Looking at the map of Ontario counties and their general size, things start to get bigger as you look towards Central Ontario, or Cottage Country. The obvious reason is population: Central Ontario is situated on top of the Canadian Shield and thus does not support a strong agricultural base. While a farm alone does not bring cities to mind, cities are never located too far from the farms that sustain them, so in the case of Central Ontario: no farms no cities (figuratively speaking). But with all that aside, there is a peculiarity in the eastern portions of Central Ontario that has always struck me as something forgotten. Counties seem to stretch into this area, becoming cumbersome to cover the leftover area that early planners didn't know what to do with. Large tracts of lands were assigned to counties who's centre's are further away, and these march lands seem distant and altogether different from the rest of the county.
The area that I am writing about is comprised of what would be northern Hastings, western Renfrew, and southern Nipissing District. Perusing over maps as I usually do, long ago I noticed that the Township of South Algonquin looked to be an extension of Hastings County. It is three geographic townships wide, corresponds to both the east and west boundaries of Hastings, and together with the former Jones Township (now part of Madawaska Valley, Renfrew Co.), it completed what would be a natural extension of Hastings. I can only assume that the decision to include this area in Nipissing District was made simply because early planners had figured Hastings already extended far enough north (as it begins on the on the Bay of Quinte [part of Lake Ontario]). Since the area was and to some degree still is sparsely populated, it would have only seemed natural to include it in a northern district, in this case that of Nipissing District.
The same argument can be made for the western reaches of Renfrew County. Extending into the central highlands of Southern Ontario (Algonquin, Madawaska, Opeongo highlands) the western portions of this county are primarily comprised of Canadian Shield granite outcrops, contrasting the fertile soils of the Ottawa Valley that make up most of the eastern and larger portion of Renfrew. Early on Renfrew County was viewed as a frontier of the province, supporting communities centered around the lumber industry. It would have only seemed natural to add swathes of land to this county that did not already belong to some other district.
If one looks at Renfrew (at present 7440.81 sq/km) and Hastings (at present 6103.48 sq/km) counties, they rank first and second respectively, in land area for all counties in Ontario (only Northern Ontario districts are larger). It goes without saying that it is only natural for the counties that abut Northern Ontario to be larger, sharing common traits in population and geography. That said, Renfrew, Hastings, Haliburton, and Muskoka (the latter two in fact only establishing two-tier governance in the last quarter of the 20th century) are a transitional zone, a sort of buffer from south to north, between county and district.
All of the areas mentioned above intersect near Bark Lake east of Barry's Bay and north of Bancroft. Geographically they are nearly identical in soil, minerals, forests, and even the population densities are mirrored (lessening closer to Algonquin Park). The histories of these townships echo familiar tales of colonization roads opening up the interior, mining towns experiencing boom and bust, logging and lumber providing a pivotal role in development, and small farms contributing to sustainability. Roads do not end at county boundaries, but rather continue on as links between them all. Although South Algonquin is covered by Nipissing for ambulance services (to name but one example), it is part of the Renfrew school board, so even the children of the township are brought up well integrated into a wider and more interconnected system of inclusion (as opposed to the exclusion from the rest of Nipissing District, being that South Algonquin is the only tract of that district that lies south of Algonquin Park).
To be more specific and to draw a picture of the entire area, here are the townships that make up the area, that in this blog will effectively be called Bancroft County: of Nipissing District there is only the one township: South Algonquin; of Hastings County there are four: 1) Hastings Highlands, 2) Carlow/Mayo, 3) Faraday, and 4) Bancroft itself; of Renfrew County there are two: 1) Brudenell, Lyndock and Raglan, and 2) Madawaska Valley. Many of these municipalities are made up of two or more former geographic townships, having been amalgamated to solve the problems that small population densities have on providing services at the municipal level.
