Northern Manitoba deserves a stronger voice at the provincial government table.
That’s the sentiment behind the Declaration of Common Values for the Sustainable Development of the Boreal in Northern Manitoba, now known simply as Northern Values.
It’s a document that outlines eight cardinal values for northern stakeholders. Each one seeks to maximize benefits to northern communities hosting any future development, whether indigenous or non-indigenous, to ensure all development is feasible in the long term and that communities are earnestly consulted in order to create regionally meaningful policies.
The City of Flin Flon is among the signatories to the document thus far, joining municipalities such as Thompson, Churchill and Snow Lake, industry representatives like Tolko and the Mining Association of Manitoba, First Nations councils such as those of Norway House and Grand Rapids, and conservation groups like Ducks Unlimited.
Tim Johnston of Thompson, who endorses the Northern Values document, told the Thompson Chamber of Commerce that consultation has been lacking in northern Manitoba policy-making.
“We had political parties coming up with documents about northern Manitoba – northern Manitoba wasn’t saying, ‘This is critical, this is important,’” he said. “So our goal is to take this document, put it in front of government and say, ‘Understand, northern Manitoba has grown up and matured. Everyone’s at the table together, and you’re going to have to listen to what’s important to the North.’”
Johnston stressed what he saw as the subordinate role northern communities have played under southern-dominated governments: “I always quote [Thompson city manager] Gary Ceppetelli, he told me this long ago: despite whatever political persuasion has been in government, there’s fundamentally been a philosophy of limited development in northern Manitoba. Northern Manitoba has undersold itself, and has languished in development because of that concept of limited development.”
– Kacper Antoszewski, Thompson Citizen, with files from Jonathon Naylor
