Timmins is using weather and terrain to its advantage.
Instead of downplaying its consistently freezing November-to-March temperatures, the Timmins Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) is actually trumpeting it to promote Timmins as the cold-weather testing capital of Ontario.
Vehicle makers such as Toyota, General Motors, Jaguar and Kubota have carried out such activity in Timmins for years, but TEDC CEO Christy Marinig thinks there’s an even wider range of opportunity to approach manufacturers of consumer goods to do year-round outdoor durability tests on apparel, snowmobiles, recreational vehicles, boats, canoes, kayaks, forestry and mining equipment.
By direct marketing to targeted manufacturers, “we’re really expanding the scope of what we’re looking for in testing,” she said.
Timmins faces stiff competition on this front from the U.S. and northern Canadian cities but the city’s advantages, she said, are its consistently cold temperatures and proximity to the car companies.
“Climate change hasn’t affected Timmins to the extent it has in the U.S.”
Bone-chilling weather also works for data storage firms, said Marinig, as Timmins is immune to earthquakes and low lightning strikes, and is a stable community with redundant fibre optic networks and available land to build these secure facilities. A cool climate means a reduction in energy costs.
“The advantage of being in Canada is we’re not subject to the Patriot Act,” said Marinig, which assures international clients of confidentiality of information.
The weather is also ideal for film production.
Several films have been shot in the city, but there remains a wider potential to attract niche productions that require snow for an extended shooting schedule.
“The last film here, the big advantage was having snow in March, and we can almost guarantee that.
“There is a lot of opportunity in Timmins and sometimes you just have to play to your strengths, and that’s what we’re focusing on; things that we could be successful at attracting.”
Even pure research has its place in Timmins.
The airport is already home to a mid-latitude stratosphere balloon testing facility operated jointly by the Canadian and French space agencies. The city wants to grow that sector by going underground in promoting at deep mines as sites for scientists to study geological formations, conduct research on the origins of life, and investigate dark matter.
“Kidd Creek is the deepest base metal mine in the world, an opportunity to get closer to the Earth’s crust and it’s attractive to researchers,” she said.
Marinig is out to spread the word to global scientists.
“We’ve gathered data on who’s doing what in the research community and we’re promoting those opportunities.”
Having researchers stay for several months translates to hotel stays, expenditures and hiring local labour.
“Any type of research facility brings new assessment and instead of recirculating money in the community, it’s an injection of new wealth,” she said.
And the Timmins market is stocked with ample industrial suppliers that can build facilities and provide whatever skills they would need.
Having 28 operating mines within a 300-kilometre radius makes Timmins a great location for mining equipment suppliers to set up shop, said Marinig.
“We just completed a gap analysis looking at where people are buying products,” said Marinig, “what the products and volumes are, and if we can attract those suppliers to our community.”
The report is not yet available to the public, she said, but there is an acknowledged local need for shared warehousing space and underground ground control and support.