These municipalities if brought together to form the new Bancroft County would have a population of 17559, it would be 4061.18 sq/km, thus having a population density of 4.32 people/sq/km. This almost mirrors Haliburton County which has a population of 17026, is 4071.18 sq/km, and the population density is 4.18 people/sq/km. So that brings up the question of: if Haliburton County exists, why doesn't Bancroft County? The two counties which would actually lie side-by-side, and resemble one-another not only size and population but geographical land formations too.
Haliburton County only became a county in 1975, before that being known as the Provisional County of Haliburton (basically a step up from being a district). While being striking in beauty and offering endless tourism and recreational activities and amenities, Haliburton has for a long time occupied the lower end of the economic scale of Ontario counties. Haliburton had the distinction of being the only county in the province that did not have either an agricultural, mining, or forestry, based economy. Is this perhaps a deterrent to creating a Bancroft County? I have mentioned how they would be nearly identical in size and population, and geography, however, what Bancroft would have is an agricultural based economy. The Hastings and Renfrew municipalities that would make up the new county are agriculturally centered, therefore providing that necessary source for sustainability.
While I am sure that there are boundary road agreements and cost sharing agreements for county roads, these things can all be amended to address the new county and the new boundaries proposed. Not to say that they would be rid of their responsibility for these municipalities, but Renfrew and Hastings counties would be able to focus their attention on their more populated eastern and southern stretches respectively. Would the separation of these municipalities hinder either Renfrew or Hastings? I am of the opinion that it would not. Shrinking the size of these counties while losing minimal population would actually be a benefit to the newly re-sized Renfrew and Hastings.
That leads to the question: would a Bancroft county be able to sustain itself? Would there be a large enough and substantial enough tax base to provide for county services, or are these areas subsidized by the larger counties they already belong to? If comparing Haliburton and the yet created Bancroft, there are many more kilometres of roads in Bancroft, but most are mainly municipal. Renfrew does maintain a few county roads in the proposed separated municipalities (most being former provincially maintained secondary highways). Just like Haliburton there would be two hospitals in the two largest communities (Bancroft and Barry's Bay). A reorganization of social services and linking of new services derived from the former counties would need to be undertaken, which could prove to be a monumental task (or perhaps not).
When looking at roads, Hastings only maintains three county roads in the north, contrasting the numerous ones maintained in the area by Renfrew. Even natural links between county roads are not completed by Hastings, such as extending County Road 62 (Peterson Colonization Road) to link up with County Road 10 of Haliburton County. Additionally, South Algonquin is serviced by the provincial secondary Hwy 523, it's southern terminus being the boundary with Hastings. The roadway continues on as Madawaska Road belonging to the Municipality of Hastings Highlands, and not the county. From this perspective, it almost seems like Hastings County has neglected its northern municipalities, a scenario seen played out before. Another striking fact is that there are more county roads connecting the area I have proposed for a new county, than that connecting those Hastings municipalities with the rest of the county. In actual fact, there are NO county roads connecting the two parts of the county, but only one provincial highway (Hwy 62), and only five municipal roads.
It is easy to see how, perhaps, those living in northern Hastings would favour a new county, but it may not be the case for western Renfrew. Not only are the county roads extended into the area, as mentioned before South Algonquin is included in their school board which shows a willingness to provide services to the far reaches of the county, and even beyond the present boundaries. Additionally the population of western Renfrew has been historically linked. My proposed boundary would divide the ethnically Polish population in two. However, there is a solution to this: instead of only adding two Renfrew municipalities to the new county, a third, Killaloe, Hargarty and Richards, could also be added, thus keeping the community together. Not only for something as superficial as ethnic ties (please do not take offence to that), but this move would also shrink Renfrew's size even more, while maintaining a similar population, and it would actually add a larger tax base to the new Bancroft County (K, H&R has 2402 residents, is 395.98 sq/km, density is 6.1 people/sq/km).
