrastructure,
• sustainable environment, and
• innovative partnerships to maximize resource potential.

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One more [provincial Liberal] plan for the North [Ontario] – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (March 6, 2011)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This editorial was originally published on March 6, 2011.

A plan to create a plan. This is what the provincial government has in its hands as it rolls out its highly-anticipated Growth Plan for Northern Ontario.

They assure it’s a comprehensive framework aimed at guiding Northern Ontario through the next 25 years, developed after a consultation phase so intense it was the subject of more than a little bragging at the plan’s unveiling on Friday.

This plan hits on all the tentpole issues. It’s broken up into sections covering the economy, the people, communities, infrastructure, the environment and Aboriginal people. It touches on mining, forestry and energy (although there’s no mention of energy pricing). But that is absolutely all it does. Touches. There is nothing firm or final. This is just another plan to be the subject of still more consultation.

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Ontario P.C. Randy Hillier – “Liberals have turned Northern Ontario into a have-not region of a have-not province”

Founded in 2006 by James Murray, NetNewsledger.com offers news, information, opinions and positive ideas for Thunder Bay, Ontario, and for Northwestern Ontario. This column was originally posted on March 4, 2011.  newsroom@netnewsledger.com

THUNDER BAY – “The McGuinty Liberals’ Northern Growth Plan is yet another hypocrisy perpetrated by a party which has failed Northerners time and time again”, stated Randy Hillier, PC Party critic for Northern Development, Mines and Forestry. “A ‘northern’ document originally penned by George Smitherman, the growth plan will do nothing to stem the tide of a Northern recession that the Liberals have created”.

The PC critic for Northern Development, Mines and Forestry pulled no punches in his critical look at the plan. “With scores of damaging Liberal policies already put in place by the government over the past two years, it’s tough to see how the addition of a Northern think-tank is going to help create prosperity in Northern Ontario,” stated Hillier, “Dalton McGuinty’s liberals raised energy prices, flubbed the Mining Act reforms, cut off 50% of the North from all development with Bill 191 and decimated the forestry industry. What’s left for a policy institute to do?”

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Understanding Aboriginal Treaties Key for Ring of Fire Projects – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (February 25, 2011)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This editorial was originally published on August 6, 2009.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

NISHNAWBE Aski Nation (NAN) is to be commended for initiating a forum to explain the treaties that govern its people in relation to the rest of Northwestern Ontario. Generalized references to treaty rights have marked every disagreement over land and resources, but outside of band offices, a few academics and relevant government departments, most people don’t understand what was agreed to up to a century ago and more.

The passage of so much time has resulted in many interpretations about what treaties say and what was meant by those who signed them. In seeking to create “an understanding of the treaty relationship between First Nations and the greater society of Canada,” NAN Grand Chief Stan Beardy is conducting an important exercise.

Beardy offers the view that Treaties 5 and 9, governing NAN territory, are based on “peaceful co-existence.” Even a brief parsing of the federal government’s description of these treaties shows they were hard to come by. That being said, they are the law of the land for Indians and understanding them is more important than ever.

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Mining is back on several fronts [Ring of Fire] – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (February 14, 2010)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This editorial was originally published on February 14, 2010.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

BUSINESS CYCLES tend to raise and lower the economies of the communities in and around which they operate. Stable business benefits everyone, but even that comes with surprises.

Forestry is an example of an industry with an impressive track record that came up short when the recession deflated demand for its products. A U.S. recovery will eventually raise demand for lumber, pulp and paper, but never again to the same degree. The Internet has seen to that. Still, forestry is evolving with new products, including biomass to fuel the green energy revolution. Value-added opportunities continue to abound, if only they will be developed by entrepreneurs, encouraged by government.

Government is notoriously slow to react to the prospect – even the signs of change and there is a series of recurring jokes about how many studies there are at one time that seek to broaden the economy of Northern Ontario.

While that process drags on, there are new glimmers of hope for the North even as forestry flounders. Mining has always been the other big northern lynch pin and its own down time is apparently on the verge of a very big upswing. Two of them, actually.

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