Duane Hicks
An assistant Crown attorney and a resident judge housed out of Fort Frances were among the requests local delegates lobbied for during the Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s 2017 conference held Aug. 13-16 in Ottawa.
Mayor Roy Avis, who attended the conference with Couns. Paul Ryan and June Caul and Fort Frances CAO Doug Brown, noted they met with Attorney General Yasir Naqvi regarding a review of the justice system in Rainy River District.
“We expressed the urgent need for an assistant Crown attorney and also that we feel very strongly, as does the bar association and most legal people in the community, that a judge in our area is needed more than anything at this present time,” the mayor said at last week’s council meeting.
While the district was fortunate to get a new permanent Crown attorney earlier this year, the caseload in Rainy River District still is too much for one Crown.
The delegates told Naqvi the caseload here, because of the new mine north of Barwick, has increased 10 percent since they first started looking for having a permanent Crown attorney.
And now, looking at data from other northern court systems, they want an assistant Crown attorney here, as well.
“I think we made fairly good inroads into the judge situation and the whole court system, telling them how much money they’re spending on a building with nobody in it,” Coun. Ryan said at last week’s council meeting.
Meanwhile, the future of the mill here, and the wood supply, were discussed with Natural Resources and Forestry minister Kathryn McGarry.
“We were just trying to get some information,” Mayor Avis said of the mill.
“They didn’t know anything,” he noted. “We’re kind of shut down. We don’t hear anything at all from Resolute.
“There’s lot of rumours out there but I can’t confirm any of them,” he stressed.
As for the new enhanced Sustainable Forest Licence (eSFL) program that will take effect in 2020, Mayor Avis said it was stressed to the minister that the town–or perhaps the Rainy River District Municipal Association–should have representation at the table.
This to ensure there is a guaranteed wood supply from the Crossroute Forest in the future.
As reported in Thursday’s Daily Bulletin, the delegates also met with Ministry of Finance parliamentary assistant Yvan Baker regarding the review of the railway taxation system in Ontario.
Back in the spring, the province set a minimum of $80 an acre for property tax rates in municipalities if a rail line goes through it.
While this is an improvement from $35 an acre, if a railway taxation system based on tonnage was in place, like it is in some other provinces, Ontario municipalities could be reaping hundreds of thousands–or even millions–of dollars.
“I would like to commend Coun. [Ken] Perry for moving this [issue] from nothing to where it is today,” Mayor Avis said.
He noted a ministry rep explained the current position of the government on this issue.
“They’re looking at it,” the mayor said. “But they’re not looking at the tonnes per mile, as Ken was asking for throughout.
“But they’re looking at the cost per acre and increasing it.
“It’s not off the radar,” he stressed. “It’s going to be on their radar for the next couple years and it sounds great.”
The delegates also met with Municipal Affairs minister and Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Bill Mauro, giving him a compilation of all of their briefs and get his support on issues such as “Connecting Link” funding and the assistant Crown attorney.
They also presented a compilation of their briefs to Northern Development and Mines parliamentary assistant Joe Dickson.
The only meeting the local delegates had hoped to get–but did not–was with the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care.
Mayor Avis said this really is a shame as they would have stressed issues such as the doctor shortage and recruitment, and the need for an anesthesiologist here.
“I wish we could have had that meeting because as we all know that’s one of the biggest concerns within the municipality,” he remarked.
Mayor Avis and Coun. Ryan both noted Brown did an excellent job preparing the briefs for each minister.
“Doug had spent many hours to the briefs . . . prepared to talk to the ministers about those issues,” said the mayor.
“I just hope that our briefs that we gave them are read by someone . . . because they were so well done,” echoed Coun. Ryan.
“They explained our situation so well.”
As well, the local delegates attended informative plenary sessions on a myriad of topics relevant to municipalities.
For instance, Coun. Ryan said he learned the Expert Panel on Public Health has made recommendations to the province, one of which is to reduce the number of public health units in Ontario from 36 to 14.
In doing so, they will be responsible for the same catchment areas as the current Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs).
“So it looks like our Northwestern Health Unit, based in Kenora, will be amalgamated–some day down the road–with Thunder Bay,” Coun. Ryan said.
“And that will be one big area, about a third the size of the province,” he noted.
“I don’t know how that will be handled and how much representation we will get in our area when it gets that big.”
