NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says its time to give Ontario's North the tools to create and protect jobs and control natural resources.

“Northern Ontario's natural wealth should be creating and protecting jobs for northerners, Horwath said. Instead we're seeing resources exported and jobs going with them.”

“We’ve heard the Premier say he wants to build jobs in the north, but hundreds of people in Timmins have been left to wonder why he won’t step in to protect the good jobs we already have.”

Horwath today met with Timmins Mayor Tom Laughren before joining Timmins-James Bay MPP Gilles Bisson, CAW Local 599 President Dennis Couvrette and CAW Xstrata Chairperson Ben Lefebvre to discuss the hundreds of jobs slated for elimination at the Met Site.

“Thousands of families in the Timmins area are counting on their government to stand up for them, said Horwath. The time for listening has long passed. It’s time for the government to act.”