FORT FRANCES—Northwestern Ontario likely will continue to struggle with layoffs and closures in the forestry sector in 2007, but the areas of mining and tourism are full of potential in the coming year if the McGuinty government steps up to the challenge, NDP leader and local MPP Howard Hampton says.
“We will continue to see some layoffs and losses of more jobs in the forestry sector,” Hampton warned Tuesday. “Part of that will be because of the continued high cost of electricity, which has not been fixed.”
Hydro electricity can be produced in Northern Ontario for as little as two cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), but the McGuinty government continues to force mills to pay three times that much for their hydro, he noted.
“A few mills will get a rebate on that, but only a few, which means the majority will continue to be hurt,” Hampton said, referring to the Northern Pulp and Paper Electricity Transition program the Liberal government announced in November, offering a 15 percent electricity rebate to the province’s largest mills.
“The really sad thing is these layoffs and losses of jobs [were] avoidable and preventable if the government had been more thoughtful and had been focusing on the issues,” he charged.
“The forest sector continues to have excellent potential,” Hampton added, with some of the best wood fibre in the world—and the potential to create energy at one of the lowest costs in the world.
“What’s stopping us from using that electricity at an affordable cost is government policy. In my view, it’s wrong-headed government policy, but the potential is still there,” Hampton said.
Regarding education, Hampton said there’s a real danger of school boards being forced to close schools next year in the face of continued funding cuts.
Last summer, school board across the north—including the Rainy River District School Board and the Northwest Catholic District School Board—struggled to submit balanced budgets for 2006/07 as a result of funding cuts.
Both local boards predicted shortfalls of more than $1 million, which were covered with transfers from reserves as well as some internal cuts.
“The budget envelope for small schools, for rural schools, for schools with declining enrolment, all of these budgets were cut,” Hampton noted.
“The only way they’re getting through this year is by using their financial reserves. But by the spring, their financial reserves will be gone,” he warned.
Should the province continue to fail to fund in these areas, “many rural and northern school boards will be forced to close schools. That’s the really nasty thing that is waiting,” he stressed.
“The McGuinty government that promised to put money into the school funding formula, and to fix the school funding formula, has, in fact, made the school funding formula worse for most northern boards of education and for most boards of education in rural Ontario,” Hampton added.
“Those are the two major issues. It’s not going to be pretty.”
With a provincial election already set for Oct. 4 of this year, Hampton said the McGuinty Liberals may take some action on these issues to win over voters.
“I think you’ll hear lots of announcements, but I don’t think you’re going to see any effective action,” he charged.
Despite the challenges ahead, Hampton noted there were some positive accomplishments in 2006—and potential ones for 2007.
In terms of health care, Hampton was happy to see a final deal to incorporate Rainycrest Home for the Aged here with Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc.
“I want to give credit to folks locally,” he said. “I think everybody locally—the municipalities, the people on the board of Riverside, the workers at Rainycrest—deserve a lot of credit for helping to bring about the amalgamation of Rainycrest and Riverside.
“It was the best solution,” he added. “I think it’s going to benefit people locally, both the acute care of the hospital and the long-term care of Rainycrest.
“I think you’re going to see some cost-savings come out of it.”
There is no relief in sight, however, for the doctor shortage or wait times in emergency wards, Hampton added.
Other areas of potential growth for the region include mining and tourism.
“We have huge potential across the north in terms of the mining industry,” Hampton said, citing particularly the area north of the 51st parallel.
Mining in the areas of Red Lake, Ear Falls, Atikokan, Shebandowan, and Pickle Lake already has proven fruitful, he noted.
“The value of the ore that’s come out of the ground in those places is in the tens of billions of dollars,” Hampton said.
“[But] if that’s going to happen, it will require a provincial government that’s willing and capable of sitting down with northern First Nations and developing the kinds of environmental agreement, trading agreements, and revenue-sharing agreements that will allow that to happen,” he added.
“So far, that has not occurred under the McGuinty government.”
Equally, tourism could be a more successful industry in the north, says Hampton.
“There’s been little thought given by either the federal government or the McGuinty government to how the tourism resources in Northern Ontario should be used to generate a living and an economic base,” he argued.
“We continue to generate only a fraction of what the tourism resources are actually worth.”
Hampton also was critical of the province’s handling of beef inspection in the district.
“We do not have an abattoir in the west end of the district, yet the government wants to enforce the beef regulations as if we do have an abattoir.
“It makes no sense,” he said. “I don’t think the current government has either an understanding or appreciation of how important the agricultural sector is in Ontario.”
Hampton pledged to continue raising these issues at Queen’s Park in 2007.
“We can, and should, be doing a lot better,” he stressed.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
