By IAN ROSS
The provincial Tories’ Smart Growth initiative to plan the North’s economic future has come and gone.
With a new Liberal government in place, Sault Ste. Marie Mayor John Rowswell hopes other northern mayors and reeves will plug into his idea of creating a Web-based forum asking them to speak up on what the North needs for economic recovery and growth.
Rowswell hopes to electronically bring together Northern mayors from big and small communities through his North in Recovery virtual forum to brainstorm over the next few months in preparing a document for the premier’s desk this spring to develop a new economic development strategy for the region.
He is personally spearheading a Web-based forum, launched in mid-March, to jump-start a dialogue among mayors of large urban, medium and rural northern communities to respond to a series of questions that will be edited and formed into a final document.
Rowswell is dusting off and rewriting an old presentation made last year by the Northern Ontario Mayor’s Coalition to the Eves government, but this time with input from every municipality.
“We want to consult with all the municipalities in Northern Ontario to find out what we need, what are our issues, what’s working right and what’s not.”
The proof is in the details. Based on out-migration statistics, unemployment rates, declining property values and a shrinking assessment base, Rowswell says the North has not enjoyed the rest of Ontario’s prosperity of the last decade.
The Northern Ontario Mayor’s Coalition representing the Sault, Sudbury, Timmins, North Bay and Thunder Bay has worked well in achieving success, such as the establishment of the proposed Northern Ontario Medical School, he says. But now the coalition’s tent needs to be wider and more inclusive.
However, rounding up 170 northern mayors and reeves for a meeting was a practical and travel budget impossibility for some municipalities.
“By using this (virtual) forum, we might be able to find a mechanism to invite feedback,” says Rowswell.
A Sault IT company has offered Rowswell an exclusive Web site free of charge for the next two months, accessible only to mayors and reeves by special pass code.
Rowswell plans to push the issue when he huddles with mayors attending the April 15 Ontario Global Traders Awards in Sault Ste. Marie and again
at the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities annual meeting on Manitoulin Island in early May.
Some of the questions posted on the Web site will be asking mayors and reeves to describe challenges faced in their community, identify possible solutions to those challenges, list opportunities they wish to pursue, list any success stories they want to share, and outline what assistance is needed to achieve success in their community.
In last year’s document presented to the Eves government, the mayors recommended the province invest in educating and training northerners for tomorrow’s jobs, relocating government offices to the North, providing tax incentive packages for business and industry, upgrading northern highways, promoting the use of high-speed ICT (information and communications technology), creating incentives that lure immigrants north, developing new research and development activity, and co-ordinating marketing efforts to officially brand Northern Ontario.
For more information contact Rowswell’s office at 705-759-5344.
