A Vision For Thunder Bay
by Scott A. Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
Steve Demmings became the CEO of the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission ( CEDC) about 18 months ago and is making his mark on the organization. “ Our role is to identify business opportunities and bring them to Thunder Bay as well as keep
the current businesses vibrant, dynamic and alive. The CEDC has our own Board of Directors we report to representing the community. The board will expand shortly by up to six more from the current 9. They will represent both academic and business sectors,” said Steve Demmings “ We have 4 development officers including myself, a receptionist, executive assistant, a marketing person, a person for the Entrepreneur Centre and shortly an intern. Our budget is around $900,000.”
“ We started planning for a new office when I first came here 18 months ago and in the summer of 2007 began looking for office space. Construction started early in 2008 and finished in July. The Whalen building built in 1917 is a grand example of terra cotta construction by James Whalen who retained architects Vallence and Jones from Montreal. We chose the building for our new office because of the unique location,” said Demmings. “ There is an opportunity to release the building on the top 4 floors and create a ITC Cluster, adding to the growing reputation of this building and area of Thunder Bay. It is a growing entertainment hub, has the financial institutions, heritage, technology companies, waterfront, Magnus Theatre and the redevelopment of PACI by LU. It is an interesting, dynamic area and is one of the last great waterfronts
in Canada to be developed. The Winnipeg Forks redevelopment took 20 years to bring new jobs and young people into the downtown. We have a similar opportunity in Thunder Bay on a smaller scale.” The Whalen building is 8 floors with a total of 70,000 square feet.
“ What we want to do with this office is to create a business setting where we can compete with Winnipeg, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. It is a competitive economic environment today. We need business space that shows off our city and from which you can see cranes coming out of the ground. There is a opportunity to create a dynamic cluster. We have a college and university which makes us very unique. They produce the number one product we have- intellectual property. We need to create jobs for the youth training here,” said Demings. “ This flexible office space will allow us to welcome business from around the world and connect the economic past and future of Thunder Bay. Our glass images on the boardroom entrance form an economic vision that connects the role of the forestry industry, shipping and grain with the new technology. We want the first panel to show the role of forestry and the second panel shipping. We had 1200 ships here in the past and 440 last year. The 144 foot reactor which weighs 450 metric tons and was shipped through the portshows the evolving role. The third panel is about mining. The fourth shows fibre optics of your Blackberry and if we are connected by fibre we can compete in the world. Also on the panel is the eagle hence our Aboriginal partners. The last panel is about the grain and reemergence of rail.”
“ The mining sector will come back in our area. India and China will desire everything we produce including iron ore, gold, palladium, wheat, barley, corn and oil sands. You have to very optimistic. The whole western economy is moving to our doorstep. We have rich resources in mining and can retrain people. The Thunder Bay Oil sands consortium continues to manufacture steel for the west,” states Demmings. “ I am very optimistic about the medium future of Thunder Bay. We have to develop a sense of perspective. The economic things that are happening today are all global. Consumer confidence is at a low but I am optimistic because of the unique position of Thunder Bay. Our economy is global and a service centre for Western Canada. With our human capital we are in an awesome position for the future.”
