Christine Elliott, an Ontario PC leadership hopeful, was back in the Timmins-James Bay riding Wednesday to drum up support for her effort to lead the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. Elliott met with party supporters as well as some municipal leaders, such as Timmins Mayor Steve Black and Kapuskasing Mayor Al Spacek.

By LEN GILLIS

The Timmins Times

Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership hopeful Christine Elliott promised on Wednesday that she will return to the riding of Timmins-James Bay during the next Ontario election to support whomever might be the PC candidate. She said that will be part of her effort to show support for the North.

Elliott, the MPP for Whitby-Oshawa, is one of the candidates seeking the PC leadership vacated by Tim Hudak. The other contender is Barrie MP Patrick Brown. Monte McNaughton, the third contender, is reported to have dropped out.

In speaking to local conservatives in Timmins Wednesday, Elliott showed she was well-briefed on Northern issues, as she spoke of the need to revise policies on everything from energy to endangered species to the Ring Of Fire; things that Northern municipal leaders have been complaining about in recent years. She was quick to admit that previous PC policies were not popular.

"For example I heard from a lot of our Northern Ontario candidates in the last election that some of the policies we came forward with, were not only not helpful, they were harmful," said Elliott. "So we've got to stop doing that and the only way we make sure that we get policies that are going to make sense to the North is to have Northern representatives at the table."

Joining Elliott in support of her brief tour of the North Wednesday was well-known Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli, who was himself a leadership candidate briefly before throwing his support to Elliott's camp.

In taking questions from reporters, Elliott said there are significant concerns among Northern voters that her party can he working on.

"I think there's a lot of things we need to do in terms of developing these huge resources here in the North. One of the things we need to do is get hydro rates under control. She said Ontario needs a coherent energy policy that will appeal to industry and "make sense" across the province.

"I know there's issues with the Endangered Species Act and that's a huge problem, preventing a lot of companies from reaching their full potential. So I think we need to revisit that and make sure that it is balanced in its approach," Elliott added.

"Of course, I know there is a serious issue here with roads, with the Connecting Link," said Elliott. "We need to make sure we get a fair share of that money from the province in order to be able to develop the roadways so that both the mining industry and the forest industry can continue to grow and flourish."

RING OF FIRE NEEDS HELP

She also fielded a question about the Ring Of Fire mining development, which is currently slogging along in low gear. No development work at all is underway on the huge chromite and nickel project, located some 600 kilometres northwest of Timmins.

Elliott said Ontario needs a better relationship with the federal government in order to get the project back on track. It might have been a jab at Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who has not been too successful in creating any sort of cordial relationship between her government and the federal Harper government.

As for Elliott, she was clearly critical of the Wynne Liberals on the Ring Of Fire project.

"Well the Ring Of Fire does of course have enormous potential, not just for Northern Ontario, but Southern Ontario as well. Like most Northerners I have been incredibly frustrated at the Liberal government's lack of action on this file," said Elliott. She accused the Liberals of having done nothing more than "chasing away" Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., a U.S. company that was considered the major player in the development. That company has sold off its interest in the project.

"What I would want to do as leader and ultimately as premier is get all the parties to the table and have a constructive dialogue with the federal government, because we can't do this unilaterally. We need to do it with their assistance. So I think we need a much more positive working relationship with the federal government," said Elliott. "I am sure if we present a credible plan to them, to start construction of the roadway, working with our First Nations partners, that it will happen."

In taking questions from the floor during her talk in Timmins, Timmins Mayor Steve Black, a former PC candidate, asked Elliott if she would visit the Timmins-James Bay riding if she becomes the PC leader. Elliott promised that she would.

INCLUDING NORTHERNERS

Later Elliott said she is hopeful her party will perform better in the next provincial election by having Northern voices included in policy discussions.

"I think the problem has been a lot of the policies that any government, and our party ran on last time, are Southern Ontario focused. So we need to get away from that and we need to make sure that the voices from Northern Ontario are heard around the table, and involved in all of the decision making," said Elliott.

"So I pledge to do that, to both have Northern Ontario residents at the table, but also to continue to travel myself to meet with groups, large and small across the province, to understand Northern issues more thoroughly," she said.

Elliott, who has served on legislature committees travelling around the province during her nine years in office, said she has seen that the North does not enjoy the same level of provincial services offered in Southern Ontario.

"We have to fix that," she said.