Economic Development Manager Optimistic About
Thunder Bay
by Scott A Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
Steve Demmings, manager of the TBEDC gave an informative economic presentation to the Thunder Bay Business Women’s Network, his 50th since coming to Thunder Bay in the last year. “ We have been very active in our outreach program. Our strategic plan is a work in
progress, constantly changing and you won’t see the same thing twice because of the changing conditions such as oil and grain price increase,” noted Steve Demming. “ Why is it all our commodity prices are going up- because China, India and Brazil all need the gas. They
want a better standard of living and are making many of the products we consume at our retail stores across North America. This keeps our cost of living down but that too will change as we are seeing that in the automotive sector as we speak.”
Demmings is referring to the recent announcements from the the Chinese Tata company with their vehicle called Nano which will retail for $2500 brand new. People are now mobile from a rural area and can be closer to factories. “ The company introduced the car with great
fanfare and the Globe and Mail newspaper covered it. The naysayers say it isn't a good car but the real question is would you have bought a Toyota 25 years ago, a Hyundai 15 years ago or a Kia 6 years ago,” stated Demming. “ A small SUV manufacturer from China is setting up 55
distributors in Canada in the next 15 months.You can get 20 cars currently under $20,000 in North America. The Cherry a joint venture with Chrysler will come in 36 months and be about $6500.”
“ Key advantages for Thunder Bay economically is our proximity to Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba that require many more workers than they have presently. That means work will be performed in Thunder Bay and shipped out. We have more going for us because of our proximity to the west than areas of Southern Ontario,” said Demming. “ Also the growing mining and the knowledge based industry is very strong. We have a supply of 10,000 students at LU and Confederation College. That is a renewable source of labour on an ongoing basis. We have to focus on areas like green jobs, animation jobs and sciences job. A portion of
the students will go elsewhere and some come from other cities but they might stay in Thunder Bay.”
