Rethinking Northern Ontario

Let's be honest. If you've been doing business in Northern Ontario for any length of time, you are a Houdini.

You've seen good times and bad times and both are difficult to plan for. Today, if you are in mining country, times are good and you are making hay while the sun shines. If you are in forestry country, you are hurting and downsizing. The truth is that overall we've lost a lot of population in Northern Ontario and we have not yet learned how to manage our resource economy.

We have little control over commodity pricing. What we can influence is the sustainability of our economy. It is, in our opinion, an obligation for those of us who have prospered in Northern Ontario to play a roll in preserving it.

For the next number of issues we are going to explore what we consider to be critical issues in rebuilding Northern Ontario. We start this month by welcoming the province's new approach to planning in Northern Ontario. The ideas and themes explored in this series have been discussed and shaped by Livio Di Matteo, professor of economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay; David Robinson, associate professor of economics at Laurentian University in Sudbury; and Michael Atkins, president of Laurentian Media Group — the owner of Northern Ontario Business newspaper. You can make your contribution to the debate at Rethinking Northern Ontario.