City delegation told to get house in order before Ring of Fire spinoff

Thunder Bay will be the capital of the Ring of Fire, at least according to nine provincial ministers who met with city officials earlier this week at the Ontario Good Roads Conference.

But first the community must prove it’s ready to handle the job, said Coun. Joe Virdiramo, chairman of the intergovernmental liaison committee.

“We know there are going to be hundreds of jobs, if not thousands of jobs created in the mining sector, once this thing takes off. Therefore we have to be ready (to meet) the opportunities, training the people who will be in those positions,” Virdiramo told media Thursday at a city hall news conference.

“We need to make certain that we have everything in place, that we have the foundation in place, for the Ring of Fire – the energy thing, the transportation thing. We need to have a plan.”

There are other issues that come into play, he continued, including social and housing issues that must be addressed before Thunder Bay can gain the full confidence of Queen’s Park and, more importantly, the business community.

“All those things need to be looked into seriously and a plan must developed for each one of those so that we are ready to go when anything comes our way,” Virdiramo said.

All-weather roads connecting the Ring of Fire to both Aborignal communities and the rest of Ontario are a big piece of the infrastructure that will be needed.

But which communities will benefit from the roads remains to be seen.

Thunder Bay is a possible hub, and Virdiramo said the city will continue to push on those issues and make sure the government remains “on the right track.”

“Is it going to happen tomorrow? No. I can say that the government is working on it seriously with private partners and the city will facilitate anything we can do in that endeavour,” he said.

Some encouraging signs are already in place, Virdiramo said, including the Ring of Fire co-ordinator.

Virdiramo and several others who make the trek to the Toronto conference defended the size of their delegation, which included Couns. Aldo Ruberto, Brian McKinnon and Ken Boshcoff, Mayor Keith Hobbs, city manager Tim Commisso, representatives of Fort William First Nation and the Community Economic Development Commission.

Several went as members of other organizations, they pointed out, such as Ruberto under the District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administrative Board flag.  Hobbs and Commisso were there as part of the Northwestern Ontario Municipalities Association delegations.

“Everybody was there (already) so we pulled people into our meetings because we’re all Thunder Bay,” Commisso said.
Hobbs extended his trip to meet with Karen Stintz, a Toronto city councillor who also happens to be chairwoman of the Toronto Transit Commission.

He said he planned to discuss the Ontario capital’s light-rail plan and the impact it would have on Thunder Bay, and to thank her for fighting Mayor Rob Ford’s plan to build subways instead.

“If you’re asking if it’s money well spent, well, it’s money well spent,” Hobbs said.

While they didn’t get any specific promises from the province, they have the ears of several cabinet ministers to discuss things like energy supply and pricing, electricity supply to First Nations communities and workforce development.

“It’s to let government know that we’re serious and the city is backing us up,” Virdiramo said.

“They all want to be here,” he added. “Now it’s in our court and we’ll develop all those plans and we’ll certainly invite all those people to meet with us.”

McKinnon pointed to last year’s meeting, which resulted in specifics in highway safety along the Thunder Bay Expressway.
“We asked for safety lights and we were just confirmed this year that we will get them,” he said.

Commisso couldn’t say how much it cost the city to send the delegation to Toronto, but said it is provided for in the budget.