Greg Rickford, federal Minister of Natural Resources and Minister of Federal Economic Development Initiative for
Northern Ontario (FedNor), announced funding for Northern Ontario communities in Sudbury, ON. on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014.
JOHN LAPPA/THE SUDBURY STAR/QMI AGENCY


Ottawa reaches out to North, First Nations

By: Ben Leeson,
Sudbury Star
Friday, December 5, 2014



FedNor has shifted its focus to rural and First Nations communities with the announcement of the Community Investment Initiative for Northern Ontario, or CIINO, a $3-million fund to help smaller communities with economic development projects.

Greg Rickford, federal minister of Natural Resources and minister responsible for FedNor, announced the new initiative during a press conference in Sudbury on Thursday.

"A significant resource is being committed to deal with the economy of Northern Ontario communities tied to forestry, tied to mining, that have been vulnerable due to downturns in activity in these areas and fluctuations in commodity pricing woes," said Rickford, MP for the Kenora riding in northwestern Ontario.

CIINO targets smaller municipalities and First Nations that do not have economic development officers on staff, which Rickford said inhibits their ability to come forward to agencies such as FedNor, or the province's Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, to advance specific projects.

"Accessing these kinds of tools, going through the exercise of making applications for developments in these communities, including First Nations communities, can be prohibitive. Economic development is a priority for our remote and rural, isolated and smaller Northern Ontario towns, as much as it is for anybody."

Under the new initiative, those communities can apply for financial support to take on an economic development officer for a specific term, for a specific development or economic opportunity, providing there are no full-time staff filling that role.

"This initiative will respond to the needs identified to us here at FedNor and to me personally, from small municipalities, from First Nations communities, many of them rural, remote or isolated, who require extra talent, extra capacity, to bring important economic development plans and projects to fruition."

By-products of the initiative will be increased private-sector investment, job creation and regional collaboration and partnerships within communities, Rickford said.

This will be especially important for legacy resource development projects, he said, such as the Ring of Fire, the massive planned chromite and smelting development project in the mineral-rich James Bay Lowlands.

The $3 million is committed effective immediately and will continue through the next two budget cycles, as well. This will give communities a chance to identify projects they'd like to pursue.

FedNor gave out a total of $39 million for the 2013 calendar year, according to government press releases.

Opposition MPs have recently criticized the federal government's handling of FedNor. NDP MPs including Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) and the party's FedNor critic, John Rafferty (Thunder Bay-Rainy River) said this week the government held back some $11 million in economic development money for Northern Ontario during the last four years.

Angus said that money was returned to the federal treasury to create a surplus and be spent on other priorities.

"It would be difficult to believe there are less initiatives and business ideas coming out of Northern Ontario," especially with opportunities on the horizon within the Ring of Fire, Angus told QMI Agency.

The NDP cited Public Accounts documents that show that for the eight-year period from 2000 to 2008, a total of just $213 went unspent in the budget at FedNor. But that figure has skyrocketed over the past four years of a Conservative majority government to nearly $11 million.

"It's kind of ironic that the people we're hearing from in those regards are opposition members who represent cities like Thunder Bay and Sudbury, who were the largest recipients of FedNor resources since we've been in government in 2006, by a mile," Rickford said.

ben.leeson@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @ben_leeson