ONTC union offers province New Deal for the North

The highly publicized meeting and press conference that took place on Friday morning announcing new plans for the ONTC was well received.

The meeting was attended by many political levels of government in support of the initiative to maintain the public ownership of the railway servicing crown lands and developments in the North.

The plan to transfer the Ontario Northern Transportation Commission's rail lines and other assets into the jurisdiction of James Bay & Lowlands Ports Authority and at the federal level is the anchoring basis for the newly hatched idea.

All levels of the federal, provincial and municipal governments realize that the vast area of Northern Ontario has huge amounts of untapped natural resources that will need to be transported.

Highly sought after minerals, lumber and commercial goods to supply these operations need to be brought into the North in an economical way.

By moving the train system to the Canada Marine and Port Authority, the union hopes to save the region and jobs from the layoffs and destruction of the current infrastructure and employment in Northern Ontario.

GCA spokesperson Brian Stevens, keen to remind Ministers Bartollucci and others of their commitment and obligation to create and maintain employment in the North are anxiously awaiting the proposed deal to save and maintain the infrastructure in this part of the province.

“Bartollucci has always said the business lines are good, the business model is wrong," Steven's says.

“We were upset by that but when you look at it in terms of what we're suggesting here, is a completely business model,” adds Stevens.

The union, wanting to leverage with the federal and provincial governments to create a new rail line to service the thousands of tons of chromite and other minerals being mined in the yet unreachable areas of Northern Ontario.

The debate of whether or not roads or rail are best for the region is a complicated one, with neither being the only answer and the best case situation being one where each specializes in their own strengths and play off their weakness to the other.

Maintaining policing and snow removal of vast distances of road are already difficult for the province to maintain and it's hard to believe that the cost of massive shipments of minerals is not far more economical on a rail line.

The proposal, through the organization of Minister Bartollucci, Minister Chiarelli and Infrastructure Ontario, wants to soon see the wheels put in motion to implement a future in Northern Ontario with a train service, servicing the North and continuing to provide jobs for Northerners.

Stevens says that the union also wants to talk to Metrolinx and The Canadian National Railway to link up synergies and solidify the project for the future as a team effort.
"It's about working together," says Stevens.

Mayor Al McDonald congratulated the group on the out-of-the-box thinking to bring the Port Authority into the picture with a well-organized and thought out presentation to help maintain the jobs lost with the shutdown of the ONTC.

“This is going to be a wonderful opportunity for Northern Ontario to build wealth and job creation, because the Ring of Fire is probably the biggest find in any lifetime of mining and we're going to take advantage of it through the Port Authority and having the expertise of the people in the room here today to move forward,' says McDonald.

Federal representative Jay Aspin, hopeful things get done sooner rather than later, wants to see the plan implemented as the current provincial government is liquidating Northerner's assets of the rail system albeit now that Queen's Park has been prorogued.

“There's definitely a time table on this,” says Aspin.