To the editor,
Terrace Bay mill workers have been laid off since January 2 and I continue to receive letters from families desperate to hear that either a deal for new ownership of the mill is imminent, or that there will be local training available for displaced workers - especially those with family responsibilities who cannot simply go to distant mines and work two weeks on; two weeks off.
In April, Ford stated that he thought the mill was dead and committed at that time to training and jobs for displaced workers. The Northwest is not like southern Ontario where someone could retrain and go to a community an hour away. Distances are great and the kinds of work available are limited. I understand that a Worker Centre has recently been opened in Terrace Bay. That will be important for those who simply can’t wait anymore for an answer.
There is still hope that the government will be able to broker a deal with a new mill owner, but the long delay in offering a job bank and training, along with the continued lack of communication, is leaving families feeling abandoned.
As one constituent wrote to me: “The government continues to give money to conglomerates with no accountability to the people of the province. Families are being torn apart, looking for work that doesn’t exist.”
On a different but related topic, there are also serious concerns with how the Ford government is handing out contracts for new transit vehicles. American manufacturing contracts must have at least 70% American content, yet the Ford government lowered local content to a mere 10% and gave the building of the new Ontario Line to a Japanese corporation.
That’s $9B paid by Ontario taxpayers with not one train built in Ontario. Where is the accountability to the people of the province. Where is the fiscal responsibility? Alstom, in Thunder Bay, has the expertise, the facilities, the skilled workforce, and the supply chain.
What is missing is a commitment to keep people in Northwestern Ontario working.
The Ford government must use all the tools at its disposal to require maximum local content, invest in our regional economy, and bring new transit projects to Thunder Bay.
MPP Lise Vaugeois