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.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

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

Yogi Says

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2008

Community…Economy…Change

“We’re lost but we’re making good time.” Yogi Berra

How lost do you think we are? It's time to think seriously about our local economy...and the global crisis.

Vision and passion are two contributing factors in our decision making process. Our values set the pace for our long term plan. We will hear about the Growth Plan for Northern Ontario, and other economic insights about our city, from Mayor Lynn Peterson, who will kick off our Community Learning Day at Bombardier.

Remember to wear your safety shoes for the Bombardier tour, pack your questions and collaborate with your CAP group for your 15 minute presentation at the end of the day.

In the meantime, you might find the online version of the Chronicle Journal interesting. Our local economy - from forestry to mining to shipping and shopping - check out the newspaper on line every day for the headlines, and send letters to the editor on occasion. Speak up about issues – a good first step in community leadership.

From http://www.chroniclejournal.com/

LocalGrowth Plan for Northern Ontario Begins

By JIM KELLY, The Chronicle-Journal

Saturday, November 8, 2008

The first session in an ambitious initiative to explore key areas of potential future growth in Northern Ontario kicked off in Thunder Bay on Friday. The Growth Plan for Northern Ontario is a blueprint “for a co-ordinated, long-term approach to support a more globally competitive region,” said Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle, who presented an update on the long-term strategic plan with Energy and Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman.

The first of 10 technical discussions at the Prince Arthur Hotel focused on health care. “I can see there are some great opportunities that have been identified in terms of innovations in the health care field,” Gravelle said. “We certainly know that in Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario some extraordinary investments have come to the North, so I think we have an opportunity today with the technical table on health to try to focus on the key issues that we can take advantage of and melt it into the Growth Plan for our future discussion with the public,” he said.

Smitherman said some of the participants in the health care session are associated with research. “This is one of those areas where we‘ve seen quite a lot of growth, but there is potential,” he said. Both Gravelle and Smitherman said the plan will focus on the following: strengthening the resource industries, advancing research and innovation, ensuring a skilled work force through education and training, and making strategic use of infrastructure to support sustainable growth.

“The Growth Plan will bring a co-ordinated focus and align the right resources to build on the North‘s tremendous strengths and talents for a sustainable economy, a clean environment and a vibrant quality of life for northern families,” Smitherman said.

Between today and Jan. 28, one-day technical sessions will be held in Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, North Bay and Timmins on a variety of topics from health care to aboriginal economic development.

Two sessions in Thunder Bay on Jan. 7 and 8 will deal with value-added forestry and bio-economy. Early in 2009, Thunder Bay will host a major think tank featuring national and international experts who will share their knowledge with participants in the Growth Plan. Gravelle said the experts coming from other jurisdictions will make observations outside the context of Northern Ontario. “It‘s going to be a very positive process.”

Smitherman said when the economy is uncertain and people have challenges associated with that, “I think it‘s really, really important that you bring in perspectives that can help to unlock the opportunities. “I think the think tank will reach to provide and stimulate the nature of the discussions and hopefully enhance the kind of vision that we can come up with,” he said. Smitherman said with the current economic downturn, some people may want solutions now. “It‘s designed to be a long-term blueprint that helps to give reinforcement to a broad array of government decisions,” he said.

The Growth Plan is backed by the province‘s Places to Grow legislation and supported by a special committee of 16 cabinet ministers. That caught the eye of Mayor Lynn Peterson. “This is the first time ever that we have legislation behind it,” she said. “This is not a report that will go away. There‘s a legislative requirement to implement it. “We have to take the time to get it right and then implement it,” Peterson said.

Gravelle said over the spring and summer, the province held 13 discussion sessions across Northern Ontario as well as meetings with federal and provincial government officials in the North. To date, more than 500 northerners have provided input into the plan. Gravelle said First Nation peoples are important partners in the Growth Plan. He said the government will release a draft growth plan next spring from which northerners will start putting together a final strategy for prosperity and growth that will guide them over the next 25 years.

Copyright © Monday, November 17, 2008 All material contained herein is copyrighted by
The Chronicle Journal, a division of Continental Newspapers Canada Ltd.
All Rights Reserved.

See you for coffee at 8:45...Lots to Think About!

- Maggie