Move more civil service jobs out of Toronto

Standing in for me this week is my colleague George Tough, a federal and provincial public servant for many years in the areas of resources, northern development, energy and the environment. What drew us two families together was that they had served in Africa, in Botswana, as we had in Tanzania, supporting Africans as they were deciding how best to ensure benefits for their people from their resources when foreign capital came a-calling.

I had known George as a kid growing up in Kirkland Lake. He lived in the nearby hamlet of Swastika, the son of a prospector, and a good hockey player. He went to the University of Western Ontario and to the University of Calgary, then into government, rising to the senior executive ranks of the Department of Finance before joining the Ontario government as deputy minister in 1985. From George Tough:

Let’s Have More Civil Service Transfers Out of Toronto

Coming back from a Northern Ontario Business conference one day in 1986, Premier David Peterson asked his fellow passengers, including me, in the government aircraft: “Is there anything tangible that we can do to help northern and other regional communities that are suffering economically?”

I was at the time deputy minister of Northern Development and Mine sand I said, “We could help them by transferring a lot of government jobs out of Toronto, which is booming, and into places that need them.”

This prompted a series of meetings with him and senior Queen’s Park staff, the result of which was a decision to proceed with a number of transfers, including my ministry (to Sudbury).

Two years later I had moved to the Ministry of Natural Resources. I was informed that the MN R head office was also to be transferred and we should decide quickly on our preferred destination. The following day, my executives and I selected Peterborough and our recommendation went to the Premier and cabinet

The result of that decision and the flurry of activity that followed can be seen in the attractive Robinson Place at the corner of Water and Charlotte streets.

With the defeat of the Peterson government there were voices in the Legislature and elsewhere calling those initiatives into question. It is to the great credit of local politicians such as Sylvia Sutherland that they lobbied so effectively to keep the momentum going.

Now more than three decades after that original decision, it is time to move on. We should be pressing the provincial government to resume the initiative. The original arguments remain valid. Toronto is still booming and there are still communities, including Peterborough, that are not sharing as they should in Ontario’s growth and wealth. Well-paid, secure, professional and clerical jobs are sorely needed.

Remember too that in today’s wired (or wireless) world, many thousands of civil service jobs, now predominantly in Toronto, are essentially footloose. All the original advocates believed that more could and should bed one. Where are today’s advocates, today’s champions of the idea?

The key to starting the original initiative was a premier who was well aware of the problems and determined to do something about them. His commitment persuaded his cabinet colleagues and inspired the senior staff.

Premier Wynne mayor may not may have these attributes but this time around we have a senior cabinet minister, the Hon. Jeff Leal, whose portfolio includes many of the issues affecting communities like ours. He should be front and centre getting the ball rolling again, as a first step by proposing a review of the earlier transfers, to include the economic benefits and also the experiences of the affected employees with a view to improvements.

Peterborough will have competition in the search for future transfers but it will have a strong case, especially in view of its demographic profile and its expected role in “Places to Grow.”

Let’s get going again.