Help on way in budget for N. Ontario: Premier

By JONATHAN JENKINS, Queen’s Park Bureau

Last Updated: March 23, 2010 10:10pm

Help is on the way for beleaguered Northern Ontario, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday.

“We’ve been paying particularly close attention to the impact of the recession on Northern Ontario,” the premier said, while fielding questions from reporters on what might be in Thursday’s provincial budget.

“Their economic challenges, in fairness, predate the recession, particularly insofar as the major industry and the forestry sector are concerned.

“Our budget will also speak to some support for Northern Ontario families and the economy there as well.”

McGuinty did not say how much help or what form it might take — the province is facing a $24.7-billion deficit.

The economic woes in the north have been well documented — thousands of jobs have been lost in the forestry industry as pulp and paper mills close. Tourism has struggled with the high Canadian dollar and now mining — with Xstrata poised to close its Timmins smelter and Brazilian firm Vale Inco embroiled in a nine-month strike in Sudbury — is also struggling.

McGuinty has been pumping up prospects in the north recently, particularly a plan to open up the Ring of Fire area northwest of James Bay to mining, but he said the budget will have something more.

“They’ve had to deal with global markets where they’ve seen the bottom fall out, particularly in forestry,” he said. “We feel a special responsibility to get them back on their feet.”