Although tourism has been the area’s mainstay for years, Temagami’s new mayor, John Hodgson, is looking to the region’s rocks and trees not only as scenery but as an economic resource.
With a municipal economic development strategy being developed over the spring, Hodgson said he’d like to see the community’s growth to be focused primarily around the natural resource industry.
“By making ourselves more competitive by adding cell service and things of that nature, we’ll have that other plank so we can go from not only a cottage and tourist destination, but hopefully, to a natural resource destination also,” said John Hodgson, mayor.
“I want it all.”
With 50 kilometres of frontage along the TransCanada Highway, as well as access to rail and services, the community has demonstrated mineral potential through a series of historical, past-producing mines, including the Sherman iron mine. It’s something he prepares to preach as he gears up for the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s annual convention in Toronto, and as he looks at similar opportunities in the forestry sector.
To help stimulate those and other developments, town council is looking to reduce property taxes by six per cent, a target he admits may be too lofty, but one worth striving for regardless.
It’s something that would also assist with the community’s core tourism business, which causes the town’s population to swell from a humble 1,100 to 15,000 in peak summer seasons. With cottages and tourist camps dotting the region, the town’s business community is heavily populated with companies catering to their repair, maintenance, landscaping and upkeep.
Other related developments are set to arrive through the summer with the creation of a new subdivision, as well as the construction of a new motel. Hodgson said he hopes to add to that by promoting the area as a potential venue for ziplining.
He also hopes to institute a “reasonable” cottage lot development provision in the official plan when it is updated this spring. The subject of cottage lot development is a thorny one in the community, he said, as current lot holders are sensitive about the addition of new lots on Lake Temagami.
That isn’t stopping him from wanting to see room in the official plan for the addition of five new lots on the lake every year. This work would be designated only for the lake’s many islands, leaving its 1,500 kilometres of shoreline intact.
He hopes this would encourage even more businesses to establish themselves in the community while helping to sustain those currently in place, he said.
However, local lot holders aren’t the only ones who disapprove of the plan. To put it into action, Hodgson said he’ll also have to convince the province to reverse its unofficial policy of banning the development of any new lots on cold-water or trout lakes. Though concerns over phospherous levels are the reason for this policy, he said zoning controls are “incredible” and sufficient to allay any such fears.
This isn’t the only point of provincial discord, as Hodgson is also looking to tackle the province on the matter of a 15-acre piece of prime property in the downtown core, a former Ministry of Natural Resources and Ontario Provincial Police building that was abandoned 15 years ago.
With the province being the landowner, municipal efforts to have the deteriorating garages, warehouses and offices decommissioned have been thwarted. It makes it hard to see the province hand out billions of dollars to Samsung for green energy initiatives, Hodgson said.
“Meanwhile, the province’s own leftover work is sitting there right in the middle of our town, holding us up.”
This adversity has found Temagami partnering with other communities to enhance their profile, something that has been found the municipality teaming up with the likes of North Bay and others along the Temagami-Cobalt corridor.
This includes working with North Bay on its efforts to promote the region as a place to film movies and television, said John Santarossa, the town’s economic development officer.
This connection has also allowed for the development of a web-enabled kiosk installed in the local library that connects would-be entrepreneurs with a business consultant in North Bay.
