Kenora Daily Miner and News
Progress from provincial emissaries on economy, wood rights updated
December 21, 2007 By Mike Aiken
Queen’s Park should have their hands on the Rosehart Report into the regional economy by mid-January. Author Bob Rosehart said Friday morning he’d completed a first draft, with more than 20,000 words, and he expected local residents to have access to it by the end of January. “We’re getting down to the short strokes,” he said, during a brief interview. “I think you’ll be interested in the outcome,” he added, noting he was “fairly happy with it.” Rosehart was appointed by the provincial government as part of the spring budget. His mandate was to focus on the challenges facing Northwestern Ontario, following up on a landmark study he wrote in the 1980s about single-industry towns.
In previous conversations, he has also remarked on the emergence of First Nations over the last 20 years, along with the importance of aboriginal governments in economic development. Grassy Narrows delegation to visit Iacobucci A delegation
from Grassy Narrows First Nation is scheduled to visit Toronto Jan. 7, so they can discuss their situation with the negotiator selected to try and untangle the wood rights dispute involving the Whiskey Jack Forest. It will be the community’s second session with Iacobucci, who visited in November, after he was honoured by Treaty 3 elders at a special ceremony in Kenora, in order to honour his role in settling the residential school compensation agreement. The wood rights are an integral part of the expansion plans at Kenora Forest Products, but they currently belong to Abitibi. The province has said they needed to resolve issues around certainty of supply, so they named their special negotiator. Band members at Grassy Narrows recently marked the fifth anniversary of their roadblock, which stops traffic into the Whiskey Jack at Slant Lake.
