Quote:
Originally Posted by miketoronto
Nothing wrong with keeping parts of Canada wilderness. The charm of northern Ontario is that it is not built up.
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It's covered in mines and clear cuts. Not very "charming".
The land isn't prime land either. It's either solid rock, swamp, or water. You can't farm much. The soil isn't very good and the growing season is short. Most of our food has to be imported, so it's more expensive to eat here, and that is one of the more important aspects of living.
Between the Golden Horseshoe and Winnipeg, there is about 750,000 in Northern Ontario, plus an additional 100,000 in Parry Sound and Muskoka, and then another 500,000 in the area between York Region and the Muskokas. About 1.35 million people. I consider Northern Ontario proper to be north of the French and Mattawa Rivers and Lake Nipissing. North Bay would be a border town.
What Northern Ontario needs to prosper is the ability to create economic and land use policies that support the region. The Ontario Government often creates policies designed with the south in mind since most people live there, but those policies don't fit into the reality of the north. Things like:
-The Far North Act — turning half the north into a protected area but not saying which parts, making investors reluctant to invest here because their investment might be cancelled due to the law. The Mining Act reform and forestry tenure changes — not entirely bad, but not as beneficial as they might have been if Northerners had more control over their creation. Some have accused these laws of being tools of the government to please environmentalists, without having to deal with political ramifications for their actions as the north has only 10 of 107 seats in the legislature.
-Uniform minimum wage at $10.25 — impossible to live on in Toronto but doable here; we used to have a lower minimum wage than the rest of the province which was reasonable and easier on businesses, though that is debatable, and in the far north, the cost of living is far too high for even a minimum wage of 15 dollars to be sufficient.
-Requirements for highway upgrades based on Southern Ontario realities which are nearly unattainable here, which is part of why our highways rarely get upgraded. Outside of the Sudbury to Barrie corridor, they only seem to get upgraded when an MPP is at risk of losing his seat.
-An apparent lack of understanding by southern politicians of the issues faced by the aboriginal population in this region. If Northern Ontario was a province, we would have the highest proportion of aboriginal people of any province in Canada. Thunder Bay's aboriginal population is growing over 8% a year. Growth in the aboriginal population is the primary reason Northwestern Ontario's population grew between 2001 and 2006; immigration played a very small role.
-The province considers aboriginals to be a federal issue and doesn't do much to alleviate their problems, and is very slow to act on aboriginal issues the province should act on. Regional governance for the north would include aboriginals and that should help them become more prosperous. Some of the worst living conditions in first world countries are found in Ontario. Pikangkum, north of Kenora, has 75% unemployment and the highest suicide rate in the world. Reserves in Quebec and Manitoba are doing far better by comparison, but still aren't doing great.
As for immigration, the region is working hard to attract immigrants (
we've released a web portal for it), but one of the issues we have is racism against non-whites causing immigrants who aren't white to feel unwelcome here, and so they leave. It isn't discussed openly but several well known figures who immigrated to this city with great fanfare have recently left because of it. The population isn't mostly racist, but the few bad apples we have are very vocal with their hate. The increasing aboriginal population has created some very offensive statements from a few members of the public recently. Most people aren't like that but a few bad apples spoil the bunch.
Our local governments are mostly very progressive, but they have limited tools at their disposal to achieve the things they want to achieve. A government based in a city of 6 million people a thousand miles away has difficulty understanding our issues, but I do know that many of them try.
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