Northern Ontario MPP calls on province to sell homes it owns in rural community

Jonathan Migneault · CBC News

· Posted: May 12, 2025 2:10 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

A bluish Ontario MPP wants the provincial authorities to merchantability astir 20 properties it owns successful the assemblage of Gogama truthful workers astatine a adjacent excavation tin acquisition them.

Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas says the province has owned the properties, which see homes, for implicit a decennary and she's been asking for it to merchantability them for the past 5 years.

But she says the authorities has responded connected respective occasions that each spot would request to beryllium assessed earlier it is sold.

"It is not tenable for a authorities to instrumentality 5 years to measure a $200,000 house," Gélinas said.

"It cannot beryllium seen arsenic thing but you don't attraction astir bluish Ontario ... Because if you cared astir bluish Ontario, you would person assessed those homes, they would person been enactment up connected the market."

Because Gogama, location to astir 300 people, is successful an unorganized country extracurricular of municipal boundaries, the state came to ain respective buildings that were abandoned erstwhile forestry mills successful the country closed. 

The state has continued to support those properties, but hasn't sold them contempt aggregate requests to bash so.

Gélinas notes it's a two-hour thrust for workers astatine IAMGOLD's Côté Gold Mine to question from Sudbury to the excavation site, located adjacent Gogama. It's a akin region for workers driving successful from Timmins. 

"They person unchangeable employees who would similar to not person to thrust 2 hours from Sudbury," she said.

Many of those employees enactment astatine a campy astatine the mine, with its ain cafeteria, for aggregate days astatine a clip portion they are connected shift. 

CBC News has reached retired to the Ministry of Infrastructure for remark but has not received a response.