Economic Renewal & Change

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright

For change to happen:

“Leaders need to be the rock of Gibralter on rollerskates.” - Tom Peters

Two Days’ Worth

Staying current on hot topics is essential for leadership. Here’s a sampling of Chronicle Journal columns which mirror recent Leadership Thunder Bay Community Learning Days. What's happening from a community wide perspective? What are the connections and consequences industry to industry, service to service? What is your role as a leader?

Friday March 13, 2009

Salaries Out of This World

That noise you hear in the background is a rude awakening, the kind of alarm clock jangle that has finally reached the ears of the NHL. ...The money crunch has been slow to hit professional sport, and conversely, pro sport has been slow to react. Carolina: Thunder Bay’s Eric Staal signs a $57 million, seven year extension in the hot-bed of southern hockey: $8.15 mill....

The one thing that has intrigued me over all the years around this game at the highest level, is wondering when somebody, anybody, an individual or even a group of players from one hometown is going to put in a financial infusion back into the source of their success....setting up an endowment fund for the minor hockey organization that gave them their start...” - Ross Brewitt

City, CEDC Boost Online Services.

The redesign of the website is initiative No 65 of the city’s Building a New Foundation Strategic Plan.

Among the major changes:

• Online users can subscribe to city news through RSS feeds, meaning whenever the city posts a news release, the user is notified.


• The “Event Calendar” has been revamped, new features added.


• Photos from MyTBay.Ca, the storytelling portal.


• CEDC has also developed a new website to attract investors and serve business.


• The Community Profile: Key Facts and Stats is a one stop shopping document.


• BizPal simplifies and customizes the business permit and licence process.


• http://http://www.thunderbay.ca/

Rebound Falls Flat: Finances Stymie Elizabeth Fry

Almost a year after the Elizabeth Fry Society closed its doors in Thunder Bay to regroup and sort out funding, it’s not much further along....The group helped about 200 women each year with one paid staffer and volunteers...There is a desperate need for women’s housing. Women inmates are falling through the cracks.

3 Cheers for Food: Security Research Network Hard at Work

Some celebrate with food, others just celebrate food itself. The organization which focuses on enhancing and sustaining the local food system, has more than 50 partners in the region, including food distributors and producers. http://www.foodsecurityresearch.ca/

Lessons for Native Youth

A change in the way aboriginal people are governed in Canada is necessary and inevitable, an aboriginal youth conference being held in Thunder Bay was told Thursday....

"We can rebuild our economies to the point where we can take care of the needs of our own people rather than rely on somebody else to never give enough. Undoing the damage that has been done is also our responsibility. No one else is going to do that for us."- Herb George, president of the National Centre for First Nations Governance.

Clinic Recruits Patients to Keep Staff

Health clinics in economically depressed Northwestern Ontario towns could lose in-house staff if the number of patients declines along with the general population, warns the Ministry of Health. Marathon Family Health Team has 3200 residents enrolled, but the Ministry expects us to have 4000. Marathon Pulp, one of the town’s main employers, has been idled and many of the plants’ 230 workers may have to move away to find other jobs.


Saturday, March 14, 2009

35,300 Jobs Lost in Ont.: Unemployment Jumps in Thunder Bay

There are even bleaker times ahead for Ontario as the province continues to take the brunt of job losses in Canada, the opposition parties warned Friday. Thunder Bay’s unemployment rate went from 6.9% to 7.6%.

Abitibi-Bowater Restarting Newsprint

The full complement of about 1100 employees who work for Abitibi-Bowaters’ various Thunder Bay operations should all be back on the job on Monday when the newsprint plant - the last division to come back on line - fires up.

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And finally, your readings for April 16, 2009

1. Chapter 7: Competency to Mastery, Dr. Brad's 7 Strategies

2. Chapter 9, Whole Brain Book: Styles of Management

3. EDC Site: http://www.thunderbay.ca/CEDC.htm

4. Gladwell's Tipping Point http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/index.html

Your key leadership skill is GOAL SETTING.

Enjoy your Spring Break...St Patrick's Day

"Every day's a fine day. It's just that some days are better than others." - Irish proverb courtesy of our own George Burns