North Bay right to be Worried about Gas Prices says MPP

Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli says that the surging gas prices in Northern Ontario should be a concern for the Ontarian government and residents are correct to be frustrated. In North Bay, gas prices increased by as much as 20 cents a liter, which is a faster rate than the more populated southern areas in the province.

Fedeli cited resolutions from North Bay and Powassan as proof that the central Ontario liberal government should sit up and take notice. The two municipalities are urging the provincial government to do something about the “volatility and sudden price changes”.

“When the two largest municipalities in the riding, in North Bay and Powassan, pass resolutions on this, it is a legitimate concern,” Fedeli said.

The MPP pointed out that this is a familiar problem in Ontario, a province that is known that is known for a gas price disparity between north and south. However, Northern Ontario is also known as being a fragmented gas price market, with some cities more expensive that others and even some areas within a city costing more than others.

“The City of North Bay also points out that drivers in Northern Ontario often see wide ranges in gasoline prices compared to other areas, particularly in southern Ontario,” Fedeli said in the legislature.

“As a result, North Bay and Powassan councils both resolved to ‘request the provincial government investigate benefits of such regulation for Ontario.’”

Liberal Budget Accused of Ignoring Northern Ontario

2032px-Canada_Ontario_location_map_2.svg_-263x300The leader of the Ontario opposition has today criticized the new budget and said it wholesale ignores Northern Ontario, something that has been levelled at the Liberal Government consistently while it has been in office.

Opposition leader Patrick Brown was unhappy with the Katherine Wynne government “over the lack of a credible plan for Northern Ontario in Budget 2016, which was tabled last week”. In a release sent out to news network, Brown raised worries that have plagued the Liberal Government for several years:

“The government has no credibility in the North. The Liberals say they value Northern Ontario. But not once did the Minister of Finance mention the North, Northern Ontario, or the Ring of Fire in his Budget Speech,” said Brown.
“This is the third straight Budget the Liberals have re-announced the funding for the Ring of Fire. It’s a re-announcement of a re-announcement. But despite three years of announcements there is not a shovel in the ground or a dollar spent.”

The government has often been accused of putting the needs of the more populated southern Ontario region and ignoring Northern Ontario. North Bay residents and those across the wider region have called for more funding in the north, including the development of traffic infrastructure. A petition started early this year called once again for Northern and Southern Ontario to split into separate provinces, brings decades old sentiments to the fore once again.

In the release, Brown said “during the government’s pre-budget hearings, the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs traveled across Northern Ontario and learned about the Liberal Government’s chronic under funding of the health care sector. The Temiskaming Hospital in New Liskeard closed its operating room for 50 per cent of the time resulting in one of 10 staff getting cut. The Timmins and District Hospital was forced to cut 26 beds and fire 40 staff. In Sault Ste. Marie, the hospital was forced to cut 50 beds in acute and complex care.”

Petition to split Northern and Southern Ontario finds more support

2032px-Canada_Ontario_location_map_2.svg_-263x300A recent petition that proposes Ontario be split into two separate provinces, Northern and Southern Ontario, has gathered more pace in recent days and now has over a thousand names assigned to the cause.

Of course, the idea of splitting the province is not a new one, and has been mooted by groups representing Northern Ontario for decades. It is those groups that a new grassroots movement is taking its inspiration from, with the petition founder, Trevor Holliday, saying he has been inspired by historical Ontarian separation movements, especially the 1970s’ Northern Ontario Heritage Party and other Northern Ontario separatist movements.

The petition is currently online at Change.org and has been open since Jan 1. 2016, with Holliday saying:

“I would want Northern Ontario to become its own province. That way it can be run by the people of the North for the people of the North, so that all the money from the North isn’t taken and given to the south and then we’re just left to whittle away.”

Disgruntled residents of Northern Ontario have often complained about the bias shown to southern parts of the province, with the north typically underfunded in comparison. The idea behind the new movement is for the province to be split into two separate entities, and Holliday and his supporters say Northern Ontario is more than self-sufficient enough to get by on its own.

Southern Ontario is home to Canada’s most populated city, Toronto, and other major municipalities that are the focus of government spending. Supporters of an independent Northern Ontario say there is a lack of infrastructure spending in the north and traffic spending is mostly reserved for the Greater Toronto Area.

“This idea goes back to the beginning of Northern Ontario and I’m reading reports in 1905, 1906 of rallies to separate and it usually goes in waves when there seems to be a growing imbalance,” said MP Charlie Angus (NDP — Timmins-James Bay).

“I think there’s a great deal of frustration in Northern Ontario right now when we see the policies that are driven from the south and when we see the complete imbalance in political representation between the issues of the North and the urban south. I understand why people are frustrated.”