PC leader releases plan for Northern Ontario during local visit

Cutting costs is one thing Tim Hudak doesn’t want to do if he was Ontario’s premier, but says it has to be done.

Faced with a $16.7 billion deficit, Hudak said a Progressive Conservative government would cut two cents from every provincial dollar spent, outside of health and education, every year until the books were balanced.

"Yes we will have to find savings," Hudak said during a local visit Thursday after a luncheon with the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce. "It won’t be easy. I don’t look forward to it, but it must be done and it can be done smartly."

In Thunder Bay to highlight the Progressive Conservative’s Change Book North, Hudak said the focus is on job creation in this region. But the PCs aren’t going to make a special hydro rate for industry in this region – something industry in the Northwestern has been asking for. Instead, Hudak promised to lower the business tax rate to 10 per cent and cut red tape to attract business.

"If my cabinet doesn’t hit our goal to reduce red tape in the province, we’ll dock their pay and my pay as well," The PC leader said.

The region’s biggest potential for job creation, the Ring of Fire, needs to start being developed, Hudak added. Sharing tax revenues from new mines with First Nations communities and northern municipalities would go a long way to help spur economic development.

And a PC government would put responsibility for the Ring of Fire back in the hands of the minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry instead of a Ring of Fire co-ordinator, who Hudak calls a middle manager deep within the province’s bureaucracy.

"We’ve waited far too long, we’ve dithered and delayed under Dalton McGuinty,” he said. "That (revenue sharing) would line up the incentive to be pro-jobs and pro-development and get us out of the quagmire we have today."

But Minster of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Michael Gravelle said Hudak’s plan shows a complete lack of understanding for the process of Ring of Fire development.

While the co-ordinator handles day-to-day dealings, the minister is ultimately responsible for the development.

"It makes no sense," Gravelle said when reached by phone on en route to Winnipeg, "and perhaps shows some ignorance…he’s just so completely wrong."

Having a Ring of Fire co-ordinator set up in Thunder Bay and Sudbury allows the provincial government to gather all development stakeholders, from mining companies to First Nations communties, together, Gravelle said.
 
Former Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton (Kenora – Rainy River) said while it’s easy to criticize the Liberal government, what’s really needed for the region to grow economically is electricity pricing that ensures minerals taken from Northern Ontario are processed in Northern Ontario.

"Developing the Ring of Fire but then sending the minerals outside of the province to process them is not going to generate the kinds of jobs that we need here," Hampton said.

When asked whether a forthcoming NDP Northern Ontario platform includes a separate Northern Ontario industrial hydro rate, Hampton said he’ll leave the announcements to leader Andrea Horwath.

Hudak also plans to scrap the controversial Far North Act, which he said was created at the behest of special interest groups in southern Ontario rather than people in the North.

"Dalton McGuinty wants to turn vast parts of Northern Ontario into a museum, Rope them up so you can have a nice look but never do anything with it," Hudak said.

Land use planning in Northern Ontario needs to come from the North, not Queen’s Park where planning is made with the urban sprawl of the Greater Toronto Area in mind he added.

"I think that’s wrong. I think it’s time we start listening to Northern Ontario families and businesses for a change," he said.

Hampton said no one in Northern Ontario thinks the Far North Act is a good idea, but development is not going to happen without the consent of First Nations, something the PC platform fails to address.

While revenue sharing is important, job training and some control over environmental concerns is also needed.

"I think those are all reasonable things in my community I want to know what’s going to happen I want some control over environmental impacts," Hampton said.

The PCs also want to lower the business tax to 10 per cent in order to create jobs. Hampton said increasing those taxes would be the best way to save the province money instead.

"I think what we should be cutting are the corporate tax giveaways to Bay Street," Hampton said. "Why do banks and insurance companies need a tax break? They’re already raking in the dough."