Around the North

After months of strategy and planning, a merger now joins the electric company assets of Cochrane Public Utilities Commission, Iroquois Falls Hydro and Kapuskasing PUC. The new company, Northern Ontario Wires Inc.

Cellular phone service is still unavailable between Thunder Bay and Wawa, but there is funding available to look at the possibility of service between Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie.

The City of Thunder Bay has put two sizable chunks of its waterfront land on the market, but city officials say that doesn't mean the property will change hands.

Sault Ste. Marie city council has pulled the plug on a video surveillance system for the downtown core.

The high price of short-notice air travel remains a concern for the local business community in Sault Ste. Marie. During a recent meeting of the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corp.

Thunder Bay's residential construction season is seeing a slow start due to a late spring, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. reports.

Thunder Bay's Peng You has earned national recognition for his contributions to the local business and arts communities. You received the Canadian Chinese Entrepreneur Award for Best Community Service at a ceremony held in Toronto recently.

Over 400 people attended this year's Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce Business Awards recently. The seventh annual dinner and awards ceremony honoured local businesses and employees. Among the winners this year were Bowater Inc.

A $75-million redevelopment of the High Falls generating station has been approved and work was to begin in April. The new power station is planned for the opposite bank of the Michipicoten River from the existing station.

Statistics for the past 10 years show northwestern Ontario had a net gain in jobs of 4.4 per cent between 1991 and 2000. The figures are for an area spanning from the Manitoba border to White River.