Awards recognize best and brightest in North: hundreds gather at annual gala to celebrate the success of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial spirit. (Northern Ontario Business Awards 2002).

An innovative high-tech Sudbury company, a-progressive Thessalon engineering firm specializing in high way work and a young Sault Ste. Marie entrepreneur with an eye on security were among the winners at the 16th annual Northern Ontario Business Awards held in North Bay-last month.

About 450 delegates made up of the region's community, financial and business leaders, as well as- Minister of Northern Development and Mines Jim Wilson, filled the ballroom of the Clarion Resort Pinewood Park Oct. 10 to celebrate entrepreneurial excellence in the North.

Ontrak Control Systems Inc. of Sudbury was named winner of the Innovation Award sponsored by Air Canada Jazz.

Tom Fortin's serial data acquisition interfaces have made the small five-employee firm a world leader in the design and manufacture of computer interfaces with a slew of big name clients and annual sales in excess of $2 million.

"The biggest thing about the award is meeting people in the same boat as us," Fortin says: "I didn't realize there were so many innovative talented people around in Northern Ontario.

"Coming to these awards I've met a lot of great business people and it's really changed my perspective on how I want to grow the business. I definitely want to stay in Northern Ontario and I'm looking forward to the next few years of growth."

He gave credit to the Industrial Research Assistance Program (TRAP) for his development from "tech head" to businessman. TRAP provided some initial startup funding enabling him to begin hiring individuals and delegating work.

"I don't think this company would have progressed in the last four years as far as it did without TRAP," Fortin says. "They've basically drawn the map for us as far getting from the basement to where we are now with a modern facility, employees and a whole line of products."

Parry Sound's Doug Brown, owner of Humphrey Refrigeration, walked away with the Company of the Year Award (1-15 employees), sponsored by Tembec.

Since launching the company in 1986, Brown and his eight-employee company have worked hard to expand the business offering refrigeration service, heating and air conditioning installation and electrical servicing, earning a sterling reputation for high-quality customer service in the area.

"It's a pretty amazing thing," says Brown. "You try and work away and do your best and all of sudden this award comes along and people recognize what we've done and think you're doing things and it's a real validation.

"This whole conference (and awards gala) really gives you all kinds of ideas-and is real morale boost in getting you excited about your business again, it almost gives you a complete renewal. Winning the award has been a real awesome experience."

Mike Tulloch, president of M.F. Tulloch Engineering and Surveying, captured the Company of the Year (16-50 employees), sponsored by Bell Canada.

The 50-employee Thessalon-based firm has become an ever-expanding presence in Northern Ontario by pursuing highway construction projects as a specialty niche market, as well as contributing to worthwhile charitable causes in their home community and abroad.

"We're ecstatic," Tulloch says. "It's something that, as we've had time to think about and ponder, we're really just starting to grasp the significance of (the award)," says Tulloch.

"With my travel I know it's a long way from Pembroke to Kenora and as I go Through town after town and see the little businesses that contribute toward the prosperity of those towns I'm rather humbled that we've been awarded this honour. It truly is an honour for us," say Tulloch, who dedicated the award to his workers and management team "that made this happen."

Northern Telephone was named the Company of the Year (51-plus employee), sponsored by Signature Group.

The telecommunications company has been instrumental in delivering high-speed Internet, broadband wireless and ATM net works to about 55,000 customers across an 83,000-square-kilometre expanse of Northern Ontario, delivering integrated service from Hearst to the Quebec border.

"We're absolutely ecstatic," says Dave McGirr, vice-president of Northern Telephone. "It's really a tribute to our employees to achieve this.

"We've been keeping an eye on the Northern Ontario Business Awards for the past few years and that kind of set the benchmark for what we had to work to.

"We're a company that we believe has done, in the last three years, what many companies have taken 25 years to do in telecommunications.

"It's an absolutely outstanding accomplishment, and we're extremely proud of it, but we don't want to lose sight of the fact that we still have an incredible amount of work to do."

The North Bay Economic Development Commission won Entrepreneurial Community of the Year, sponsored by the National Research Council Canada's IRAP.

The loss of 1,500 military jobs in the early 1990s set in motion a chain of events that saw a reorganization of the city's lead development agency and sparked a new can-do attitude among a coalition of local players. This proactive approach culminated in 2001 with a number of successes on many fronts in the areas of commerce, technology, education, health care and retail.

North Bay EDC chairperson Peter Minogue says maintaining a "positive attitude" through trying times, and having normally competing interests put aside their differences and rally together and co-operate for the good of the community, was key.

"If you get the positive attitude and you get the workers, things are going to happen and North Bay has been pretty successful," says Minogue.

Powassan's Paul Brooks was named Entrepreneur of the Year, an-award sponsored by CIBC.

The founder of lumber wholesaler Quality Hardwoods, one of the town's largest employers, boasts an impressive track record of exporting success and a penchant for giving back to the community.

"I'm very surprised to be named," says Brooks. "You work hard all your life and it's nice to see that you're finally acknowledged for your help, but I still feel there are other people out there more deserving.

"I don't think I do anything special to be truthful.

"You live, work and play in your community and you've got to give back as well as take; that's something we do on a regular basis. Virtually everything that goes on in the community we sponsor. There's nothing we say no to."

Wasaya Airways Limited Partnership received the First Nations Award of Excellence sponsored by Ontario Power Generation.

"It's so amazing to get this award," says Wasaya president and CEO Tom Morris, "and get this kind of recognition. We're very humbled."

Morris pays tribute to the 16-year-old company's shareholders, the supportive First Nation communities of the North and their 170 employees, which have grown Wasaya from a modest float plane business in Pickle Lake into a $30 million Northern Ontario-wide venture.

"It's the concept of teamwork," says Morris, in pinpointing their success, "and the relationship with all the managers and having the right people in different departments to ensure that things are managed well in our planning, organization and our vision to be as progressive as we can be in our capacity as a aviation-business."

Sault Ste. Marie's Carmine Biasucci, owner of CyberCanada Securities, grabbed the Young Enterpreneur of the Year Award, sponsored by Scotiabank.

Biasucci's ever-expanding 30-employee company specializes in security card access systems and video surveillance security. "It was excellent finding out we won the award," Biasucci says. "I owe a lot of thanks to the City of Sault Ste. Marie and Economic Development Corp. for nominating me initially."

Biasucci credits his patents Albina and Gino for their support in teaching him the ropes, and for their financial backing.

He attributes most of his success to merely "trying to stay one step ahead of technology and innovation and being in the right place at the right time."

Mathew Munn, 18, was named the Union Gas Essay Scholarship Winner, taking home a $3,000 cheque. Munn is presently studying at Laurentian University in Sudhury.

In his essay, Munn writes that the Internet can be the great equalizer for northern businesses in breaking down barriers to time and travel to compete anywhere in the world. Munn recounts how his parent's e-business, Canadian Canoe Routes, exploded into one of the largest and busiest canoeing Web sites on the Internet.