By IAN ROSS
Branding Northern Ontario is one of the main issues northern mayors and reeves will focus on during an upcoming mayors’ luncheon in Sault Ste. Marie this month.
In what Sault Mayor John Rowswell describes as a “fun exercise,” political leaders will spend the facilitated event at the Water Tower Inn on Oct. 7 creating a flag for Northern Ontario. The brainstorming session is a locally organized addendum to the Northern Ontario Business Awards, taking place in the Sault on the evening of Oct. 7.
“Let’s get the ball rolling on the creation of a new brand,” says Rowswell. “What do we want to be known for in Northern Ontario?”
Branding the region with an updated image for residents, tourists, incoming investors, businesspeople and professionals was a major point expressed in a policy paper from a northern mayors coalition asking for an updated new vision for the North.
“What do we want to be known for in Northern Ontario, what do we want to promote and how do we want to promote it?
“We’ve got to move to a new age and people have to look at us lot differently. There’s a lot more going on here than just wilderness.”
Earlier this year, Rowswell launched an exclusive mayors-only Web forum project to electronically bring together political leaders to brainstorm ideas in
developing a new economic development strategy for the region.
Rowswell has long maintained that out-migration figures, unemployment rates, declining property values and a shrinking assessment base is proof that the North has not enjoyed the rest of Ontario’s prosperity of the last decade.
