By IAN ROSS
Thunder Bay Mayor Lynn Peterson says the city’s economy maybe in transition, but the forestry industry is not dead.
“The industry is here to stay,” says the popular two-term mayor. “What it will look like in two years will not be what it looked like five or 10 years ago.”
Catching the local headlines in early November were the temporary layoff of 800 workers by Buchanan Forest Products at mills across the region, including 180 in Thunder Bay. The company says the workers will be back in late January.
“As a Northerner, we live in a resource-rich area of the world, the boreal forest, and we’re blessed to have it,” says Peterson, who hints good news may be coming in the local forestry sector next spring.
Peterson is encouraged by what she sees in Lakehead University’s wood sciences faculty and their efforts to push value-added forest products and their collaborations with business.
Likewise for the city’s growing bio-economy. The knowledge and research sector is “bursting” with firms like Molecular World and Genesis Genomics having commercial success and the Molecular Medicine Research Centre under construction.
With Thunder Bay-Superior North Michael Gravelle appointed the new Minister of Northern Development and Mines, Peterson hopes the cabinet connection will enable the city to tap into Queen’s Park’s new $168 million Ontario Venture Capital Fund.
She says despite the bad news in forestry, there’s no visible signs of decline in the community.
The city’s credit rating stands at A + and there’s no trend of homeowners being in tax arrears. Families are staying put, while spouses are working in Alberta’s Oil Patch.
Peterson says the city is spending more money than ever on road widening and reconstruction -- $15 million this year -- on major projects at Red River Road and May Street.
The city’s population has held steady at more than 109,000 and there’s new people moving in to work in the research and innovation economy.
Peterson has publicly gone to bat for the local Bombardier plant encouraging senior government to ‘build and buy Canadian’ in sourcing light-rail and commuter rail cars with domestic manufacturers.
And she’s determined to keep the Port of Thunder Bay as a major Canadian transportation corridor by securing government support.
She’s also excited by the ambitious $100 million waterfront revitalization plans to create Prince Arthur’s Landing and expects all three levels of government to contribute equally to the project once a private developer is secured.
The state of the struggling forestry has forced some displaced workers and their families to leave the city, but a few are making the ‘long commute.’
Rather than move out to Alberta where housing and accommodations are in notoriously short supply, oil and gas companies such as Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. send flights into Thunder Bay to pick up and return workers on a weekly basis.
Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission officer Richard Pohler estimates two charter flights arrive each week picking up 60 to 70 workers per plane.
The rush for black gold has spent ripples throughout Canada and has Thunder Bay diving in to take advantage of this white-hot market expected to have a 20-year horizon in manufacturing opportunities.
To that end, 25 companies and the Thunder Bay Port Authority have banded together to work collaboratively and offer their services.
The Thunder Bay Oil Sands Consortium showcases the city’s machine shops, its fabrication, welding and structural capabilities, engineering skills and logistic services.
They’ve set up a website (
www.tbosc.com
) with links to local manufacturers.
A Calgary-based consultant works on the city’s behalf making cold calls, delivering presentations and helping Thunder Bay companies secure contracts.
Pohler says one company has been successful in securing a six-figure contract.
The consortium’s executive group has an aggressive monthly and weekly schedule in teleconferencing with the consultant in updating market information.
The greatest demand out west is finding people and firms to do metal fabrication work for piping, ‘plug-in’ structural and equipment modules used in Suncor’s Voyageur project and Albian Sands Energy’s oil mine north of Fort McMurray.
Because the population explosion from migrant labour is outstripping municipal infrastructure, there’s also the need for all types of civil engineering and construction work.
Last July, the consortium presented their capabilities to petroleum and engineering firms in Calgary. Pohler says they’ll head out again soon to visit large Alberta fabrication shops that sub-contract out work.
“It’s starting to pay and we’re hoping it pays off in spades down the road.”
One contact they’ve made out there may bring new jobs to the city.
Pohler says a “major manufacturing player” engaged in the oil and gas industry is scoping out Thunder Bay and some other cities looking to set up shop.
Company reps have visited Thunder Bay twice looking at both greenfield and established industrial sites to place a 100,000-square-foot building and employ 350 workers.
Pohler hopes Thunder Bay’s abundance of skilled labour, geographic positioning and logistics infrastructure works in the city’s favour.
www.tbosc.com
(Thunder Bay Oil Sands Consortium)
www.thunderbay.ca
