Awards ceremony honours North's best and brightest: Northern Ontario Business Awards gala attracts over 400 delegates.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Northern Ontario Business Awards - Brief Article

A high-tech homebuilder, an entrepreneurial-minded academic program and a First Nations tire and auto service were among the big winners at the 15th annual Northern Ontario Business Awards held in Timmins last month.

About 440 delegates representing the North's political, financial, business and development spheres congregated in the Senator Hotel ball room Oct. 18 to honour the region's best and brightest.

Thunder Bay's own Ray Williamson, president of Ray Williamson Developments Inc, walked away with the CIBC Entrepreneur of the Year. Williamson, a "Smart Home" developer and holder of many provincial and national homebuilders' awards, acknowledged afterwards this honour was special.

"When you get recognized by your peers it's like family telling you you're doing a good job and there's nothing more important to me than family."

His latest project is to transform Haileybury into Canada's first recreation retirement community with residential units equipped with telecommunications technology.

"This is pretty incredible because what I'm doing is an important development. To be recognized means I'm on the right track and words can't really express it.

"I just wish my mom (who died seven month ago) was around, she was very instrumental in my life."

Main Filter and Supply of Sault Ste. Marie took home the Tembec Company of the Year (1-15 employees). The rapidly expanding outfit, an international joint venture with Filtrec s.r.l. of Italy, has quickly become a North American leader in the manufacturing, selling, design and installation of filters and filtration systems.

Timmins accounting firm Ross Pope and Company won the Bell Company of the Year (16-50 employees). A fixture in the local business community for 75 years, the business boasts a client list more than 2,000 names.

The Murdoch Group Inc. of Kirkland Lake was named Royal Bank Company of the Year (51-plus employees). The family-run business owns and operates 16 National Car and Truck Rental franchises across northeastern and central Ontario.

Mike Delfre, director of Sault Ste. Marie's BRIDGE initiative won the National Research Council Canada's IRAP award as entrepreneurial community of the year.

The Bi-National Regional Initiative Developing Greater Education is a consortium that includes three area post-secondary institutions whose mission is to promote entrepreneurial thinking and encourage business creation.

"This is the alumni of Northern Ontario business and they represent the...