Duane Hicks
The Rainy River Future Development Corp. is hoping to soon choose a partner and move forward with a project to upgrade telecommunications services across the district.
Back in the spring, the RRFDC completed a Northern Community Investment Readiness (NCIR) telecommunications baseline study to determine what service is currently available in Fort Frances and Rainy River District, regional economic developer Geoff Gillon told town council in an activity report Monday night.
Since then, the RRFDC developed an Expression of Interest (EOI), which was sent to telecommunications companies to gauge the appetite for upgrading the region’s services, he added.
They received two proposals and currently are evaluating them.
The RRFDC hopes to choose a partner in the near future and move forward with applying for funding.
“What we’re trying to do is another round of funding applications to [FedNor] and to NOHFC to improve telecommunications services in Fort Frances and across Rainy River District,” Gillon said.
“The federal government would like to see scalability,” he explained. “They’d like a minimum of five megabytes to the home with scalability up to 25 megabytes over time.”
Gillon noted that in some parts of Fort Frances, residents have download speeds of 25 megabytes per second (mbps), depending on traffic. But in some parts of the district, they’d be lucky if they get five mbps.
Gillon said hopefully the project is successful in accessing government funds, noting this is fifth telecommunications project the RRFDC has done since the late 1990s with the analog cellphones.
“It’s absolutely essential to area businesses,” he stressed.
“We need the bandwidth. More and more business is done on the Internet,” he remarked.
“Any community that doesn’t have bandwidth is greatly disadvantaged.”
Meanwhile, the RRFDC has been working with forestry specialist Mike Willick, who is assisting them and council in their efforts to change the forest tenure process in the region.
“He [Willick] did a very good job informing myself and the mayor and council on the ins and outs of the whole forestry Crossroute business, as to who does what and how,” noted Gillon.
“I think we would have been completely lost if we didn’t have Mike guiding the ship in the last little while.”
The RRFDC also hosted a session for local businesses, entitled “Mining 101—Understanding Mining Operations,” on Sept. 24, which was attended by more than 60 people.
Gillon said while many people here understand the forest industry because they grew up with it, mining is a new ball game. As such, it’s important for people to learn more about it.
He added New Gold’s Rainy River project will be “huge for the Rainy River District if the mine should happen.”
As well, the RRFDC continues to advertise future opportunities related to New Gold’s Rainy River project by highlighting industrial park lots and the town’s low electricity prices.
Gillon said Fort Frances and Rainy River District will benefit from the mine in two ways: as “a location of choice” for smaller auxiliary industries that will service the mine here and possibly in the Iron Range, and as “a residence of choice” for the mine workforce.
Meanwhile, the RRFDC has had some initial talks with condominium developers from the Kenora area. But due to the permanent closure of mill here, they are reluctant to move forward at this time.
But if the area’s fortunes change due to the New Gold mine opening or the pulp mill re-starting, they may be interested, said Gillon.
The RRFDC also actively is marketing the Huffman Court subdivision.
And in light of the New Gold mine, it is positioning Fort Frances as “the place to live” for families of long-term employees coming to work at the mine.
