Over the holiday season, many people come back to the Thunder Bay region to visit with family and friends. However, over the past several years, a growing number of professionals are also returning to our city to make their homes here. You may be one of those Thunder Bay region residents who have left, and are now home for the holidays with your family.
The Emerging Thunder Bay Region (ETBR) invites you, this year, to take a closer look at Thunder Bay, and consider coming back home to help lead our community to a dynamic and exciting future . This organization is made up of people like you who have returned to our city and region, and other professionals who have moved here from elsewhere in the world (and there are many). We share a common vision, can clearly see some of the amazing opportunities emerging in Northwestern Ontario, and have also the desire and expertise to move diligently towards this future and help shape it.
Those who have grown up here, and then return, make our region a better place. The time invested outside of the region has brought them new perspectives on the world, and on Thunder Bay. Returning to the region, those new ideas, perspectives and experiences help them make their lives and careers more enjoyable.
Your reasons to return can vary. They can be to have a great place to raise a family, opening a new business in our city, or to have your children enjoy a better relationship with their grandparents and family. It might be that the lifestyle you can have here in our region is better than you could have almost anywhere else in Canada, or around the world for that matter.
Many people who have left Thunder Bay, and ended up in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver or Ottawa -- or anywhere else in the world -- find the community they thought, as teenagers was boring is actually an amazing place with lots of things to do. Coming back to the region often allows these professionals to seize opportunities that otherwise would never happen especially in some of the larger markets where many of the people who have returned to Thunder Bay once lived.
In recent years Thunder Bay has emerged as a major player in many fields such as bio medicine, technology, green energies, tourism, education, mining, engineering, the arts (particularly film), and Aboriginal relations. Thunder Bay and region have always enjoyed a rich and diverse cultural scene and the Internet allows us to do business with anyone, anywhere in the world. It’s an exciting time of change for this area. Why not be a part of it?
If you are a returning professional, someone who just moved to Thunder Bay region, or would like to know more, you are invited to share some time watching a series of videos featuring the stories of several people who share their own experiences.
As you enjoy the holidays with your family, perhaps this is the year that you, and your family should discuss returning to the Thunder Bay region and making yourself a part of the Emerging Thunder Bay Region.
All the best for a very Merry Christmas, and a successful and Emerging Thunder Bay Region New Year.
Frank Pullia is a former city councillor and Principal of Pullia Management Consulting. For more information on the Emerging Thunder Bay Region initiative, he can be reached at 767-6579 or via e-mail at frank@frankpullia.com The Emerging Thunder Bay group can also be found on Facebook.
