Health care a major contributor to local economies.

While many people view mining and forestry as the backbone of Northern Ontario, the health-care sector is assuming more prominence in the region's economy.

The attraction of the sector to local economic development officials is obvious.

Health care, particularly community hospitals, injects capital through construction projects and payroll, and it offers a measure of stability for resource-based economies which are accustomed to swinging on a pendulum.

In Sudbury, for example, health care employs more than 4,000 people, or one out of every 15 people in Nickel City. It also contributes approximately $220 million annually to the local economy.

Sudbury's health-care sector is larger than Falconbridge Ltd.'s local operations and two-thirds the size of Inco Ltd.'s local operations, according to Mark Mieto, the regional director of health and social services for the Regional Municipality of Sudbury.

In North Bay, meanwhile, North Bay Civic Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital and the North Bay Psychiatric Hospital rank fifth, sixth and seventh on the city's roster of major employers.

Only the Canadian Forces base, the two local school boards, Canadore College and Nipissing University employ more people than North Bay's hospitals, according to Rick Evans, the city's economic development officer.

Moreover, Evans notes that the three hospitals combined employ 1,800 people.

In Thunder Bay approximately 10 per cent of the city's 63,905-person workforce is employed in the health and welfare sector (according to 1986 census figures).

Meanwhile, in Sault Ste. Marie the health-care sector has provided a measure of economic stability during uncertain times.

Jerry Bizet, executive director of Sault Ste. Marie General Hospital, says about 75 per cent of the facility's $38-million operating budget goes towards salaries and benefits.

"From an economic standpoint, we're very important to the local economy," Bizet says. "If our resources ever get reduced (through budget cuts), it will have a detrimental effect on the city."

Construction of the Ontario Cancer Treatment Centre and Research Foundation at Laurentian Hospital in Sudbury recently injected about $31 million into the local construction sector.

Related projects, such as the construction of the Canadian Cancer Society lodge and an expansion of Laurentian Hospital injected $4.6 million and $21 million respectively.

However, the economic impact of these three projects pale by comparison to the construction of the new Timmins and District General Hospital.

The $83-million, 315,000-square-foot hospital is scheduled to open its doors in the spring of 1993, marking a dramatic realignment of the city's health-care sector. As part of that realignment, Porcupine General Hospital will become a chronic- and acute-care facility, while 70-year-old St. Mary's Hospital will be closed and sold.

According to Bruce Strapp, Timmins' economic development officer, the health-care sector presently employs between 800 and 1,000 people in Timmins. That number is expected to grow in the near future.

"The whole health-care industry is growing," Strapp notes. "The industry is one of the major employers in the city, and the new hospital will open up new private-sector opportunities."

While health care acts as a stable supplier of comparatively well-paying jobs, it is also a supplier of "brain power" for many communities.

Any addition or expansion of medical services attracts new, well-educated people to a community, many of whom show a high degree of community involvement.

For example, with the establishment of its new cancer-care centre Sudbury became home to Dr. Anthony Ho, a specialist who had been working at Heidelberg University in Germany. Dr. Ho was joined by several researchers who will assist him in his research on stem-cell separation.

Richard Pohler, an economic development officer in Thunder Bay, indicates the presence of quality health-care facilities is vital to attracting new industries to a community.