Peggy Revell
New programs for energy savings, investment, and funding for Northern Ontario are being touted by the provincial government with the release of the budget last Thursday.
“This is a budget that saw a real focus on Northern Ontario,” Northern Development, Mines and Forestry minister Michael Gravelle said in an interview Friday.
One of the budget highlights is the creation of the three-year Northern Industrial Electricity Rate Program (NIERP) for qualifying “large northern industrial facilities.”
“[NIERP] will reduce the energy costs of major industrial users by two cents a kilowatt hour, which will work out ultimately, for those companies that qualify, about a 25 percent decrease in their energy costs,” Gravelle said of the program, which begins April 1.
“I think this is clearly a strong reflection of the fact that the province, premier, and finance minister understand that there are some tremendous opportunities in Northern Ontario, but there are some challenges, one of them being the costs of energy,” he added.
The province had a previous program in place for the forestry sector—which remains in place—but NIERP means this energy program will be expanded to other sectors, such as the mining, Gravelle noted.
For forestry companies, it’s actually an increase in the previous program in terms of dollar value, he added.
At this point, the province doesn’t have an exact definition of what businesses will qualify for the program, Gravelle admitted.
But he said since facilities—such as the local AbitibiBowater mill—qualified for the past program, they also would qualify for this one.
One aspect of NIERP is that qualifying facilities would have to commit to electricity efficiency and a sustainability plan.
“It will be based upon working towards energy efficiency,” stressed Gravelle, “But certainly all the companies are actively working in that regard, so we anticipate that this will continued.
“We believe this will be a very significant boost to the large major industrial users, and certainly I think it’s been very well-received by both the forestry sector and the mining sector, as well,” Gravelle said.
The province also has proposed a new permanent “Northern Ontario Energy Credit” for low- to middle-income residents in Northern Ontario—a move Gravelle said reflects the government’s understanding of how energy costs are more expensive in the north.
This income-tested energy credit would be available for northern residents who pay rent or property tax, and would amount to a credit of up to $130 for a single person or $200 for a family.
This credit will provide a benefit to roughly 250,000 Northern Ontario residents, said Gravelle, and is “something that we obviously welcome.”
But Kenora-Rainy River MPP Howard Hampton called the measures for the north in the budget “mostly an insult.”
“Now that 45,000 forestry jobs have been lost, the government finally delivers an industrial hydro rate–something New Democrats have long called for,” Hampton said in a press release.
“Where was this kind of initiative in 2004 or 2006 or 2008 when jobs could have been saved?
“And the Northern Ontario Energy Credit is like a cruel joke,” Hampton added. “It won’t even cover the cost increase families will see on their hydro bills each and every month as a result of the HST.”
The provincial government is “still stuck in neutral,” Hampton charged, adding the budget has “glaring shortcomings when it comes to jobs, pensions, and health care.
“The fact is, this is going to be a permanent Northern Ontario credit,” countered Gravelle.
“We’ve also built in personal income tax cuts for about 93 percent of the population for the province, so that’s going to provide some assistance, as well,” he noted.
“When one looks at the fiscal challenges facing the province of Ontario, obviously a major deficit, it was pretty exciting to see a budget focused on Northern Ontario,” added Gravelle, pointing to various areas where funding has been increased.
The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp., for instance, was given a boost from $80 million to $90 million while there also was a “huge increase” in the Northern Highways Budget, Gravelle noted.
And his ministry’s budget has grow to $1.47 billion—“and that’s the highest our ministry has ever seen,” he said.
“I don’t think we’re on the road to recovery, not yet,” cautioned Fort Frances Mayor Roy Avis in response to the provincial budget.
He said the implementation of the Harmonized Sales Tax will have a bigger effect on the “average citizen in the Town of Fort Frances than does this budget.”
“I don’t think it’s a real stimulus budget because they’re not throwing the money at us like last year,” he added.
“We’re finishing up some of the biomass road rebuild program that we have in place—we finish that this year—but I don’t believe we’re going to see any real influx of new monies that’s going to stimulate the economy of Fort Frances,” he warned.
“There is some good things there, like the energy credit,” Mayor Avis added, although saying he hasn’t had the chance to review the whole budget.
“I think that, the budget, the deficit, and their predictions of where it’s going to be in the next five years, I don’t know whether that’s going to be happening, either,” the mayor remarked.
“That’s something that time will tell.”
One concern Mayor Avis has is over the province’s move to reduce costs by implementing an immediate two-year pay freeze for non-unionized workers in the public sector.
“I’m very concerned with the process that they’re using to limit the salaries of public workers,” he said.
“I think that if they were going to do it, they should have done it as a whole group—municipalities, provincial governments, everybody should have been treated the same,” he stressed.
“I’m not in favour of what they’ve done. This process is going to cause more conflict,” he warned.
Meanwhile, funding for child care was the biggest highlight in the budget for the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board.
“From our end, probably the most significant announcement in that budget for us was the commitment of the province to permanently fill that $63.5 million funding gap, and that was caused because the federal government chose to end funding for child care,” said DSSAB executive director Donna Dittaro.
“So that’s exciting for us because [of] that commitment. However, we still are trying to clarify what exactly that means,” she admitted.
When this federal funding stopped, the local DSSAB saw a reduction by about $123,000.
“If we can have those funds reallocated to the DSSAB, that would be super for child care in the district,” she remarked.
“Now the province is going to say that they’re going to permanently fill that gap,” Dittaro added. “So we’re just waiting to hear [if] we’re going to get this $123,000 returned or at least a portion of it.
“Until we hear something official, I can’t really say—but we can hope.”
Meanwhile, when it came to social housing, Dittaro said the funding the province spoke of in the budget actually is a re-announcement of second wave funding, including $568,000 for the Social Housing Renovation and Retrofit Fund and roughly $375,000 for the Northern Home Repair Program.
“So really, it wasn’t new funding—we were expecting that anyway,” said Dittaro.
As for Ontario Works, Dittaro said DSSAB hasn’t yet received any information on how the Northern Ontario Energy Credit will impact social assistant recipients.
