Northern Ontario forgotten in cabinet: NDP

OTTAWA–Northern Ontario’s New Democrat MPs are questioning the Conservative government’s plans for the federal government’s economic development agency, FedNor, following the announcement of Prime Minster Stephen Harper’s new cabinet last Thursday.
There was no mention of any minister responsible for FedNor despite the fact that ministers were named for the economic development agencies serving Quebec, Western Canada, and Atlantic Canada.

“As we said during the election campaign, the Conservatives are no friends of northerners,” said New Democrat FedNor critic Tony Martin (Sault Ste. Marie).
“A minister was appointed for every other regional development agency,” he noted. “FedNor had its own designated minister until today, but it appears the Conservatives have just left FedNor off the cabinet table.”
New Democrat MP Glenn Thibeault (Sudbury) cited the Conservatives’ election campaign promise to add new funding for southern Ontario through FedNor.
“Under consecutive Liberal and Conservative governments, FedNor has increasingly become FedOntario, with a third of its funding directed to other regions of the province,” said Thibeault. “We do not oppose an economic development agency for southern Ontario, but it shouldn’t take away from the one we already have for the hard-hit communities of Northern Ontario.
“In these difficult times, we should be strengthening FedNor, not weakening it,” he stressed.
New Democrats repeatedly have called for FedNor to be a stand-alone regional development agency serving exclusively Northern Ontario, with the rest of Ontario served by its own agency.