Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities: ... the voice of the North; Northeastern unity now key for FONOM.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: FONOM - Conference news

The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) has positioned itself and its member communities for a significant change in declaring the establishment of a unified voice for Northeastern Ontario as a major priority during the first Northern Leaders' Economic Summit.

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Held in Timmins from Oct. 17-19, the summit featured discussions between more than 200 leaders of industry, government and economic development from across the Northeast--including 16 mayors--to help determine key points for the organization to pursue in the years to come.

The idea of a unified voice, potentially through some new system of governance or the establishment of a Northern secretariat, emerged as the dominant topic in four of the summit's six concurrent sessions, which covered a broad range of subjects including natural resources, energy and transportation.

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This kind of interconnectedness is necessary not only to thrive but to survive the current economic tides which threaten to drown many Northern communities, according to Alan Spacek, mayor of Kapuskasing and co-chair of the summit.

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"Without a cohesive approach and the ability to speak with one voice, we are all destined to flounder," Spacek says.

Whatever shape it may eventually take, the move is expected to require a great deal of co-ordinated effort among the various municipalities and groups in the northeast prior to reaching out to the northwest.

"We have to get our own house in order before we can go and work with Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association (NOMA), and we have to start working co-operatively before we can start work with them," Mac Bain, North Bay city councilor and co-chair of the summit, says.

"One of the comments that was made several times is that the five large urban mayors don't speak for all of Northern Ontario. However, we can't have organizations going off by themselves, so we've got to work with them on issues that are common across northeastern Ontario." The flawed approach of viewing funding agencies such as the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund or FedNor as a replacement for government has become endemic, according to Robert Rosehart, who was recently appointed to the post of Northwestern Ontario Economic Facilitator.

This needs to change to a much more pragmatic, single-source approach to replace the current...