Drawing upon his twin history in business and politics, Temiskaming Shores’ new mayor, Carman Kidd, is hoping to create a welcoming environment for established companies and new entrepreneurs alike.
With a mining-related population boom set to hit the northeast and Kirkland Lake straining to determine how to adapt its infrastructure, Temiskaming Shores may benefit from that gap, he said. “We’re looking at ourselves as being a central hub to northeastern Ontario,” said Kidd.
“If there are mining suppliers that want to service the Elk Lake and Matachewan areas, or the Kirkland Lake area, we’ve got the ideal place to set up. A lot of families, when they move to the region, they don’t want to be isolated, and they want to be in a center that has the amenities they expect, so I think we’ll see a lot of families locate here and have the breadwinners go off and work at some of the other sites.”
Pushing this focus as a service and residential portal to points further north will involve reducing red tape as well as bringing sewer, water and roads to some of the local industrial parks, something Kidd has his eye on as being key for entrepreneurs.
Indeed, business is something Kidd knows well, having moved to the region from Peterborough to start his own more than 30 years ago.
Initially working with hydraulics and pneumatics in the mining and forestry industries, he started up his own dairy farm, he grew his size of his business from 200 acres to 960 acres.
Having grown the business further to some 160 head of cattle, he handed the business to his 30-year-old son, Michael, last year before taking a successful run at the chair vacated by Judy Pace.
In the intervening three decades, Kidd built up a resume not only in business but also in community and economic development.
He served as both a councillor and reeve of Dymond township in the 1990s, rose through the ranks of a variety of agricultural associations, and has been involved on the board of directors of several community futures organizations.
“That’s always been my thrust: what can we do to keep young people here and to attract visitors and businesspeople? That’s been my main focus for the last 20 years or so.”
It’s an approach that’s required a strong view to partnerships, one he was forced to put into practice as the chair of the International Plowing Match in 2009. This sprawling event took years to prepare and required the oversight of numerous committees and no less than 1,800 volunteers.
It’s a similar tack Kidd is using as he moves forward in his new role as mayor: he’s already developing the foundations of a “mayor’s action committee” to help sweep away roadblocks for economic development in the region.
The committee involves the mayors and reeves from 18 townships, from Kirkland Lake to Elk Lake, from Cobalt to Englehart.
Already in the group’s sights are such major issues such as the lack of sufficient transmission lines to accommodate the power that would be generated by the many “green” energy projects proposed for the region. With no mention in the province’s 30-year plan of any upgrades for the area, and companies such as Canadian Solar Solutions considering $300 million worth of solar projects in Temiskaming Shores, the problem is one that stands out, said Kidd.
The lack of charter air service into Earlton and Kirkland Lake is another stumbling block, said Kidd, as it adds just one more step high-powered executives have to take to arrive into the communities.
With North Bay and Timmins being used as the current landing points, business leaders tend to look at those locations instead, he said.
