By Ian Ross
Settling into his new job as the business development director of the Almaguin Highlands Development Agency, Michael Nychuk sees virgin territory before him just waiting to be cultivated for business.
"I've been waiting for 10 years for a reeve to ask me if I can sell this area," says the Kirkland Lake-born marketing and research adviser, who has worked as a private consultant working with municipalities from Hearst to Windsor.
Though development agencies in North Bay, Muskoka and Parry Sound do cover the small towns along Highway 11, very little had been done over the years to actively promote these villages to new business and investment.
That is why these communities chose to band together to map out an economic direction in the aftermath of Nelson Muffler's decision to close up its Burk’s Falls plant and eliminate 125 jobs.
The ripple effect resulted in not only the community of 900 being affected, but spread among 14 villages and townships.
FedNor contributed $100,000 through its Community Recovery Program to the village of Burk's Falls to hire an economic development officer to market the region, so-dubbed the Almaguin Highlands.
Nychuk says his game plan centres around an "aggressive and strategically designed business-to-business lure marketing campaign" which involves a region of about 20 communities on the Highway 11 corridor stretching from Callander, just south of North Bay, to Novar, about 12 kilometres north of Huntsville.
While the region is in the midst of a strategic plan and labour market review, Nychuk is out front promoting the area to a specifically targeted list of about 500 international companies with a direct "snail mail" and electronic mail campaign of "teaser" flyers.
Of those companies he has contacted, especially those considering light manufacturing opportunities, Nychuk has 100 active files of interested or semi-interested firms.
In branding the area on their Web site as "Canada's Newest Business Development Corridor," Nychuk says he has been raising a few eyebrows among manufacturers that are trending toward expansion, relocation and a search for skilled workers within the domestic market.
"The reason they're finally looking north is because nobody's ever really talked to them."
Among Nychuk's priorities is working with the Town of Burk's Falls to find a buyer for Nelson Muffler's 75,000-square-foot plant and searching for some possible information technology opportunities.
Nychuk is promoting the area's proximity to Toronto (an hour-and-a-half drive away) for just-in-time delivery, nearby tourism destinations, such as Algonquin Park, as well as commercial, industrial and recreational properties for "themed" business development parks.
But biotechnology, he suggests, might be best-suited for the region based on the thousands of acres of largely unused arable land that could be used for agri-tech firms, similar to the research farms in Ottawa and the Holland Marsh.
The ongoing four-laning project of Highway 11 between North Bay and Huntsville works in the Almaguin region's favour, he says, but the fibre optic highway remains a work in process.
There are some stretches without cellular phone service, as well as a a lack of high-speed Internet service between Callander and Novar.
