From The Mayor's Desk

Sioux Lookout Mayor Doug Lawrance

Economic Development Round Table

On Friday July 25th I traveled to Red Lake to represent the Municipality in a ‘Round Table on Economic Development’ at the invitation of Red Lake Mayor Fred Mota.  The Round Table was part of Red Lake’s 100th Anniversary celebrations and included the Mayors from Kenora, Dryden, Ear Falls, Machin, as well as Red Lake and Sioux Lookout, and MP Eric Melillo. The Round Table discussion was chaired by The Honourable George Pirie, Minister of Northern Economic Development and Growth. Included in the discussion were representatives from area First Nations, the mining and forestry industries, FedNor, and the Parliamentary Assistant to Minister Pirie, Chris Scott.
Minister Pirie invited the mayors to speak first and asked each of us to discuss the status of and challenges to economic development in each of our communities. He also asked us to suggest solutions.
My remarks started with a summary of Sioux Lookout’s overall economic story over the past forty or so years and our pivot to our current status.  In the mid-eighties the town was facing the closure of the Sam Lake Canadian Forces Base, a decline in the forestry sector, and cuts in railroad employment. For some the town was dying. But over the same period the development of airports and scheduled travel to and from the many First Nations north and around Sioux Lookout was creating tremendous economic opportunities. The economy pivoted to our role as ‘Hub of the North’ including health care, education and training, social services, First Nation agencies, and aviation. And throughout sectors such as tourism, railroad, retail/wholesale/supply, hospitality, professional services, and more were steady and grew. We also have benefitted from our neighbour, Lac Seul First Nation, and their various investments in Sioux Lookout over the years and their continuing involvement in the forestry sector and a growing involvement in the energy sector.
I noted that in recent months there have been announcements of large developments for Sioux Lookout related to hotels, a conference centre, commercial and residential developments. This includes significant investment from First Nation led initiatives.
My remarks then noted that as in the mid-seventies, mid-eighties, mid-nineties, right up to today, we face two main challenges to economic development: housing supply and human resource shortfalls. In fact, as employment opportunities have accelerated in recent years these shortfalls have increased.
Employers in the Municipality have been innovative, and some have created their own housing opportunities for their employees. This has been taking place in both the private and public sectors. However, there are limits to how much employers whose primary function is something completely different can do in the residential sector. In Sioux Lookout we have all benefitted from immigration programs which have brought many new people here who are contributing as employees in various sectors and enriching our community in many ways.
The Minister asked what our main challenges were and possible solutions. The cost of construction in Northern Ontario is higher than in Southern Ontario – we can’t do much to change that, so I suggested to the Minister that what the Province could do to incentivize residential construction would be to create a Northern Ontario Provincial tax holiday for two to three years on new residential construction – eliminate Provincial taxes on materials, labour, land transfer, on everything associated with residential construction. And as for the labour shortages across all sectors, we need immediate Provincial support to create exception zones to broadbrush Federal immigration policy changes that will see us lose contributing employees, possibly lose services, and certainly hamper our economic development. 
I can report that as well as some other challenges noted by other mayors specific to their municipality and employment sectors, all echoed the same two challenges with housing and human resource shortages.
The attendance of Minister Pirie in Red Lake and his request for this roundtable and willingness to listen was very appreciated by all as was the invitation from Red Lake Mayor Fred Mota.