More badgering about the budget.....and the missing billion

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http://www.ontla.on.ca/house-proceedings/transcripts/files_pdf/01-MAY-2017_L074.pdf

Mr. Norm Miller:

Northern development and mines: Obviously, I’m the
critic for northern development and mines. We’ve seen
its budget cut by some $70 million. The other thing that
was very noticeable from my perspective watching the
budget: I didn’t hear the Ring of Fire mentioned in the
budget. If you go back and look at past budgets, there
was a great flourish and mention of the Ring of Fire and
applause from the Liberal members, standing up and
applauding when it was announced—
Ms. Cindy Forster: It was $1 billion.
Mr. Norm Miller: —$1 billion not just in one budget,
but at least three budgets. They’ve talked about the $1
billion and the great investment and how important the
Ring of Fire is. I agree. The Ring of Fire is important. It’s
worth billions. It could be an over-100-year mining camp
for the province of Ontario.
What happened from last year to this year? There was
no mention of it. I probably asked 12 times in this
Legislature the same question: “Show me something concrete that you’ve actually done. Show me a foot of road
that has been built. Show me some progress.” I have
never, never, never had an answer from this government—
Mrs. Cristina Martins: Come to my riding. I’ll show
you.
Mr. Norm Miller:  —and I’ll probably ask the
question again—
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Ted Arnott): I have to ask
the member for Davenport to stop heckling. The member
from Parry Sound–Muskoka has the floor.
I’ll give you a few extra seconds.
Mr. Norm Miller: I’m glad to see some action over
on the other side of the House there, Mr. Speaker. I woke
them up over there.
But it’s just amazing how the Ring of Fire disappeared
in this year’s budget. There was no mention of the $1
billion. As I said, the multiple times I’ve asked questions—“Show me some progress”—I’ve never had an
answer, and I will continue to ask that question: “Show
me some progress.”
Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I don’t get to cover a lot
of the speech that I have here to deliver, as I’m out of
time, but I thank you for the opportunity to speak this
afternoon.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Ted Arnott): Questions
and comments?
Ms. Catherine Fife: I want to thank the member from
Parry Sound–Muskoka for the 20 minutes on the 2017
Ontario budget.
Interjection.
Ms. Catherine Fife: Hey.
I do want to say that maybe that’s the problem. Maybe
that’s the problem, because he was heckled as he was
reviewing the Ring of Fire and pointing out that after—I

was up in that gallery in 2007 when Dwight Duncan kept
talking about the Ring of Fire. That was over a decade
ago.
The member from Davenport is saying, “Come to my
riding.” The Ring of Fire is not in your riding. Maybe
that’s the problem. Maybe that’s the problem here in the
province of Ontario: that there are people on that side
who don’t know where northern Ontario is. You certainly
cannot take a train there anymore, Mr. Speaker, and the
roads are literally unsafe.
This government has six contracted-out private
companies who are in arrears of $42 million. These are
six companies to maintain northern roads. The government has charged them $42 million for not upholding
their end of the bargain for maintaining northern roads,
which the member from Parry Sound–Muskoka will
know, and they keep getting contracts. They keep getting
contracts. That’s the disconnect.
I think that would be the theme of the member’s—not
to put words in his mouth, but that would be the theme:
that so disconnected is this government that this budget
bill leaves so many people waiting for real leadership on
health care, on housing, on hydro, on infrastructure and,
yes, on the Ring of Fire—10 years, still waiting; nothing
from this government.
What a missed opportunity for this province for
resource extraction, for environmental leadership, for
infrastructure—rail, roads and water. Really, Mr.
Speaker, perhaps that’s the heart of the problem.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Ted Arnott): Questions
and comments?
Mr. Yvan Baker: I’ve been here in the House for this
debate throughout the afternoon, and I have to tell you, I
keep hearing from the members opposite, “Spend—stop
spending; invest—stop investing.”
On the one hand, the PCs are saying, “Well, we want
you to pay down the debt,” and on the other hand, they’re
saying, “Oh, but keep investing in infrastructure,
particularly in our ridings.” On the one hand, they say,
“Oh, well, you know, your budget has grown too much; I
remember so many years ago when it was in the $70-billion range,” and then, “But there are all of these things
in my riding, all of these services that I need. Please
invest in them. Please invest in health care and
education.”
To me, this just demonstrates that the members are
speaking out of both sides of their mouth. You either
want us to invest or you don’t. You either want to invest
or you don’t.
Now we have complaints that the Minister of Natural
Resources has found ways of delivering the services
under her ministry more efficiently. Now, the members
opposite, who spent months and months and months
complaining about how we need to spend tax dollars
more wisely, how the Liberals don’t know how to spend
the tax dollars—we worked really hard to find savings
and find more efficient ways of delivering those services,
and they’re now upset about it. The PCs, if you can
believe it, are arguing that we should spend more money,
just for the hell of it.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Ted Arnott): Questions
and comments?
Mr. John Vanthof:  I had the distinct pleasure of
listening to the member from Parry Sound–Muskoka’s
speech—I was in the back room—and when he mentioned the Ring of Fire, it struck a chord in my heart,
because in 2011, when I was elected, I distinctly
remember the Minister of Northern Development and
Mines at the time held a big press conference in Sudbury
announcing that the smelter that was going to smelt the
mineral coming out of the Ring of Fire was going to be
built in Capreol. There were going to be thousands of
jobs. It was going to be huge, Speaker—and then the
election, and then it slowly started disappearing. One of
the major companies who was involved got so frustrated
that they gave up hundreds of millions of dollars and
basically walked away

