Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce Participates in First Ever Northern Ontario Queen’s Park Days of Advocacy
(Greater Sudbury) On November 29th and 30th, the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce was one of four chambers from across Northern Ontario that made a trip to Queen’s Park for two days of advocacy and discussions with provincial leaders on the challenges faced by Northern Ontario businesses and the many opportunities and advantages that those same businesses have to offer.
Joining the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce were the chambers from Sault Ste. Marie, and Timmins as well as representatives from the Sault’s Innovation Centre, the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corporation, the Port of Algoma, Glencore’s Kidd Operations and the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI). Representatives from the Thunder Bay and North Bay chambers were not able to attend due to other conflicts.
“There are cross-cutting business issues across our northern region that impact us differently than Southern Ontario,” said Tracy Nutt, Chair of the Board, Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, and one of the mission participants. “We were at Queen’s Park as a collective Northern Ontario business voice to relay what it means to do business in the north and to represent our joint recommendations on issues that impact us adversely: issues like energy prices, the cost of doing business, cap and trade and transportation costs,” added Nutt.
The Queen’s Park mission included meetings and discussions with:
- The Honourable Deborah Mathews, Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development, Minister Responsible for Digital Government & Deputy Premier
- Ted Arnott, Critic, Labour
- The Office of the Honourable Charles Sousa, Minister of Finance
- The Honourable Glenn Thibeault, Minister of Energy and senior staff from the Office of the Honourable Michael Gravelle, Minister of Northern Development and Mines
- Patrick Brown, Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario & Critic, Education
- Cristina Martins, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Economic Development and Growth
- The Honourable Jeff Leal, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
- John Vanthof, Commissioner of the Board of Internal Economy & Critic, Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
- Lisa Thompson, Critic, Environment and Cap-and-Trade
- Vic Fedeli, Critic, Finance
- Wayne Gates, Critic, Transportation
- The Office of the Honourable Bill Mauro, Minister of Municipal Affairs
- The Office of the Honourable Bob Chiarelli, Minister of Infrastructure
- The Office of the Honourable Glen Murray, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change
- The Office of the Honourable Michael Chan, Minister of International Trade
- Ernie Hardeman, Critic, Municipal Affairs and Housing
- Andrea Horwath, Leader of the New Democratic Party of Ontario and Critic, Intergovernmental Affairs
The event also included a Northern Ontario reception where the northern chambers invited Ministers, opposition leaders, critics, MPPs and government staff to attend. The reception provided the opportunity to meet in a more relaxed and informal setting.
Discussion topics included: electricity prices, cap and trade, climate change, the Ring of Fire, permitting delays for mining exploration, an innovation cluster for the north, labour relations, infrastructure needs and the protection of natural resource sectors.
This was the first ever Northern Ontario Chambers’ delegation to Queen’s Park. The northern chambers would like to make this an annual event moving forward. The two days of advocacy at Queen’s Park was meant to lobby for Northern Ontario specific business issues but was also used to advance the unique opportunities that exist in the north to help develop economic prosperity in Ontario.
The delegation from Greater Sudbury included Tracy Nutt, Chair of the Board, Debbi Nicholson, President & CEO, Joyce Mankarios, Policy & Public Relations Manager and Charles Nyabeze, Director Business Development, Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI).
Photo caption: The Northern Chambers’ delegation with Cristina Martins, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Economic Development and Growth
Event photos can be found here.
For more information, please contact:
Joyce Mankarios
Policy and Public Relations Manager
Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce
705-673-7133 ext. 224
705-677-5735 (cell)
joyce(at)sudburychamber.ca