As for the case of South Algonquin I think it would overall benefit the township to be part of this county. Obviously the tax payers would be introduced to a whole new tax system, new mill rates would be introduced, and in all likelihood taxes would increase. That is the biggest deterrent to joining the new county, and would be the largest drum that the opposition would be beating. However, the township would no longer be cut off by an impassable provincial park from its district centre, it's tax dollars would be going locally and increased services would be provided. After all, districts provide considerably fewer services directly than that of counties. South Algonquin would no longer be cut off from the district it's been lumped into (it's essentially an exclave of Nipissing), but rather it would be integrated with the communities it has long associated itself with.
The new county would be able to market itself inclusively of all its communities, instead of northern Hastings being overshadowed by the Belleville area, Trenton, the Bay of Quinte, and western Renfrew being overshadowed by the Ottawa Valley. Instead of these three areas being divided, they would make a newly unified part of Central Ontario. Renfrew County would now be solely part of Eastern Ontario; Hastings would continue to occupy that transition between Central and Eastern; and South Algonquin would no longer be part of Northern Ontario (something of which it had stopped being part of long ago).
While South Algonquin and western Renfrew are part of the same provincial and federal ridings, the northern Hastings municipalities belong to another riding altogether (Prince Edward-Hastings). This may present a problem, but could be easily rectified by adding the newly created county to the existing riding of Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke and renaming it Renfrew-Bancroft-Pembroke without affecting the population or size of the riding's both provincially and federally in a massive way (R-N-P (or R-B-P) would obviously gain size, but its population would be on par with that of most other riding's).
Bancroft County would occupy the seventh spot in the rankings based on size, while Renfrew would maintain first (even while being substantially lowered), and Hastings would fall to fourth with Simcoe and Grey moving ahead. As for population, Bancroft would be third last (48th out of 50), while Hastings would move from 18th to 20th, and Renfrew from 26th to 28th, both minimal movements in overall ranking of total residents.
Is the creation of Bancroft County necessary? Not particularly. Are things working the way they are? Yes, as there isn't as of yet, or unknown to me, to be a movement in this direction. Could things possibly be better without over-stretched and cumbersome counties? There is a good chance. Would problems compound with smaller counties without a substantial population? There is the possibility. Is the provincial government unwilling to create another 'Haliburton'? Most likely.
This is just a case study of looking at what seems to be over-stretched counties and districts and an analysis that only touches the surface of the possibility of creating a new census division in Central Ontario. Things can always be better, perhaps this is a solution to some of the problems encountered in the region.
P.S. If this county does come to fruition, hopefully we are not left with another municipality with a name like the Municipality of Dysart, Bruton, Clyde, Dudley, Eyre, Guilford, Harburn, Harcourt and Havelock. By all means don't leave anyone out, but don't leave them with a mouthful either. (This municipality could easily be renamed the Municipality of Central Haliburton, as you know, that is the area of that county it occupies, but this is another topic altogether).
Tuesday, 24 June 2014
Tuesday, 10 June 2014
Northern Neglect, Economic Conspiracy, and Western Alienation: Northern Ontario's place in Canada.
I am not the least bit savvy when it comes to finding antiquated legislation when I am limited to a Google search hoping for something to pop up because a quick trip to the archives would involve a long trip and airfare. That which eludes me is from 1899 and is the piece of legislation that regards the Ontario-Manitoba Boundary Dispute, settling the present boundary between the two provinces.
Mayors from Kenora and Fort Francis, and other influential people in Northwestern Ontario have for a while now wanted to separate from Ontario and join Manitoba, taking with them Kenora and Rainy River districts, most likely with exception to the eastern half of the Patricia Portion which was added to Ontario and thus Kenora District in 1912. Their argument of neglect is not all that far off from the truth, if it is off at all. Being part of Northern Ontario their neglect only strengthens the resolve of those in the north who want to separate from their southern masters.
