The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) is calling on Minister of Northern Development and Mines Rick Bartolucci to suspend the planned divestment of Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC) assets and work with community and business leaders on a long term solution.
“With Ontario’s unstable political climate, the state of the economy overall, and the number of opportunities available for the government to preserve or enhance ONTC as a public asset, now is an excellent time for Minister Bartolucci and his staff to return to the table with business leaders and community leaders to hammer out a plan for ONTC that works for everyone,” said Al Spacek, president of FONOM, in a press release.....
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Fred · 5 days ago
Minister Bartolucci, in a CBC interview this week, explained that Ontario, will save 100 million dollars per year by selling ONTC in the long run. Bartolucci said the clause offering 14-year employment security for ONTC employees with tenure beginning before 2003 will be one of the short term costs Ontarians will just have to pay.
TV Ontario’s senior news editor Steve Paikin states, "And I'm told the terms of the severance the workers would be entitled to is astonishingly generous – 400 of the 1,000 employees would be entitled to a full salary for 14 years. Shutting this thing down is going to be expensive." McGuinty's resignation and his prorogation of the Ontario legislature has silenced the application for the Ontario’s Auditor General request for a comprehensive investigation of the Liberal government’s predicted savings from its planned divestiture of Ontario Northland.
Under the proposed James Bay & Lowlands Ports Trustee Corp.'s New Deal, "Not only will we save transportation services and hundreds of existing jobs in the North, but our plan will also create thousands more jobs by providing access to the Ring of Fire," said Brian Stevens, representative of the General Chairperson's Association (GCA). However the JBLPTC plan to save the ONTC and build CCC/KWG's proposed "Ring of Fire" railroad is shinning unwanted light on Ontario's hurried ONTC divestiture, even though it would be paid for by the JBLPTC through the issuance of a 100 year bond.
Cliffs Natural Resources, who already owns 16% of KWG, must either legitimately purchasing the rest of KWG or hire big legal guns to take the rights to build the ROF railway away though easement. That case, 2274659 Ontario Inc. versus Canada Chrome Corporation, is presently being heard by the Ontario Mining and Lands Commission tribunal. Cliffs has issued interim and interim ex parte orders, which sealed KWG's key evidence and testimony, to hide details from the tribunal and public record. Both Ontario and Cliffs admitted to the OMLC tribunal that they have not yet consulted Neskantaga First Nation, despite having announced plans to build part of the $3.3 billion project through their communities.
Back in April of 2012, the then Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kathleen Wynne said she was working directly with other ministries to resolve issues, address concerns and reach agreements to move [Cliffs] project forward to meet the interests of all involved. "Negotiations are ongoing that aren’t public and can’t be talked about," she said. The Aroland First Nation was obligated to file a freedom of information act, as the Ontario government and Cliffs Natural Resources had been holding confidential meetings in advance of the announcement of the Sudbury ferrochrome smelter.
Minister Wynne, who arranged that "Secret Deal" with Cliffs, is now being groomed to succeed McGuinty as premier of Ontario and would like the ONTC "New Deal" to vapourize. Otherwise details of the public funds to build a private corporate 350K all-weather toll road instead of rail to their mine might become public at the OMLC tribunal.
