District leaders ponder joining with Manitoba

How would being part of Manitoba benefit Northwestern Ontario?
That was a question Fort Frances Coun. Tannis Drysdale raised at the Rainy River District Municipal Association’s annual meeting Saturday in Bergland.
Coun. Drysdale said she first started to think about moving the Manitoba border east in the fall of 2004 when she listened to a speaker talk about the de-population of Northwestern Ontario.
“He said without any mitigating factors, the population here would be zero in 25 years,” she remarked.
Coun. Drysdale said she thought that would never happen. “There would always be paper mills, tourist camps, and farming here,” she had said.
But lately, the massive cuts at regional paper mills have had her thinking otherwise. And getting little or no interest in the demise of the region from the provincial government, which is based in far-away Toronto, Coun. Drysdale feels something has to be done to stop the trend.
Having only three MPPs at Queen’s Park really leaves Northwestern Ontario with little, if any, influence on provincial policies.
She noted a study on moving the Manitoba border east of Thunder Bay would see the region get 11 MPPs in a house of 57—hence having considerably more influence.
Coun. Drysdale also noted Manitoba Premier Gary Doer is proactive when it comes to losing major employers in communities.
“When The Pas mill was closing [losing 227 jobs], the premier went there and asked what it would take to keep it open,” she said. “The next day, it was announced the mill would stay open.
“We could not even get an audience with [Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty] when Dryden closed, losing 350 jobs,” she argued.
While Coun. Drysdale does not have all the answers as to what moving the Manitoba boundary east would mean, she did say “we have a responsibility to safeguard what is special in Northern Ontario.”
She asked for volunteers to sit on the newly-created Central Canada Public Policy Research Trust, which is looking at the boundary move.