Regional plan of action outlined

Saying Northwestern Ontario is at a “crossroad,” a report issued today is urging the region to “chart its own course” as a means of controlling its own future.
And one of the key action steps being proposed is the creation of a Northwestern Ontario Regional Development Authority.
“Enhancing the Economy of Northwestern Ontario,” compiled by the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association, is the culmination of eight months of work by a broad cross-section of the region, including municipal, Chamber of Commerce, training board, labour, aboriginal, multi-cultural, and education representatives.
“This report has two streams—changes to public policy to enable the northwest to move forward under its own steam, and actions that the northwest itself should take as a means of asserting control over its own future,” said NOMA president Michael Power, who also is the mayor of Greenstone.
“The key philosophical change that this report represents is that the northwest is no longer going to go cap in hand to the provincial or federal governments asking for handouts,” he added.
“We will take matters into our own hands so that it is the residents of the northwest, not politicians or bureaucrats from Toronto or Ottawa, who are controlling our futures,” Power stressed.
Iain Angus, chair of the NOMA-led Regional Recovery Program Committee, said one of the key action steps being proposed in the creation of a Northwestern Ontario Regional Development Authority.
He said its role will be “to ensure that, to the best of its ability, and through the co-operation of all of its partners, the people of the northwest become more advantaged than they are today.”
“NWORDA’s role will be to identify, promote, and develop economic opportunities in and for Northwestern Ontario,” Angus added.
Angus said this new partnership will be built on the credibility of NOMA and the Northwestern Ontario Associated Chambers of Commerce (NOACC) in the way they have represented the unique needs of the northwest over many years.”
“As with NOMA and NOACC, this new organization must be focused, must work to ensure that the northwest speaks with a united voice, and must make as its priority the economic health of the region,” he stressed.
At its annual general meeting last spring in Thunder Bay, NOMA decided to embark on a path that was designed to assist the region in recovering from a declining population combined with a major reduction in forestry industry employment.
This path focused on the creation of a Regional Recovery Program Committee with a mandate to find solutions to the economic crisis Northwestern Ontario faces.
Initially, it was crafted as a way to find solutions that would be implemented by the other orders of government—federal and provincial.
“However, one of the key outcomes of this process is recognition that the northwest will have better success if we find and implement our own solutions,” said Power.
He also stressed this is a Northwestern Ontario, not a Northern Ontario, solution.
“Northwestern Ontario is a region that is unique in the province of Ontario. It is as distinct from the other parts of Northern Ontario as it is from southern or eastern Ontario,” he argued.
“The northwest of Ontario constitutes a distinct geographic, economic, and social space within Canada,” Power added. “The challenges it faces are as different as are its strengths.”
Power said the complex decisions affecting the northwest are best understood and made by those who live here, adding the strongest voice for this region comes through the strength of a consensual union of common interests.
The report has been distributed to various stakeholders across the region with a request that they endorse it.
Formal presentations will be made to the three district municipal leagues, starting with the Rainy River District Municipal Association next Saturday (Jan. 27) in Emo.
The report also will provide the key focus of discussion at NOMA’s annual general meeting April 25-28 in Dryden.
The full report is available to the public at www.noma.on.ca