Around the North

In a cost-cutting move, TeleTech is relying on a new security-monitoring system to protect its $3.5-million call centre while cutting back on man hours of security.

Keewaywin First Nation received a FedNor contribution of $250,000 toward the development of information and communications technology (ITC) applications.

Thunder Bay International Airport will be dropping the customer departure fee in October. The Airport Improvement Fee (AIF), introduced in 1998, requires passengers pay $10 before boarding a departing flight.

The new owners of Sudbury's City Centre mall will reveal their plans next month. Vista Hospitality, a Kitchener and New York State hotel and property management firm, bought the downtown mall in June, pledging about $6 million in renovations.

Officials with the City of Sault Ste. Marie expressed interest in encouraging Hyundai Motors to establish a plant in the city last year.

Sault Ste. Marie is reporting an increase in conventions and groups meeting in the city last year. Groups serviced by the city's economic development corporation in 2000 list over 4,000 more delegates coming into the city than in 1999.

As expected, Algoma Steel Inc. was granted a fourth straight extension of court protection from its creditors in late September. But the Sault Ste. Marie steelmaker is not expected to have a final restructuring plan in place until year's end.

The Ontario government is providing $50,000 to the Canadian Association of Mining Equipment and Services for Export (CAMESE) to assist the organization in its export marketing initiatives.

The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund has kicked in support to 11 agricultural initiatives across Northern Ontario.

Forest-products giant Tembec and the New Post First Nations (near Cochrane) signed a long-term forest agreement in late August concerning environmental issues protecting areas of harvesting.