The City of North Bay is reorganizing and rebranding its economic development department to start aggressively chasing down business leads in some high-value growth sectors.
The city has been making moves to create an economic development corporation this spring by reaching to the business community to help set the agenda and the course.
Under the new banner of Invest North Bay, the corporation’s marching orders will be simply to attract business and industry, create jobs and grow the tax base in the Gateway City.
“We’ll be aggressively prospecting for business,” said Mayor Al McDonald. “We’re going to create pursuit teams and better manage assets. We’ll be more entrepreneurial and we’ll be quicker to respond.”
There’s no question in his mind that the city’s economic development department has been understaffed and underfunded for years when compared to its contemporaries in the other Northern Ontario cities.
Three economic development officers are currently on staff and the department’s annual budget has stayed relatively stagnant for years at $650,000.
While there was the usual line-by-line quibbling among city councillors during February’s municipal budget deliberations, McDonald said on this issue there was unanimous support that economic development needed a boost.
Through attrition in another department, money is being freed up for a new hire and the economic development budget will be increased by $140,000.
“Fact is we’re in a competitive market,” said McDonald, “and we have to add resources and that’s why we’re pushing for an extra body and reaching out to the community business leaders to be part of the corporation.”
An advisory board has been created with the addition of some prominent local business and community leaders with international experience.
Joining McDonald will be Cementation president Roy Slack, Redpath president George Flumerfelt, Vortex Aerospace CEO Jody Joyal, Canadore College president George Burton, recently retired Ontario Northland Transportation Commission CEO Paul Goulet, and former Nipissing University president Vicki Payne Mantha.
The board’s first meeting is March 12.
The model and practices they want to emulate are inspired by the City of Guelph, said McDonald, who has visited with their economic development staff.
“When we did our research we noticed Guelph was well down the road of where we want to go.”
Southern Ontario’s manufacturing economy has struggled but Guelph has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the province and has a diverse mix of industry ranging from energy to agri-food, with a strong entrepreneurial culture.
The advisory board will set the new corporation’s agenda and help craft a new strategic plan which will largely be based around pursuing the many opportunities in aviation, aerospace and advanced manufacturing, said McDonald.
“Who thought we would be talking about space travel four years ago? Seriously, I wouldn’t have been talking about it.”
North Bay made a breakthrough into aerospace last year with the arrival of Swiss Satellite System through a partnership with Canadore to use Jack Garland Airport as a test site for its pioneering new system that launches small satellites into orbit using unmanned aerial vehicle technology.
Economic development staff has been working with local companies to take advantage of this burgeoning sector.
With an expanded airport industrial park, a 10,000-foot military-grade runway in place, and one of the lowest industrial tax rates in Ontario, “we have all the assets,” said McDonald. “What we need are 30 salespeople to go out and pursue leads.
“There are a lot of opportunities in Toronto that we believe we can bring north on the aviation and space side.”
McDonald is counting on recruiting “pursuit teams” made up of community-oriented people who want to be difference-makers.
“This corporation will be able to be very nimble and be able to assist our economic development department in opening doors, following up on leads and making contacts.”
