Premier's meetings

North Bay Nipissing News

NIPISSING – After 23 long months a solid step forward on the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission was taken by the premier herself.

Kathleen Wynne was in North Bay last week for a flurry of meetings including one being touted as a game changer for the crown agency that was put up for sale in March of 2012.

“We are definitely moving towards transformation and restructuring and away from divestment,” said Paul Goulet, president of ONTC.

Goulet has been working under a nondisclosure agreement since the divestment strategy was first broached with him in the weeks ahead of the shocking announcement by then Minister of Northern Development and Mines Rick Bartolucci.

“We are definitely moving towards transformation and restructuring and away from divestment,” said Paul Goulet, president of ONTC.

Now freer to talk, Goulet says he has been tasked by the premier to work with the government, unions and clients of the ONTC to development a management option plan to bring costs under control while securing the sustainability of the more than a century-old agency.

The option plan, says Goulet, is to include all divisions of ONTC staying with the commission. A request for proposal was started last year for the telecommunications division Ontera, though no announcements have come from it.

The move is being hailed as positive by the union leadership representing the about 900 employees in the rail freight, telecommunications, busing and rail refurbishment shops.

“I give Premier Wynne and Minister (Michael) Gravelle full credit for trying to do something different compared to what Minister Bartolucci, and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan wanted to do,” said union spokesperson Brian Kelly.

He says he expects formal meetings with Goulet and other stakeholders to begin this week to start work towards finishing a plan quickly.

“I think we can get this done in a short time frame. Mr. Goulet put some ideas forward in December and some we agree with and some we disagree with but it is a good place to start… We committed to the premier we were going to get a plan done,” said Kelly.

Both Kelly and Goulet say they believe a big reason for the change in course has been the resolve of communities across northeastern Ontario not to let the ONTC slip into history.

“I think the enormous costs (to roll up the ONTC) were a factor… and the region coming together definitely had an impact,” said Goulet.

“North Bay Mayor Al McDonald and North Bay council has been behind us all the way as have a lot of other councils, groups and communities,” said Kelly.

But that resolve doesn’t change the challenges facing the corporation established at the turn of the 20th Century to open up the north to industry and settlement.

Goulet says rail freight business, the company’s largest division, is down about 50 per cent over the last 12 years and the global economy isn’t looking like that will change soon.

“Only recently the U.S. housing market has shown signs of turning around and wood is a big product for us,” said Goulet.

Kelly says he believes any necessary job reductions can be done through attrition, not hiring replacement workers.

“Our plan is not to have job losses… We don’t see people going home at the end of the day kicking stones wondering what they’re going to do,” said Kelly.

But Kelly says to get to that plan the unions want to see hard numbers about actual revenue, predicted incomes and where the company can grow in the future.

“If a company is not growing it is dying,” said Kelly.

That growth, for now, isn’t being predicted to come from the Ring of Fire development in the James Bay area. Goulet says there are too many negotiations and decisions to be made for any investment to be made now as to what role ONTC might play there.

“The difficulty for the Ontario Northland is we are an operational agency and we don’t have the mandate or the funds to explore something like that,” said Goulet. “…As much as we think we will have a role there we are not counting on the Ring of Fire.”

What he will be counting on is working with the partners of ONTC including the unions, the government and clients. He says two ‘significant clients’ of Ontario Northland are working on the plan and he hopes to see more – including Metrolinx.

The GTA public transit behemoth has been a major client of ONTC for refurbishing GO Transit cars in the past and Goulet has his eye on returning to that model after losing a major contract in 2011.

“The challenge will be to put the right factors in place so we can see Metrolinx return,” said Goulet.

At the same time he is predicting things won’t be strictly business as usual after the plans are put in place.

“Some (divisions) are highly commercial and need to look more like the private sector,” said Goulet.

Following the meeting with Premier Wynne Goulet says it is good to be able to speak publicly or privately about what is happening at the agency employing more than 500 people locally.

“Not speaking has been quite difficult. It is a small community and people want to hear what is going on and frankly the taxpayers deserve to know what is happening too,” said Goulet.

But he is sticking it out.

Asked why he’s chosen to stick with the company instead of pursuing other options, Goulet said, “I like my job and I find I can add a lot of value here.”

With the good news, Kelly says there is a lot of work to be done shaping the new future.

“We’d like to have a plan in before there is an election called. We don’t want there to be an election and all of a sudden there’s people taking shots at us,” said Kelly, who predicts eight to 10 weeks with the right information should be enough time.

“The good news is after 23 months the government is saying, ‘Come up with a plan and we’ll look at this in a fresh light,’ which is a long way from where Mr. Bartolucci put us,” said Kelly.

And while he talks optimistically, there is still resentment over the process that has carried out very slowly since March of 2012.

“It would have been better if they had put us in a room two years ago and said, ‘You need to come up with a plan because we’re thinking of selling the place.’ Absolutely that would have been better,” said Kelly.