Dr. David Robinson

The province gave him an impossible job. As northwestern Ontario economic facilitator, Dr. Bob Rosehart was supposed to work with local people and businesses to help inspire a new generation of growth in the Northwest. Did he succeed? Who knows.

A major policy paper in Québec could save Northern Ontario a lot of time. The document is called “Forests: Building a Future for Québec.” It is Québec’s blueprint for digging itself out of the forestry crisis.

It's time for the cities to step up to the plate. Literally. The economics of Northern Ontario depends on what Thunder Bay, Sudbury, North Bay, the Sault, and Timmins dish out.

The Crown Forest Sustainability Act governs our forest economy. The Act is quite clear about its purpose: Northern forests are to be run for the benefit of the south.

As an economist, I specialize in being simple-minded. Being simple-minded, I think that government policies should encourage good things and discourage bad things. Canada’s leading tax theorist, Jack Mintz, former president of the prestigious C. D.

Cut a pie in three. Colour the biggest piece red, the smallest piece green, and the other orange. You now have the foundation for Ontario’s anti-northern energy policy. The red is liquid fuels, the orange is natural gas, and the green is electricity.

Have you ever heard of Schrödinger’s cat? It was the original high-tech zombie – alive and dead at the same time. Northern development is lot like Schrödinger’ cat. Schrödinger invented this story to show how strange quantum mechanics can be.

Clark Binkley says forests are a very attractive financial asset these days. Binkley should know.

Since the mid 1970s so-called experts have been telling us that economic diversification is the solution to the North’s economic problems. In fact, diversification has been a trap and a failure.

The provincial government is working on a growth plan for Northern Ontario. The big question is whether the government is thinking about bridges.