Near English River time changes from the over-sized Eastern Time Zone to the Central Time Zone, still within Thunder Bay District. Eastern Time should end just west of Kapuskasing and just east of Elliot Lake, slicing Manitoulin Island down the middle and meeting up with the Canada-U.S. border that runs between Ontario and Michigan down the centre of Lake Huron (Windsor, ON actually lies within the solar time zone that is associated with Central Time). The only reason why Eastern Time stretches so far west, well beyond where it should end and from there affecting every time zone in Canada by shifting each ever more west than it should be, is so that 'Ontario' can substantiate it's claim over Northwestern Ontario. Ontario was formed in 1867 and much to the surprise of many southerners, Thunder Bay was already part of it, in fact the entire Canadian portion of the Great Lakes Watershed made up the province in those early years.
Everywhere outside of the Canada's and the Maritimes at the time belonged to the British Crown in one form or the other. As pieces were handed over to the guardianship of Ottawa, new provinces were created and some expanded. When it came to the land between the original Red River Colony (Manitoba) and the Great Lakes Watershed (Ontario), both provinces had a claim over it. As today, and even more so then, Canada was controlled by the 'Laurentian Pact': Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal. The odds were stacked against Manitoba's claim: a small outpost (as everywhere in the Dominion was seen in those days), made up of a formerly rebellious Metis populous, yet untamed Aboriginals, pioneering farmers, rail workers, and the lowly and distanced mercantile class, all together were fewer in number than those of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands that made up the bulk of Parliament and thus the majority of decisions made in favour of.
In large part the early settlers of new provinces or colonies west of the Great Lakes were emigrants of southern Ontario and the St. Lawrence region of Quebec. If they were not reporting back to the 'motherland', sending back revenue, representing the larger companies based in Toronto and Montreal, then they were somehow branded as traitors to the provinces they had left, abandoning those lands for opportunities that were no longer available to them (two people cannot farm the same piece of land). Regardless of whether these new Manitobans were on the side of Ontarians or not, they're requests, claims, issues, regardless of how factual they were, fell on deaf ears. How could their claim be more important than that of mighty and egocentric Ontario's?
Nothing is more important in Ontario, and some like to think Canada, than what matters to the those who live within 50 km of Hwy 401. Although the highway did not exist in 1899, the corridor did and the same mentality was thriving just as it does today. Ontario gaining Northwestern Ontario beyond the Great Lakes Watershed is nothing more than greed and the hubris of the south. It has nothing to do with logistics, it has nothing to do with Northwestern Ontario being geographically part of the Canadian Shield and Manitoba (then) being mainly Prairie. What that decision all boils down to, is that Ontario wanted it, and therefore got it.
It's not as if Ontario can service Northwestern Ontario any better than Manitoba could/can, it is evident that they can't, as most southerners don't know and seem to be afraid of what's north of Orillia (some with money have discovered Muskoka, but hardly a comparison of distance between Huntsville and Kenora from Toronto). If we are going to discuss distance, it is over 1300 km from the front steps of Queen's Park to downtown Kenora, while it is not quite 200 km from that same spot to the front steps of the Manitoba Legislative Building (the differences from Fort Francis to Winnipeg and Toronto do not make the latter's case any stronger).
Distance aside, the difference in legislative representation is astonishing. While Manitoba has 57 seats in its Legislative Assembly, each representing just over 21,000 people, Ontario's has 107 each representing over 120,000. That's nearly 6 times more! (Granted, Ontario's number of MPP's based on the same representation would be 612). If Kenora and Rainy River districts were to join Manitoba, they'd have 3 and 1 seats respectively, that's more than the 1 they currently share at Queen's Park (with a few exceptions that really don't make a difference). Would their issues be heard in a Manitoba legislative assembly more so than their current level of just registering enough for a beep now and then on the 'care-scale' of southern politicians? I'd like to think so.
Am I advocating for Northwestern Ontario to secede from Ontario and join Manitoba as Eastern Manitoba? Absolutely not. Am I now suggesting that Northwestern Ontario is in a tough-luck situation that they cannot get out of? Absolutely not. So then what am I advocating? As I always have, that Northern Ontario needs to secede from Ontario and become the 11th province of Confederation.
