Prime Minister visits TBRHSC

But judging by the presence of national news media, speeches by every Northern Ontario Liberal MP and the atmosphere surrounding the event, it looked a lot like an election campaign in the works.

The lobby of Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre was packed with Thunder Bay Police, OPP and RCMP officers, one scouring the area with a dog sniffing for explosives.

A small auditorium at the hospital was packed with the party faithful, community and regional leaders and others waiting for the prime minister to appear.

When he showed up accompanied by local MPs Joe Comuzzi (Thunder Bay-Superior North) and Ken Boshcoff (Thunder Bay-Rainy River) he received a rousing and prolonged standing ovation.

After a few speeches, including one by Confederation College president Pat Lang who compared the electronic hooking up of Northern Ontario to the linking of Canada by the Canadian Pacific Railway, Northern Ontario Liberal MPs, via video conference, praised FedNor for funding high speed broadband throughout Northern Ontario.

Martin appeared emotional as he described how he watched a tele-medicine demonstration of an prenatal ultrasound and heard the heart beats of the pregnant woman and her baby in Timmins. The woman’s doctor was talking to a specialist in Thunder Bay.

“This will stay with me a long time,” he said.

The prime minister said because of tele-medicine, the woman will not have to travel 800 kilometres or take three days off work to see a specialist .

“This is really about people and making their lives better in day-to-day living that makes sleeping better at night,” Martin said.

“This is indeed an important day.”

The MPs spoke about how high speed broadband would enable Northern Ontario to strengthen its economy, enhance health care and “open the doors to new prosperity.”

“The health and education system, research and development will move forward because of this,” Boshcoff said.

Comuzzi, minister of state for FedNor, said Northern Ontario will be the first region in Canada completely connected by broadband.

“The information highway is as important as sewers, roads and clean water,” he said.

Comuzzi said because of broadband, every First Nation in Northern Ontario will have access to health care, fundamental education and skills training.

Health networks such as North Network are accelerating the exchange of medical data between hospitals, clinics and doctors, allowing consultations and patient diagnosis over vast distances, he added.

After his morning stop in Thunder Bay, Martin and his entourage left for Kenora where he participated in a question-and-answer session with delegates to the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association.

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