Posted 1 hour ago

JON THOMPSON

Miner and News

From a tarmac in Thunder Bay where she was stuck in a Friday storm, provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath hinted at elements of her party's coming platform over the telephone, in lieu of her planned visit to Kenora.

She has been meeting with Northwestern Ontario's municipal leaders and described a bleak alienation among regional leadership, from hydro rates to the forestry crisis, from health care infrastructure to the politics of division, from the Harmonized Sales Tax to the Far North Act. The solution, she's told, is a greater degree of independence and consent for the North.

"The information I've received is very clear: Northwestern Ontario communities want more tools at their fingertips to be able to deal with their issues," she said. "There's no doubt that there isn't a single fix but there's an obvious opportunity for there to be a stronger role in local decision making."

Howath held her cards close on what form the NDP will suggest the North will take leading into this fall's provincial election but suggested the party's platform will address the alienation with increased independence.

"Where my mind is going is putting together a northern lens, whether it's a formal structure around decisions affecting the North that must go through this process. Whatever it looks like, it shouldn't be a bunch of political appointments from the 905 and the 416. It should be run by and consist of Northerners who understand what's happening here."

By Horwath's calculations, the Harmonized Sales Tax is costing the average family $800 a year, including the families of business owners, whom the tax was said to have been benefiting. As she sees Northern communities "hollowed out" and young people leaving due to the downturn in forestry, she accused the province of turning its back on opportunities to create value-added manufacturing and provide inexpensive, clean hydro energy as incentives for the struggling industry.

"The government we have has taken a 'stand on the sidelines' approach and is letting the markets take care of everything. We know that hasn't been working.

"Government has a role to play to make sure we're doing the things that are necessary, putting in place the policies necessary not to lose these communities."

She accused Premier Dalton McGuinty of playing divisive politics in the North, which she sees entrenching disagreements between environmentalists, industry, municipalities and First Nations. Most prevalently, she addressed the Far North Act, which passed despite opposition from the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (Treaties 9 and 5), the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association, the Northwestern Ontario Associated Chambers of Commerce, and the Ontario Mining Association.

"How dare the government allow the bill to pass in the form it passed in when the municipalities, First Nations, even the mining companies -- maybe for a different reason -- all said that this isn't going to work? Here we are with blockades up already in the Ring of Fire and no one is surprised. Shame on Dalton McGuinty for doing that."