Delegates urged to keep up the fight on forestry crisis

Timberrrrrrrrrr . . . the economy of Northwestern Ontario is falling like a cut tree.
That is what Northern Ontario Municipal Association president Michael Power said the message was from organizations like the Rainy River District Municipal Association at last year’s NOMA convention.
“I had no idea at the annual meeting in Kenora what we would face this year,” Power said as he addressed delegates attending the RRDMA’s annual meeting Saturday in Bergland.
“You clearly said the economy of Northwestern Ontario was hurting and we made that the number-one priority.
“No corner of the region is unaffected by the crisis. Day by day, we hear about the impact of it—and hear nothing from Queen’s Park,” he charged.
Power said NOMA has done a great deal to raise the profile of the forestry crisis in southern Ontario, stressing “What happens here to the forestry industry impacts the entire province.”
Power said they were successful in securing a meeting with the premier, who said he would not have met with them had NOMA not been so proactive in promoting the issues.
“However, we are only two millimeters along the road,” Power warned. “We need to keep at this and feel we have had some wins.”
He noted that without the big taxes paid by big business, Premier Dalton McGuinty was told he will not be able to support his three party pillars: health, education, and sustained prosperity of Ontario.
“We have asked [the Association of Municipalities of Ontario] for help on this issue and encouraged the RRDMA to keep hammering away at their MPs and MPPs.
“Don’t give up!” Power stressed.
Power said he does not feel the answer lies in separating from Ontario. “I do not believe in spending money on something we cannot achieve,” he argued.
Instead, Power feels the road ahead will be hard and full of intense lobbying—and perhaps even getting political.
“We will have to make hard decisions, and we have to stand up and be counted, saying, ‘We are mad as hell and not going to take it.’”
Power challenged each of the delegates at the RRDMA’s annual meeting Saturday in Bergland to go back to their respective towns and get two other people to write letters about the crisis to the premier.
“Write them yourself if you have to and get others to sign them,” he urged.
Tim Gauthier, with the Ainsworth OSB mill in Barwick, told delegates the cost of energy is very high here, but noted wood delivery costs also are higher here than other regions.