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Letters to the Editor — NDP candidate talks about Northern Growth Plan, others chime in about the grotto

By Letters

Posted 5 hours ago

SUDBURY AND THUNDER BAY DOMINATE NORTHERN GROWTH PLAN

The northern growth plan, which is the McGuinty government's blueprint for economic planning and development in Northern Ontario, should have its name changed to the Sudbury and Thunder Bay Growth Plan.

I went to Sudbury last week with the hope that the three-year planning process would finally come to an end, and that we would actually begin to see some action on sustainable economic development. I came home thinking that there may indeed be some action, but that Sault Ste. Marie is not likely to see much of it.

Thunder Bay and Sudbury have been chosen as 'pilot sites' for the plan's implementation. This means that they get first chance to implement new initiatives, and then, after some period of time (two years? three years?) the lessons learned will be applied to other communities. Will this mean that these two centres will have more power to negotiate and therefore concentrate even more services in their communities?

These same two cities are being given a very significant role in defining the future for all of us in Northern Ontario. Lakehead and Laurentian University presidents are not only assigned the task of determining indicators of success for the northern growth plan, but also are being charged with establishing a Northern Policy Institute.

The work of communities such as Sault Ste. Mare is being largely ignored. When I spoke with a government representative about Sault Ste. Marie's multi-modal transportation hub studies and plans, I discovered that these were not being utilized, despite the fact that funding is now being provided to work on multi-modal in Northern Ontario.

The summit was billed as an opportunity for Northerners to participate in defining the implementation activities of the plan, but feedback from the participants was relegated to a brief period. This, despite the fact that speakers from all over the world -- New Zealand, Scotland, Ireland and the United States -- spoke of the need to have communities and their people at the heart of the process of building economies and the need to place decision-making in local hands.

The provincial government appears more interested in generating revenues for its own coffers through exploitation of the Ring of Fire mining development than in building community economies throughout the North.

Their implementation plan responds mainly to the constituencies (Thunder Bay and Sudbury) of two of its cabinet ministers. Let's hope the government changes before they go too far down this road.

Celia Ross,

Sault Ste. Marie provincial NDP candidate,

Atlas Street