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Minister offers CA "step by step" help

Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay talks to reporters following his meeting this morning with officials from the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority. Photo by Chris Dawson, BayToday.ca.

Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay talks to reporters following his meeting this morning with officials from the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority. Photo by Chris Dawson, BayToday.ca.

Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay has vowed to work with the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority to help ease its $5.4 million debt, a debt he said a former Tory government should be held responsible for.

Ramsay met this morning with CA secretary-manager Brian Tayler and Coun. Mac Bain, one of the city's reps on the board, to discuss the situation.

“We had a very constructive meeting this morning and I must say that I’m very impressed with the management of Brian Tayler and how he’s stuck in with these challenges over the last few years,” Ramsay told reporters.

Serious consideration
The job of reducing the debt, Ramsay said, has to be done "step by step," and the minister will work with the authority "where we can" in the debt-reduction process.

An "immediate" area where Ramsay could help, he said, would be the sale of authority-owned lands, now underway.

"I’ve made a promise that I would give serious consideration to the request the conservation authority has before me to credit the provincial portion of the land sale proceeds towards their debt," Ramsay said, "so when that lands on my desk I will certainly give that some consideration."

As well, Ramsay said, he would consider other options, such as the CA deferring payments to the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund for loans given for the Jack Pine Hill project and the interpretive centre and lookout tower.

Very optimistic
Tayler said he was "very optimistic" that Ramsay will be able to help the authority out of its jam.

"He said there were no limits on his working with us and that he looks favourably at our debt-reduction plan," Tayler said.

The minister was also reassured, Tayler said, the authority's core services--source water protection--would not be adversly affected by the financial crunch.

"I have confidence that they can do that,” Ramsay said.

Promises made
Ramsay was disarmingly frank in laying blame for the financial state the authority finds itself in.

"What we have here quite frankly is a mess that’s a legacy of the Mike Harris government," Ramsay said.

"There were promises made that plans of the conservation authority were ok’d to go ahead and the province would bail you out and that we see the big mess that’s here today."

Ramsay was asked about the recent lawsuit filed by the city against former authority secretary-manager Bill Beckett and the auditing firms of Grant Thornton and KPMG LLP.

"We know about the subsequent lawsuit, but I can’t comment about it," Ramsay said.

Turn this ship around
Nipissing MPP Monique Smith help facilitate the meeting between the authority and Ramsay.

"I think it was important that we meet here so the he could see what the conservation authority is all about, and what we are talking about," Smith said.

"We talked about the buildings, the interpretive center, and just how much work Brian and his team has done in the last year to try and turn this ship around. So it wasa productive meeting, and it was very helpful to have the minister here, and now he takes back a first-hand a view of the situation.”

Due diligence
Tayler said he's hoping to hear back from Ramsay by the end of the year or the beginning of next year.

"It's in the hands of his staff," Tayler said, "and they will now do their due diligence."

With files from Chris Dawson.