Premier Kathleen Wynne has been talking the talk about making the provincial government less Toronto-centric ever since she took over from Dalton McGuinty.

Now it’s time for her to put her money, or at least our tax dollars, where her mouth is and restore all Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation executive jobs to Sault Ste. Marie, where they rightfully belong.

You’ll recall that in 1986 the Liberal government of David Peterson placed the OLG headquarters in the Sault.

But since then, particularly about 10 years ago during the regime of then-chair and Chief Executive Officer Ron Barbaro, a lot of important jobs have been raked off the Sault table and pocketed by OLG offices in the York Mills area of Toronto.

Today the Sault is just “a” headquarters, a title it shares with York Mills.

And it’s the ugly sister of the two, because the entire OLG senior executive team is in Toronto. In 2012 the provincial capital housed about 725 OLG employees in total, compared to the Sault’s about 585.

This has all the makings of a shell game.

The Sault should be “the” headquarters. And it’s time for Wynne to get stop hedging her bets and declare it so.

If she can fire the head of OLG, as her government did last month, surely she can move some headquarters jobs. And if the people filling them are reluctant to leave the excitement of a Hogtown commute behind, others can be found to do the job.

This city can’t afford to see any more whittling away of OLG staffing here.

Sault MPP David Orazietti remarked earlier this year that 25 positions have been added in the Sault since 2003, but clearly they were not at the top of the OLG pyramid.

Sault Chief Administrative Officer Joe Fratesi has noted that OLG jobs mean a lot more to the Sault than they do to Toronto, where they are “a spit in the bucket.”

The Sault needs OLG as a keystone of its economy.

Its major industrial employer, Essar Algoma Steel, may be surviving but is not exactly thriving, according to recent financial reports.

OLG was brought here to provide economic diversification, with its high-paid and high-skilled jobs, when the Sault’s steel and forestry sectors were sagging. While much has been done by the city’s Economic Development Corporation since then to attract other new industries and businesses, none packs the wallop of a lottery headquarters.

It’s not surprising that important OLG jobs headed south under the McGuinty government’s watch, because his Liberals got into the habit of treating rural and Northern Ontario concerns as penny ante, compared to the importance of the vote-rich Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe.

Those neglected voters made the government pay last election. Wynne, who was in the inner circle of a government that mishandled the electoral hinterlands, seems to have seen the error of her ways and is now courting voters outside the GTA.

Reuniting OLG headquarters would be a very easy way for the premier to demonstrate her sincerity. It would certainly cause a much smaller hit to the provincial budget than the Liberals’ vote-buying gesture last election, the multi-million-dollar cancellation of gas generating plants in two GTA ridings.

It might even save tax dollars. With facilities already in place, more available at low cost and trained staff in the building, transition could be painless.

And the Drummond Report, which studied reforms to Ontario’s public service, recommended the OLG head office be located in the Sault. The OLG is undergoing a major modernization process, which could easily include consolidating its head offices in the Sault.

It makes sense for OLG to employ front-line staff and have a prize office in the GTA. But executive functions don’t have to be performed there, especially considering the huge expense of big-city office space.

Technology has brought “remote” locations such as the Sault a lot closer to Toronto since 1972. So has improved and lower-cost air transportation.

Even before technology compressed distances, many governments saw the sense of distributing offices, agencies and branches outside of their capitals, to reduce costs, boost regional economies and show the flag throughout their jurisdictions. Ontario has been a backslider since the Peterson days.

Still Wynne has done nothing but tap-dance around attempts by Sault officials to nail her down on the headquarters issue.

Sault Mayor Debbie Amaroso pressed the headquarters point, with supporting documents, in a letter to the premier April 15. The response came from finance minister Charles Sousa June 19.

“I continue to assure you that the OLG’s head office in Sault Ste. Marie will remain open,” was the best he could offer.

Not very reassuring, because sticking a “headquarters” sign on a shopping mall lottery kiosk might meet such slack criteria.

Sault officials are to meet with the province at the end of July, which would be a great time for the finance minister or premier to take a bold step to stabilize the city’s economy.

The Sault needs a headquarters in fact, not just in name. This city is overdue for a payout from the province, and it could be a Wynne-win situation.

tom.mills@sunmedia.ca