Save Our North planning rally at PDAC convention

Support for a grassroots government lobbying effort launched by prospectors in the Timmins area has gained widespread support throughout northern Ontario. The group behind the effort is growing increasingly confident that it is about to make a difference.

The “Save Our North” campaign was launched in late January in an effort to boost the sagging fortunes of Ontario’s mining industry.

Save Our North is planning a major rally at the annual convention March 29-April 1 of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) in Toronto if it doesn’t receive any satisfaction from Ontario Premier Bob Rae and several of his key resource cabinet ministers at a news conference designed to highlight the industry’s recent decline.

Steve Parry, chairman of Save Our North and president of the Porcupine branch of the PDAC, explains that the purpose of the organization is to get the Ontario government to do an about-face in determining how it handles legislation affecting the industry.

“We want a clear statement of support (for the mining and exploration fields) from the premier and his ministers,” Parry said. “We have so much support now that if the government doesn’t recognize this problem soon, they’ll have a real dog fight on their hands.”

The Save Our North campaign has received resolutions of support from 40 northern Ontario communities, including all five major centres (Timmins, Sudbury, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay) and 35 smaller communities.

Parry says financial donations have come from as far away as British Columbia. “It’s amazing,” Parry said. “When people in the mining business heard about what we’re doing, they just opened the cheque books and asked us how much we needed.”

The City of Timmins has given the group $1,000 and two Timmins councillors, Lou Battochio and Don Dewsbury, have been drumming up support for the campaign from municipalities across northern Ontario.

Parry is hoping the entire exercise culminates in a successful news conference at the PDAC convention.

“We’re asking the premier, Natural Resources Minister Bud Wildman, Environment Minister Ruth Grier and Northern Development and Mines Minister Shelley Martel to show up to a news conference and declare their support for the mining industry,” he said.