Just as Northwestern Ontario feels it is neglected and shunned by the 20-so MPP's from Toronto alone, so too does Northeastern Ontario, which begins just 200 km's north of their 'gleaming' (yeah, right) metropolis. If by nothing else, both Northwest and Northeast are united in the lack of attention either receives from Toronto. Sure the south is seemingly all fired up about the Ring of Fire (ha!). They are only fired up because of the prospect of mining royalties paying for subways in Toronto, more hospitals for southern cities that already boast more coverage alone than that of any hospital in the north, and even more scandals associated with the state of electricity in the province.
The differences between Northwest and Northeast are clear: 2/3 of the population lives in the Northeast; the Northeast is clearly bilingual...and that's about it. Just as some parts of the Northwest are few and far between for a resident to be found, so too is nearly all of Sudbury District. Just as the Trans-Canada Highway bottlenecks around Kenora and Thunder Bay, two lanes do little to serve the the Trans-Canada from Sault Ste-Marie to North Bay via Sudbury, and Hwy 11 (Trans-Canada as well) between North Bay and Cochrane.
'Ontario' often boasted how it was the economic engine of the country, it only became so by shortchanging the north by stealing its resource royalties to shore up the over-priced and inflated wages of the manufacturing sector of the south. If Ontario once was the economic engine of Canada, then how come it is the province with the least amount of the Trans-Canada Highway to be expanded to a divided freeway style highway? It was more than half a century ago that the TCH came to fruition, and since then lowly-then mighty-now Saskatchewan has completed their stretch of Hwy 1. Aside from Quebec closing the link with New Brunswick, there are very few stretches left that do not have divided highways, and in defence of British Columbia's case, those mountains are a whole lot more difficult to build a divided highway through than the pristine and rugged hills of the north shore of Lake Superior. And really, if Ontario was so mighty it would have conquered this feat long ago.
It's not just about highways, but I do often hear that the longest stretch of road on a coast-to-coast trip across Canada is through Northern Ontario. Granted Ontario is the widest province in an east to west context, but it also had the widest wallet for the longest time. Continuing on this thread, I firmly believe that Ontario's neglect of Northern Ontario has indeed contributed to Western Alienation. While all four Western Provinces have banded together to construct Hwy 1 to a similar if not identical standard, Ontario has done very little to connect the rest of the country to it. But why would they?
One could argue that if Ontario really was 'stealing' the resource royalties and revenue from the north, then they would build better infrastructure to get it faster. I'm not one to believe in conspiracies, but growing up and living in the north and going to school in the south the case for such a conspiracy exists. The mines of the Northern Ontario yield a substantial royalty for their minerals, far more than any southerner can scrape off his fields. If the south was to reinvest the money in the north, it would prove that there is enough to do so, and from that would come the realisation that the agriculture, manufacturing, and service sectors of the south are not as profitable as they are made out to be. In addition to that things like GO Transit, En Routes, all those nice hospitals and new schools would come to an end, and well we just can't have that, a world where the south goes without. So those who are in control will continue down the same course, cutting off their nose to spite their face.
The blame for the current fiscal situation in Ontario is not, in my opinion, to be placed solely on the Great Recession, and a higher Canadian dollar caused by a lower American dollar resulting in the exodus of manufacturing companies in search of cheaper labour, but rather it is the effect of long neglect. Compare Ontario to a body suffering from an infection (don't dig too deeply into the use of words here): if the infection is not cured quickly or when it is first observed, it will spread and eventually consume the whole body. This has happened in Ontario, where as the north was allowed to fester, to become quite possibly the worst of the have-nots had it been its own province while being part of what once was the best of the have's. That is to say Northern Ontario's long neglect has contributed to the downfall of Ontario as a whole, and it is not the fault of the north at all. While resource revenue was gathered by the south and it became infrastructure heavy, the north went without. When the recession hit and the economic realities hit Southern Ontario, there was not enough of the steady flow of northern resource revenue to keep the province going at its former pace and things began to fall apart. When the bottom fell out of the manufacturing sector, Ontario was left with a long mismanaged finance department, that robbed from the poor and gave to the rich. Ontario took what little the north had and shored up the south, yet their isn't enough to go around. However, nothing was said, or heard, because it has always been easier to make Northern Ontario look the poorer, for who is going to complain, it's 3/4 of a million people? How are the voices of under 750,000 to be heard over those of upwards of twelve million?
