More Provincial Money Flows North

The provincial government made a new round of funding announcements for Northern Ontario businesses this week.

Funding from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund is reserved for economic development initiatives.

Below is a selection of recipients and their attributions:

$7 million for health care training for 500 people in the North through programs developed by Northern College in Timmins. Participants will receive up to $3,000 to cover their expenses while they complete the training, while employers will receive up to $1,000 to cover the cost of each internship. Programs include Support Service Workers, Personal Support Worker (PSW), Food Service Worker, and Personal Support Worker Assistant;

$1.5 million to Flosonics, a Sudbury medical technology company, for a manufacturing plant to build the company’s FloPatch, a wireless blood monitoring system;

$1,122,702 to Rogers Crop Enterprises Inc. to establish a grain and oilseed farm, creating six jobs. The farm will produce crops such as wheat, barley, oats, peas, canola and hemp and will sell the wood harvested during land clearing activities;

$1 million to the Northeast Community Network to install 1,824 acres of tile drainage, which will lead to increased crop yields and benefit eight growers;

$1 million for Science North in Sudbury to expand visitor experiences in northwestern Ontario. This includes a new 33,750 square foot facility in Thunder Bay, as well as a 4,000 square foot expansion of the Lake of the Woods Discovery Center in Kenora;

$455,400 to the Corporation of the Town of Kapuskasing to renovate the Sports Palace, a multi-use recreational and community space open year-round and a cornerstone of the community;

$400,000 to Caron Equipment Inc., a civil engineering firm specializing in mine site preparation and material handling, including land clearing and road construction. The company will purchase four rock haul trucks to expand its fleet and fulfill a contract with IAMGOLD at the Côté Gold mine near Gogama. The fleet expansion also allows Caron Equipment to bid on future tenders for mine development projects progressing to the mine development stage.

$400,000 to GreenFirst Forest Products Inc. to upgrade equipment and infrastructure at its newsprint mill in Kapuskasing, creating 45 full-time jobs and ensuring the facility can continue to play a vital role in the chain forest supply;

$319,800 to the Northeast Community Network to create a business plan to develop and commercialize 1.2 million acres of underutilized private land for agricultural purposes;

$295,928 to Tisdale Mechanical Contracting Ltd., which provides heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration, sheet metal fabrication and electrical services. The company will renovate its facilities and purchase equipment to increase warehouse storage space and begin manufacturing a variety of duct systems to meet mining industry demand for custom ventilation solutions;

$295,275 to the City of Hearst to replace the underground fuel supply system at the René Fontaine Municipal Airport with an above ground fuel tank and dispensing unit to ensure continuous and uninterrupted fuel availability for aircraft using the airport;

$206,092 to Shawn Lecours Logging Ltd. — a logging and forest road construction company — for the purchase of equipment to expand operations and reduce wood waste and environmental impacts;

$200,000 to O’Briens Butcher’s Market to establish the business, purchase equipment and make building improvements. The market will fill a need for locally processed meats and resell the products of local farmers, creating five jobs;

$57,250 to establish Tecnor Business Solutions Inc. — a provider of custom software development services for small and medium-sized businesses;

$48,375 for the Town of Hearst; development of Francophone tourism over three years;

$35,808 to ICS (Lacroix) Lumber Inc. — a producer of wood pellets — to purchase equipment to increase production capacity and expand operations.

A full list of projects that have been funded by the NOHFC since 2018 is available for viewing here.

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