Duane Hicks
The Rainy Lake Market Square project remains on the town’s radar, with hope an announcement of the second piece of the funding is forthcoming.
The town already has received $1 million from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. to level the old hotel and redevelop the site into a market square.
But the Rainy River Future Development Corp. still is awaiting approval from FedNor for the $655,000 requested to make the project a reality.
“We are super hopeful we’re going to hear some good news soon,” said consultant Tannis Drysdale.
She noted Chief Building Official Travis Rob is starting to prepare documents so that if and when the final stage of the grant announcement happens, the project will be ready to go immediately.
“We’re going to start working with community groups to really have a strong exploration of what we need to have down there,” Drysdale remarked.
Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig said the town recently reached out to Kenora MP Greg Rickford, who is the minister responsible for FedNor, about the status of the funding application, and is expecting to hear back from his office “very shortly.”
“We had some inquiries from them, post-meeting, that were pretty specific in nature so I’m hopeful we’re getting close to finding out what the status of that’s going to be,” McCaig added.
Meanwhile, “it’s exciting times in mining” now that New Gold’s Rainy River Project has received approval from both the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change after both separately completed their detailed assessments, noted Drysdale.
At the direction of council, the RRFDC is trying to attract auxiliary industries—and hopefully find places on Scott Street and at the industrial park for smaller businesses that will come to support the mining industry.
The RRFDC has updated its mining brochure and will be mailing them out to supply and service companies in the next two months.
It already has provided assistance to two companies interested in providing services to the new mine, and will continue to advertise future opportunities related to the gold mine by highlighting the town’s low electricity prices and industrial park lots for sale.
“We also want to become the next home town for a new generation of professionals and tradesfolks,” said Drysdale.
“Council moved forward with the [Huffman] subdivision that I believe will be soon populated with geologists and engineers,” she added.
In other activity, the RRFDC has:
•worked with the town, local First Nations, district municipalities, and other groups on the “Our Forest, Our Future” campaign to protest wood rights, lobby at Queen’s Park, and fight for the future of the local
economy, and is continuing to work on finding a new buyer for the mill here;
•continued with integrating the town’s new brand into all aspects of marketing, including the revamped version of the town’s website which will launch in four to six weeks;
•worked with Bruce Caldwell to organize and host he Royal Canadian Air Force’s “Snowbirds” show here June 10 9 (it is hoped this event brings aviation enthusiasts to the airport);
•started working with partner Sunset Country in preparation for the 2015 tourist season;
•completed what is likely the final grant application for “Harmony of Nations 2015” (the grant includes a French aspect to tie into the Métis component of the festival);
•worked with the Fort Frances Lakers in their efforts to host the Dudley Hewitt Cup (April 28-May 2) at Ice For Kids Arena by writing a grant application to FedNor for the event;
•helped the Assisted Living Action Group in its efforts to develop an assisted living facility in Fort Frances, and has met and worked with a group to evaluate the potential for Fort Frances to get a provincial grant for age-friendly community planning in 2016;
•continued work on establishing a community foundation (Cathy Emes has agreed to the chair the steering committee);
•held business start-up sessions and social media presentations;
•completed a Northern Community Investment Readiness study on the ancillary health care and personal services sector in the Fort Frances area, which helped the RRFDC and the local clinic to investigate such opportunities as using Fort Frances as a location to base mobile medical equipment such as an MRI;
•completed an NCIR telecommunications study and chose to partner with Tbaytel to apply for funding to improve Internet service in the west end of the district; and
•celebrated the second year of the “Go Local” program here (there currently are 4,200 card-holders and close to one million “Go Local” points have been generated).
Also at Monday night’s meeting, council received an invoice from the RRFDC for economic development services rendered between Oct. 2, 2014 and Dec. 31, 2014 in the amount of $51,269.72.
The town receives these invoices on a quarterly basis.
