Sault Ste. Marie

I occasionally hear comments about people's distrust for other culturals including recent immigrant, long-term immigrant and First Nation populations. How much of an effect do divisions within our community have on our social well-being and economy? Along the lines of The Big Sort (www.thebigsort.com), do we in Sault Ste. Marie make choices based on perceptions of others that actually impede our economy? edited 01:30, 3 Nov 2008

During the last federal election several individuals suggested that we should vote Conservative because a Harper government was a foregone conclusion. Most notably, this comment was made by David Orazetti, MPP.

How much validity is there to the claim that our overall political representation and related development (community, social or economic) would improve by having a local representative in the governing party?

During the 1980's and 1990's, our community began to recognize a loss of a younger demographic. Several initiatives were implemented aimed at stemming this tide.

Given the reluctance of our municipal government to finalize a skateboard park despite the community support (represented by donations) and in comparison to the development of other cultural and sport facilities (Essar Centre), what message does this send to the youth of the community?

Sooguy,

A lot of grist for the mill here. Thanks for the thought starters, hope you've registered for AgendaCamp.

It's interesting that the Agenda picked Sault Ste. Marie to focus on the the topic of the Resource Economy. Most people have viewed the Soo as a steel town along with forestry as the main economic engines. However we tend to forget that it is iron ore that is smelted and processed. This also ties the Soo to the mineral resource industry, especially Wawa which was the source of iron ore since the turn of the century. The Resource Economy is also represented by the mining and mineral exploration industry which, for northern Ontario, adds substantially to Ontario's GDP.

On the topic of changing economies & the economic future of Sault Ste. Marie.. there's an emerging pattern of variables and a widening gap between the haves and have not's.

I have a fear that our economic future is about to take a very drastic change in direction.. Cutbacks, layoffs, housing crisis, call center closure. I hope some one is keeping an eye on this..

I'm not sure but I think it takes two weeks or more to get an EI claim started, some won't qualify for claims & will have made too much money last month to qualify for Ontario Works.

Unfortunately I am unable to attend the agenda camp but if I were able to.. I would ask that every one be reminded that the NCO Group will close their customer service call center in Sault St. Marie on November 27, according to a local report. The call center currently employs 300 people.

The holiday season is a difficult time of year for many people & families and it's also the busiest time of year for our agencies and services please take the time and volunteer or donate generously this year more then ever to help offset the 50% cutbacks to our food banks & shelters..

Paul Frolich
Media Spokesperson.
Voices of Action Against Poverty.

http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/english/consultations/prebud09/ edited 13:56, 20 Nov 2008

Hi
There has been a lot of recent Indigenous development in a number of areas of the regional economy, in the past 5-10 years.

Items such as regional and national hockey and fastball tournaments --- which has brought many visitors to the Soo, who spent millions at local motels, restaurants and other businesses.

The recently completed highway 17 east bypass in which Garden River First Nation was the general contractor and was completed as a joint venture, with Peter Kiewit Construction. The Garden River Development Corporation is also developing a golf course and is continuing gravel pit operations.

In Rankin Reserve, the recently opened Sewell's Plaza, which is a private business endevour of Albert Sewell, was constructed by Ruscio's Construction. This building provides any business or organization a place to locate on the Rankin Reserve.

The launch of the development of the Shingwauk University is another project created by Indigenous people .

All these and many other projects , both new and ongoing, are examples of Indigenous economic impact to the regional economy. Of course one cannot forget the tourist impact of the Sault Tribe and Bay Mill casinos.

As the Indigenous economy gets stronger the economic impacts to the regional economy is substantial. It is estimated that the annual Indigenous economic impact is approximately $ 50 million dollars. Clearly a substantial healthy impact to the local businesses in the Soo region.

Ongoing issues to be addressed include Treaty and aboriginal rights, proposed bypass through the Rankin Reserve, and resource harvesting.

It is my hope that this session helps to focus discussion on different these and other issues

later
Joe Corbiere edited 23:07, 15 Nov 2008

With the exception of mining (for obvious reasons), we need to absolutely ensure sustainability in whatever kind(s) of resource-related economic development we undertake. To those who fear this will cost jobs, there is no reason why any such losses wouldn’t be more than compensated for by making sure the processing industries using our resources are located here, in the North, and, more to the point, in communities close to where the primary resources are derived. We can’t continue with our past (and current) practice of forever trying to get more from the land, because that will only deepen the degradation that’s already occurring. This doesn’t mean that a lot of activities ought to be prohibited, but not everything should be allowed everywhere, and we must learn to be particularly cognizant that “heavier impact” land uses tend to be devastating to “lighter” activities; indeed, if we are to have a wide range of future options, a reasonable percentage of the landbase needs to be set aside for low-impact activities, which would require redesignating more landbase into this category.

We certainly can all get more benefits from the resources of this province, but that will require of us that we manage our economy more intelligently, through such measures as adding value to our resources here in the North, while simultaneously taking less from the land. The benefits will come not from simply exploiting things as we have done in the past, but by using our hands and our heads to make items of greater value from those resource commodities.

