Duane Hicks
Randy Hillier, the Progressive Conservative critic for labour, northern development, mines, and forestry, believes the north is key to the economic rebirth of Ontario—and slammed the McGuinty government for its continuous creation of “red tape” and failure to listen to northern residents.
Hillier, the MPP for Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington and founder of the Ontario Landowners Association, on Saturday told delegates gathered here for the fall meeting of the Northwestern Ontario Associated Chambers of Commerce that he’s toured Northern Ontario in recent months and the people’s message has been loud and clear: “It’s time to give the north back to northerners.”
“Too much control is being exerted from Toronto over the north and it’s time for the north to make decisions on what happens here, not just Toronto,” he remarked.
Hillier recalled that when the province declared the “Green Belt” in the GTA, and 1.8 million acres of private land was declared off-limits for development, it resulted in outcries.
But if Bill 191—The Far North Planning Act—gets passed, 42 percent of Ontario (equalling a quarter-million square kilometres of land) will be off-limits to building, mining, hydro development, or anything else.
“Did Dalton McGuinty ask anybody here before he introduced it last year? No,” charged Hillier, adding when he attended all of the Bill 191 committee meetings, every stakeholder who appeared said they weren’t consulted, with the exception of the World Wildlife Fund.
Hillier said he’s found there’s more than 1,000 environmental groups in Ontario that lobby the government.
What’s more, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ministry of Environment paid out $45 million to environmental associations last year while the Nature Conservancy of Canada received government funding to the tune of $55 million.
“That’s a lot of coin . . . the government is taking your hard-earned dollars from your pockets and putting that money into the pockets of ‘green’ environmental associations,” Hillier noted.
“And then what do they do? They lobby government for policies and for legislation that excludes you from the process.”
While all the groups are not same, “most believe the north belongs to the caribou, not people,” added Hillier. “They believe the red-shouldered hawk has a right to the land, more right than you.
“I know the north belongs to the people. It’s not just the hawk and the caribou that live here, it’s people and governments represent people as well as caribou and red-shouldered hawks.”
Hillier said under the current government, the north has fallen from first place in economic growth to last, from “have” to “have not” status, and that “we’re now on Canada’s welfare rolls.”
“You and I are on Dalton’s dole these days through his policies,” he argued.
Hillier said nobody knows much of what may be found in the quarter-million square kilometres of land in question. And if it goes off-limits, nobody ever will as long as the McGuinty Liberals remain in power.
Hillier also said he’s concerned about the impact of Bill 173 (Mining Act). He has put in 100 amendments to that act, each of which he gets to debate, and then call for a 20-minute recess prior to every vote in the committee.
The Liberals were hoping to have it passed several weeks ago, but Hillier’s stalling has worked. So far, only eight amendments have been voted on.
One of those amendments is that municipalities, which provide infrastructure and get nothing in return, should get a share of provincial royalties from mining.
Another two concerns is map staking and payment in lieu of assessment.
Currently, one must physically stake a claim and someone with a claim has to do physical work at the site to keep it valid. The province is proposing instead that you stake a claim from a desk in Toronto and can pay a fee in lieu of the work.
While this is meant to make the process easier, what this could result in is environmental organizations staking every piece of property and making payment in lieu—prohibiting exploration or other activity.
“It’s a danger that I believe a number of those organizations are looking forward to,” Hillier said.
Hillier stressed “northern wealth” can be achieved, but first northern citizens have to be “treated as partners, not pawns of the provincial government.”
“We have to talk about the vast wealth we have here in the north, and how that wealth needs to be nurtured, how it should be allowed to grow, how that wealth ought to be reaped and harvested, and not just plowed under,” he remarked.
“There’s no denying Northern Ontario is a place of great natural beauty, as well as limitless opportunities,” he added. “None of us know what still has to be discovered in our boreal forest, and in the rock that makes up the Great Canadian Shield.
“But talk only of the north in terms of what might be dug up, chopped down, and shipped out misses the point,” Hillier said. “The wealth of the north is not limited to nickel and iron, gold and diamonds—the wealth of the north is found here with you.
“Your entrepreneurial spirit and hard-working attitude is our greatest strength and our greatest resources that we’re ever going to find here.”
Hillier went so far as to say Northern Ontario must be the focus of province’s economic rebirth, with its untold mineral wealth, timber, hydro generation, and other untapped energy resources.
“Ontario’s economy is linked directly to the north. If the northern economy goes south, then so does the rest of Ontario’s,” he reasoned. “Our standard of living is linked to your productivity.
“I believe the north is our future and we cannot allow it to be off-limits.”
Hillier said these types of regulations, which “restrict us and prevent prosperity,” are typical of the current government. He pointed out the 2010 Provincial Offences book is 3,400 pages long.
“Every statement in there is a law that requires you to get a permit for, or to get an application for, or to get a fine if you don’t do it properly,” he explained.
“Half-a-million regulations. We are the most overregulated jurisdiction in the country,” he added, noting the Alberta book has 1,300 pages, by comparison, while B.C. has 1,600 pages.
“What is it about the people in Ontario that requires us to have a book twice as big as the people in B.C.?” Hillier wondered. “Are we so terrible, are we so ignorant, are we so incompetent that government has to tell us everything?
“Well, that is the view in Toronto,” he charged. “There is a lack of consideration, lack of respect, for people to exercise good judgement. But in return, with those restrictions, we are also losing our economic prosperity?”
Hillier said it’s not bad luck nor coincidence Ontario has become a “have not” province—it’s over-regulation.
He pointed out there’s more than 650 agencies, boards, and commissions (ABCs) in Ontario—bodies which create regulations Ontarians live by yet are comprised of members who often are unelected and unaccountable who have been delegated authority.
By comparison, in 1997, the Mike Harris government struck a “red tape commission” which was “aghast” at 270 ABCs in Ontario.
Hillier stressed the PC party is dedicated to decreasing “red tape” and taking back government from the ABCs to return it to the voters and elected representatives.
