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New Ceo TBEDC

 

New CEO of the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission

By Scott A.Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
    Steve Demmings, CEO of the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission had been on the job for  just 4 days and he was in the midst of an economic think tank he had organized with many of Thunder Bay's business elite.
  There is some awesome potential in terms of a real desire of the community to participate in the new economy. I like a lot of the things I see happening. It is a terrific community. There are great challenges   ahead, smiles Steve Demmings. His background is as an urban planner
from the University of Manitoba.  Demmings worked with the Great Life Assurance company for many years with their Canadian Real Estate Division across Canada. He also has owned a variety of retail businesses in Banff, Alberta. It acquaints me with the realities of running a small business successfully. I led one of the most successful private public sector partnerships the Manitoba, the Call Centre Team and headed up Access Manitoba which focussed on attracting technology jobs to Manitoba, notes Demmings. For six years before coming here I had my own company- Site Selection Canada which was focussed on
bringing new technology jobs to Canada. I helped companies expand in various regions of the company. I consulted with EDO's to provide strategies to reinvent themselves to sell their communities to US business.

image    My wife is from Thunder Bay and we have been vacationing  here for quite a long time.We have the luxury of a camp  located 22 minutes from here at McKenzie Beach. I think it is a delightful, awesome community with so much to offer. The biking, hiking and the sailing  in a great natural setting. We have to create strategies that will create jobs to participate in the new economy by creating economic conditions to create and sustain existing jobs. smiles Demmings.
   Steve Demmings worked with the Chair of the new Thunder Bay Economic Commission and helped to set up this meeting with the Halifax partnership. I have just finished working as a volunteer on the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce creating a strategy to sell Winnipeg to
the world. It was felt there that they weren't participating in the new economy. It is not just changing  just here in Thunder Bay but everywhere and Winnipeg made it work, informs Demmings. About a year ago we reviewed economic development agencies across North American and came to the conclusion  that there were 6 bodies in the US and 1 in
Canada that were really getting it right in terms of structure. In Canada it was the Halifax partnership. The  primary one in America was Omaha, Nebraska, a firepower that is revolutionizing their economy. Also there were Tacoma and Spokane, Washington and Nashville,Tennessee.
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    Thunder Bay is in a transition state. There have been 110 pulp mill closures out of 172 in total in the last 6 years in North America. The thing we have to remember is Thunder Bay is not the only community in Canada going through this. It is important to remember that. If you
look at the automotive sector in Southern Ontario we all know the challenges with the big three, say  in Windsor, notes Demmings. Thunder Bay has achieved an awful lot through good planning in terms of emerging sectors. The school of medicine, the molecular research and
the tremendous plans for the waterfront. These things could not of happened at a more opportune time. Some sectors are facing challenges but there are some positive things happening. Thunder Bay will become a more knowledge based economy like other communities right across the country. I can show statistics in terms of the growth of the knowledge sector by 2010. There are an awful lot of jobs  happening in  this sector, some 30% of new jobs.
    The waterfront as a component in the branding of Thunder Bay is certainly very important. It is a natural asset. 20 years ago in a different life I was working with the Great West Life Assurance Company in Halifax. They redeveloped their own waterfront as a part of an
integrated overall economic strategy. You could go down to the waterfront and find all the students from the 5 universities there who are attracted to that kind of lifestyle. It is now an exciting city with a downtown dynamic, states Demmings. It all goes hand in hand
to creating jobs. Last year they announced that they won the competition over 30 other jurisdictions in North American and Europen for the right  to bring 1200 high paying jobs with Research In Motion, the creators of Blackberry. That doesn't happen accidently.
    Stephen Dempsey is the President and CEO of the the Greater Halifax Partnership, a public partnership that focuses on growing the economy of Greater Halifax. He was brought to Thunder Bay to lead the think tank event.
    We work collaboratively with the private and public sector with one objective-  How to create more prosperity for everybody. It is a not for profit owned by the board of directors to service the community, started 10 years ago and operated by private sector interests with public sector input, smiles  Stephen Dempsey. We have had a great increase in jobs. In 1995 when we started unemployment was a preoccupation for most people. We had 8000 jobs  that were cut out of our economy representing a  $300 million payroll. The goal was to do something different which lead to  a focussed long term development strategy undertaken collaboratively.
    If the private sector put their money on the table you get their full support, time and effort. We have financial leverage because the private sector share in the cost of growing the economy because they get the benefit of growing the economy. Everybody wins. Over the 10
year period of our organization there has been a  net creation of 22000 jobs by the private sector. They took the lead and recovered the jobs.
In the public sector we had about 300 jobs recovered, notes Dempsey.   We are serving about 400,000 people in our area. Our measurement of satisfaction is when the private sector comes back to support. us. Our budget is $ 5 million My background is international finance. Before
this job I spent 20 years around the world with the Export Development Corporation financing exports with De Haviland, Bombardier and Magna.
    I am so pleased with what I am seeing in the room right now- the interaction.  There is an enormous amount of pent up interest in this type of iniative. We have to harness and convey it and develop it into sustainable participation and partnerships. There is not a lot of
mystery into what we are doing today in terms  of community activision
and solidarity, smiles Steve Demming.   We will implement some of
their approach in Thunder Bay. It is very important to involve all of the stakeholders and not just business. The relationships withuniversities and others  are important.



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