A few things Northerners absolutely must come to terms with are:

- Getting more economic benefits from less resource extraction.

- Diversifying our economy ... how is it that Thunder Bay can build subway cars, etc., but we don't publish books beside our papermills, make copper- and nickel-based consumer items in Sudbury, bake almost any of our own bread, craft anything substantial from steel in SSM, or process most of the food we grow here in the North, etc, etc.?

- What do we need to do to get our youth and/or innovators and entrepreneurs to settle in our communities, especially the smaller ones?

- Looking locally for answers to our economic woes, such as once again starting to grow and process most of our own food.

- Recognizing that we don't have to drive ATVs everywhere, fish down every last lake, and hunt over every last hectare ... which would allow us to allocate some of the landscape to other uses, like ecotourism, preservation, remoteness, etc. These too are valid resource uses that become more valuable as the rest of the world depletes/destroys similar resources, and which unfortunately we are also driving towards regional extinction.

- Fighting to prevent the outflow of non-processed or barely processed resources, including the electricity that’s generated in this region from being exported.

Ron Yurick

Thanks, Ron, for your ecologically-minded insights and if I may quote from David Suzuki & Holly Dressel's book, "GOOD NEWS for a Change"...the discussion is about a set of systems conditions for determining sustainability as defined by scientists and doctors in Sweden, regarding "The Natural Step", 4 tenets of sustainability that can be summarized as follows: "In order for a society to be sustainable, nature's functions and diversity are not systematically 1: subject to increasing concentrations of substances extracted from the earth's crust; 2: subject to increasing concentrations of substances produced by society; 3: impoverished by physical displacement, over-harvesting or other forms of ecosystem manipulation. 4: In a sustainable society, resources are used fairly and efficiently in order to meet basic human needs globally". edited 16:33, 16 Nov 2008

Our city council voted Monday evening to award professional collection services to NCO Financial Services.

The contract was awarded for one year with an option for two one year terms thereafter.

NCO currently operates a call centre on Queen St. which will be closing its doors shortly terminating 300 employees.

Sending those jobs and our money out of the country..

Regardless of NCO being the lowest bidder, the insult received by our community should not be written off or glanced at as good business..

It's frustrating to accept that we had no input as to where that contract went.. perhaps we need to implement a local jobs for local contracts policy.

The people of Sault Ste. Marie welcomed NCO with open arms & some very special incentives, our city served them well, and they served us holiday job-loss.

It's hard not to take something like this personally.. it's companies like NCO with no sense of loyalty that are contributing to our diminishing economy sending our money and jobs overseas.

NCO is not the first company to take advantage of loop holes and they most certainly won't be the last..

If we're not careful we could find our lower skilled jobs overseas and other nations buying our foreclosed homes, soon to be working in & owning our bankrupted industries.

In a sustainable society we must sustain ourselves first.. in these troubled economic times politicians would be well advised to keep in mind that the working poor are soon to become the voting majority.

It's 4.pm on Bay St. Do you know where your money is.?

edited 21:58, 3 Dec 2008

pfrolich: you've identified an action item to address local economic issues: "perhaps we need to implement a local jobs for local contracts policy. "

What kind of local contracts might be included in such a policy. Who needs to be convinced of such a policy and what information would be needed to convince them? Are there the developed local businesses to handle such contracts economically and profitably? Or could the appropriate enterprises be developed locally and what would be needed to do so? Is there any way local business schools could be engaged in helping model this in a way that would convince decision makers not that this is morally right, but makes sense economically because profits and wages generated locally are more likely to be spent locally?

Hi David.. A lot of our municipal services and contracts are awarded to out of town companies and regional offices.

Even our local cable company farms out it's tech support & customer service to Winnipeg it's becoming increasingly popular to use call centres located overseas.

I know it's not always the cheapest solution or the most popular but.. it only makes sense that if we kept it local we'd create jobs & there are federal incentives out there to help companies offset some of the costs of keeping it local.

Local contracts.. pay local people, the trickle down effect from that would benefit every one.. if that policy were adopted at all three levels of government we'd have a pretty good foundation for an economic stimulus package.

Niagara is currently working on a Keep it Local policy, they are challenging other communities & our government to adopt a similar approach. http://www.buylocalniagara.ca/news.php?item.7.3

There are many ways that people can get involved.. ask if it was grown locally at the check-out. Check the label for "Made in Ontario.." & our government could do more to ensure that our Canadian industries & corporations use Canadian labor pools and resources.

edited 01:09, 27 Nov 2008

I'm wondering how this issue moves from the rhetorical. What's stopping the implementation of a local contracts policy? If change is possible around this one policy, how is it achievable in SSM? In St. Catharines it seems the autoworkers union and some local councillors collaborated. What steps would you propose and how would you bring others in to this conversation to help in SSM? Specifically, which city contracts would you repatriate? Is there local capacity? How can you convince decision makers with hard data, the specific benefits to local economy? If contracting locally is to be a sustainability measure, then what list of principles would the policy contain to help guide future councils in their city services acquisitions?