PC candidate says Sault passed over for government jobs

Sudbury has become the unofficial capital of Northeastern Ontario and is sucking up government jobs at the expense of Sault Ste. Marie and other smaller communities, says Bruce Willson, Progressive Conservative candidate in the October 2 provincial election.

Willson says his own party isn't at fault for the unfair dispensing of provincial jobs.

Rather, he blames decisions made by the New Democratic and Liberal regimes of the past two decades.

The following is the full text of a news release issued today by Willson:

**************************************************************** Sault Ste. Marie Progressive Conservative candidate Bruce Willson is tired of the Sault always taking a back seat to Sudbury and Thunder Bay.

Willson has pledged that the present unfairness in allocation of government jobs and resources will end if he is elected as Sault MPP on October 2.

"There is a perception, based on real facts, that Sudbury and Thunder Bay gets the lion's share of government jobs and resources in the North," Willson lamented.

"That has to stop. When I'm elected, the Sault will no longer take a back seat to Sudbury and Thunder Bay."

At the heart of the problem, according to Willson, is the political division of Northern Ontario, into the Northeast region and the Northwest region.

That division, Willson points out, happened under the Liberal and NDP governments of the 1980s and 1990s, "and no one has realized the devastating effect it has had on the Sault."

"Sudbury has become the capital of Northeastern Ontario and that has resulted in mutually attracting more jobs for that area at the expense of the Sault and other smaller centres.

"I don't believe this division is helpful to Northern 0ntario in particular the Sault, which, if anything, is the natural geographic centre of the North," Willson continued.

Willson added that when he is elected, he will fight to bring attention to this issue at Queen's Park and end the political dominance in the North of one centre over the other.

"This is an issue that can't be hidden in the closet any longer by weak-kneed politicians from the North," Willson charged.

"All we want is fairness for all of the people of the North and the residents of Sault Ste. Marie."

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