By NICK STEWART
With the strong Canadian dollar and the high prices of energy and fiber taking a devastating toll on the forestry industry, more and more individuals within Northwestern Ontario are beginning to give serious thought to finding stronger independence from Queen’s Park.
“Ontario is becoming increasingly focused on Toronto, whose problems are dominating the province to an extent where it is difficult for other parts of the province to make their case,” says Livio Di Matteo, a professor of economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.
“Toronto insists that it’s the engine of the economy and it’s acquiring new powers under the City of Toronto Act. If it can work for Toronto, it can work for the Northeast or the Northwest, and I think Queen’s Park should consider devolving certain powers to regional governments.”
Spurred by the increasing level of interest within the Northwest for some alternate form of government, Di Matteo co-authored a study published in the Canadian Policy Journal in 2006 analyzing that very concept, which would encompass the districts of Rainy River and Thunder Bay northward to the James Bay area. The study also looked at other ideas, such as merging the area with Manitoba, though these were ultimately viewed as being unrealistic due to the massive political complications.
As the most feasible and potentially productive option, he says that regional government for the Northwest would represent an opportunity for solid economic development, provided that the province would allocate certain tax transfer credits as well as the appropriate tools such as jurisdiction over crown lands, transportation, energy and tourism.
“Part of the problem for Northwestern Ontario is that many of the most important decisions are being made thousands of kilometres away by people who are not as familiar or as interested with the issues and don’t have the time because they’re preoccupied by other things,” says Di Matteo. “This is a win-win situation. We get jurisdiction over things that other people don’t really want to deal with and people in the Toronto area get us off their backs and don’t have to worry about us as much.”
Also putting some thought into the topic is the Northern Ontario Municipalities Association (NOMA), who has partnered with a number of regional chambers of commerce and local stakeholders to develop a recommendation paper which is to be delivered to the federal and provincial governments in the spring. This paper is set to cover a variety of subjects, such as possibilities for economic development, and among these is the subject of government and the tools regional people would need to more effectively resolve regional issues.
“Instead of just whining about it, we want to propose what we think the fixes are,” says Iain Angus, vice-president of NOMA and chair of its regional recovery committee, as well as a city councillor for Thunder Bay. “We want to indicate the structural, institutional and monetary changes and so forth that we think are appropriate so that we are able to influence more quickly and more directly, how we are managed.”
Angus is quick to point out that the committee has not taken any stance or come to any conclusions as of yet, and that the situation is largely being analyzed out of a perception that the provincial government is not responding effectively to the various economic problems occurring in the North.
“There’s an underlying belief that if we had more control, decisions would be made faster and more appropriately attuned to the needs of the North as opposed to what we perceive as a one-size-fits-all solution coming out of Queen’s Park or out of Ottawa,” says Angus. “It’s a widely-held belief that’s been exacerbated because of the delay and subsequent failure of the provincial government to respond to the forest crisis in a way that their own ministers’ committee recommended they should.”
Angus, who also chairs the Ontario Forestry Coalition, says the voice of the Northwest has grown dimmer within the provincial legislature as the decision-makers focus their gaze upon Southern Ontario.
“We don’t seem to be listened to in the same way we used to be,” he says. “Why would we have three municipalities now where 90 per cent of the labour force is out of work because of the crisis in the forest industry? If this was Oshawa, there would have been much quicker action.”
While efforts for a more politically robust region press onwards, some say that advocacy itself is the means to deliver a stronger and more vital economy in the North.
Lynn Peterson, mayor of Thunder Bay, argues that regional efforts in recent years have strengthened the voice of the people of Northwestern Ontario, and that such efforts have already begun to bear fruit.
“I think that a lot of people have been working very hard for the last several years to make sure that’s changing, and it is,” says Peterson. “When you look at the fact that there’s now a Northern Prosperity Plan, there’s a Northern Development Council, there’s a number of issues and more to come, the effects of our campaign and our insistence that the North be thought of are working.”
As a member of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s (AMO) task force for rural and Northern issues, Peterson has helped to create and deliver recommendation papers to the provincial government, which she says have been an effective method of bringing about positive change.
“It’s been an ongoing campaign,” she says. “I think we’re making headway and that Queen’s Park is starting to listen more as we keep pushing and pushing.
