Latest Policy Bytes

May 11, 2015 - The vast geographic area and great distances between communities pose significant challenges for the delivery of many services in rural and northern regions of Ontario.  The delivery of health care services is no exception.  There has been much research and several provincial reports that clearly show the health care services received in the north are not equivalent to those available in the south.  With so few large urban centres, access to specialized healthcare services for cancer and other serious conditions requires northerners to travel on a regular basis.

May 4, 2015 - For more than forty years, debates on economic development in Northern Ontario have been dominated by several themes. The first of these is that primary industries are key to the region’s prosperity now and in the future. The second is that Northern Ontario provides more funding to Ontario through royalties and taxes paid than it receives in services. The third is that the north is of limited national and global significance. Finally, many observers think that policies and programming in the north can be framed with only passing reference to global trends and circumstances.

April 28, 2015 - The response to my April column about recent successes for young people here in our region was met with a mix of relief and skepticism.  Relief that here at last we had some good news; skepticism that the news wasn’t all that good since it reflected more hitting bottom than getting better. In fact, I think one commentator used the phrase “rock bottom.” If this is “rock bottom” I will take it.

April 13, 2015 - The cards have been shuffled on the ownership and history of the Ring of Fire.

April 7, 2015 - Recently, the use of winter roads and access trails have become increasingly unreliable as temperatures rise and weather patterns become unpredictable. Many First Nations communities in Northern Ontario are vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change, since they depend on consistent cold weather during winter to sustain their economic, social, and traditional ways of life. Community members here and across all of northern Canada, as well as scientists, describe climate change as gradual in the region until 10 years ago, when weather patterns began to change significantly. According to the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER), “seasonal precipitation, the number of frost-free days, and the frequency of severe weather-related events have all been in greater flux. Predictions about global warming, even at such high latitudes, forecast dramatic increases up to eight degrees in average temperature through the rest of the century, which will further degrade winter transportation.”[i]

April 1, 2015 - In both Northeastern and Northwestern Ontario 17-34 year olds are leaving in droves. My question is, do they know how good they have it here at home?

March 4, 2015 - What is the one thing that would make living in Ontario’s far North communities better?

March 4, 2015 - Smaller communities in Northern Ontario are accustomed to receiving the Queen’s Park ‘shock treatment.’ It happened again on January 28, 2015 when Ontario Education Minister Liz Sandals stated that $1 billion out of the $22.5 billion education budget could be saved by “closing about 600 half-empty schools.” A day later the Minister backtracked, saying that her primary concern was underutilized Toronto schools, not those in rural or remote communities.

February 10, 2015 - In Ontario, “more than 7,000 households are slated to lose their rental top-ups.”[i] Over the years, both the provincial and federal governments have created programs to support the development of non-profit geared to income housing co-operatives. Rent to geared income (RGI) housing is subsidized housing. “The rent is based directly on the tenant’s income, usually 30% of the gross monthly household income. If you receive social assistance, the rent charges are based on the rent benefit set by the Ontario government, rather than 30% of the gross monthly income.”[ii] RGI subsidies are most often available in publicly owned social housing, but are also available in co-operative, non-profit and private housing. Subsidies have been provided to co-ops through agreements to pay the mortgage, and most were established in the 1990s for 20 or 30 year terms. These subsidies expire when each co-op building’s mortgage expires. When the federal government entered into this arrangement it was the most cost effective avenue to take: they could create affordable housing that works without actually having to run it. It was clear that this arrangement would come to an end one day, the question is – is anyone prepared for what comes next?

January 20, 2015 - Public Transportation is generally viewed as an “urban” issue[1]. However, Northern Ontario largely consists of small communities, with only five cities (Greater Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay and Timmins) having a population above 30,000[2]. Travel, regardless of the size of the community, is an essential aspect of life. Individuals must travel to access various activities such as: