TIMMINS -- Reflecting on northern development in 2018 at its annual general meeting, the Timmins Economic Development Corporation touted over 120 jobs created in the city from supporting local businesses.
With those jobs largely confined to the skilled trades sector, officials said the north needs to expand beyond the mining and manufacturing industries which are the bedrock of many northern economies.
TEDC executives believe that starts with giving youth different post-secondary education options close to home.
“We need to be encouraging to go on to college and university in a variety of program and subject matter - and then to retain that workforce in the north,” said Fred Gibbons, chair of the Timmins Economic Development Corporation and president of Northern College.
“That’s one of the challenges that we’ve faced and that works against us, in terms of being able to attract industry.”
Gibbons said many home-grown, skilled young minds are lost to the “wanderlust” of moving down south for education, only to be unable to return due to lack of job opportunities in their field.
Part of the solution has to do with looking for ways to innovate in the city and figuring out how to create new opportunities in existing industries.
“We’ve got a wonderful hospital here, we’ve got some great teaching facilities ... there’s no reason we can’t be looking at industries that wrap themselves around the healthcare sector,” Gibbons suggested.
Gibbons also suggested that manufacturing opportunities that provide goods and services to the health sector could be in the North as well.
