https://www.timminstoday.com/local-news/can-premier-wynnes-charm-disarm-northern-disenchantment-296054

Can Premier Wynne’s charm disarm northern disenchantment?

Premier Kathleen Wynne is trying very hard to impress upon Northern Ontario Mayors that her aggressive spending on infrastructure across the province is having net benefits for the North.

Yesterday the Premier arrived in Timmins for the annual Federation of Northern Ontario Mayors meeting.

She entered the McIntyre Ballroom and proceeded to greet as many of the mayors going table to table shaking hands and stopping to chat.

From the podium she delivered a thirty-minute speech which amounted to a detailed listing of what her government has done at the half way mark of its mandate.

“Everything your government has been doing is to achieve my overall priority of economic growth and job creation,” Premier Wynne to the Northern Mayors.

Northern Ontario resource based economy has been hurting the last few years as lower mineral prices have been a drag economic growth. The closure of Resolute Forest Products in Iroquois Fall has had a major impact in that community.

“We are now in year three of our infrastructure program and in our 2016 budget we increased our spending by $160 million over the next 12 years,” Wynne said.

The infrastructure program builds roads, rail, bridges, but also the increasingly important digital infrastructure.

“We are in 2016 and increasingly the digital infrastructure plays an important part of our economy,” Premier Wynne said. “We are working with our federal and municipal partners to expand our broadband network to even the most remote parts of the north,” she added.

Province wide the Wynne government is investing $550 million dollars to highway improvements in the Northern Highway Improvement program this year for widening the TransCanada Highway (Highways 11 and Highways 400 and 69), building new bridges, paving and fixing culverts.

The Premier also talked about the Ring of Fire.

The Premier said work being done on a corridor study that was announced at the 2015 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention and valued at $750,000 shared jointly by the provincial and federal government.

“We firmly believe that now is the time to work on the Ring of Fire,” Wynne stated.” So when commodity prices increase we will be able meet market demand.”

“It’s one of the things we are talking to the federal government about partnering,” Wynne added. “Not just the studies but also building the infrastructure to make it happen.”

In addition to economic considerations Ontario wants to ensure social impacts to the people of the Matawa Territorial Council are considered when all season roads open up these currently isolated communities to the rest of the province.

She said that it is important that talks with the communities continue and that opportunities for Matawa people to benefit are made a major part of the Ring of Fire Project.

Wynne hailed her governments funding for improvements in rail transportation in Southern Ontario. She cited the building of the Eglinton Light Rail Line; upgrading of GO Transit and the introduction of the Union Pearson rapid transit to Pearson Airport but failed to mention anything about passenger rail In Northeastern Ontario.

The service from Cochrane to Toronto and from Sault Ste. Marie to Hearst has been eliminated.

When asked about the disparity the premier responded by saying:

“When we consulted the northern mayors they decided to make improvements to the connecting highway links that run through their cities and towns a priority for provincial spending rather than the return of passenger rail services,” the Premier explained.

When asked about the disparity the premier responded by saying:

“When we consulted the northern mayors they decided to make improvements to the connecting highway links that run through their cities and towns a priority for provincial spending rather than the return of passenger rail services,” the Premier explained.