The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities Conference took place in North Bay this week.

The event drew all three provincial political leaders.

Premier Kathleen Wynne spoke to the delegates Thursday afternoon.

She also visited One Kids Place Children’s Treatment Centre earlier in the day where she discussed the new government program, OHIP-plus, which will offer free prescription medication to those 24 and younger as of January 1st of next year.

Wynne also spoke about a number of different topics with reporters.

She disputed claims the government has reduced funding at the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines by $70-million.

“That is not happening, the fact is that we’re actually putting $30-million more into the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines,” she added.

Wynne also says she supports Ontario Northland.

“Make sure that the shop here can continue to function, because I think there is lots of opportunity there, that we have the bus traffic and that where it makes sense that there is rail,” she says.

She also says the provincial government remains committed to the Ring of Fire.

“We have set aside a billion dollars to invest in infrastructure that will allow us to open up the communities that surround the Ring Of Fire and allow companies to have access,” she says.

In terms of healthcare, she says the government is increasing every hospital budget by at least two percent.

“For North Bay, in particular, there’s an $30-million injection of cash because they’re undergoing some restructuring,” she says.

When asked about about helping municipalities manage costs, the Premier says they have tripled their municipal infrastructure funding.

 

On Wednesday, PC Leader Patrick Brown was the first of three provincial party leaders to speak at the FONOM conference.

He says the Liberal government continues to ignore the north.

Brown says in the recent budget there was no mention of the Ring of Fire development and $70 million was cut from the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines budget, although the province says that’s not the case.

Meantime, he says there are additional negative impacts with the Liberal government.

“We’ve lost 50 percent of the forestry jobs, we’ve gone from number one in mining to number 16. They set northern policy without setting foot in northern Ontario,” he says.

Brown says if elected next year his government focus on job creation.

“Whether that’s by cutting red tape, affordable energy rates, linking education to employment, we’re going to make sure we give our municipalities, our businesses the ability to succeed,” he added.

Brown also says his party will stop closing schools.

 

The conference also heard from NDP Leader Andrea Horwath on Thursday.

“It’s time for the north to have a partner at Queen’s Park,” she says.

Horwath says her party would cut all hydro bills by up to 30 per cent, remove rural and northern delivery charges, stop the cuts to northern hospitals, protect local schools and get trains to northern Ontario running again.

“It was shocking when the Liberals decided several years ago to shut down the Northlander, I made a commitment in my speech that New Democrats would turn that around, that we would work with the ONTC to increase the inter-connectivity of communities,” she says.

Horwath also says there’s no mention of the ONTC in the Liberal’s latest budget and there’s no mention of the Ring of Fire, and it’s huge untapped potential, either.

With an election just over a year away and the resurgence of the Northern Ontario Party, Horwath was asked if that would dilute support for the NDP.

“Certainly something that we take a look at, but I think people know that New Democrats do what we say we’re going to do and that we’re committed to making sure northern Ontario is no longer ignored,” she says, adding that she has a number of MPP’s that represent ridings in the north.

Filed under: FONOM conference