THUNDER BAY – NDP candidates Mary Kozorys for Thunder Bay-Atikokan and Steve Mantis for Thunder Bay-Superior North said today that the McGuinty sign of the times was shown by an auction of sawmills this week. “While McGuinty was in the Toronto debate saying that what he’s done is nothing short of amazing, sawmills here were being prepared to be auctioned off piece by piece,” said Kozorys. “McGuinty could not be more out of touch with reality in the North.”
“Atikokan Forest Products equipment was being auctioned off this week in Sapawe, while equipment from Northern Sawmills is being sold off today and tomorrow in Thunder Bay”.
“In Toronto, McGuinty claimed that he created the largest number of jobs in the country, ignoring the reality in the North. Under McGuinty’s watch over eight years, 40,000 forestry workers lost their jobs in Northern Ontario devastating entire communities,” said Steve Mantis.
“And to make matters worse, McGuinty’s wood allocation policy shut out communities, by not allowing local operators to control their own wood supply to keep and create good local jobs,” added Mantis.
Kozorys said “McGuinty’s many excuses for missing the Northern debate Thunder Bay was that he would address Northern issues in the scheduled debate. McGuinty claimed: “I am very much looking forward to the debate that has already been scheduled… I think it’s a great opportunity to debate northern issues.” (Toronto Star, September 15, 2011)
“McGuinty failed the North again in the Toronto debate,” said Kozorys, “McGuinty mentioned Ontario’s North only once. That’s McGuinty’s idea of debating northern issues.”
“What McGuinty continues to ignore is that the North has challenges very distinct from those of southern Ontario. We have a resource-based economy with enormous potential for growth if we have the right policies that are focused on the North,” said Mantis, “The NDP has a plan for the North that that puts people first and makes use of our region’s full potential. Clearly McGuinty does not.”