Mayor pushes for level playing field.

Mayor John Rowswell believes that any new relationship between Northern Ontario and the province should include significant reforms in how it deals with businesses in the region.

Assistance, he says, should come in the form of making the North a more competitive place for businesses to set up shop, which would include tax incentives.

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"I look outside my window and I can see Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and they have a tax incentive zone within the whole state. Businesses there get a 12-year tax incentive on 50 per cent of their expenses," he says.

Businesses already have an important reason not to choose Northern Ontario, he says.

"Northern Ontario is sandwiched between Quebec and Michigan, both areas allowing tax incentives to business. As a new business, where do you think you're going to go?"

Rowswell was a strong proponent of the Tory government's plan to declare Northern Ontario a tax incentive zone. The plan, which was axed by the new government, he says, was not big on details. Also, the summer blackout and the SARS epidemic took up precious government time and resources, leaving little time to flesh out details of the tax incentive zone.

Like all northern urban mayors, Rowswell is pleased to see government-led co-operation between the municipalities. Common issues, he says, forced the group to co-operate as a block and not compete between each other as a way to face their similar challenges.

"I think what's happened is the Statistics Canada survey in 2002 made us all realize that the problem of youth out-migration is worse than we thought," Rowswell says.

The problem is that co-operation must include all parts of the large area. As an association of large urban mayors, Rowswell stresses that the mayors not forget that they speak for the rural and isolated communities that come within their areas, not just their respective urban communities.

"As large urban mayors, we all have different areas. We have a responsibility to bring our entire region into our work." Urban areas in the North, he says, have large departments and economic development offices with budgets that put them at an advantage over small towns.

"We can bring our ideas forward easier because we have the manpower within our urban environment," Rowswell asserts.

Smaller-town mayors and rural reeves, he believes, should be brought into the process. This will allow them to bring their ideas to the table.

"It's not unusual for a town like Bruce Mines to have to take the lead with only one worker and a single superintendent."

Beyond economic development, however, Rowswell also says that Northern Ontario municipalities can co-operate on areas that they all agree on, such as concern about the economic burden of municipal downloading of responsibilities under the previous government.

At the federal level, Rowswell hopes that the new government will deal with the coalition of urban mayors about issues of concern, like the future of federal Northern development assistance. The group has agreed to meet immediately after the election and plan their strategy.

By JOSEPH QUESNEL 

Northern Ontario Business