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ABOUT STRONG
The concept for STRONG (Saving The Region of Ontario North Group) came at the beginning of March 2005 and officially announced its formation on April 6 of that same year. In February 2006 STRONG successfully established itself as a non-profit corporation. Our membership base has grown exponentially and is currently about 6,000.
Originally STRONG was formed to lobby against the closure of the Excel sawmill, one of the most profitable mills that Tembec owned, in support of the community of Opasatika. It became apparent that Tembec had bought out the mill six months earlier simply to shut it down, obtain the cutting rights and redirect the wood to their mill in Hearst. Needless to say the community was devastated. However, STRONG's mission is now to prevent the same thing from happening to other forest and mining dependent communities throughout Northern Ontario.
Our main objective is to prevent the destruction and ongoing depopulation of Northern Ontario communities that have resulted in great part from the actions and/or failure to act from both senior levels of government. The Ontario government has the primary responsibility for our natural resources and as such must begin to implement policies that support community sustainability as its main priority over the profit interests of multi-national corporations and their share holders.
In our opinion it is not only economic realities that have caused hardship in the forest and mining industries. Federal and provincial policies have been implemented that continue to disregard tangible solutions put forward by the communities and the people of Northern Ontario.
All of our natural resources including the forests, the rivers, and the minerals belong to the people of Ontario, not to the companies that have been given the privilege to develop them on our behalf.
Corporations should not be allowed to continue buying up mills only to close them down and re-direct round wood to other regions, provinces or countries. We also believe that a much higher percentage of our mining resources could and should be processed right here in Northern Ontario.
Multi-national corporations continue to take much more than they give back as they fail to reinvest, innovate, adapt and add value to our raw resources at existing facilities in Northern Ontario and meet the demands of the global marketplace. They care little for community sustainability.
Hydro dams that originally provided cheap reliable electricity to regional mills are being separated by corporations to sell electricity onto the grid. This move has serious implications for Northern industries, jeopardizes mill operations and threatens even more jobs.
STRONG is calling for a regional energy pricing policy that would utilize hydro electricity surpluses generated from Northern Ontario dams for economic development initiatives that are aimed at lowering rates and stabilizing Northern economies.
If we are to restore prosperity and stability in the North, regional politicians, municipal councils, Chambers of Commerce's, organizations, unions, colleges, universities and citizens must work together in order to exert the collective influence necessary to change government policies that have contributed to the dismantling of the economy and threaten the social fabric of Northern Ontario.
We must find common ground and move forward to regain control of our destiny, of our resources, our economy, our livelihoods and our quality of life.
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