THUNDER BAY — A skilled trades training facility is coming to a site just outside the city, on Highway 61.
Chi Mino Ozhitoowin announced Wednesday the purchase of the former Riverview Raceway property from Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper, for a very low price — an effort toward reconciliation.
"The trades are so important in the region, so important in our communities,” said Peter Collins, CEO of the First Nations-led skilled trades group.
The facility has been dream for many years, said Collins.
“I feel really excited. My team tells me to slow down because I'm always thinking about, we have to do this and we have to look at that and how we can get to where we need to be and how we can bring prosperity to our community.
“I'm excited about my dream and it's not only my dream, it's our team's dream at Chi Mino Ozhitoowin,” he said.
The group now owns 56-acres of land for the future facility. The former Riverview Raceways operated on the property from the late 1960s until the early 1990s. After it closed, the land was acquired by what was then Great Lakes Paper. The company is now known as Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper
Bill MacPherson, CEO of Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper, said the company has had a 100-year presence in the community.
“I recently joined the company as CEO. It's got a long and successful history in the region. We were very pleased and happy to participate in this,” he said.
The training centre, once up and running, will build jobs for Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper.
“For every job that's created in a facility like ours, it takes another one, two, three full-time jobs outside to support: loggers, restaurants, machine shops, mechanics, contractors, media. All these things, so it's a huge integrated effort and we need people, so skilled people of the future with emerging technology is going to be a big part of what we're going to need to partner with.
“It was a natural fit for Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper and our First Nations community,” he said.
Collins said a heavy equipment training course will be held on the 56-acre land funded by Valard Construction.
“I think it's a very important step ... it's really time to give back and I think this is a really good opportunity to really create a path forward in Ontario.
“I can't say Canada, because I know other communities in the west have developed similar things, but in Ontario, I think this is the first of its kind. The industry giving back to our communities is an important step,” he said.
Economic reconciliation is not only driven by industry, Collins said.
“We need to be a part of that driving force, and we need a part of those developments so we can create that economic growth. The industry is a major contributor to what happens in our region, but we want to be a major contributor to what happens in our region too.”
There is currently no budget or timeline in relation for construction of the Chi Mino Ozhitoowin training facility.
“We're in the early stages of developing, we have FedNor funding that we just recently got . . . and we'll look forward to the future and what it brings to our partnering communities,” Collins said.
