Around the North

The City of Sault Ste. Marie is forging ahead to buy and develop two tracts of land from Algoma Steel for use as a heavy industrial park. Much of the money for the $3.

A proposal to commission a strategy for growing the health-research industry in Northern Ontario is rapidly picking up steam, says Jim Gordon, mayor of the City of Greater Sudbury. Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp.

Construction on a new arena for Sault Ste. Marie's Ontario Hockey League team could commence within a year. In late July the federal and provincial governments announced funding of $7.4 million towards the arena development.

A $220-million upgrade to the 40-year-old Weyerhaeuser Dryden recovery boiler and to the pulp and paper mill was officially announced July 17. Construction on the project began in April, and is expected to last until the summer of 2004.

An aircraft company, Hicks and Lawrence, is moving from St. Thomas Airport, which is just outside London, Ont., to Dryden Airport.

Delays with senior levels of government have slowed the progress of a hydroelectric plant in Latchford, in the Timiskaming District.

Negotiations have stalled between the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corp. and a Toronto telecommunications firm to establish an e-commerce centre in the city. Though talks continue between the EDC and Multi-Channel Communications Inc.

Synfuel Technologies is in the process of doing some environmental testing to assess whether to build a petroleum-coke power plant in Thunder Bay. An independent company has begun burning different ratios of chemicals in Tulsa, Okla.

Home Depot formally announced it is putting down roots in Thunder Bay having acquired 11 acres from Camrose Developments to begin construction on a store this summer at the Thunder Bay Centre. The completion date is fall, 2003.

An American company is considering opening a call centre in Thunder Bay that would employ a potential 450 people. The company, Young America, is looking to the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp.