Jobs and Prosperity Council

Jobs and Prosperity Council 

The Jobs and Prosperity Council released their report today.  This council is comprised of 14 dedicated leaders from business, labour and other sectors who volunteered their time and expertise to develop recommendations designed to improve Ontario's long-term productivity and competitiveness.  The government has committed to reviewing the report and developing a response to it.

Two of the Council's recommendations are the following:



The Council believes that modern infrastructure,
particularly in transportation, can form part of Ontario’s
competitive advantage. We need new approaches that
engage public and private sources of capital and new
revenue models if we are to build the leading edge
infrastructure that we need now and in the future.


The Council recommends that the provincial government
strike a panel comprising, say, five leaders from
across the province. The panel should report back in a year
on how to stimulate growth and create sustainable jobs in
northern Ontario by tapping into our natural resource potential.

Ontario Northland could play a vital role as part of that modern infrastructure and whether it exists in it's current form or transforms to the Port Authority envisioned by the New Deal proponents, it MUST remain intact for it to be properly assessed.

If the Liberal government is serious about considering the Council's recommendations, it needs to suspend the divestiture of Ontario Northland and allow the suggested panel the opportunity to consider it, both in it's current form and in a transformed state.  Any commitment from the government regarding this report will only be genuine if they put a stop to the current plan to breakup Ontario Northland and permit it to be reassessed by experts, instead of politicians.

Liberal cabinet treats membership with disdain

With the majority of Liberal leadership hopefuls stating they would not piecemeal ONTC off to the private sector, the fact that Mr. Bartolucci is racing to get rid of Ontera shows why the current regime has to go.  Several candidates have expressed a desire to review the current process of breaking up Ontario Northland and scattering the bones into the private sector.  Those candidates, and their supporters, deserve the opportunity to make good on their election platforms.  For the current cabinet to proceed with a plan cooked up under a leader with no mandate, is unethical, to say the least.  It says volumes about why the Liberal party is in disarray, with decisions like cancelling of gas plants, threatening to undermine their reputation as competent managers who care about the entire electorate.  

There are a number of people who would like to review the facts behind the divestment decision. Dr. Barry Weller, a Distinguished Research Fellow on behalf of Transport Ontario, has been trying to get information from Minister Bartolucci for a couple of months now.  Not only is that information not forthcoming, Minister Bartolucci has not even given Dr. Weller the courtesy of a response.  Again, clear signs of a broken regime, and a cabinet desperate to  ram through their agenda even though they have lost the support of their own party, in addition to the residents of Northern Ontario.

In the same vein, FONOM, the organization most representative of the Northern Ontario region, has called on Minister Bartolucci to suspend the divestment of ONTC.  Additionally, there are at least 18 municipalities who have joined in the call, Chambers of Commerce and labour groups added their voices also. Even shippers like Xstrada have concerns about the impact of this divestment on their business.  And in response to the concerted effort to suspend the process, while stakeholders and business leaders clamour for a response from the government, their only action is to issue a RFP for the sale of Ontera.  A move that will seriously affect the viability of any alternative proposal to keep ONTC intact.  

The members of the Liberal party should demand this cabinet put a hold on all major decisions until a new leader has been chosen with a mandate solid enough to move forward.

One Size Does NOT Fit All

Northern and rural Ontario ridings are paying the price for the Liberal party governing with their city-centric policies.  It seems that since the Liberals are limited to representing GTA ridings, their party is governing the province with policies that are appropriate only for those areas.  

For example, the Municipality of East Ferris has managed its affairs on a pay-as-you-go basis for all of the 37 years, current Mayor, Bill Vrebosch has been in politics. Over the last year, the East Ferris council got the feeling their debt-free status was affecting funding decisions made by the Liberal party.  Comments such as "Why would we give you money? You have no debt, you don't need it" make the council feel they are being punished for good fiscal management.  

In cities that are growing rapidly, the continual need for more capital dollars has resulted in developers paying    large amounts in developers fees, as cities look to sources of funding other than government coffers.  This cost led the developers to push back and state there was a more fair way to spread out the cost of large capital investments...long-term, low interest debt.

The provincial government bought into the argument, and now it looks at municipalities with no long-term debt as being irresponsible to the current generation,  rather than the good financial stewards they are.  In small communities where capital investments are made in a slow and steady stream of improvements, developers are not paying large amounts of money and that cost is not being passed onto the current generation of homeowners.  

In most cases, capital improvements can be deferred until they can be afforded and with no water or sewer infrastructure to maintain, there is not the same "maintenance gap" as currently exists in the infrastructure of major centers.  These small communities are deserving of their normal share of provincial transfers and should not be punished for managing their financial affairs wisely.

City-centric Development

One of the questionable decisions of the current Liberal government is the one to divest itself of Ontario Northland Transportation Commission.  On Mar 23rd of this year, Minister of Northern Development and Mines, Rick Bartolucci, announced that he had decided to get rid of the 110 year old agency due to an unsustainable business model.  One cannot argue that the funds required to keep the organization afloat had risen over the past decade, although not to the actual annual level stated by the government, but no one addressed the systemic decline caused by years of capital funding starvation and external decisions which reduced revenues.  Instead, the Liberal government threw in the towel and quit trying to rebuild the company, after some promising starts, like the Ontera capital infusion to build a fibre optic ring and the establishment of a rail refurbishment division.  The company suffered from a lack of marketing, both in rail opportunities and the provision of Rail Passenger service, and political interference inhibited the development of new products in both.
The intent is to breakup the infrastructure operated and maintained by this public agency, since it has been clearly stated the business will not be sold, just the assets.  That leads one to believe there is an underlying motive for this divestiture.  The North, both East and West, has been united in calling for a reversal of this decision,with industry, municipal governments, First Nations and unions joining in.  Yet Rick Bartolucci, having given no open consultation process, ignores every reasonable call to reconsider.  The government is basing their argument on the fact that Don Drummond supported the sale in a one line recommendation in his omnibus study of government spending.  Based on the time frame of that study and the scope of the recommendations, it is clear there was not an in-depth review of the economic benefit derived from the expenditure of those funds.  The study was a masquerade perpetrated on the Ontario taxpayer to justify huge cuts.  Only those ones deemed politically expedient though, as the one to abandon full-day kindergarten was ignored.
The political expediency of the ONTC decision was clear since it operated primarily in opposition held ridings and fit in to the overall direction of the government, as expressed in this report.

http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/investing/reports/rogenglish.pdf

Although this report contains some very good ideas, it's overall direction is to consolidate new development and provide incentives to bring the population into cities.  It is good policy in the GTA, where cities have already sprawled onto valuable farmland, but in the North and in rural areas, it places more stress on small communities already feeling the stress of outbound migration.  What is needed in the North and rural Ontario is effective economic development which can provide sustainable jobs so the youth of the region is not forced out in order to make a living.  Economic development requires a co-ordinated plan and effective public infrastructure.  This government is curtailing both, by design.

Welcome

This blog is focused on Northern Ontario Issues, but will tackle some topics with a much wider impact also.   Voter apathy has resulted in declining turnouts in elections across the country.  It is apparent to some that the system is broken.  We need an engaged electorate to direct the many elected representatives who are not what has become the perception of a stereotypical  politician.  Corruption in  cities, disregard for laws and the widening gap between rich and poor has diminished the value of politicians in the public's eyes.  I hope we can restore, in our elected officials,  the ability to see a better future for all and the means to achieve it.