Little By Little

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009

A New Economy Doesn't March In...

It Enters on Cat's Paws...

It's so easy to walk past an alleyway, and not notice the innovation, the design, the symmetries of scale. When we shot the photo above, no-one else stopped to admire the view through the walkway connecting the buildings, or the juxtaposition of old and new. That's what happens to large scale change in our community as well. Unless we happen to be "attached" in some way, well, we just don't understand the scale of the change.

The LTB class this week meets at the Whalen Building... the PUC down at the marina...we drive past regularly. We chose to meet at the CEDC on purpose, because this was the headquarters for major changes in 1913, just as it is in 2009.

1913

The Whalen building, built in 1913 by James Whalen, a logging tycoon, was one of the first really high office buildings in the area.

James Whalen (1869–1929) was a Canadian businessman and entrepreneur based in Port Arthur, Ontario, with interests in the forest industries, shipbuilding, dredging, and towing. From a modest beginning as a timber contractor in the 1890s, he built an impressive business empire in various Great Lakes marine businesses.

Companies associated with James Whalen
Western Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company
Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company, PASCO
Great Lakes Dredging Company
Canadian Towing and Wrecking Company
Dominion Towing and Salvage Company
Whalen Pulp and Paper Company (British Columbia)
Canada West Coast Navigation Company
Canada Pebble Company

September 07, 2007
Thunder Bay Takes Step Toward Creation Of Technology Cluster

Provincial Funds To Inject New Life Into Downtown Heritage Building
SUDBURY – The McGuinty government is helping Thunder Bay create a professional data centre that will act as a catalyst to attract and secure new economic activity in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci has announced.

The data centre will be a key component of a new technology cluster in the city’s downtown north core, where the city-owned Whalen building will be retrofitted to accommodate ICT-related companies. The project is expected to strengthen existing businesses while generating new economic activity for the future.

“The Whalen ICT Cluster will help us build our capacity to provide important services, such as comprehensive data and web services, that are currently unavailable through local sources,” said Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Bill Mauro. “Having a quality cluster of ICT-related services will support all sectors of the city’s economy.”

Under its Infrastructure and Community Development program, the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) is providing $1 million to the recently formed Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission to retrofit the Whalen building and develop the data centre in collaboration with Thunder Bay Telephone and Confederation College.

There's more to the Knowledge Based Economy...bring your walking shoes, your curiosity... see you on the 16th at 8:40!