The city is on its way to becoming a regional and global servicing centre for the mining industry an economic development manager says.
John Mason, who heads the Community Economic Development Commission’s mining services, said his job is to help the industry grow in Thunder Bay. During an update to city council Monday night, Mason said there are over 1,200 people employed in Thunder Bay already and with over 80 exploration companies and 300 projects underway in the region, the sky is the limit.
While the city might not be a mining town in the way of Sudbury or Timmins, servicing the region’s active and proposed mines is an industry in itself with over $475 million spent on exploration in the region already. Thunder Bay has seven engineering firms with 326 people specifically working on mining projects in the area and those numbers, like other services, are expected to grow in the coming years.
“We’re not a mining town,” he said. “That doesn’t bother me. We’re positioned as a regional mining service centre.”
Mason’s job is to maximize that industry’s potential for Thunder Bay. From face-to-face meetings with companies looking to set up shop in Thunder Bay to lobbying the provincial and federal government to help with funding, Mason said since he started in June there are 12 priorities that his office has already started working on to make sure that happens.
