With time running out, Fratesi 'cautiously optimistic' Huron Central may survive

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I must say how good it feels to be back in these chambers and to be so warmly greeted by so many of the people that I worked with over the years.

At the end of May, this council passed a resolution that established a task force to deal with a very grave problem that would affect not just this community but many others between here and Sudbury, involving the Huron Central Railway and its future.

That task force ended up being a committee of three people with others brought in as required.

Councillor [Steve] Butland, myself and Alison Horbatuk who is the general manager of Huron Central here in Sault Ste. Marie.

The reason that task force was created was to gather stakeholder support for the railway as it asked the federal and provincial governments for investment into upgrades that are required on the rail line between the Sault and Sudbury.

This whole affair is not just about helping a short-line railway survive.

It is about ensuring that there is adequate transportation infrastructure in northeastern Ontario to ensure that our communities and our industries can survive.

The City of Sault Ste. Marie recognized just how important Huron Central was to our region back in 2009 when it took the lead to get funding for the rail line from senior levels of government.  

This investment was intended to ensure that the rail line could continue to operate without further government help for at least five years.  

It has been more than eight years that this money was used to bring the track to a higher class of rail operation.

You probably will know that the Huron Central line is about 176 miles long.

In 2009, 82.2 miles of that track was rated for a maximum speed of up to 10 miles per hour.

Because of government investment, today only 1.4 miles of track suffers this restriction.

Much of the track has been restored to a Class II standard and travel time for freight is now 7.5 hours instead of the 14 hours that it was in 2009.

While this classification is not enough for passenger rail, all of the past and planned improvements certainly move it in the right direction for that as a future possibility.

Back in 2009, there was no federal nor was there a provincial program in any ministry to assist short-line railways.

However, because of the efforts of HCR’s stakeholders led by Sault Ste. Marie, funding or investment – as I choose to refer to it – was found by both levels of government, who recognized the importance of maintaining this transportation infrastructure.

Government response to our approach was a very good example of saying: “Where there is a will, there is a way."

More investment is required in the railway, a good part of it brought on by new government regulations dealing with grade crossings, certainly as a result of the tragedy at Lac Megantic.

Much of the planned spending is to continue the process of upgrade – new rail, new ties, new ballast and bridge repairs.

Part of the funds is to build a new mechanical shop here in Sault Ste. Marie to improve efficiency.

The ask of the senior levels of government is not just about the survival of one company.

It is about the survival of communities and industries in this part of Northern Ontario that rely on Huron Central.

It is about making sure our potential for new business and industries such as the huge Ring of Fire project have the best chance for success.

Since council’s latest resolution, our task force has been meeting weekly.

Our first task before the provincial election set out to seek support from all local candidates and the party leaders.

We met personally with each local candidate and were able to get public commitments of support from the top three contenders.

With the help of the media during the campaign, we were also able to secure from both the PC leader, Doug Ford and the NDP leader, Andrea Horwath, unequivocal commitments to support the funding application of HCR, should they be elected.

We were pretty certain one of the two would be our new premier and we had our bases covered.

To further solidify these commitments from the politicians, and in accordance with council’s resolution, we gathered all of the stakeholders here in Sault Ste. Marie and secured from them letters and resolutions of support, and narratives as to what the loss of the rail line would mean to them.

This occurred on July 25th, here at City Hall and stakeholders from and including Sault Ste. Marie to Sudbury were invited.  

We had great attendance which included communities (big and small), First Nations and major industries.  

Mayor Provenzano and most of our council members were there at this meeting.

The president and CEO of Huron Central and several of his key staff did attend and did a presentation and answered questions.

Again the purpose of the meeting was to rally stakeholders and secure as many supporting documents as possible.

We are happy to advise that we have over 24 support and endorsement pieces, which will form part of our presentations to government, giving them good reason to invest in this infrastructure.

It had been hoped that our task force would be able to follow up on the premier’s commitment with a meeting at AMO [Association of Municipalities of Ontario] in August with the Honourable Greg Rickford, minister of energy, mines, northern development and indigenous affairs.  

The meeting was to have included our MPP Ross Romano, who is the parliamentary assistant to Minister Rickford.

There apparently was a communication gap, probably because the government is pretty new and just getting itself organized. 

