The province pledged more than $2 million in subsidies toward Greater Sudbury-area economic development projects during a media event on Oct. 10.
Held at NORCAT, Northern Development Minister Greg Rickford hosted the announcement, where he commended the latest round of Northern Ontario Heritage Fund recipients' innovation.
“We’re here to put you on a better, stronger, higher platform to attract other investment groups to rally around a hell of an idea,” he said of company CircuitIQ in particular.
Recipients include:
- CircuitIQ: $500,000 to develop an automated electrical power mapping and inspection tool to help property owners ensure compliance with electrical safety regulations and reduce the risk of electrical accidents.
- Beamish Construction Inc.: $400,000 to purchase new equipment and market its new microsurfacing division.
- Bross Mobile Mechanical Service: $400,000 to renovate its facility and purchase equipment to expand its product and service offerings.
- B.S.K. Machine Shop: $353,659 to purchase equipment to increase production capacity.
- YES Theatre: $201,700 to replace outdated equipment, install a digital marquee and renovate the lounge and concession area.
- Lauren Perry Interior Design Corp.: $97,720 to establish an interior design firm.
- Orix Geoscience Inc.: $72,000 to purchase equipment to expand its service offerings.
Although seven recipients were named on Thursday, the afternoon media event narrowed in on the recipient to receive the greatest financial boost; CircuitIQ.
Originally based in Kitchener-Waterloo, CEO Luke Begley shifted the company to Sudbury in January 2023. Their base of operations is at the NORCAT building at which Thursday’s announcement took place.
Begley said the shift to Northern Ontario was done in part to secure opportunities, such as the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation grant, which aren’t available in the south.
During their two years in Sudbury, he said their staffing total has grown from 10 to 30 and their revenue has ballooned by more than 600 per cent.
He credits the people they got out of such post-secondary institutions as Laurentian University and Cambrian College with fuelling their growth.
“Those local employees that we’ve hired have been very passionate about what we do, and that has resonated,” he said.
CircuitIQ essentially maps buildings’ electrical systems.
“We built a tool that we can take hundreds of devices, distribute them through a building and simultaneously digital map and create a digital twin of an electrical system,” Begley explained.
This, he added, “becomes a digital foundation to start to build power monitoring, power analytics, power control and maybe even predict maintenance in the future.”
It can save people a lot of time, he said, noting that while a typical house might have one panel and 24 circuits, schools might have several panels and even more breakers to track down.
“It’s not as simple as plugging in a light and having your partner yell back to you when the power goes out on that circuit,” he said.
So far, they’ve worked at just about every school in Timmins, and are working with the Sudbury Catholic School Board and other schools in Northern Ontario.
The funds they received on Thursday will help them hire more people, outsource some contracting and “expedite our product and market and some new features that are allowing us to grow and expand in our market,” he said.
The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund has spent more than $841 million on 6,894 projects in Northern Ontario since 2018, according to a media release from the province, which credits this expenditure with leveraging an investment of more than $2.5 billion and creating or sustaining more than 10,560 jobs.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
