The city wants to be ready when an expected mining boom hits.
That’s why it’s spending the next six months working with every conceivable partner from industry to First Nations groups to try and maximize every opportunity the boom could bring.
Even without proposed projects in the Ring of Fire, there are at least a dozen other regional mines that could create 8,000 direct jobs. City manager Tim Commisso said the multi-faceted Mining Readiness Strategy will help Thunder Bay be ready when the time comes.
“Thunder Bay is going to be a mining centre,” Commisso said. “This is coming at us. How do we plan? How do we make sure we’re in the best position to really accommodate it.”
Workforce training, residential and industrial land as well as infrastructure are just a few of the areas the city needs to expand in order to prepare for an anticipated population from people and business. Mayor Keith Hobbs said they’re also going to keep in contact with senior levels of governments to make sure there’s a plan from them as well.
“We haven’t seen a plan so far from the province or the feds so we’re going to make our own plan up and bring it to them,” he said. “The more specifics we can have the better.”
Still, Commisso said provincial and federal plans need to be seen.
“It’s key sooner or later we see what their plans are.”
The city says that plan has been in the works since before Cliffs Natural Resources announcement Wednesday that it would not be building a ferrochrome processor in the city.
“The announcement’s been made. It’s not sitting well with a lot of people obviously but we have to move on, we can’t’ just sit there and gripe about it,” Hobbs said.
Sudbury’s economy gets around $5 billion form value-added mining jobs. That’s everything from financial and legal industries to service and supply. Commisso and Hobbs said Thunder Bay currently does around $500 million. Getting to a dollar figure near Sudbury is another key to maximizing the mining benefits.
“It brings a whole economy in itself,” Commisso said.
A draft plan should be ready to present to the province in August during the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in August in Ottawa.
