Time For Northern Ontario To Take A Stand

The McGuinty government has been noticeably absent from northern Ontario since taking power in 2003. They managed two successive electoral majorities riding the groundswell of opposition to the Harris-Eves’ neo-liberal Conservative policies. I would have to say that the north is worse off today without fear of contradiction.

Yes, there was the token northern representation by David Ramsay as Minister of Natural Resources and by Rick Bartolucci as Minister of Northern Development and Mines. But just look what has happened to the north since these men assumed their positions of power.

Tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in our forest industry. Our ability to have some measure of control over wood fiber allocations has been given up by the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR).

Waterpower lease agreements necessary to produce hydro electricity from our river systems have been given over to failing forestry companies. Thousands of jobs have been cut in the MNR and Ministry of Northern Development and Mines (MNDM) — the most important provincial government ministries in northern Ontario.

Foreign multinational firms have been allowed to purchase viable Canadian assets only to close profitable mines and value-added base metal manufacturing facilities, sometimes in breach of contractual obligations, as was the case last year at Xstrata in Sudbury, Ont. These same companies continue to demand concessions from workers, often forcing them to take strike action to defend gains made through years of collective bargaining without so much as a hint of support for working families from the sitting government.

In the meantime, McGuinty sings the praises of all-day kindergarten while hoping to see woodland caribou roam the Highway 11 corridor. As if there aren’t enough challenges to truckers that ply their trade across the highways and byways of northern Ontario without having to dodge the ghost of herds of woodland caribou, herds that haven’t been seen by anyone living here for generations.

For all the hype about a northern growth plan, our provincial government has failed us miserably. There has been far more talk than action, far more rhetoric than substance.

As northern Ontario is being sacrificed on the altar of globalization, our ability to support ourselves as we have been doing for the past century is being jeopardized by a seemingly indifferent and uncaring government at Queen’s Park.

Calls for a separate province of northern Ontario are being heard once again after being lost in the wilderness for decades. Municipal leaders are speaking out while some are actually taking a firm stand. People are starting to realize that we will gain nothing through our complacency. There’s no sense in blindly trusting that this government will protect our families’ interests.

The time to fight back is now before we lose anything more. Our governments continue to try to satisfy the insatiable appetite for increased profits made by multinational corporations that care nothing for our long-term survival as individuals or as a socially conscious democracy.

Doing and saying nothing is no longer an option. Fighting back does make a difference.

Ben Lefebvre Chairperson of CAW Local 599 Porquis Junction, ON