Cochrane summit aims to set common agenda for northern Ontario

The town of Cochrane, Ont., will be hosting an  economic summit next week.

Cochrane Mayor Peter Politis told CBC News that he is inviting people from across the north for an event called Transforming Ontario's North, a forum to share ideas and help form a plan that will eventually be presented to the provincial government.

Politis said it is important for northerners to come together and agree on what they believe will help the region economically.

But Politis said this conference will not be your typical symposium.

"The agenda is driven by the participants themselves," Politis said. "You are not sitting in front of people pontificating. You've got your sleeves rolled up, they're driving the issues that you know and are important to you."

In a press release issued Wednesday, Politis said that the summit's goal is to engage northern grassroots with all tiers of government in an effort to "unlock Northern Ontario's vast resources and play a formative role in securing the province's economy in the coming decades."

"[The goal] is to chart future economic development using a hybrid conference format that generates the holistic feedback community planners need to maximize the North's full potential," Politis said in the release.

Professional facilitators will be assigned to assist in peer discussions among regional leaders, economic development practitioners and regulators, the group added.

Politis said he hopes this summit will spur on other meetings that will fine tune the north's ideas for economic growth and how look at how the province can help long-term.

"By coming together with the indigenous and non indigenous communities and the smaller communities and larger centres around northern Ontario, as a northern family, all of us inclusively speaking with a common voice, we gain a little bit more control," he said.

He added that he would like to see a plan put in place that outlives 4-year governments, similar to the way southern Ontario invested in its infrastructure over decades.

"The sheer irony of it all is if we had been investing in the north in the last 100 years the Ring of Fire would be running right now," Politis said.  "The perfect example of what's the expense of not planning and not driving that kind of direction is right before us."

"One of the biggest economic finds in history is waiting for infrastructure to get moving."

The Summit will be held in Cochrane from September 11th to the 13th. 

Click here for more information on Transforming Ontario's North.

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Northern Economic Summit looks at how to make the north more economically viable

Sep 6, 2018

How to make the north economically viable and get the province's attention... Those are some of the issues that will be discussed at the upcoming Northern Economic Summit. We spoke about the summit with organizer Peter Politis, the mayor of Cochrane, where the event will take place.

AUDIO: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/morning-north/segment/15592467