Province urged to seek new ONTC board.The Ontario Northland north·land also North·land n. A region in the north of a country or an area. north  land Transportation Commission may be officially off the selling block, but leadership and government still remain outstanding key issues, says the head of the largest union at the Crown corporation. Brian Stevens, president of Local 103 of the Canadian Auto Workers The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW; formally the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada) is one of Canada's largest and highest profile trade unions. , welcomed the news by Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci Rick Bartolucci (born October 10, 1943 in Sudbury, Ontario) is a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario representing the Sudbury riding. He has been a member of the assembly since 1995, and is currently a cabinet minister in the government of Dalton McGuinty. of a strategic alliance between Telus and ONTC's subsidiary O.N. Telcom, but is "clearly disappointed" the corporation seeks to "downsize Downsize Reducing the size of a company by eliminating workers and/or divisions within the company. Notes: When a company downsizes, it is attempting to find ways to improve efficiency and increase profitability. It is sometimes referred to as trimming the fat. " by 200 jobs through an early retirement offer. Nor is he pleased the McGuinty government has not addressed the issue of new leadership with a new direction for the corporation. Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci was in North Bay March 4 to announce a "bold new direction" for the money-losing railway and telecommunications operator through an alliance with Telus and a proposal to reduce the 900-member workforce by 200 through early retirement as a cost-cutting measure. Stevens says consultant Roy Haines, the ONTC's executive vice-president of operations and service improvement, who was appointed by the previous Tory government to divest Ontario Northland as a Crown corporation, should be dismissed. "We need a new board and a presidential search now." "We've impressed upon the Minister (Bartolucci) the direction where we think we should be going and it's not a direction that ties us closer to CN Rail." With Ontario Northland recently securing a lucrative $81-million contract to refurbish GO Transit GO Transit (AAR reporting marks GOT), officially known as the Greater Toronto Transit Authority (GTTA), is Canada's first, and Ontario's only, interregional public transit system, established to link Toronto with the surrounding regions of the Greater Toronto coaches, Stevens says the timing of the early retirement offer is not good while the railway deals with an ongoing trade skill shortage and needs 30 extra jobs to fulfill the contract scheduled to begin Oct. 1. He estimates only about 20 per cent of the 74 eligible employees in his 400-member local will likely take advantage of the offer. By IAN ROSS Ian Ross is the name of:
Northern Ontario Business Northern Ontario Business is a Canadian magazine, which publishes monthly in Greater Sudbury, Ontario. The magazine covers business news and issues in Northern Ontario. |
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