Around the North

Union Gas Ltd. is locating its new Northern Ontario planning and dispatching centre in North Bay, bringing 12 new jobs to the city.

The Algonquin Wildlands League is earmarking $20,123 in FedNor funding towards hiring a project co-ordinator for a forestry entrepreneurship program near Sault Ste. Marie.

Algoma University College is offering a one-of-a-kind program starting this fall to produce professionally trained social and economic development officers for the North. The Sault Ste.

The expansion of the Valley East Industrial Park in Sudbury received a $243,000 boost from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation with an incentive term loan.

An abandoned stretch of railway line between Capreol and North Bay is being converted into a multi-use recreational trail. The Canadian National Railway Co. is transferring 560 kilometres of line to the Trans Canada Trail Foundation.

A power system feasibility study at the Eabametoong First Nation in northwestern Ontario will investigate ways to reduce the community's electrical costs, create job opportunities and provide environmentally friendly hydro generation and distribution

The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund is contributing $99,910 towards promoting francophone tourism in northeastern Ontario.

The federal government has announced it will invest $90,000 into a feasibility study for Eabametoong First Nation and the possibility of linking the community to either Nakina or Pickle Lake.

A mothballed Sault Ste. Marie high school is being razed to make way for a $5-million seniors' retirement complex.

The Thunder Bay Business Women's Network handed out its annual awards recently. A nurse-turned-businesswoman and a Lakehead University student-turned-bank manager were this year's recipients.