Greg Rickford, minister responsible for FedNor, made funding announcements at the Greater Sudbury Airport on Friday March 20, 2015. John Lappa/Sudbury Star/QMI Agency

New hangar for Sudbury airport

The Sudbury Star
By: Mary Katherine Keown
Saturday, March 21, 2015

MP Greg Rickford had a busy day in Sudbury on Friday and announced $7 million in funding for several projects in the nickel city.

The minister of natural resources, who is also responsible for FedNor, was at the Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada Friday morning to announce $5 million in funding. Later on, he migrated north to the city's airport to announce another $2 million in funding for 14 initiatives grouped around transportation, the creation of opportunities for young people, as well as the promotion of the Sudbury basin as a tourist destination.

"We're pleased to announce funding that helps local businesses access a qualified and talented workforce, while providing young graduates -- those born and raised in the region -- to obtain that crucial first job experience right here in Northern Ontario," Rickford said.

Most notably, the airport will receive $1 million to support the construction of a six-storey, 32,000-square-foot hangar, which will also house Discovery Air Service and a lake quality research project the Northern Ontario School of Medicine will conduct. Etobicoke-based Discovery Air delivers airborne training to military personnel, provides forest-fire sighting for the Ministry of Natural Resources, and offers medevac services.

"If you start out at the broader, pan-regional exercise of strengthening the Greater Sudbury Airport, to providing important opportunities for young people, they all actually have one central tenet -- that is making an investment in Northern Ontario's largest city, which we believe serves the interests of the entire region, from the Muskokas to the Manitoba border," Rickford said.

Mayor Brian Bigger also attended Friday's announcement.

"These are essential investments in our community and Northern Ontario," he noted. "Investments like these are integral to fostering economic growth, development and prosperity in the north. ... In this way, the Greater Sudbury Airport is a vital economic engine for the entire region, facilitating travel for more than 240,000 passengers annually and injecting more than $41 million into the Sudbury economy."

Bigger pointed out the NOSM research project will have broad implications.

"This work will enhance our understanding of the factors affecting northern aquatic systems and the knowledge gained can be widely communicated for the use of policy-makers, industry and the general public," he said.

Rickford also announced more than $427,000 in funding for the Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium of Canada, a non-profit organization based in Owen Sound dedicated to growing the nation's manufacturing industry.

The money will be used to "co-ordinate and deploy training to Northern Ontario manufacturers," he said.

"The training, known as lean management systems training, will help manufacturers to better identify and develop, deliver and maintain successful lean management processes, leading to improved productivity and long-term business practices," Rickford added.

The remaining monies, a little more than $500,000 was split between a group of "thematically entrepreneurial" and cultural projects Rickford said will promote job opportunities for youth in northern Ontario.

The Sudbury Construction Association, the Sudbury Credit Union and ARC Climbing all received money -- up to $31,500 each -- to recruit youth interns, while Science North received $180,000 to enable it to transport and display its wildlife rescue travelling exhibit. FedNor will also support the 400th Champlain Festival, which takes place in June in Bell Park.

Rickford was coy when asked whether Friday's election announcements preceded a call for a federal election.

"This is FedNor at its finest," he told the media. "This is just doing business in its normal course."

While he did not directly link funding announcements to the Ring of Fire, neither did Rickford rule out the possibilities that support for transportation infrastructure and manufacturing could benefit the extraction of chromite in northwestern Ontario.

"Anything and everything, depending on who you ask, could lead to the Ring of Fire. But the bottom line is that we have a number of exciting extractive activities right here in Sudbury," Rickford said, adding the city is a hub of mining technology and industry. "I don't think it's anything more or less than investing in mining opportunities that are in Sudbury for the benefit of the region."

As for the Ring of Fire, Rickford said simply, "it's where it should be and where it needs to be," noting the federal government is currently exploring routes and transportation corridors that run between the mineral deposits and the railway near Nakina.

maryk.keown@sunmedia.ca
Twitter: @marykkeown
705-674-5271 ext. 505235