FONOM meets with infrastructure Ontario on ONTC

Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities
News Release

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Alan Spacek, Mayor of Kapuskasing and President of the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities(FONOM), along with a group of Northern mayors, met with Infrastructure Ontario to discuss the future of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC).

“Infrastructure Ontario wanted to discuss some of the technical details related to the province’s divestiture of the ONTC with us. It was made clear to us that it’s still ‘very early on’ in the divestiture process and that the Province has ‘no formal plan’ as yet,” stated Spacek.

"This leads us to believe that we will be actively involved in the process going forward. We re-iterated that we (FONOM) want to work with our provincial government to get our concerns across and if necessary to get the best deal possible for the North and Northerners. We were also assured that Northern industry has been thoroughly consulted in this process and that their concerns will be addressed,” explained Spacek.

Tom Laughren, Mayor of Timmins and Vice President of FONOM expressed that, “We pushed for such a meeting and are happy to share our thoughts on how important we feel the ONTC is to the North.

However, we were a little surprised that there is no structured plan in place to address the many details required in such a major endeavor.”

Roger Sigouin, Mayor of Hearst, who was also in attendance at the technical briefing suggested that, “We need to work together to get through these difficult, rapidly changing times. Our communities want to hold consultations in Northern Ontario, and talk with the people who have a stake in the future of the ONTC. We’ll be happy to share our findings with the Province.”

Al McDonald, Mayor of North Bay said that, “The interests of Northerners must be fully and frankly represented. We want a representative at the table.”

“Municipalities from across the North are working together to represent our people. We want to work with all levels of government for the betterment of Northerners. FONOM is committed to giving voice to the needs of Northerners and Northern municipalities – with the Province, the Federal government, with First Nations and with other stakeholders,” noted Spacek.

Other Mayors who attended this meeting on behalf of Northern municipalities included Gilles Forget from Iroquois Falls and Mike Millinkovich from Black River-Matheson.

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