A local landmark is getting a million-dollar upgrade to help attract business and, the federal government hopes, create jobs.
On Friday FedNor announced more than $3 million in funding for 14 projects in Thunder Bay and throughout the region, including $1 million to renovate commercial space inside the Whalen Building.
MP Greg Rickford (Con., Kenora) said FedNor wants to see jobs, growth and prosperity in the North.
"We've been focusing on the support that emphasizes job creation for the project and it leads to sustainable jobs after that," he said after making the announcement at the Victoria Inn.
Mayor Keith Hobbs said the city is excited about the announcement. Renovating the Whalen Building, along with the proposed events centre and a potential move by the art gallery to the waterfront and the new law school all mean good thigns fro the city's North side.
"We're seeing people move in...we're building our downtown core to be a vibrant core," Hobbs said.
"The city is booming and its because of announcements like this."
The city got another $500,000 from FedNor to upgrade the Delany Arena in an attempt to boost sports tourism in Thunder Bay.
"We're going to keep going after those tourism venues," Hobbs said.
That includes the proposed events centre, which Hobbs told Rickford the city has an application into FedNor for that right now.
"I don't speculate on applications that our good folks at FedNor are doing their due diligence on," Rickford told the media.
Thunder Bay Ventures received $927,500 to give small businesses access to capital while Whitesand First Nation got more than $330,000 to complete an engineering and environmental assessment study for a power plant.
