Festival hailed as one of tops in Canada. (Communities of the North: Kapuskasing).

Located halfway between North Bay and Thunder Bay, the small town of Kapuskasing is home to only about 9,500 people, but the town's economic development officer still feels that the community is stable and doing quite well for itself overall.

"The community is certainly on a very stable level right now and we are doing a wealth of stuff in the tourism sector," says Barbara Major, economic development officer and town clerk for Kapuskasing.

She points out that one of the town's largest tourist attractions is its annual Kapuskasing Lumberjack Heritage Festival. Throughout the last three years, the festival has come to be known as one of the top 50 festivals in Ontario. Last year, the festival attracted approximately 25,000 site visits.

Major attributes much of that success to the town's marketing of the festival.

"That (success) comes as a direct result of some of the marketing we have been doing with it," she says. "Our numbers are growing tremendously."

In fact, she indicates that one of the feature events at the festival, the lumberjack challenge, is regularly featured on cable television on both the Outdoor Life Network and The Sports Network.

Another one of the town's largest tourist attractions is its annual festival of lights, says Major. Each year, the festival attracts upwards to 1,000 people. Last year, Kapuskasing placed first in Canada in the National Winter-Lights Festival. The festival has even proven to be popular among Americans, Major says.

"I have received correspondences from right across the U.S., primarily from truck drivers, who stop in the community and comment on how they are the most beautiful lights that they see on their trail," she says. "That bodes well with all the winter stuff that we do, with our winter carnivals, with all our curling and hockey tournaments and that sort of thing."

This summer, they also had their inaugural boat river tour, Kapuskasing Two, which Major explains is a brand new boat river tour up the Kapuskasing River to Beaver Falls. The boat holds approximately 50 passengers and provides guests with regular and dinner cruises, says Major. It is located at the town's newly constructed public boat-launch facility on the Kapuskasing River, which also features an artifacts trail that depicts the evolution of forestry in the town.

However, she is quick to point out that the town's tourism sector is not the only sector that is doing well.

"We are also working closely with the retail sector and industry," Major says.

In particular, she indicates that the town's Model City Mall is currently undergoing a rejuvenation process after it was sold to a private enterprise last year.

"They are going through a complete rejuvenation of it, which is good news for the community because it has not had any uplifting in the last number of years and it was due for it," she says. "That should be bringing in some additional interest to the area."

The rejuvenation process includes a number of smaller projects, including the addition of a Shoppers Drug Mart, slated for completion by Christmas.

The Model City Mall is known as one of the jewels of the community, featuring one large department store, large grocery and drug stores, dozens of specialty shops, various restaurants, as well as government and private offices.

Directly across from the mall is Ash place, which serves as the home for many professionals, including dentists, an optometrist, accountants, and physical and mental health-care providers.

Meanwhile, the town's downtown area is also secure, Major adds.

"It is quite full of businesses," she says. "We are very stable with our retail sector right now and I think that because of that stability we are attracting others who are potentially looking at expanding their business," she adds.

In all, there are more than 200 mostly independent specialty stores and business situated in Kapuskasing.

The town is largely forestry-based with its largest employer being Spruce Falls Inc. The Tembec Inc.-owned mill employs over 1,100 people in Kapuskasing.

"The company has certainly been on a stable ground," Major says. "I know there are always issues in the forestry industry, but we have not had any significant layoffs in recent months and every forecast looks quite good for Tembec."

The town also has the General Motors Cold Weather Testing Center, which employs 100 people in Kapuskasing seasonally.

Overall, Major says the Kapuskasing economic development team works closely with the municipality in a variety of marketing activities for the town.

In addition, the North Claybelt Business Development Centre assists both entrepreneurs who are just starting out, as well as established businesses.

FOR MORE ON KAPUSKASING VISIT www.town.kapuskasing.on.ca

KAPUSKASING

Population                9,325

Main Employer/            Tembec In.
Private Sector

Top 5 Employers           Tembec Inc., Conseil scolaire
                          catholique de district des
                          Grandes, Public District School
                          Board No. 1, Sensenbrenner
                          Hospital, Town of Kapuskasing

Area of Community         83.99 sq. kms

Municipal Tax Rates       Commercial occupied-n/p
(base average)            industrial occupied-n/p

Commercial real estate    Availability of commercial
markel:what is it like?   real estate

Land Values               Property purchase: $20,000 +
                          Residential purchase: $45,000 +

Industrial Park           Municipal- 1 serviced
(serviced or unserviced)  Private- 2 serviced