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Today is a sad day for Northern Ontario. After more than a century of service, the Ontario Northland Train between Toronto, North Bay and Cochrane is making its last trip.
The Liberal’s short-term thinking on the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission’s (ONTC) future is bad long-term policy. At a time when most governments around the world are investing in rail, Ontario is divesting.
You don’t need a PhD in economics to know that fuel prices will continue to rise. The cost of transporting people and goods by car, truck and bus is going up. Moving people and goods by rail is essential to our economy and to tackling climate change.
Yet the Liberals are abandoning rail service in Northern Ontario.
Walking away from the ONTC will cost jobs and save little or no money.
Ontario needs a sustainable transportation plan in the North. The ONTC needs to be restructured with a viable long-term business plan, not a fire sale. Just because the Liberal government doesn’t have a plan, doesn’t mean that it can’t be done.
Ontario should expand and improve rail service in the North, not cut it. A viable rail service is essential to building a strong economy and sustainable communities in the North.
–Statement from GPO Leader Mike Schreiner