Bruce Strapp is familiar with the feast or famine cycles of the North’s resource-based economy.
Being placed in the epicentre of a community in crisis is familiar turf for the CEO of the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corporation.
And he’s always put a community-based game plan in place to weather tough times.
When he took the Red Lake economic development officer’s job in 1988, the Griffith mine in nearby Ear Falls was shutting down. At Timmins in 1990, he arrived in the middle of a strike at Placer Dome. Two years later in Sault Ste. Marie, Algoma Steel and other local industries were struggling.
“I’m one of those EDOs that gets involved with communities going down the tubes,” he jokes. “Ultimately, that’s where I enjoy working because that’s a real tough challenge ... where most EDOs get fired.”
Years ago he was fortified by the words of Bob Michels – now a Thunder Bay Justice of the Peace – who offered him some sage advice on how to play the economic development game.
“You can’t have any fear when communities are challenged in rocky economic development times. You can make a difference.”
Strapp has been credited for laying the groundwork, building the relationships and cultivating the partnerships that support the emerging economic sectors’ success.
It’s why he received his profession’s highest provincial award at the Economic Developers Council of Ontario’s (EDCO) annual general meeting Feb. 4 in Toronto.
I’m one of those EDOs that gets involved with communities going down the tubes”
Bruce Strapp,
CEO, SSMEDC
The award recognizes an individual’s outstanding achievement and contribution to the economic development profession.
Staff and community leaders have described Strapp as a “father-figure, mentor, policy maker and problem solver.”
Through his 18-year tenure in the Sault, he has groomed a strong stable of junior EDOs who have gone into private sector or senior government roles with a number of federal and provincial ministries and agencies.
Strapp deflects the compliments to the people he’s worked with.
“If you look at Red Lake, Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie, they all have robust economic development platforms with single strategies and they have all their political players lined up with people working together.”
“Most importantly, they’ve set up a platform and a network that’ll carry a legacy.”
The Destiny Sault Ste. Marie model, a city diversification strategy that Strapp shepherded in the early 2000s was so successful, the organization was asked to publish it as a Best Practices Guide so other communities could learn from it.
The Killam, Alberta-born preacher’s kid has lived in just about every province and territory in Canada.
Recruited by Getty Oil straight out of the University of Toronto, armed with a geography degree, Strapp missed graduation because he was performing geophysics work in the Northwest Territories on the Coppermine River.
The job took him to northwestern Ontario where the company had a huge stake in the Berens River gold mine, north of Red Lake.
Back in the 1980s, Strapp described Red Lake as a “machine” with its red-hot mining, forestry and tourism sectors. Mineral exploration alone was a $20 million impact.
Strapp was running an expediting business, handling camp logistics and procurement for mining companies working in remote locations, when his friend and lawyer Peter Bishop coerced him into the profession after the town’s EDO left for Winnipeg.
In those days, the job was more “frontier" type of economic development.
People didn’t have the tools and best practices like they do today.
“All the municipalities were flying by the seat of their pants trying to create something from scratch.”
Today, major Northern cities are collaborating on regional initiatives to attract outside investment.
Strapp said the profession is far more sophisticated now with regional investment strategies and smokestack chasing has changed to attracting and retaining top-quality people.
We’re chasing and building talent from developing new entrepreneurs and innovation to creating new companies, says Strapp.
An example is the Sault’s alternative energy platform built on attracting green tech companies to ensure more sustainable jobs.
The call centre initiative in the late 1990s was a “huge social experiment” to get the city’s unemployed back working again but it created a workforce of skilled technicians specializing in back-office support who are in great demand.
“We have people with IT backgrounds travelling all over the world working for these corporations.”
In a statement, EDCO selection committee member Geoff Gillon, an economic advisor for the Rainy River Futures Development Corp., said Strapp has been able to "facilitate the partnerships" required to implement a strategic economic vision for the city.
"He was set apart from other nominees due to the clarity of his actions over time and the level of support he has received for his activities from the community and all levels of government."
"If it wasn’t for Bruce, the community would not have seen the turnaround it has in recent years," added Sault Mayor John Rowswell.
