Economic summit and business awards partner together in Timmins.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: NEWS

With a shrinking population base and a growing number of economic hurdles, Northern Ontario needs to begin speaking with one voice to begin effecting real change, according to the organizers of an upcoming Northern Ontario economic summit.

Due to be held in Timmins from Oct. 17-19 and organized by the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM), the Northern Leaders Economic Summit is expected to play host to nearly 300 leaders of industry, government, and economic development from throughout the region.

With representatives from 110 municipalities from across northeastern Ontario, the summit will develop made-in-Northern-Ontario answers to regional problems, rather than relying upon decisions made in Queen's Park.

"If a government minister is about to change a policy, we want to have a voice and some input into that change," Mac Bain, North Bay city councillor and FONOM vice-president, says.

"All too often, Northern Ontario is a great big square peg, and we just don't fit into that round southern Ontario hole."

While several similar conferences and summits have been held in recent years, Bain says none have been as wide-ranging or inclusive.

Bringing in the northeast as a solid block rather than a series of individual special interest groups allows the participants to speak with greater weight, therefore being much tougher to ignore. Cooperation is also being sought to work with the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association to further unify the region.

"Going it alone is like throwing a pebble at Queen's Park," Bain says. "What we need to do is gather up all these pebbles and hurl them, or to be more politically correct, drop them on the lap of a minister."

However, organizers hope to avoid the development of a full-blown manifesto. Instead, attendees will work to develop three points on which FONOM will focus its energies on with various levels of government.

In order to distill the range of topics slated for discussion into a mere three talking points, the conference will feature six separate sessions on subjects important to the region. These include natural resources, government services and the public sector, transportation, energy, health and eduction, as well as business and entrepreneurship.

Split into two sets of concurrent sessions, each group will be led by a facilitator and guided by various recognized leaders in their respective fields. Over the course of nearly two hours, each group will discuss and develop their...