East Ferris Mayor Bill Vrebosch addresses North Bay city council during an emergency meeting Monday night. Photo by Phil Novak. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Technological change means Ontario government employees in North Bay don’t have to be relocated to do their jobs, East Ferris Mayor Bill Vrebosch said.
Vrebosch made his remarks at an emergency meeting of North Bay city council, called to discuss the implications of the province’s consolidation of its Shared Services Bureau.
Mayors from surrounding municipalities were also invited to attend the meeting
Under the consolidation 320 jobs would be dispersed among six centres of excellence cities—North Bay, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Orillia, Peterborough and the Greater Toronto Area.
North Bay would lose 35 of its jobs and gain 29, while Sudbury gains 122.
Vrebosch questioned why the movement of jobs was necessary, given technological advances.
“Are they smarter or different over there, is the air different in Peterborough, are they going to be smarter by moving over there?” Vrebosch wondered.
“Technological changes mean you can live in North Bay and operate any place in this province.”
Vrebosch alluded to a Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities meeting held in Bonfield where a representative of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation Said technology changes meant people could effectively operate in any part of Ontario.
“That same person was asked by the mayor of Sault Ste. Marie ‘if what you say is correct, why are moving 15 people out of Sault Ste. Marie to the south,’ and the person had no answer to that,” Vrebosch said.
He lamented the cancellation of the $55 million Connect Ontario Broadband Regional Access program, which would have helped provide high-speed Internet connects to rural areas in Northern Ontario. “We need that program reinstated,” Vrebosch said.
“Here’s a little analogy. The guy at the fish shack can hold the computer in one hand and fish with the other and he’s able to do his business in Toronto. That’s how we can do it here to. I’m not willing to accept any more losses to this region and I think we need to support it.”
Vrebosch said the move will cause a social and cultural loss in the area.
“We need to be an end place, not a pass-through place. We surrounding regions need you to be strong so we can be strong because where you have the jobs, we have the residences and we need you to be strong and we will back you up, we’ll go to the wall for you.”
Vrebosch said he doesn’t think the provincial government’s “being fair.”
“And for some reason North Bay’s always the end loser, and we don’t want that any more. And we’re here today to back you up and say we’re not going to take it any more.”
