Amalgamation seen as key to regional growth.The new Temiskaming Shores may not be officially a municipality MUNICIPALITY. The body of officers, taken collectively, belonging to a city, who are appointed to manage its affairs and defend its interests. yet, but those who will make up its government are already looking to the community's future prosperity. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Jamie Hawken, the acclaimed mayor for Temiskaming Shores, says amalgamation amalgamation /amal·ga·ma·tion/ (ah-mal´gah-ma´shun) trituration (3). amalgamation ( of Haileybury, New Liskeard and Dymond Township into the new municipality of Temiskaming Shore will officially take place Jan. 1, 2004. "The focus, from my perspective in supporting amalgamation, is that we have to support one another and stop competing with one another to attract new enterprises to the Tri-Towns, now Temiskaming Shores," says Hawken. "I've heard anecdotally of instances where we have lost opportunities to bring business here due to infighting in·fight·ing n. 1. Contentious rivalry or disagreement among members of a group or organization: infighting on the President's staff. 2. Fighting or boxing at close range. and we can't afford to miss opportunities at this stage," he says. "It may be as simple as focusing our energies instead of spending money, time and energy together to create a better interest in this area by being one." Hawken says, with the Tri-Town Strategic Economic Development Unit (SEDU SEDU Small Enterprise Development Unit ), the community has finished developing a strategic economic development plan for the community. It has identified a number of initiatives for development in the town, one of which was already achieved in October with the announcement of customer relations and telecommunications company See telecom company. NuComm bringing a 150- to 250-seat call-centre to New Liskeard. "It's a quick-start project and it's a hot entity," Hawken says. "We were able to secure a good company. They will establish several hundred jobs, eventually." He says the community is working on a number of other areas, including developing value-added forestry and agriculture products. The community is also looking at a tourism initiative that would involve developing a package of tourism attractions that would bring people off Highway 11 and through Cobalt, Haileybury, New Liskeard and Dymond Township along Highway 11B. On the forestry side, he says there are a "number" of value-added opportunities that are available using full-length lumber lumber, term for timber that has been cut into boards for use as a building material. The major steps in producing lumber involve logging (the felling and preparation of timber for shipment to sawmills), sawing the logs into boards, grading the boards according to , but in particular, an untapped market is in the use of "end cuts." "We're looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. market opportunities for end cuts, parts at the end that are chipped or burned," says Hawken. "We are looking for a niche that people might not think of ... there's a company in China, for instance that produces things like tongue depressors tongue depressor n. A thin blade for pressing down the tongue during a medical examination of the mouth and throat; a spatula. and spoons; those kind of small-scale products." He says the recent announcement of construction of the Temagami Wood Products sawmill sawmill, installation or facility in which cut logs are sawed into standard-sized boards and timbers. The saws used in such an installation are generally of three types: the circular saw, which consists of a disk with teeth around its edge; the band saw, which will present other opportunities, he says. On the agriculture side, he says there is a research project underway in Timiskaming looking at malt barley for alcohol production. There is also an organic preservative preservative Any of numerous chemical additives used to prevent or slow food spoilage caused by chemical changes (e.g., oxidation, mold growth) and maintain a fresh appearance and consistency. Antimycotics (e.g. for bread derived from barley that could present an opportunity for local farmers. "Underlying all that, there is the general strategy we want to develop to increase our economic development capacity by trying to improve the level of education of our workforce, improve our infrastructure with fully serviced industrial parks and commercial land available for development," says Hawken. "Basically, we want to have all our ducks in line so, when opportunities do arise, we're not scrambling to accommodate them. We can show them we have the skilled labour force and infrastructure." The amalgamation of the three communities into one town was a vital step along the road to development. The new town has been able to cut costs in staffing, which has been reduced by 25 per cent through voluntary retirement. Staff should have a better idea of operational savings once the community has operated for about six months. And although some local businesses may have experienced a tax increase, most, in the business community, have reacted positively "on a philosophical plain" to the amalgamation, says Hawken. It was also important because Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is the part of the province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron (including Georgian Bay), the French River and Lake Nipissing. Northern Ontario has a land area of 802,000 km² (310,000 mi²) and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it communities are competing on a very large scale. "Even looking in Northern Ontario, we've got to sell ourselves next to cities like Sudbury, Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie Sault Sainte Marie — pronounced "Soo Saint Marie" (IPA /su seɪnt məˈɹi/) — is the name of two cities on the Saint Marys River, which forms part of the boundary between the United States and Canada. who, themselves, feel at a disadvantage next to Toronto so everything is relative," he says. "The bigger the nucleus you can form, the more apt your are to get noticed." With a staff complement of approximately 115 people, Wabi Iron and Steel Corp. in New Liskeard is one of the largest industrial employers in the Temiskaming Shores area. General manager of sales and marketing Todd Steis says the nearly-100-year-old company continues to value its place in the community. "We have a global business," Steis says of Wabi. "Fifty per cent of our business is U.S.-based, a large amount going to equipment manufacturers that ship globally." "The Tri-Town, now Timiskaming Shores is a fabulous community to live in," Steis says. "It has good people; there is a tremendous difference in raising a family here than in larger communities like Toronto, Richmond Hill Richmond Hill may refer to: Places:
He says the business benefits from being centrally located in New Liskeard to larger metal-producing sources such as Timmins, Sudbury and Rouyn-Noranda. Being located near a major transportation artery like Highway 11 also offers the company tremendous savings in transportation costs. RELATED ARTICLE: Timiskaming Shores Population 37,000 Top employer Grant Forest Products Top five employers Grant Forest Products, Temiskaming District Hospital, Temiskaming Board of Education, Wal-Mart, Wabi Iron and Steel Area size of community 150 square kilometres Square kilometre (U.S. spelling: square kilometer), symbol km², is a decimal multiple of the SI unit of surface area, the square metre, one of the SI derived units. 1 km² is equal to:
Industrial park(s) Three fully serviced industrial parks, zoned M1, road, rail, airport access Land values Ranging from $15,000-$20,000 Real estate market conditions n/p By ANDREW WAREING Northern Ontario Business Northern Ontario Business is a Canadian magazine, which publishes monthly in Greater Sudbury, Ontario. The magazine covers business news and issues in Northern Ontario. |
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