John Stall

I’m just back from a speaking engagement at Confederation College in Thunder Bay, where among other things, I learned how important the Toronto streetcar deal with Bombardier is to that northern city. It will provide up to 4,500 badly needed jobs for at least five years.

Some of those who will get a paycheque for building streetcars at the Bombardier plant in Thunder Bay have been driving cabs in a desperate attempt to earn $10 bucks at a time. Their pinched expressions reveal frustration and fear. 

I also met a lobster fisherman from Newfoundland who was staying at my hotel while waiting for a freighter to arrive from Welland, Ont. He’d come to Thunder Bay to take a two-week gig on the ship that will carry coal across Lake Superior. He was ecstatic over the opportunity because he couldn’t make a buck at home. He told me that lobster fisherman were getting just over $2 a pound for the same lobster they were able to sell for $8 a pound a few years ago. They are ony getting 50-cents a pound for cod if they can find it.

It’s when you get outside Toronto that the ravages of recession are more clearly reveal in the face and pace of Ontario towns and cities. The issues are not about withholding labour in defiance over not being able to accumulate paid sick days, like the Toronto city workers are. What I just saw in Thunder Bay was despair among some who have been robbed of the opportunity to earn $10, $20 or $30 bucks!