It is easy to hide the truth when no one is looking for it. It is even easier when you've eliminated all of the opposition, or in the case of Northern Ontario, subjecting the populace to handouts that make them come back for more and convince them they have nothing at all. Those handouts are being stolen right out of the hands of those that generate them, and handed back at a much reduced percentage.
Coming full circle, all those years ago what is now Northwestern Ontario should have been Eastern Manitoba, the royalties from the gold alone would have gone a long way in Manitoba's coffers. Ontario would have done just fine without the gold from places like Red Lake, but only if the province was managed properly, with the interests of all in mind instead of a select portion of the province that lies along the shores of the two most southerly Great Lakes and the highway that runs north of them. One cannot rewrite history but only speculate on what could have been, but to do so would be a foolish endeavour if it were all that he did.
Perhaps one day Northern Ontario will get its due, perhaps it will realise that economic freedom and potential that truly exists within in districts. Perhaps Northern Ontario will see the day when its young do not leave for the job opportunities that its revenues have created in far away cities to the south, or follow the national migration west. Perhaps that day will come, I just hope I'll be able to see it.
Mayors from Kenora and Fort Francis, and other influential people in Northwestern Ontario have for a while now wanted to separate from Ontario and join Manitoba, taking with them Kenora and Rainy River districts, most likely with exception to the eastern half of the Patricia Portion which was added to Ontario and thus Kenora District in 1912. Their argument of neglect is not all that far off from the truth, if it is off at all. Being part of Northern Ontario their neglect only strengthens the resolve of those in the north who want to separate from their southern masters.
Near English River time changes from the over-sized Eastern Time Zone to the Central Time Zone, still within Thunder Bay District. Eastern Time should end just west of Kapuskasing and just east of Elliot Lake, slicing Manitoulin Island down the middle and meeting up with the Canada-U.S. border that runs between Ontario and Michigan down the centre of Lake Huron (Windsor, ON actually lies within the solar time zone that is associated with Central Time). The only reason why Eastern Time stretches so far west, well beyond where it should end and from there affecting every time zone in Canada by shifting each ever more west than it should be, is so that 'Ontario' can substantiate it's claim over Northwestern Ontario. Ontario was formed in 1867 and much to the surprise of many southerners, Thunder Bay was already part of it, in fact the entire Canadian portion of the Great Lakes Watershed made up the province in those early years.
Everywhere outside of the Canada's and the Maritimes at the time belonged to the British Crown in one form or the other. As pieces were handed over to the guardianship of Ottawa, new provinces were created and some expanded. When it came to the land between the original Red River Colony (Manitoba) and the Great Lakes Watershed (Ontario), both provinces had a claim over it. As today, and even more so then, Canada was controlled by the 'Laurentian Pact': Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal. The odds were stacked against Manitoba's claim: a small outpost (as everywhere in the Dominion was seen in those days), made up of a formerly rebellious Metis populous, yet untamed Aboriginals, pioneering farmers, rail workers, and the lowly and distanced mercantile class, all together were fewer in number than those of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands that made up the bulk of Parliament and thus the majority of decisions made in favour of.
In large part the early settlers of new provinces or colonies west of the Great Lakes were emigrants of southern Ontario and the St. Lawrence region of Quebec. If they were not reporting back to the 'motherland', sending back revenue, representing the larger companies based in Toronto and Montreal, then they were somehow branded as traitors to the provinces they had left, abandoning those lands for opportunities that were no longer available to them (two people cannot farm the same piece of land). Regardless of whether these new Manitobans were on the side of Ontarians or not, they're requests, claims, issues, regardless of how factual they were, fell on deaf ears. How could their claim be more important than that of mighty and egocentric Ontario's?
