labaienordique wrote:A New Deal … A Brighter Future for Northern Ontario
The New Deal for Northern Ontario will revitalize the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC) while creating significant economic opportunities and thousands of new jobs in the province’s North.
It's a pity that it isn't a credible plan. This is just a website put up by the General Chairman's Association. There are no business interests, or business leaders behind this, just organized labor.
labaienordique wrote: The plan, which enjoys broad and growing stakeholder support, will preserve transportation services and hundreds of existing jobs, and provide access to the massive Ring of Fire mineral deposits. Ownership of ONTC’s railroad and other assets will be transferred from the provincial government to a new ports authority.
http://www.newdealnorth.ca/Default.aspx
The new "port authority" hasn't be around for more than a couple of months and the "CEO" is just a former VP of the ONTC. The farfetched plan for provincial funding of an extension of Ontario Northland to the speculative mining project was proposed in the middle of October and rejected before the end of October.
Here's the bad idea:
http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/di ... fire-81738
Here's the common sense rejection of the bad idea:
http://www.timminspress.com/2012/10/28/ ... --province
labaienordique wrote:7. Would the New Deal restore the Northlander and all passenger services?
We are looking to reinstate and revitalize passenger rail services along the Highway 11 corridor. We will work with the provincial government and Metrolinx to find the best way to do this. This will take time, and is part of our plan.
http://www.newdealnorth.ca/Faq.aspx
How exactly is this magical "port authority" going to fund a money losing passenger train? Oh, that's right, first the province builds and extension to mythical mines, which generates imaginary freight revenues, which apparently support the resumed Northlander. It's a lovely fairytale, but too implausible for even a bedtime story.
The reality is that the Ring of Fire project is still relatively uncertain and years in the future. It can be derailed by commodity prices, environmental concerns or legal challengers from various native bands. Moreover, it's hard to build a rail line, even where there is a vital commercial interest and an experienced Class 1 freight behind the project. The Tongue River Railroad project in Montana is still at the talking stage after 25 years, and it's still far from a certainty, even with a new 42 mile route and BNSF behind it. What chance does this sort of farfetched Northern Ontario proposal have? None. This sort of effort is just a sad postscript to a century of taxpayer subsides.