Northern Ontario in the creative age.

• Author: Robinson, Dave
• Position: ECONOMICALLY SPEAKING

Toronto's gurus have spoken. Richard Florida, and Roger Martin have produced a two-million-dollar, thirty-five page document entitled "Ontario in the Creative Age." It calls on Premier McGuinty to "Make the mega-region as strong as it can be." It seems to state that Northern Ontario is doomed.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Florida is big on creativity. He is the author of the international bestseller "The Rise of the Creative Class." and Amazon Book of the Month, "Who's Your City?", not to mention "The Flight of the Creative Class" and "Cities and the Creative Class." He has even been named European Ambassador for Creativity and Innovation and is head of the Martin Prosperity Institute.

Roger Martin is the dean the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He holds the Premier's Chair in Competitiveness and Productivity and he has written a few books of his own. Martin lured Florida to Toronto in 2007.

Martin and Florida tell us that we are leaving the Industrial Age and entering the Age of Creativity Growth in the Industrial Age was based on natural resources: future growth in Ontario will he based on clusters of creative industries. Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe region will do well. Northern Ontario will fall behind. Rural regions like Northern Ontario are "increasingly disconnected from the creative economy". "This is not a desired outcome," they say, "but it is our reality."

The Martin/Florida vision for Northern Ontario is pretty grim. Sudbury Councilor Janet Gasperini thinks the report is really telling the government to forget the North - only the big cities matter. Ontario got rich selling Northern resources, but now it should focus on building a denser, more connected, creative and competitive Toronto.

There is no doubt creativity flourishes in big cities. Ontario will have to make its mega-city region more creative. It is true, the province has to focus on the Toronto mega-region. Northerners should support this part of the Florida-Martin vision.

But also we need our own Creative Society report ... call it "Northern Ontario in the Creative Age." Our report will applaud the effort to develop a creative mega-city It will be especially positive if building a creative mega city gets the provincial government off our backs. Go ahead and focus on the big cities - just let us run our own affairs. The Creative North should make life easy for the province by developing our own growth plan and...