Christina Blizzard is the Queen’s Park columnist for the Toronto Sun, the city’s daily tabloid newspaper.
For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery
christina.blizzard@sunmedia.ca
The big question to ask Northern Development Minister Mike Gravelle when he unveils his long-awaited Northern Development Growth Plan Friday is this: Is this really about jobs, development and good health and education services for the North?
Or is this a last-ditch pitch by the Liberals to shore up their fortunes in a part of the province that has felt shunned and ignored for the past seven years?
The Conference Board of Canada released damning figures Thursday that reveal northern Ontario had the second slowest growth in the country — after northern Quebec.
Hard hit by the downturn in forestry and associated manufacturing, from 1999-2008, northern Ontario clocked only a 3% growth rate. Quebec’s was lowest overall at 2.2% — but neighbouring northern Manitoba’s growth rate was 12.2% and southern Ontario came in at 8.5%.