Rethinking Northern Ontario! Regional governance: in Britain, they are about to get it right!!

With this second edition of "Rethinking Northern Ontario" we come to the central question "governance." You can't grow up, whether you are a kid or a political entity, until you are accountable for your actions. Northern Ontario has little jurisdiction over anything that matters. This needs to change.

All the principles of good government--sustainability, democracy, decentralization, efficiency--call for local power. A sustainable community has to have responsible government and a devolution of power to local or regional authorities is the way to accomplish this. Note the recent announcement of a regional government created for 10,000 Inuit in the northern Quebec. Surely, 800,000 Northern Ontarians can also handle more responsibility!

What is required is a Region of Northern Ontario Act patterned in part after the British Sustainable Communities Bill. We are asking members of the provincial legislature, particularly those seeking office in Northern Ontario, to read it.

Britain's Sustainable Communities Bill Passed ITS SECOND READING ON JANUARY 19, 2007. The version for the third reading is available on the web. It began as a private member's bill and was introduced by a Liberal Democrat MP, Julia Goldsworthy, July 2006. Private member's bills rarely succeed, but the Sustainable Communities Bill became an all-party affair. Four hundred MPs of all parties signed a parliamentary motion backing it. It won the support of 1,000 councils, 300 local organizations and 80 national organizations.

What does the Bill Do?

The bill makes it a duty of the senior government to assist local authorities to become sustainable. The government must help any local authority or even any smaller area under local authority to improve the economic, social (which includes participation in civil and political activity) and environmental well being of the area.

The British version makes the Secretary of State responsible for making it work. The Secretary of State is at the top of the administrative pyramid. In Canada most local issues and local programs are controlled by the province. The Ontario Government doesn't have a Secretary of State, so it might be necessary to give the responsibility to a very high member of cabinet.

A duty to ask for suggestions

The second clause in the bill requires the government to approach all local councils and invite them to put forward suggestions on how to improve the sustainability of their local communities.

The bill allows councils to request a transfer of functions from one body to another. This will allow local authorities to identify existing sources of money for local matters and put forward proposals on how that money could be spent differently. If they want, councils can shift existing money to fund some of the other suggestions they have made.

For example, if a particular road is currently managed by the Central Government, and the local authority believes it can use the money more effectively, they can ask to have responsibility transferred from the Highways Agency to the local authority. The money currently associated with managing it is also transferred. The local authority can then manage this road in a different way and spend the money it saves on another more important project.

The senior level of government can refuse to transfer responsibility if the transfer would harm other areas or have a detrimental effect on the greater public interest.

Dealing with all the ideas

The British bill requires the government to appoint a person known as the 'Selector' who will act as a representative on behalf of local authorities. The Selector will consider all the proposals put forward by the local authorities and work in co-operation with the municipal affairs to create a short list.

Having a person to act on behalf of local authorities is clearly a more efficient than the current free-for-all. Northern Ontario is a tangle of overlapping jurisdictions. With fewer than 800,000 people, Northern Ontario is divided into 10 territorial districts, 145 municipalities, two Local Health Integration Networks, 102 First Nations, and over 150 unincorporated communities, including 46 local services boards, and 42 of Ontario 47 sustainable forest licenses.

Once the short list is presented, Municipal Affairs must work with the 'Selector' in trying to reach an agreement. The government has a duty to co-operate according to the bill, so it has to try to reach agreement on the proposals selected.

Action plans to see the light of day

The bill requires the government to publish its decisions on the proposals in the short list giving reasons why each proposal has been accepted or rejected. All proposals that the government has decided to implement must be published in an 'Action Plan' with each proposal being accompanied by a statement of action stating how the government intends to implement it.

Even when it consults, the government of Ontario is not required to do anything. It can simply say that all the suggestions were 'considered.' The sustainable communities bill makes sure that the issues most important to the local communities are dealt with

At the end of the year the government has a duty to report to parliament on the progress being made in implementing the proposals in an action plan.

How to do a good job of consulting

One of the goals of the British bill is to get more people involved in local decision-making. The bill actually imposes a duty on local authorities to involve "all sections of society" before submitting their proposals to the 'Selector'. Local authorities have to establish a system of local 'citizens panels,' which must have consultations with a local authority and together reach an agreement on any proposals put forward.

The British bill is a step towards a stronger form of democracy. It will reverse the trend toward increasingly centralized control and it should increase the number of people who take part in making decisions about their communities. The process will be fairer and it will include a fuller range of the community than ever before.

Opening the Books

The British bill requires the government (or a person they see fit to appoint) to provide 'local spending reports' which give a detailed breakdown of all monies spent by government and its agencies in local authority areas. The purpose of this clause is to 'open up the books' and for the first time enable both local authorities and communities to have a clear picture on how government money is spent in their area

No one can govern without good data. The most important information is about how much money you have to spend. In Northern Ontario no one knows how much government revenue there is or how it is spent. This may have been good enough in the 19th century, but it won't work for the 21st century.

Creating regional accounts, beginning with the local spending reports in the British bill--is relatively easy and cheap with modern accounting technology. This should be a priority item for the Minister of Northern Development.

Is local control risky?

Every system of government is risky--The system we have has led to Northern decline and under development. It is one of the main reasons young people leave the North. Government from Toronto is simply too dangerous for Northern Ontario.

Can the people of Northern Ontario do better? The answer is yes, they can.

A quote from the leader of the British Conservative Party, David Cameron, puts the issue very clearly.

"At different times, different areas will have different services and different standards of service," he wrote.

"Some areas will sometimes do better than others. Some areas will make mistakes where others will succeed." But he insisted: "It is by permitting local communities to develop their own priorities and their own innovations that we will produce a far higher general standard."

This, in our opinion, is an outbreak of uncommon common sense. It includes two bedrock principles; transparency and accountability.

It is time to take a leaf out of the British experience and get to work. Northern Ontario has unique strengths and weaknesses that have little or nothing in common with the balance of the province. There must be structural change.

It's not about moving government jobs out of Toronto, it is not about spending more money, it is about moving the thinking, the planning and the accountability to where it belongs.

What do you think? Comment at www.rethinkingnorthernontario.org

The ideas and themes explored in this series have been discussed and shaped by Livio Di Matteo professor of economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, David Robinson, associate professor of economics at Laurentian University in Sudbury and Michael Atkins President of Northern Ontario Business.

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This shifting does not involve any extra money from government.