Then, there were a billion dollars on the table, put
forward by this government to help get there—because
one thing we have to worry about is how to get there and
how to get there environmentally sustainably, how to get
there so that it benefits the First Nations, and how to
make sure the First Nations benefit from the whole
project. That billion dollars was on the table.
The question that has to be asked is, where did the
billion dollars go? Because for the first time since I’ve
been here, the Ring of Fire wasn’t even mentioned in the
budget. It has become a ring of smoke and drifted away.
That’s the question. For the people who know so well
how to manage the money, supposedly, on the other side
of the House, where is the billion dollars that was
supposed to be earmarked for the Ring of Fire? Is it still
in the budget, or did it just waft away?
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Ted Arnott): That’s it for
questions and comments.
The member for Parry Sound–Muskoka can reply.
Mr. Norm Miller: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank
you to the member from Kitchener–Waterloo, who
reminded us all that there used to be a train in the north
called the Northlander. In fact, just this past weekend, I
was in Huntsville and one of my constituents brought it
up: “Is the train going to come back? Because I’d like to
use the train.” It was a decision in a former budget to do
away with that.
The member for Etobicoke Centre talks about
spending. What we would like to see is some priorities,
and to stop wasting money. Do I need to remind you
about eHealth—where we spent $8 billion but still don’t
have a functioning system—or Ornge, or the billion
dollars in gas plants? Stop wasting the money and get it
actually doing something.
The member from Timiskaming–Cochrane brought up
the Ring of Fire. I, too, remember that press release. I
think it said, right on it: “Thousands of jobs coming to
northern Ontario.” Cliffs Natural Resources was going to
be involved, and there was going to be a new ferrochrome smelter for chromite, near Sudbury. That,
unfortunately, has all disappeared. We’re at the point this
year, Mr. Speaker, where there is no mention of the Ring
of Fire.
May I remind the government that, according to the
Ontario Chamber of Commerce, the first 10 years of
development of the region would generate nearly $2
billion in government revenue, money this government
desperately needs. The chamber also says the Ring of
Fire would sustain up to 5,500 jobs annually in the first
10 years of development, and most of those jobs would
be in the north, where they are really needed.
It would, of course, be especially beneficial for the
indigenous communities in the area. Mining is the
biggest employer of indigenous people. Over 10% of the
mining workforce at this time is indigenous people.
So it is a real crime that this government now seems to
have abandoned it, with no mention of the Ring of Fire in
the budget. We don’t know where the billion dollars went
that was promised in so many other budgets.