The meeting was never scheduled and it is probably just as well because as Councillor Butland indicated, there were 71 meeting requests and they were allotting between seven and 12 minutes or so for each meeting.

We needed much more time.

We've been working since with Ross [Romano]’s office now to ensure that a meeting is arranged soon, given our tight timelines.  

We expect this is going to happen over the next few weeks.

We are satisfied that Ross and his office have given this file their utmost attention and that other ministry staff are now involved as well.

At the same time as we are working with Ross, HCR officials have been meeting with officials of other provincial ministries who might also be involved.

While at AMO, Councillor Butland and Louis Gravel, HCR's president, were able to meet with senior staff from federal [transport] Minister Marc Garneau’s office.

They were both impressed with how well informed the minister’s staff was and how accommodating and supportive they appeared.  

It was left that they would see how best HCR’s application could be considered within existing federal programs.

We will follow up with the minister and local MP Terry Sheehan, who originally set this meeting up for us.

Obviously getting a firm commitment from the province for its funding, conditional on matching federal contribution, will strengthen our position.  

We will continue to work through our local MP and MPP, who are both on the government sides of their respective houses, although we must acknowledge that time is quickly running out.

HCR clearly indicated that it could not continue to operate beyond the end of the year without firm commitments from the senior levels of government.

We are cautiously optimistic about succeeding in our task, however there is only 3½ months left and HCR needs to give statutory notice to its employees before then if there is no light at the end of this tunnel.

Some have asked the following question: Why should taxpayer dollars be used to support a private company like HCR?

There are many good reasons in response to that:

Jobs/ employment

• HCR employs 43 people
• an average of 55 people per year provide repairs and services to HCR, representing 25 other companies
• HCR provides the best transportation options to several industries in our region, all of which are struggling to find cost savings and other efficiencies.  HCR makes those companies more viable and more competitive
• Algoma Steel, which employs about 2,500 people, relies on HCR to ship its products
• Domtar (Espanola) and Eacom Timber (Nairn Centre) which employ collectively over 700 people, do not have access to any other rail and likely would not be viable without rail to bring their chemicals and their raw materials in and to ship their finished products out
• imagine what would happen to these communities if their industries had to close
• imagine what would happen to our own community if Algoma Steel were to become non-viable because of increased transportation costs on top of changing market trends and on top of the tariffs that they face?
• resource-based industries in northern Ontario are having a difficult time as it is.  The loss of this railway would no doubt make things even harder
• let's not forget these industries and their employees are all taxpayers too, and they collectively pay huge taxes to all levels of government

Increased highway traffic

• loss of this rail line would mean as many as 40,000 more transports being put on our highway per year. This creates at least three concerns for us. These 40,000 transports don't just travel between the Sault and Sudbury. They travel on Highway 17 to Montreal and down Highway 69 and 400 to the Toronto area and on the 401 to Sarnia and Windsor. All of these transports on our highway systems would significantly mean the need for more road repairs and road renewal, probably increasing the amount required to be spent by the province by more than $10 million per year over the next 10 years
• 40 thousand more transports on our highways would also significantly compromise highway safety with longer, heavier and more dangerous loads. It would increase the conflict that currently exists with passenger car travellers. I think all of us see in the news every day, highway accidents that invariably seem to involve transports, which would only increase

Environment

• 40,000 more transports per year would add significantly more pollution into our environment based on trains carrying the same cargo volumes as transports

All levels of government are expected to make sure that taxpayers dollars are spent wisely on things that we need and which will make life better for us, by providing us with employment, security, safety, a better environment as well as opportunity and hope.

These types of funding by government should be seen as “investments” and not as “handouts” and it is what we should all expect.

Funding by the federal and provincial governments to Huron Central should be seen by taxpayers as wise investments in making sure employment is protected and created, our highways are safer, our environment cleaner and that our industries and communities are given opportunity and hope about a brighter future for Northern Ontario.

Mr. Mayor and council, I would like to thank you allowing us the opportunity to give you this update.  

We ask that you to consider passing the resolution which... asks the senior levels of government to positively respond in a timely manner to HCR’s requests.

I apologize for the length of this presentation but it was important that these points be made again and again and the consequences and urgency of the matter be fully realized.

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