Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty speaks about his government's accomplishments since 2003, at a Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011 at the Italian Cultural Centre on Algoma Street. But the Liberal leader said he plans to hold those discussions behind closed doors.
“I’m sure you can understand I’m not going to have that conversation to them through you,” McGuinty said to reporters on Thursday afternoon, after delivering a half-hour campaign-style speech, with little specifically tailored to Northwestern Ontario, to community leaders at the Italian Cultural Centre.
“To do that would be disrespectful to them. But you can understand it’s one of many issues that I look forward to, through the Ministry of Energy and through our government, sitting down with them and talking about a whole range of opportunities here.”
Cliffs is one of the leading mining companies involved with the Ring of Fire project, a multi-billion dollar mineral deposit that houses one of the world’s largest chromite reserves. The Cleveland-based company has dangled up to 1,300 jobs in front of the province’s eyes, but last month threatened to pull up to 500 potential positions out of Ontario.
A Cliffs spokesman, in announcing Sudbury as their base case scenario for a ferrochrome processing facility, at the time said because of high energy costs it’s unlikely his company will build the plant anywhere in Ontario.
Bill Boor said he’ll be looking into options in Quebec and Manitoba, where industrial power rates are a fraction of the cost they are in Northwestern Ontario.
McGuinty also wouldn’t commit to pulling the region off the provincial grid and allowing the North to set its own rates using power produced at a much less expensive rate than in southern Ontario, where aging nuclear facilities are in need of replacement.
“We’ve undertaken some very heavy lifting as a generation of Ontarians, something that we weren’t particularly looking for,” McGuinty said. “But we inherited a system that was in a terrible state of disrepair.”
Those costs have to be borne by the user, McGuinty said, noting his government has added 9,000 megawatts of new generation, upgraded 5,000 kilometres of transmission lines, approved 700 wind turbines and thousands of solar energy projects.
The province has also committed to renew 80 per cent of Ontario’s energy system over 20 years.
“That’s a lot of work and there’s a cost associated with it. I wish there wasn’t, but there is,” he said, noting Ontario has also put in place rebate programs to cut energy bills by 10 per cent over five years and a Northern Ontario energy credit that provides $130 annually to qualified individuals and $200 for families.
McGuinty also addressed growing unrest amongst the region’s Aboriginal population, who fear high energy costs and other factors will see benefits from the project go elsewhere.
Officials from Marten Falls First Nation on Tuesday said they will re-establish a Ring of Fire blockade in early March and the premier borrowed advice from his mother on marriage and said the best course of action is to just “keep talking.”
“I think it’s very important for us to bring good will and a determination to engage in a positive, constructive dialogue,” he said. “The best way for us to find our way forward is to talk to each other.”
However, Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Stan Beardy expressed frustration at how those talks are going.
He said presently First Nations people don’t feel part of the Ring of Fire discussions, even though the deposit lies on their traditional lands.
“We must be part of the decision-making. We have to know what’s going on. But more importantly, whatever happens on our homelands, we have to make sure that this time around we actually benefit. We want to make sure that my people get jobs. I want to make sure that my people realize the economic spinoffs from the activity,” Beardy said.
“But more importantly there has to sharing the wealth with my people.”
McGuinty, who arrived late because of the weather and missed a small group of union protestors there to greet him, is expected to join MPP Bill Mauro Thursday evening at the Liberal nomination meeting for Thunder Bay-Atikokan. Mauro is the only candidate seeking to run for the party in the upcoming provincial election.
“I’m sure you can understand I’m not going to have that conversation to them through you,” McGuinty said to reporters on Thursday afternoon, after delivering a half-hour campaign-style speech, with little specifically tailored to Northwestern Ontario, to community leaders at the Italian Cultural Centre.
“To do that would be disrespectful to them. But you can understand it’s one of many issues that I look forward to, through the Ministry of Energy and through our government, sitting down with them and talking about a whole range of opportunities here.”
Cliffs is one of the leading mining companies involved with the Ring of Fire project, a multi-billion dollar mineral deposit that houses one of the world’s largest chromite reserves. The Cleveland-based company has dangled up to 1,300 jobs in front of the province’s eyes, but last month threatened to pull up to 500 potential positions out of Ontario.
A Cliffs spokesman, in announcing Sudbury as their base case scenario for a ferrochrome processing facility, at the time said because of high energy costs it’s unlikely his company will build the plant anywhere in Ontario.
Bill Boor said he’ll be looking into options in Quebec and Manitoba, where industrial power rates are a fraction of the cost they are in Northwestern Ontario.
McGuinty also wouldn’t commit to pulling the region off the provincial grid and allowing the North to set its own rates using power produced at a much less expensive rate than in southern Ontario, where aging nuclear facilities are in need of replacement.
“We’ve undertaken some very heavy lifting as a generation of Ontarians, something that we weren’t particularly looking for,” McGuinty said. “But we inherited a system that was in a terrible state of disrepair.”
Those costs have to be borne by the user, McGuinty said, noting his government has added 9,000 megawatts of new generation, upgraded 5,000 kilometres of transmission lines, approved 700 wind turbines and thousands of solar energy projects.
The province has also committed to renew 80 per cent of Ontario’s energy system over 20 years.
“That’s a lot of work and there’s a cost associated with it. I wish there wasn’t, but there is,” he said, noting Ontario has also put in place rebate programs to cut energy bills by 10 per cent over five years and a Northern Ontario energy credit that provides $130 annually to qualified individuals and $200 for families.
McGuinty also addressed growing unrest amongst the region’s Aboriginal population, who fear high energy costs and other factors will see benefits from the project go elsewhere.
Officials from Marten Falls First Nation on Tuesday said they will re-establish a Ring of Fire blockade in early March and the premier borrowed advice from his mother on marriage and said the best course of action is to just “keep talking.”
“I think it’s very important for us to bring good will and a determination to engage in a positive, constructive dialogue,” he said. “The best way for us to find our way forward is to talk to each other.”
However, Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Stan Beardy expressed frustration at how those talks are going.
He said presently First Nations people don’t feel part of the Ring of Fire discussions, even though the deposit lies on their traditional lands.
“We must be part of the decision-making. We have to know what’s going on. But more importantly, whatever happens on our homelands, we have to make sure that this time around we actually benefit. We want to make sure that my people get jobs. I want to make sure that my people realize the economic spinoffs from the activity,” Beardy said.
“But more importantly there has to sharing the wealth with my people.”
McGuinty, who arrived late because of the weather and missed a small group of union protestors there to greet him, is expected to join MPP Bill Mauro Thursday evening at the Liberal nomination meeting for Thunder Bay-Atikokan. Mauro is the only candidate seeking to run for the party in the upcoming provincial election.
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