More than 300 companies associated with the mining sector — ranging from product and service providers to job training, hiring and recruitment — are at the Central Canada Expo (Cen Can) at Fort William Gardens this week.
Glenn Dredhart is president of Canadian Trade-Ex, which hosts the event. He explained how it has evolved in Northwestern Ontario.
“We had our first Cen Can Expo at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Grounds, starting with 200 exhibitors and displays and we ran out of space. We decided to come here to Fort William Gardens (last year) and we’re up to 300 displays two years later,” Dredhart said.
Dredhart says the expo generates revenue with motel accommodations, car rentals, restaurants and shopping.
“I don’t think you can get a room here in Thunder Bay right now,” he pointed out.
The Expo is an opportunity to network.
“Stakeholders meet face to face and you see everybody under one roof at one time,” he said. “For a salesman to be able to meet all their clients in two days is like a gem to them.”
The expo is sponsored by the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission (CEDC), and this year, through its tourism development fund, it provided $50,000 toward the event.
“We collaborate on the agenda, ensuring that the projects in the pipeline are reflective of some of the things that we’re working on and what’s really relevant in the area,” said CEDC chief executive officer Jamie Taylor. “We added on a workforce development workshop and had representatives from both the provincial and the federal government talk about some of the immigration pathways.”
Taylor added that they also sponsor high school students to come as part of their class time, talk to some of the companies, and learn about employment opportunities in the mining, forestry and energy sectors available to them.
“We also try to educate people about the city of Thunder Bay and the opportunity for companies that may be interested in expanding and locating in Thunder Bay while promoting ourselves as the Northwest hub for mining,” she said. “It’s not only to raise awareness on the sector and to facilitate some of those business-to-business relationships, but it’s also about investment attraction for our city.”
At least 70 of the companies at the expo are accepting resumes on the spot for potential employees.
For Crystal Olson, a community outreach manager for EmployNext, an employment services program, the expo serves as the perfect networking opportunity.
“We need to understand the needs of employers and how we can train our local populations across Northwestern Ontario to help upskill folks that are trying to move up in their career, find a new career, or are just even starting out,” Olsen said. “Making those connections, finding out what the employers and sector needs are, and how we can build programming to meet those needs and close that gap to support our workforce across Northwestern Ontario makes it important to be here.”
Steven McParland, the Eastern Canada general manager for Bat Construction Ltd., based in Kamloops, B.C., it’s all about building business relationships.
“We are expanding east from Western Canada from a pretty steady B.C. operation, and we thought there’s no better place than Thunder Bay, which is in the middle of the mining area,” McParland said. “At an event like this, we can create relationships that can go a long way in business. It’s nothing better than perfect.”
The Central Canada Expo trade show opened Wednesday and closes at 3 p.m. today.
