Full circle: Clement cuts ribbon on NOSM labs; As Ontario's Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, Tony Clement announced the plan to build a medical school in Northern Ontario in 2001. He returned as the new federal minister of Health and minister responsible for FedNor to cut the ribbon on the school's federally funded research lab March 31.

Canada's new Minister of Health, Tony Clement, has pledged that all-important post won't take time away from his role as minister responsible for FedNor. The new MP for Parry Sound-Muskoka made the assurance during a visit to Greater Sudbury that allowed him a rare opportunity to wear both hats at once.

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Clement was on the campus of Laurentian University March 31 to cut the ribbon on the $6-million-plus state-of-the-art research lab on the third floor of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM). He followed a tour of the lab and a brief media scrum with another announcement, this time downstairs and around the corner at NOMEC, the Northeastern Ontario Medical Education Corp.

"I will be fair to FedNor," he said during a light lunch session following the NOMEC press conference. "FedNor is very important to my riding and as the only Northern MP on the government side, I take it very seriously."

Clement, as Mike Harris' Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, officially announced the creation of a medical school for Northern Ontario five years ago, so his visit to christen the new lab there saw him come full-circle in a way.

He noted that it is rare in politics to see an initiative or idea mature through to fruition, as he was able to in his visit March 31.

The $6-million grant to NOSM for the lab represented the single largest contribution in FedNor's history. FedNor also funded the feasibility study for the medical school in the first place, as Sudbury MP Diane Marleau was happy to point out at the school's opening ceremonies on Sept. 13 of last year.

FedNor also provided funding for a curriculum workshop held in Sault Ste. Marie in the school's early planning stages. The point of the workshop was to demonstrate that the school would serve all of Northern Ontario, not just its largest regional centres, according to dean, Dr. Roger Strasser.

"(And) when we needed fund's to complete the laboratories and to put in state-of-the-art equipment, once again, there was FedNor," Strasser said in a brief plaque unveiling) in the school's entranceway. The plaque, made of course of local hard rock, reads simply "Proudly supported by FedNor."

Strasser also presented Clement with a commemorative plaque depicting the cover of Inaugural, the magazine NOSM commissioned Northern Ontario Business to produce to commemorate the school's opening in September 2005.

After Clement toured the new lab, Dr. Greg Ross, associate dean of research activities, stressed how important having a top-end research wing is to attracting quality researchers and physicians to the North.

"(We) have been unbelievably fortunate in recruiting a great number of world-class researchers to the region," he said. "To continue to support this activity, we have to have the best research infrastructure that's available. We have been fortunate to have the support of FedNor to achieve that goal."

Clement said the whole of the region is watching the school with optimism.

"I can tell you in my travels throughout Parry Sound and Muskoka, (which is) part of Northern Ontario as well, that people in my riding look to this facility with hope and aspiration. It is not only a Sudbury phenomenon."

Clement called the FedNor funding "a good decision of the previous government" that is his "honour to follow through on.

"As both Dr. Strasser and Dr. Ross will no doubt tell you, and probably at some length, these labs are the best equipped in the country. I believe with this lab, we can make a critical contribution to research at both the national and international level that will improve health in rural and remote communities, especially those in Northern Ontario."

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By CRAIG GILBERT

Northern Ontario Business