Far North - Ring of Fire

One of the North’s most extensive and meaningful social enterprise ventures will finally take off next year with the construction of a First Nations regional food distribution centre in Sioux Lookout.

Kailey Divers’ first appearance at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair last fall proved to be a productive trip for the northwestern Ontario wild rice harvester.

Marc McNay is living the dream. The fledgling Dryden-based television producer is set to air the second season of his outdoor show on Wild TV with a screening party in his hometown.

An upstart transportation company is continuing to gain ground with its mini-bus service in northwestern Ontario.

Lithium is the new gold in the Kenora district. With the price of the industrial metal going through the roof, the future demand for lithium has as much open-ended potential as Don Bubar’s Separation Rapids project, near Kenora.

Domtar and the City of Dryden have worked out a deal to lessen the sting of a tax refund to the northwestern Ontario community’s largest industrial player.

Pickle Lake Mayor Karl Hopf said his northwestern community is being “handcuffed” by a one-size-fits-all provincial policy that’s stonewalling future development.

A corridor to the Ring of Fire may not bring instant riches for the Township of Pickle Lake, so the end-of-the-road community is out to blaze its own path of prosperity.

Economic development in Dryden is in for a badly needed reboot.

Sioux Lookout is out to chart a new future. The northwestern Ontario town of 5,000 is embarking on a community exercise to draft a new five-year economic development and strategy plan starting in 2015.