I am very pleased to accept the nomination for the position of First Minister for our new regional government. As first minister I will serve the people of Northern Ontario faithfully and, I hope, long.
We have to thank Premier Dalton McGuinty for his courageous decision. Letting us Northerners make our own decisions goes against every tradition in Ontario politics.
Now it’s up to us. We can have policies that make sense for the North. We get first crack at the resource revenues that have been flowing south. We can have a lot more fun. We finally have the power to create a prosperous and exciting North.
That is why I am so happy to offer my services as First Minister of the new Semi-Autonomous District of Northern Ontario.
I have many disadvantages as a candidate – I have no name-recognition and less sex appeal. I have no money and no party would touch me with a ten-foot pole. These are not fatal flaws.
The fatal flaw that I must confess is that I have a program. Not just any program: A Program for Northern Ontario. No one has ever seen a serious politician with a workable program for Northern Ontario.
Plank number one in my program – may I say OUR progam? – is the unity plank. The goal is to unify the people of the North. We are divided by distance and by government. We will begin to build solidarity across the North in many small and cheap ways. We will connect every schoolroom using the Internet. We will create a Northern “youth corps” or Katimivik that will give young Northerners a chance to work in other communities. When we do public consultations, the public will really participate in making decisions.
Plank number two is the culture plank. Northern students will learn about Northern artists, poets, and writers, Northern history and geography, biology and culture.
The culture plank will give Northern students an educational advantage. Students learn more and better when they are learning about the real world around them. It will give Northern Ontario an economic boost. Instead of buying textbooks from Texas and Toronto, we will be paying Northerners to develop materials that are relevant for us. We will keep money in Northern Ontario and we will create a new export industry. The culture plank will help keep our young people in the North – they will know where the opportunities are in the North and they will have heroes and friends across the North.
The energy plank is the one that scares the south. We will use our energy to run our own industries or we will sell it to the south at market prices. We know the value of this resource is rising. The government pays 13.1 cents for a kilowatt hour from new hydro, with a 35 per cent bonus for power during peak hours. Our dams let us sell power south at peak times. In the future, Northern Ontario will actually benefit from Northern resources.
To free up power for industry or for sale, we will build bio-power plants for all the communities in the North. They will provide heat for homes and public building. Our bio-power system will save us billions on imported fuel oil and shelter us from the huge price rises that are coming.
Plank number four will make your eyes glaze over. Taxation for the North will be different from the crazy system they have in the south. In Northern Ontario, the sales tax goes to the communities. The gas tax goes to the communities. Income taxes will pay for education. We want it to be clear that there is a connection between what people learn and what they earn. Property taxes will pay for public services that increase property values. There will be no property tax on buildings and improvements. Resource revenues will be invested in developing talent and increasing productivity. When the mine closes, there will be something left.
Plank number five is really radical. We will value every Northerner and work to develop his or her talents and especially his or her joie de vivre. The North will be so exciting no one will ever want to leave.
Happy New Year!
Dave Robinson is an economist with the Institute for Northern Ontario Research and Development at Laurentian University.
drobinson@laurentian.ca
