Transportation for the North – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (June 26, 2012)

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

A WAR of words among MPPs about the government’s planned sale of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission is missing something. The Liberal government sprang the sale on the public in its last budget, claiming it will save money. ONTC serves a series of communities in Northeastern Ontario with train and bus service, much of which the government says the private sector can provide.

The NDP has been critical of the proposal. Timiskaming—Cochrane MPP John Vanthof said in March there had been a “massive public outcry from affected communities” and he called on Premier Dalton McGuinty to halt plans to privatize the passenger and freight service that “employs nearly 1,000 people across the North.”

Vanthof reminded McGuinty he had earlier promised not to privatize the ONTC, adding that, “All across the North municipal councils are up in arms . . . .”

Vanthof acquired documents showing the Liberals were considering the idea as early as March 2009 after which time Northern Development Minister Rick Bartolucci was on hand in Sudbury to cut the ribbon on a new Ontario Northland bus terminal.
 Earlier this month, Nipissing’s Progressive Conservative MPP Vic Fedeli tabled an amendment to the provincial budget to prevent the government from selling or disposing of any ONTC asset prior to a report on the economic impact in Northern Ontario of such a decision and a revenue assessment.

Fedeli discovered a $100 million-plus unfunded pension liability, environmental and labour contract liabilities and large subsidies that would continue for the Polar Bear Express and smaller bus routes that he says would negate any potential savings from the sale.

“Northern Ontarians need and deserve reassurances that any decision affecting Ontario Northland is being made in their best interest and in the interests of the taxpayers of Ontario,” said Fedeli.

Timmins-James Bay New Democrat Gilles Bisson called Fedeli’s motion an attempt by the PC caucus “to mask their support for the privatization of the ONTC,” since the party had supported the pre-budget Drummond Report which called for it.

Bisson called for the other two parties to support an NDP amendment that would force a vote in the legislature on the privatization of “this important asset in the North.”

If it’s important for “the North” and if there is concern “all across the North,” why has no party in the legislature proposed expanding ONTC throughout the North?

The Northwest has been without passenger rail service along the potentially lucrative southern line which skirts the scenic North Shore since Ottawa privatized Via rail. It opted to save money by running passenger trains only on the northern CN line at night through the mostly desolate mid-North.

If either the NDP or PCs manage to get the Liberals to reconsider the ONTC privatization — even if they don’t — any northern transportation plan ought to consider the whole North.