After debuting back in June 2017, members of Thompson 2020 returned to the Chamber of Commerce on Jan. 10 to provide local business owners with an update on their progress.
Serving as a partnership between the City of Thompson, the provincial and federal governments and Vale, the Thompson 2020 initiative was originally conceived to help the community weather tough economic times that are starting to take hold in 2018.
During Wednesday’s meeting, assistant project manager Harold Smith talked about how he and the team plan to alleviate the effects of the cutbacks at Vale in more detail. He paid special attention to their usual three areas of focus: workforce adjustments, retaining and attracting residents, and business redevelopment.
At the top of his presentation, Smith mentioned that their official website is finally up and running as of Jan. 9, which will provide them with a better opportunity to communicate with the public and gather feedback on the best way to retain residents.
“We want to get some real feedback in there to drive the planning for our community, rooted in that question: ‘What is important to you and your decision about living in Thompson?’”
So far, based on the information gleaned from past surveys, Smith said Thompson residents are very interested in developing cottage and acreage lots for recreational purposes.
In terms of business redevelopment, Smith revealed that they are working with organizations like the Communities Economic Development Fund (CEDF) to help diversify the local economy.
While a large part of this involves encouraging locally owned businesses, Smith said that they are also trying to attract regional partners and large corporate entities by putting the right information in place.
“The response from people in commercial real estate has been consistent: no amount of good will, no amount of good stories is going to get a chain to invest in Thompson, or in any community,” said Smith. “They are going to use indicators that drive their decisions. The key is making sure that they are using good information, that the information is publicly available and correct.”
Finally, when it comes to workforce adjustments, Smith said they are working hard to line up job opportunities in the region, with Class 1 driver training being one of their first major breakthroughs.
“We’ve got employers who are ready to hire Class 1 drivers,” he said. ”We’re running a course starting this month on a Class 1 driver training with eight seats that are full. So that’s the first training package where we’ve lined up jobs that are available locally.”
Smith also talked about how they are even considering more unorthodox investment strategies like cryptocurrency.
“We actually have interest from some organizations looking to set up cryptocurrency mining centres,” said Smith. “We have a natural advantage because we’ve got a lot of transmission lines and some infrastructure here that other places don’t have, so that’s a very active discussion.”
Moving forward, Smith maintains that while upcoming changes might be painful, they are essential to making sure Thompson remains a viable source of employment and economic growth in the future.
“Thompson has always been a community of opportunity, in my view,” he said. “A community of opportunity to live, work, learn, raise a family, invest, play and retire … and our core job with Thompson 2020 is to try to ensure that it remains that community.”
To fill out Thompson 2020’s online resident survey, please visit their official website at thompson2020.ca.
