The Ontario budget unveiled yesterday at Queen’s Park by Finance minister Ernie Eves includes a number of contributions to enhance economic growth in Northern Ontario.
“This new budget is great news for Northern Ontario–you could argue it’s the best ever,” Northern Development and Mines minister Tim Hudak said in a telephone interview last night.
Funding will be allocated to northern and rural communities to attract industries to rural areas. Among the budget proposals are:
•a plan to establish a new $600-million Ontario Small Town and Rural Development initiative;
•provide $850 million over four years to rehabilitate and expand northern highways;
•provide $300 million over five years for the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund; and
•a new SuperBuild Millennium Partnerships initiative, which will be an investment of $1 billion over five years in public-private partnerships for strategic infrastructures across the province.
“This budget is worth its weight in gold,” said Hudak. “I definitely expect Northern Ontario to greatly benefit.”
A particular thrust has been put on promoting mining in the north in light of the discovery of a number of potentially valuable mineral deposits.
The industry is being promoted with a decrease in mining taxes from 20 percent to 10 percent over five years, a 10-year tax holiday for new remote mines, and tax incentives for investors.
“It’s basically a tax write-off to spur grassroots prospecting across the north,” said Hudak.
But NDP leader and local MPP Howard Hampton charged yesterday the future of Northern Ontario’s resources are being forgotten, along with child care and health care across the north.
“The Ministry of Natural Resources is going to take another 19 percent budget cut with fewer foresters, fewer biologists, and fewer conservationists,” he noted.
“Our lakes, mines, and forests are the base of our economy,” Hampton stressed.
The provincial budget also includes $4 million for free tuition to medical students willing to relocate and practice in rural Northern Ontario after graduation to ease the problem of doctor shortages.
“They will do five years of service at least. The plan is they’d grow to love it where they are,” said Hudak.
And every Ontario taxpayer across the province will receive a taxpayer dividend of up to $200 of their 1999 Ontario personal income tax. “We intend to give $1 billion of the taxpayers’ money back to them,” Eves said.
Eves said a strong economy has prompted a higher 1999 tax revenue than forecasted, noting the province will be able to eliminate the deficit one year ahead of schedule while still providing taxpayer dividends of anywhere between $25 and $200.
But Hampton said all this won’t be enough.
“If you’re a Bay Street corporation, the benefits [in the budget] are huge but for middle-income families in Northwestern Ontario, it does nothing,” he charged.
“I think a lot of people are going to be offended getting a $200 cheque in the mail when their health and child care are not addressed,” he remarked.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
