THUNDER BAY -- Industry and regional leaders seem to agree that the North needs more autonomy to take full advantage of its resources.
The Empire Club of Canada's State of the North Summit in Toronto Thursday hosted six politicians and industry representatives, including Kenora mayor and Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association president Dave Canfield, to discuss the challenges and opportunities in Northern Ontario.
It was the first time the club, which is more than 100 years old, held a summit on Northern Ontario, which is 86 per cent of the province's land but only six per cent of its population.
Canfield told the room that his city is 1,900 kilometres from Toronto and Queen's Park and only has one legislature designing policy and making decisions for all of that distance.
Those same amount of kilometres should he goes West would take him to Golden, B.C., three different legislatures with three planning acts that govern the land and make for more regional decision-making.
"It doesn't work," Canfield said of Ontario's decision-making. "You cannot connect the dots."
The late politician Leo Bernier, nicknamed "Emperor of the North" saw the North expand in the 60s and 70s and start to connect the region to other parts of the province, which helped growth and economic development.
Canfield said the time has come to enter the second phase of that and build infrastructure like roads and transmission lines to continue that work.
Former Detour Gold CEO pointed to energy, like the railroad in the past, as the key to driving the North's economy. But that only happens if there is a cheap supply of energy made in the North with policy from the North.
"That's how you open new ground, by investing in something that sustainable, like power," he said.
Kapuskasing mayor and president of the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities Alan Spacek pointed out that the North has 10,000 megawatts of potential power that's not being taken advantage of.
"Clearly something is broken and we need to address that," he said.