Nothing is more important in Ontario, and some like to think Canada, than what matters to the those who live within 50 km of Hwy 401. Although the highway did not exist in 1899, the corridor did and the same mentality was thriving just as it does today. Ontario gaining Northwestern Ontario beyond the Great Lakes Watershed is nothing more than greed and the hubris of the south. It has nothing to do with logistics, it has nothing to do with Northwestern Ontario being geographically part of the Canadian Shield and Manitoba (then) being mainly Prairie. What that decision all boils down to, is that Ontario wanted it, and therefore got it.
It's not as if Ontario can service Northwestern Ontario any better than Manitoba could/can, it is evident that they can't, as most southerners don't know and seem to be afraid of what's north of Orillia (some with money have discovered Muskoka, but hardly a comparison of distance between Huntsville and Kenora from Toronto). If we are going to discuss distance, it is over 1300 km from the front steps of Queen's Park to downtown Kenora, while it is not quite 200 km from that same spot to the front steps of the Manitoba Legislative Building (the differences from Fort Francis to Winnipeg and Toronto do not make the latter's case any stronger).
Distance aside, the difference in legislative representation is astonishing. While Manitoba has 57 seats in its Legislative Assembly, each representing just over 21,000 people, Ontario's has 107 each representing over 120,000. That's nearly 6 times more! (Granted, Ontario's number of MPP's based on the same representation would be 612). If Kenora and Rainy River districts were to join Manitoba, they'd have 3 and 1 seats respectively, that's more than the 1 they currently share at Queen's Park (with a few exceptions that really don't make a difference). Would their issues be heard in a Manitoba legislative assembly more so than their current level of just registering enough for a beep now and then on the 'care-scale' of southern politicians? I'd like to think so.
Am I advocating for Northwestern Ontario to secede from Ontario and join Manitoba as Eastern Manitoba? Absolutely not. Am I now suggesting that Northwestern Ontario is in a tough-luck situation that they cannot get out of? Absolutely not. So then what am I advocating? As I always have, that Northern Ontario needs to secede from Ontario and become the 11th province of Confederation.
Just as Northwestern Ontario feels it is neglected and shunned by the 20-so MPP's from Toronto alone, so too does Northeastern Ontario, which begins just 200 km's north of their 'gleaming' (yeah, right) metropolis. If by nothing else, both Northwest and Northeast are united in the lack of attention either receives from Toronto. Sure the south is seemingly all fired up about the Ring of Fire (ha!). They are only fired up because of the prospect of mining royalties paying for subways in Toronto, more hospitals for southern cities that already boast more coverage alone than that of any hospital in the north, and even more scandals associated with the state of electricity in the province.
The differences between Northwest and Northeast are clear: 2/3 of the population lives in the Northeast; the Northeast is clearly bilingual...and that's about it. Just as some parts of the Northwest are few and far between for a resident to be found, so too is nearly all of Sudbury District. Just as the Trans-Canada Highway bottlenecks around Kenora and Thunder Bay, two lanes do little to serve the the Trans-Canada from Sault Ste-Marie to North Bay via Sudbury, and Hwy 11 (Trans-Canada as well) between North Bay and Cochrane.
'Ontario' often boasted how it was the economic engine of the country, it only became so by shortchanging the north by stealing its resource royalties to shore up the over-priced and inflated wages of the manufacturing sector of the south. If Ontario once was the economic engine of Canada, then how come it is the province with the least amount of the Trans-Canada Highway to be expanded to a divided freeway style highway? It was more than half a century ago that the TCH came to fruition, and since then lowly-then mighty-now Saskatchewan has completed their stretch of Hwy 1. Aside from Quebec closing the link with New Brunswick, there are very few stretches left that do not have divided highways, and in defence of British Columbia's case, those mountains are a whole lot more difficult to build a divided highway through than the pristine and rugged hills of the north shore of Lake Superior. And really, if Ontario was so mighty it would have conquered this feat long ago.
