ONTC's future still on hold.

Ontario Northland Rail workers who have waited almost two years for the provincial government to act on their report to improve the money-losing railway, will have to wait until the new provincial government is sworn in to find out the future of the provincial Crown corporation.

Brian Stevens, president of Canadian Auto Workers Local 103, believes the premier's attention has been diverted away from acting on the recommendations of the Internal Solution Group's recommendations in their business plan due to the SARS outbreak, Aug. 14 blackout and the Aylmer meat-packing crisis.

ON Rail and Canadian National Railway management have met in North Bay over the summer since the collapse of formal talks between the two rail carriers in June. Stevens says the companies are exploring some opportunities to move some CN maintenance work to ON Rail's locomotive and rail car shops in North Bay.

"Now that CN has purchased Wisconsin Central (which includes Sault Ste. Marie's Algoma Central Railway) they have the Agawa Canyon Tour Train, but no skill sets to do the overhaul (of passenger cars) in the system."

ON Rail management are looking to get those cars into the facility to get them rebuilt, says Stevens.

In June, Canadian National Railway ended talks to acquire the Crown-owned ON Rail, saying the province demanded rich job guarantees for employees of the regional railway serving northeastern Ontario.

CN was given permission by the province to begin exclusive talks with the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission to acquire the railway last October.

Job protection was a key criterion for the Ontario government, which selected CN's proposal last October over three other bids.

Representatives of some 600 unionized workers were concerned CN would minimize long-term commitments, particularly on jobs.

Stevens knows of no layoffs among the organization's 1,100 full-time employees, though he knows of two management members who were offered and accepted phasedin retirement.

Some "minor" restructuring has been done with ONTC's bus service and at ON Telcom over the summer. About five employees were reportedly offered severance packages and other positions within the company.

ONTC management was not available for comment.

Stevens believed the consultant, Roy Hains, hired to run the Crown corporation, is waiting for clear direction from the government of the day on its intentions for the railway.

The Internal Solutions Group, made up of unionized and management workers, hopes to give a presentation to ONTC commissioners sometime soon to outline some of the service improvements that should be acted upon in their report submitted in November 2001.

"We want to try and articulate those things to the commission and get some energy behind that to get doing what we should be doing - providing rail freight and passenger service throughout the region."

Stevens says more than two years of being in limbo on the ownership issue has left some employees worried about their future. When CN announced in June they were abandoning talks, "people were a little bit energetic" figuring the provincial government would step back from privatization and get on with business.

But the future of ONTC appears to be a backburner issue in Queen's Park.

"It's a front burner issue with our membership. We've been encouraging our members to get out and exercise their right to vote and many have been doing so at the advance polls."

Union leaders at ONTC were urging their membership to vote for the Liberal and NDP candidates in the Nipissing, Parry Sound-Muskoka, Temiskaming-Cochrane and Timmins-James Bay ridings for the upcoming Oct. 2 election.

Since the Internal Solutions Group submitted their business plan two years ago, Stevens says the government has not officially studied it, but "unofficially" some restructuring moves are taking place.

But Stevens expresses optimism that jobs will be retained in the long run.

"I felt from the outset in Dec. 2000 when they made the announcement that this was an opportunity we should seize in terms of improving customer service. I'm a student of the industry and there's nobody out there that can do what we're doing any better than we can. We need some vision and strength from management and some determination and grit, that's what northerners are all about, and we just need the government to give us the confidence and latitude to do what we do best, rather than allow the bureaucrats to meddle all the time.

"My biggest concern is if the provincial budget is as bad as what people are speculating and there's a fire sale of assets to try and live up to this promise of a balanced budget. We might be on the selling block again, but for all the wrong reasons."

By IAN ROSS

Northern Ontario Business