WN Mayor discusses local issues with Opposition Leader
Christian Gammon-Roy
Tribune
Northern Ontario has often felt ignored by Queen’s Park, and the Opposition NDP highlights this frequently in its criticisms of the ruling Conservative party. Local MPP John Vanthof and, more recently, his party Leader Marit Stiles focused on northern priorities as they toured the area, while Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Nipissing MP Vic Fedeli defended the Conservatives’ record on northern investments.
West Nipissing Mayor Kathleen Thorne Rochon sat for an informal chat with Marit Stiles on December 16 at the local Tim Hortons in Sturgeon Falls. According to the mayor, their conversation went over various issues facing northern Ontario municipalities and residents.
“On the Friday afternoon I received a text message from Mrs. Stile’s office asking if I was available on the Tuesday morning as she was going to be travelling from North Bay to Sudbury for an official event. They wanted to know if I had time for a coffee and a chat,” recounts Thorne Rochon. According to the mayor, the NDP leader has a good grasp of northern Ontario issues, which she attributes to the many NDP representatives in northern Ontario relaying local concerns to the top.
The mayor says they spoke about healthcare given recent layoffs at the North Bay Regional Health Center, and the general difficulties surrounding access to healthcare services. They spent some time talking about education as well, “given the challenges at the Near North District School Board, and the Minister basically taking over the board. It’s some concerning times when you see local voices taken out of the mix with something so important as education,” the mayor points out. While she admits that the board had challenges and that action by the province was required, Thorne Rochon says that she and Stiles “talked a bit about the need to ensure that these types of measures are utilized temporarily, in order to stabilize organisations, and not a long-term policy direction on the part of the provincial government.”
Of course, the topics of infrastructure and highway safety inevitably came up, as it seems to be an inescapable subject of concern for northern Ontarians, and one that branches into all other areas of importance. As the mayor notes regarding municipal infrastructure, those projects don’t only mean roads, it can be things like water and sewer infrastructure – a particular area of challenge for West Nipissing considering the water situation in Verner. “These types of projects are just so expensive that it’s impossible for a municipality to fund them without the help of the provincial government,” she insists. Meanwhile for highways, they discussed “ways to get around highway closures, because we all know that when highways close, people can get trapped on one side or the other – generally the wrong side.”
Finally, the mayor notes that while the conversation wasn’t long, she felt it was worthwhile. “It was just a sit down and a chat, and sometimes those are the nicest conversations to have because you can touch on all those points without it being overly formal and you can truly express what our realities are,” she describes, calling Stiles “very knowledgeable about the specific challenges of northern Ontario.”
