By ANDREW WAREING
Hockey, new infrastructure and new industry promises to offer Fort William First Nation a hat trick in future prosperity.
Marvin Pelletier, special projects manager for Fort William First Nation in Thunder Bay, says the community has undertaken a number of initiatives and partnerships over the last couple of years to improve the community’s economic fortune, including improvements to local infrastructure, new industries and hockey.
The development of a new arena has provided a home for the Junior A North Stars, a Superior National Junior Hockey League team of which Fort William First Nation has a 25 per cent interest in.
It is an investment in youth, the future of the community, says Pelletier.
“We’re trying to create role models within the community,” he says. “We have 150 kids in the community who play hockey and we have the facilities here. It does create a synergy of having role models in the community and establishing goals for young people to succeed.
“This year, we’re expanding it to establish recreation league hockey. The junior team is going to help us with that.”
He says there are a number of projects designed to improve community facilities and add commercial space, including a new commercial building in Fort William for Dilico-Ojibway Child and Family Services. The $4-million centre is a 40,000-square-foot facility. They are also in the process of building a new 20,000-square-foot
community centre/bingo hall at a cost of $2.2 million.
Pelletier says the community is also working on its infrastructure by investing $3 million to upgrade water systems and a major gas line expansion to expand services to unserviced areas of the community is also planned.
“What we’ve got planned is an indoor soccer facility that is on the drawing board,” Pelletier says. “And we’re trying to put together another commercial building for the economic development corporation and space for banking services,” he says, adding that there are discussions going on now with a few of the larger banks.
“Infrastructure is the key to developing, and is in the top three factors that determine whether development goes,” says Pelletier. “Without infrastructure in place, you can’t develop. We’ve been able to combine infrastructure with development so they’re supporting each other; the cost of development will carry the cost of expanding
infrastructure.”
He says Fort William First Nation has an excellent relationship with Bowater. Both recently completed construction of a $70-million mill in Fort William and the company employs 37 First Nations people, including 21 directly from the Fort William First Nation.
Fort William contributed $16 million toward the construction of the mill.
Pelletier says with Bowater as an anchor tenant in the Forst William First Nation industrial park, it opens the door to other wood-related industry opportunities, including secondary value-added manufacturing. Among the more promising prospects is a proposal by Forest Insight of Nova Scotia, which is in the business of making hardwood flooring. Another proposal would involve a project that makes hardwood out of softwood through a “baking”
process.
Preliminary discussions and planning are underway for a facility to house a bio-mass energy plant using wood waste from the local mill.
“We’re trying to put all the pieces together,” says Pelletier.
“Our community is open for business,” Pelletier says.
Also, 1,100 acres of industrial land is presently being eyed for a major power project. On-reserve and off-reserve industrial lands are also available for development.
The Fort William First Nation Casino Rama Funds Business Grant Program and other funding agencies have provided a source of funding for some of the business development projects.
“We haven’t had to do a lot. We’ve been going at a brisk pace. We take some time to catch our breath and then we go again. Basically, we’ve been going about our daily business and people have been coming to us. Ontario is talking about tax incentives, well we’ve got the best place in Ontario for tax incentives. You rent one of our commercial properties, there is no business tax, no property tax. That, in itself, is a major boost for the economy.”
“At this point, we’ll keep working at it and developing partnerships in forestry and secondary manufacturing,” says Pelletier. “We have a lot to offer because we have a lot of access to rail, to shipping, and to land that is not subject to taxation, access to ministries in charge of economic development and Indian Affairs. We have all that to bring to the table.
“Our doors are open for business,” he adds. “We will entertain any opportunity to share people’s expertise in industry for all our mutual gain.”
