The federal candidates in the Kenora riding are being asked what is threatening our economy and what can be done moving forward.
Conservative Greg Rickford says there are still challenges in the resource and energy sector, but notes they’ve made some significant investments.
Rickford points to money spent at Domtar to give the company a chance to pull off electricity from the grid, helping them protect jobs, save money and hire new people.
He adds the government also helped Goldcorp overcome a two decade old problem by connecting them to Union Gas as alternative energy source.
Rickford notes moving forward the government must help communities diversity their economy.
Liberal Bob Nault says energy prices continue to hold us back.
Nault notes the sky-high prices and lack of options is hurting local businesses and business development.
He says we can’t attract major companies without driving the price down.
Howard Hampton of the NDP says the government continues to ship out all of our resources and concentrate its efforts on the oil and gas sector out west.
He adds the Feds have also ignored the massive Ring of Fire mining project in northern Ontario.
Hampton says the province been doing some work and promising to commit some funding towards the project, but its got no attention from the Conservatives.
Hampton stresses moving the project forward will create good jobs in mining, manufacturing, contracting, technology and engineering.
Green candidate Ember McKillop says this area needs to open its eyes to new opportunities.
McKillop says we are so dependent on current resources that we aren’t looking at the big picture.
She notes a Green government would assist communities and companies in long-term planning in order to avoid an on-going cycle of boom-or-bust.
McKillop adds the health of abandoned mine sites is also a threat.
She says in Ontario, there are 5,600 abandoned sites and 4,000 of those have been identified as hazardous to the environment or area communities.
Independent Kelvin Chicago-Boucher is also in the running.