Recent Community Leader meeting opportunity to address lack of political attention in Northern Ontario

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — Provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath met with a group of community leaders, including Municipality of Shuniah Mayor Wendy Landry and Fort William First Nation Councillors Tannis Kastern and Sheldon Bannon, during a Community Leaders’ Luncheon on Aug. 29 in Thunder Bay. The luncheon was held on the final day of the Aug. 27-29 NDP caucus meeting of about 40 NDP MPPs at Delta Hotels Thunder Bay.

“Andrea and I have a great relationship,” says Landry, a Red Rock Indian Band citizen and president of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association who sat at the head table along with Horwath and others during the luncheon. “We are in touch quite often on how the official opposition can help us in the northwest continue our advocacy for the needs of these municipalities and these people.”

Landry raised a question during the luncheon question session on what the NDP can do to assist municipalities to ensure they can continue to count on adequate funding to assist with infrastructure development and what can be done to provide new revenue tools in an effort to generate funding for program delivery.

“One of the things we know is necessary is stable predictable reliable funding for municipalities,” Horwath says, noting that the NDP is committed to bringing the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund back up to $550 million — it is currently set at $505 million for 2019 — and to tie it to inflation so it will not be eroded in the future. “Municipalities are very concerned about what is going to happen. You’ve seen what is happening right here in Thunder Bay — municipalities are having to make untenable decisions about programs that are being forced to be cut, programs that actually prevent problems from happening and support people when they need them.”

Kastern received a standing ovation for her question regarding the provincial government’s withdrawal from the Ring of Fire Regional Framework Agreement with Matawa First Nations and proposed changes to the Ontario Disability Support Program and Ontario Works.

“That was pretty powerful,” Kastern says. “Sometimes, you have to be the one to ask the uncomfortable question. I wish her the best of luck and I also wish [Thunder Bay-Superior North NDP federal election candidate] Anna Betty Achneepineskum the best of luck — I would like to see an Indigenous woman to have an opportunity to be at those [federal government] tables.”

Achneepineskum, a former deputy grand chief with Nishnawbe Aski Nation and a Marten Falls citizen, says the caucus meeting was an opportunity for NDP MPPs to meet with community leaders and citizens.

“This is the kind of platform and initiative that needs to continue,” Achneepineskum says. “No matter where you represent an individual, you need to maintain that platform of communicating and hearing the concerns from the citizens. And that is what I feel is very important, and that is one of my values as well.”

Horwath says the NDP MPPs heard a range of “very specific concerns” from community leaders and citizens during the caucus meeting.

“One of the overreaching and overarching issues is the lack of attention that northwestern Ontario gets,” Horwath says. “The most recent example is guns and gangs. For years, I have been coming to this community and hearing about what is happening in the social services sector. The resources aren’t here and they are not being provided. It’s about overall the fact that down south where all the decisions are made, there is very little attention paid to how those decisions impact northern Ontario and similarly how needs differ here than the needs in the south.”