Last month, I had the pleasure of addressing the
annual meeting of the Northeastern Ontario Chambers of Commerce. I
use the term “annual” advisedly, as I am told the last annual
general meeting was some 14 years ago. No one seemed to know where
the NOCC had been or why it had died. What is safe to say is that
no one had much missed it until recently.
MICHAEL ATKINS President, Laurentian Media |
In any event, a group of business people has
decided to revive it. If their first meeting is any indication,
they may make some waves.
Among others, they heard from provincial
ministers David Ramsey (minister of Natural Resources) and Rick
Bartolucci (minister of Northern Development and Mines) and
federally from Joe Comuzzi the minister for FedNor. In effect, they
had the ministers’ ears before they have had anything to say. Good
politics.
Chambers can be really, really good or really,
really bad. At their worst, chambers are self-satisfied knee-jerk
organizations that deploy rapid-fire clichés with stifling
predictability and modest results. At their best, they can seize
the moment and involve their members in community building that
changes the course of history of a political jurisdiction.
There is no doubt northeastern Ontario needs some
help. The last 10 or 15 years have been economically disastrous.
The population has plummeted, municipalities have been under
assault, young people have departed, the population has been aging,
business and government have been consolidating (a game northerners
never win), and, until the recent rise in commodity prices, there
has been little hope all round.
It is a good time for some new blood! The next
six months will tell the tale.
The NOCC will either tackle some of the systemic
inadequacies that weaken us, or they will be content to rearrange
the deck chairs. They have a choice. They can play it safe, which
is the tradition, or they can take risks and try to interrupt the
continued decline of the economy and its capacity to respond to
universal trends.
The group doesn’t lack a potential dance
partner.
The mayors of Northern Ontario are beginning to
think strategically. They are beginning to think about education,
immigration and taxation policies
together.
Haltingly, it is dawning on our leaders that our
biggest issue is that we have little control over our environment.
Even if we wanted to impact on something like the education of our
young people in the north, we have no tools to do so.
The real issue is that we are a colony. We think
like colonials and act like colonials. Colonies send their
resources to the mother country and take what they get back
gratefully. We don’t believe it is our role to think, to plan, and
to trade effectively and profitably with the world. We think it is
our role to pave roads and dig sewers and pay taxes.
Well, not always.
Perhaps the most important and surprising
development in the last five years was the establishment of the
Northern Ontario Medical School in Sudbury and Thunder Bay. It was
shocking, really. A common-sense solution to the difficult and
critical problem of bringing doctors to Northern
Ontario. For this one decision, Mike Harris
deserves all the credit in the world.
Another bright spot is NORCAT, the Northern
Centre for Advanced Technology. Another is the much-rumoured Centre
of Mining Excellence at Laurentian University, which is beginning
to take shape. These types of institutions are true building blocks
for tomorrow’s economy.
A society cannot take responsibility for itself
if it does not have the capacity to consider its circumstance
thoughtfully and methodically. The Ministry of Northern Development
and Mines, which still has the potential to be useful, needs to
rethink its mandate. The development side of the ministry is
missing in action. It will not change until there is a consensus in
Northern Ontario about what it should be doing. That consensus
needs to be led by business people.
The time is now. The NOCC can make a stunning
impact on the future of Northern Ontario by being focused on
important issues of capacity and less enamoured with the operating
issues of the day.
We’ll see what they do.
Michael Atkins is president of Northern Life.
This column is reprinted from the December issue of Northern
Ontario Business. He can be reached by e-mail to[email protected]