SUDBURY -- Cultural Industries Ontario North (CION) has teamed up with The New Business, an online digital software company to launch a ‘revamped’ crew database.

CION, which works towards the promotion of the music and film industries in the north, has had a database of northern Ontario film crews since 2014, but officials said in order to keep up with technology it was time for a refresh.

"We’ve developed a really big and fantastic and robust crew base," said Patrick O'Hearn, CION's associate managing director. "So the crew database, the imperative is to connect people very quickly to make sure people know about the talent here."

"As we continue to add talent to the crew database, production companies coming in to northern Ontario, see first hand just the tremendous access they have," O'Hearn added.

The new database uses the same software as applications such as Instagram and Airbnb, making it easy for producers to access no matter where they are in the north.

"Producers can see when crew is actively available…actually allows them to go through the crew data base and make sure they are sourcing up talent that is available at that particular time," said O'Hearn. "A lot of the films that are produced in North Eastern Ontario require real time access to data, and are filmed in remote locations."

"So it’s important for them to be able to just go through a number of different profiles as quickly as possible so they can connect with talent," O'Hearn added.

Another goal of the new crew database is to create jobs in the north. Timmins' Director of Community Development Noella Rinaldo said she believes it is a step in the right direction for Timmins, which is relatively new to the industry.

"One of the advantages we have here is a lot of snow, and you can rely on there being snow," said Rinaldo. "This new database allows us to see what assets we have here and be able to showcase them to producers when they are looking at locations, and also it allows us to build up the talent we have here and in northern Ontario."

CION also believes it’s important to keep things local.

"You want people to have roots here," said Rob Riselli, film programs and reporting supervisor with CION. "The money is going to stay more in the region in the local economy. If it’s a big crew coming from Toronto they aren’t contributing as strongly to the local economy."

Currently, more then 900 film crew and 90 producers are the on the crew database.