The provincial government’s northern economic development tours, the first of which was held in Thompson Oct. 13-14, are about connecting people with business expertise from outside Northern Manitoba with aspiring entrepreneurs who are already here to help them turn grassroots ideas into viable companies, Manitoba Chambers of Commerce president Chuck Davidson told the Thompson Chamber of Commerce Nov. 14.
“Over the past two days we’ve been showcasing Thompson … and giving people that may not have a good understanding or an awareness of some of the opportunities in Northern Manitoba, specifically Thompson, giving them a better understanding of that,” Davidson said. “The 25 businesspeople that we’ve brought up here today may have had a preconceived notion of what Thompson was before they came. I can guarantee you, by the time we get on that plane to head home today, that preconceived notion is gone and there’s a new sense of optimism and opportunity that exists in Northern Manitoba.”
The tour is part of the provincial government’s Look North strategy for northern economic development and will be followed by half-a-dozen more, which are being supported by $20,000 from the Indigenous and Northern Relations department as well as $50,000 of in-kind support from Manitoba Growth, Enterprise and Trade, as well as federal support from Western Economic Diversification through the Churchill Region Economic Development fund.
“It is going to take time but … we’re starting to see a change in the mindset in Northern Manitoba,” Davidson said. “No longer is it doom and gloom. It’s all about the future and it’s all about what opportunities for the future are.”
Growth, Enterprise and Trade Minister Blaine Pedersen said the visitors aren’t here to provide solutions for northerners but to learn how they can help northern businesses thrive.
“They were here to ask Thompson people and businesses, ‘What do you really need?’ The business group can’t come in here and prescribe, ‘This is what you need.’ This has been the whole emphasis behind Look North is to talk to the people of the north to find out.”
It also isn’t about just throwing money at a problem.
“It’s not about giving out grants,” Pedersen said. “It’s about enabling businesses. The best businesses that will come forward are those that come from the grassroots, so how do you help those businesses? Government doesn’t create business. Government creates the environment for business and we will continue that by lowering taxes, loosening red tape. You create the atmosphere for businesses to start and to build and they will succeed.”
Thompson Mayor Colleen Smook said Thompson is a business-friendly city and that when opportunities arise, enterprising people step forward to take advantage of them, pointing out the competition to take over Greyhound’s northern bus routes as an example.
“We went from having Greyhound able to put us under their thumb that now we’ve got four or five bus lines here ready to take over,” she said.
Thompson Chamber of Commerce president Raj Thethy said he hoped the relationships and conversations that this first economic development tour started would bear some fruit over the next 18 months.
“I’m hoping that … when we have reconvened after a year-and-a-half, there are one or two businesses already established in Thompson,” he said. “That’s what I’d like to see. Our city’s open for business. Our arms are open so spread the word that Thompson’s open for business.”
