It's time to put your mouth where your money is.

• Author: Cirtwill, Charles
• Position: Think Tank

Have you read it yet? Have you taken the time to draft even a short reply to it?

Do you know the deadline for comment is Sept. 15? Which of the themes it outlines do you think should be a priority? What about the 37 directions it includes. Too many? Too few?

I am referring to the draft Northern Ontario Multimodal Transportation Strategy. A discussion document was recently released for public comment by the Province of Ontario (available at www.nomts.ca).

This strategy will impact what roads get built, which ones get twinned, and whether investment is in active or traditional transportation.

It will set the basis upon which decisions will be made about airport and port reinvestment, rail service (passenger and freight), and who will, or won't, get mass transit.

The strategy will help decide whether we pour money into sustaining increasingly unsustainable winter roads, or invest in significant expansion of all-weather connections.

Few of the Northerners that I have spoken to since its release have even heard about this study and fewer still plan on sending in comments on the draft.

This, despite the fact that the study has been ongoing for almost five years, will have a huge impact on each and every one of us, and will ultimately result in the expenditure of billions of public dollars.

That's your money. Maybe not all of it, but some of it is, and you have been invited to comment, specifically and personally, on how it will be spent.

I encourage you to step up, even if your industry association, your band, your local municipality, or your union will be commenting already on your behalf.

You have a unique and valuable perspective; it is in your interest to share it.

For those of you who vote and think, "that's enough"--it isn't.

A functional democracy requires more than an occasional check in on how things are going.

In poll after poll, we have asked for increased openness and accountability from our governments.

The work involved in that goes both ways. In this instance, the public servants have done their part, now we have to do ours. By the way, for those of you who don't vote, here is your chance to make up for that oversight.

The draft strategy is an impressive piece of work, summarizing in an easy-to-follow text and some very good maps what the authors say they and their colleagues have heard over the last five years.

The document lays out, in a straightforward way, the options before us and why certain options are suggested over others...