Battle For Fednor

During the last parliament, Tony introduced a private members bill to make Fednor a stand alone agency equal to the other three in Canada.
Tony Clement (Minister of industry and Fednor) was not in favour of this bill, on the grounds that it would cost the federal government too much money nd create an unwieldy bureaucracy. In the current session Anthony Rota (MP, Nipissing, Liberal Party) re-introduced a version of Tony's bill, and it came to vote before Tony's original bill. NDP MP's also supported this bill. The vote to send this bill to second reading and go to committee was 145 in favour to 142 against (C309). Tony Clement and another Conservative MP Greg Rickford (Kenora) voted against it.

June 16, 2009
Mr. Tony Martin (Sault Ste. Marie, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate the opportunity to speak on this important initiative for Northern Ontario.

I want to say right off the top that given that I was the member in this House who introduced this bill initially about two years ago that it was never intended in any way, shape or form to be a criticism of FedNor as it now exists, the good people who work for FedNor and the programs that they roll out, nor was it intended in any way to be a criticism of the Community Futures Development Corporations. We know the good work that they do and continue to do across Northern Ontario and into other parts of Canada.

However, this bill was initiated out of a concern that a number of us had based on what we heard and read, both from the Conservatives and from the Liberals at that particular point in time. Before I get into that, though, I want to say how much I appreciate the fact that the member from North Bay has picked this bill up and tabled it in this Parliament, and actually has it before the House so that we can stand here today and debate it.

I give credit, as well, to my colleague from Nickel Belt who has gotten behind this and has worked very hard with me and the rest of the Northern Ontario caucus of seven New Democrat members to make sure that whatever we do is in the best possible interest of Northern Ontario, and that we put all our energy and resources behind it so that at the end of the day it turns out to be in keeping with what we know is needed in Northern Ontario.

I also want to say to the member for Kenora, as he chirps away over there and continues to make noise in this debate, that he is right. FedNor was in fact brought forward initially by Mr. Bernier and Mr. Mulroney at the time and was a Conservative initiative to try to help Northern Ontario. At that time they realized and recognized the very cyclical nature of the resource base of the economy of that wonderful part of our country.

However, what initiated or stimulated me, in partnership with my colleagues in the NDP caucus, to move this bill forward in the first place was discussion, dialogue and debate that we heard in a number of elections that the Conservative government, given a chance to have a majority government in this place, would do away with regional development agencies altogether. That would be devastating for Northern Ontario and for FedNor.

At that time we also heard discussion from the minority Liberal government of 2004 that they wanted to expand FedNor to become FedOntario, and to dilute the little bit of money that we get as it is and begin to spread it over that large part of this province that is highly populated and in fact has all kinds of resources at its disposal that we do not have access to in Northern Ontario. We felt that was wrong and that we needed to do something to make sure that in fact happened.

We were seeing and continuing to see a bleed-off of some of the resources and focus that FedNor initially had on Northern Ontario by way of the new offices that began to pop up in places like Barrie, London and Ottawa under the banner of FedNor. One can argue what they like about the budget and how it is still focused and targeted on Northern Ontario, but when offices are set up under the rubric of FedNor in other places in Ontario that are obviously not in Northern Ontario, we know that resources are being bled off and the focus is going someplace else when we need all of the focus, attention and resources that we can get and garner into Northern Ontario.

Over the last couple of years in the House, I have watched the development of the Quebec Regional Development Agency and how it became a stand-alone agency with all the bells and whistles that goes with that kind of an organization to serve the province of Quebec.

I had the pleasure of attending a meeting in Halifax with the Atlantic development agency and saw the budget, the number of people who worked for that agency, and the way that they are engaged in such a comprehensive and all-involved way with provincial and municipal agencies, and giving leadership down in that part of our country, and how well respected and effective they are. I thought we deserve something similar in northern Ontario, for the very resource-based, cyclical economy that is there to make sure that we stabilize, to grow and take advantage of some of the tremendous advantages we have in northern Ontario. It is an area of the country that has some very unique and exciting advantages and opportunities, but it is also challenged in many ways; geographically, distance-wise and certainly weather and transportation is a huge issue up our way.

I decided once I tabled the bill two years ago that I should get out and consult with the people of northern Ontario. I went into seven communities across northern Ontario from one end in the northwest, Kenora, the community that the member who just spoke is from. I even went to Bracebridge which is a part of Ontario that some might debate whether it belongs in northern Ontario or not. The two questions I asked were: Do we need a full-fledged regional development agency for northern Ontario? I met with community leaders, business people and other organizations in those communities. I asked them as well because there was some sense and looking at the bleed of northern Ontario off into other parts of the province that if we were going to set up a full-fledged regional development agency with all of the resources that it would require, did we need to be very clear about what exactly northern Ontario was?

I put out the suggestion initially that we should go back to the original boundary for northern Ontario which was known by many, particularly trappers, miners and others who worked in northern Ontario as the French and the Mattawa River, that it was the dividing line. In fact it was when I began to talk about that and challenged the folks in northern Ontario to work with me to see if that was the dividing line, it was then that the Liberal member for Nipissing—Timiskaming who tabled his bill because he was getting a bit of heat from that part of the province. It was suggested he was supporting that dividing line when in fact he was not. It was me who was putting that question out there.

I talked to people in Bracebridge, in the Muskoka Parry Sound area to see what they thought about it as well. What I heard across the north and into Muskoka Parry Sound was first of all yes, we do need a renewed and better resourced regional development agency. People overwhelmingly sent that message. That is what I heard in consultations with people in Kenora, Thunder Bay, Fort Frances, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Espanola and in Bracebridge.

When I asked the question about the boundary though, there was not quite the same concern about that because they felt that if we had a full-fledged regional development agency with all the resources that come with that, we could probably serve an area as big as one that would include Parry Sound Muskoka.

I then approached the minister responsible for FedNor who was the member of Parliament for that area and suggested to him that if he would work with me and with the member for Nipissing—Timiskaming to implement this new regional development agency for northern Ontario that I would have no difficulty including Parry Sound Muskoka in that territory. When I went to Parry Sound Muskoka, those folks were very clear that they felt a great attachment to northern Ontario and felt that their area resembled in many ways the north of the province as opposed to southern Ontario.

We moved forward and decided that it was a good idea and that we had the support of the north and it why today I stand in the House with my colleagues from the NDP and particularly the seven members of Parliament from northern Ontario to say that we will support the bill and the member for Nipissing—Timiskaming as he moves the process through the House.