It's not just about highways, but I do often hear that the longest stretch of road on a coast-to-coast trip across Canada is through Northern Ontario. Granted Ontario is the widest province in an east to west context, but it also had the widest wallet for the longest time. Continuing on this thread, I firmly believe that Ontario's neglect of Northern Ontario has indeed contributed to Western Alienation. While all four Western Provinces have banded together to construct Hwy 1 to a similar if not identical standard, Ontario has done very little to connect the rest of the country to it. But why would they?
One could argue that if Ontario really was 'stealing' the resource royalties and revenue from the north, then they would build better infrastructure to get it faster. I'm not one to believe in conspiracies, but growing up and living in the north and going to school in the south the case for such a conspiracy exists. The mines of the Northern Ontario yield a substantial royalty for their minerals, far more than any southerner can scrape off his fields. If the south was to reinvest the money in the north, it would prove that there is enough to do so, and from that would come the realisation that the agriculture, manufacturing, and service sectors of the south are not as profitable as they are made out to be. In addition to that things like GO Transit, En Routes, all those nice hospitals and new schools would come to an end, and well we just can't have that, a world where the south goes without. So those who are in control will continue down the same course, cutting off their nose to spite their face.
The blame for the current fiscal situation in Ontario is not, in my opinion, to be placed solely on the Great Recession, and a higher Canadian dollar caused by a lower American dollar resulting in the exodus of manufacturing companies in search of cheaper labour, but rather it is the effect of long neglect. Compare Ontario to a body suffering from an infection (don't dig too deeply into the use of words here): if the infection is not cured quickly or when it is first observed, it will spread and eventually consume the whole body. This has happened in Ontario, where as the north was allowed to fester, to become quite possibly the worst of the have-nots had it been its own province while being part of what once was the best of the have's. That is to say Northern Ontario's long neglect has contributed to the downfall of Ontario as a whole, and it is not the fault of the north at all. While resource revenue was gathered by the south and it became infrastructure heavy, the north went without. When the recession hit and the economic realities hit Southern Ontario, there was not enough of the steady flow of northern resource revenue to keep the province going at its former pace and things began to fall apart. When the bottom fell out of the manufacturing sector, Ontario was left with a long mismanaged finance department, that robbed from the poor and gave to the rich. Ontario took what little the north had and shored up the south, yet their isn't enough to go around. However, nothing was said, or heard, because it has always been easier to make Northern Ontario look the poorer, for who is going to complain, it's 3/4 of a million people? How are the voices of under 750,000 to be heard over those of upwards of twelve million?
It is easy to hide the truth when no one is looking for it. It is even easier when you've eliminated all of the opposition, or in the case of Northern Ontario, subjecting the populace to handouts that make them come back for more and convince them they have nothing at all. Those handouts are being stolen right out of the hands of those that generate them, and handed back at a much reduced percentage.
Coming full circle, all those years ago what is now Northwestern Ontario should have been Eastern Manitoba, the royalties from the gold alone would have gone a long way in Manitoba's coffers. Ontario would have done just fine without the gold from places like Red Lake, but only if the province was managed properly, with the interests of all in mind instead of a select portion of the province that lies along the shores of the two most southerly Great Lakes and the highway that runs north of them. One cannot rewrite history but only speculate on what could have been, but to do so would be a foolish endeavour if it were all that he did.
Perhaps one day Northern Ontario will get its due, perhaps it will realise that economic freedom and potential that truly exists within in districts. Perhaps Northern Ontario will see the day when its young do not leave for the job opportunities that its revenues have created in far away cities to the south, or follow the national migration west. Perhaps that day will come, I just hope I'll be able to see it.
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