Daryl Skworchinski has resigned his post as manager of the Marathon Economic Development Corporation for a new job as Confederation College's director of its eastern region.
He'll oversee workforce training at the outlying campuses in Greenstone, Marathon and Wawa. He began his new job July 3.
The Thunder Bay college is creating a regional, incubator-style innovation hub that includes a proposed mining training centre in Marathon involving industry and First Nation partners that ties in elements of economic and social development.
“Rather than just hiring people to do a job, there's going to be skills development to (create) community leaders, maybe a president of minor hockey or a future councillor or a mayor. We're trying to tie all those concepts together,” said Skworchinski.
“I'm going to put together a 100-day plan to meet my staff, the communities and a list of critical issues to address,” he said, before diving into a strategic planning process that fits the college's “aggressive” approach towards supporting resource development along Lake Superior's north shore.
Skworchinski was hired by Town of Marathon in 2004 following an eight-year hiatus where there was no economic development officer.
The board of the Marathon Economic Development Corporation has hired a recruiting firm and expects to have Skworchinski's successor in place within 60 to 90 days.
The area is poised to economically boom with Stillwater Mining advancing its Marathon PGM project toward production, Barrick Gold expanding an open pit at nearby Hemlo, a new provincial forest management pilot set to go into business next spring, and a new owner of the former Marathon Pulp mill site about to be announced shortly. The town is positioning itself to be a mining service centre built around the spacious 1,300-acre mill property which is being planned for a future industrial park catering to value-added wood products and mining-related companies.
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