The mayor of Timmins will not be joining his northern Ontario counterparts in Ottawa tomorrow for a face-to-face meeting with the minister responsible for FedNor.
NOLUM, the Northern Ontario Large Urban Mayors, held one of their twice-annual meetings earlier this month in Sault Ste. Marie, in which the member mayors spoke to common issues affecting the region, including reductions in federal funding by way of the economic development agency FedNor.
As a result of discussions at that meeting, Mayor Steve Black and Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger set up a meeting for the group in Ottawa on Wednesday with the Liberal government's Northern Ontario Caucus, as well as a meeting with Navdeep Bains, minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development.
Four of the member mayors of NOLUM -- Mayors Christian Provenzano (Sault Ste. Marie), Al MacDonald (North Bay), Brian Bigger (Sudbury) and Keith Hobbs (Thunder Bay) are expected to be in attendance at those Ottawa meetings, though Mayor Black is unavailable due to city business.
Bains, who was in the Sault last month for a funding announcement, is currently in the process of reviewing regional economic development agencies, including FedNor.
Sault Mayor Christian Provenzano spoke during his city's meeting of council yesterday about tomorrow's meetings.
Provenzano suggested other regional economic development funds receive more significant funding per capita than FedNor does.
“We’re on the hill to lobby to increase the funding and attention that is paid to FedNor, because we think it’s an important part of the puzzle,” said Provenzano.
The group recently took a position on FedNor, suggesting the funding should align more closely with the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC), which is dealt out by the provincial government.
Currently, FedNor doles out about $31-million per year for projects in northern Ontario, in contrast to the approximately $100-million in funding provided by the province by way of NOHFC.
Aside from the shortfall in federal funding, said Provenzano, is the difficult process of applying for funding through FedNor, which some have called cumbersome.
“Hopefully as we move forward, we can have both our provincial and federal partners working together to move us forward,” said Provenzano.
Calls today seeking comment from Mayor Black were not immediately returned.
