Conservative John Tory, the man who hopes to become the next premier of Ontario, wants to relocate government jobs to northern and rural regions and help to diversify local economies.
This bold initiative would also help stem the out-migration of
youth from these smaller towns and cities that currently offer
little employment prospects.
The Progressive Conservative Party's recently published policy
document states, "However, there is a major, innovative step
that the Ontario government could take to share the wealth
created by government jobs -decentralization."
Sudbury and Thunder Bay are two northern cities that have
previously benefited from a progressive policy like this that
ironically came from a past Liberal premier.
Astonishingly, it has been over two decades since Ontario's
20th premier, the Honourable David R. Peterson, first announced
the relocation of several government ministries and agencies to
Northern Ontario. On July 30, 1986, Peterson declared that the
Ministry of Northern Development and Mines and the Ontario
Geological Survey were to be relocated to Sudbury.
Two years later on May 19, 1988 Premier Peterson relocated the
Student Awards Program of the Ministry of Colleges and
Universities and the headquarters for the Office of the
Registrar of Ontario to Thunder Bay. In a speech at the time,
Premier Peterson said, "This is part of my dream for northern
Ontario. To my way of thinking, this is a demonstration of
government support and commitment at its best."
In total, the Northern Ontario Relocation Program involved the
moving of eight different ministries and agencies encompassing
approximately 1,600 government jobs to Thunder Bay, Sault Ste.
Marie, North Bay and Sudbury.
In addition, during those progressive years, the Ministry of
Natural Resources was relocated to Peterborough, the OPP
headquarters went to Orillia, the Ministry of Agriculture moved
to Guelph, parts of the massive Ministry of Health was shifted
to Kingston, and a section of the Ministry of Transportation
headed for St. Catharines.
Peterson's goal was to bring government closer to the people
they serve and to use the sizeable economic spin-off of
government payrolls to boost business prospects for the
northern and rural Ontario communities.
As an aside, it is time that the former premier finally be
honoured for his vision and foresight by having some northern
Ontario public building or infrastructure project named after
him.
We should have expected the same bold innovation from current
Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, especially at a time when
Toronto is choking on its growth and pollution.
The past four years would have been a perfect time to further
decentralize the many government agencies, boards, commissions
and mainstream ministries in Toronto, that unfairly employ a
disproportionate number of bureaucrats to the detriment of
northern and rural Ontario. Governments show leadership by
example.
Ontario has lost more than 140,000 manufacturing jobs since the
beginning of 2005. The north's forestry sector has been
decimated due to inept government policies.
McGuinty's cabinet ministers have been criss-crossing the
province handing out millions of taxpayers' dollars like
hyperactive sugar plum fairies sprinkling Liberal pixie dust -
in the hopes of getting re-elected. These small Band-Aids will
not solve the underlying problems.
Tory would move 10 percent of the government of Ontario's
office space in Toronto - about 1.1 million square feet - and
thousands of jobs to many of the smaller towns and cities in
Northern and rural Ontario affected by job losses.
The Conservative policy document says, "It would revitalize
communities with more job opportunities, more working people
and more economic activity…. And it would be good for the
environment, cutting down on commuting time for thousands of
workers and reducing gridlock in the GTA." (Greater Toronto
Area)
Unfortunately, this will not save the taxpayers any money.
Government studies indicate that the price tag of relocating
civil service jobs, from Toronto's extraordinarily high office
rents and expenses to regions with much lower operating costs,
will cancel each other out. This is really about sharing the
economic opportunities civil servant jobs provide with northern
and rural regions and making better use of publicly funded
infrastructure.
For the first time in almost a generation, a political leader
has a bold plan to address the future employment opportunities
for northern and rural children.
Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant and policy analyst who writes extensively on mining issues.[email protected]
