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Communities of Opportunity: Dryden

Dryden has long been known as a regional service centre for retail, healthcare, finance, social programs, seniors’ and Indigenous services, education and transportation.
dryden
Dryden

The City of Dryden is looking to the skies for future opportunity and growth.

The northwestern Ontario municipality of 7,600, located on the Trans-Canada Highway between Thunder Bay and Winnipeg, has long been known as a regional service centre for retail, healthcare, finance, social programs, seniors’ and Indigenous services, education and transportation. 

The Dryden Regional Airport, situated 10 kilometres from the community, is being looked upon as a future economic driver for both aviation-related and non-aviation business opportunities.

Opened to commercial flight operations in 1969, the 6,000-foot main runway hosted jet service in the 1970s and 1980s.

The facility has instrumental landing system (ILS) capability, aircraft parking, on-site refuelling, charter services, car rental and public parking, and a government partner and tenant in the Ministry of Natural Resources, operators of a district fire centre that currently is undergoing a significant expansion.

In recent years, airport staff has landed tenants in Discovery Air Fire Services, a growing charter operator in Kasper Aviation, Morgan Fuels and GSH Helicopters.

With more than 30 acres of land available through its Airport East industrial park plan, there’s plenty of room for additional hangar development, cargo warehousing, aircraft servicers, manufacturers, airborne surveying and engineering services, and other general aviation service providers.

The airport has a permit allowing them to draw significant amounts of water from a nearby spring, that perhaps, might attract a spring water bottling company.

The forest industry and the local pulp mill has been the mainstay of Dryden’s economy for more than a century.

But Dryden has also evolved into becoming a service and supply centre for the mining industry with a multitude of exploration projects in gold, base and industrial minerals in close proximity. 

Just 20 kilometres to the east, Treasury Metals’ Goliath Gold Project is slated to become a gold mine as the advanced stage project is finalizing its federal environmental review with at least 80,000 ounces of gold and 100,000 ounces of silver expected annually over a ten-year mine life.

Given its natural resources and processing history, Dryden has a multi-skilled and technically proficient workforce that can engage in a variety of manufacturing processes.

The municipality continues to explore partnership opportunities in renewable energy projects and is studying ways to grow its agriculture and agri-foods sector.

Dryden is the home base of Cloverbelt Local Food Co-op, an increasingly popular food co-operative that’s grown its presence in northwestern Ontario in bridging the gap between farmers and devotees of locally produced food. The co-op was recently announced as a grant recipient from the Greenbelt Fund.

The city prides itself as a family-friendly community offering a wide variety of activity for all ages, including world-class fishing and angling tournaments on the Wabigoon Chain of Lakes.

Community pride is evident with the volunteer organizations that spearhead many initiatives in Our Wilderness City. 

The Dryden Native Friendship Centre has applied for government grants to renovate their office building to create more space and provide more services to the community.

The Dryden Recreation Extension and Modification (DREAM) committee are fundraising and applying for grants to update the local arena and increase accessibility with automatic doors, barrier-free restrooms and change rooms.

Another volunteer group, 100 Men, has received great community support through donations to make improvements to an outdoor rink with LED lighting, equipment purchases, and board repairs.

For more information on Dryden, go online to “Discovery Dryden” on Facebook, Twitter and on the web at www.dryden.ca.