City's strategy bears fruit.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: COMMUNITIES OF THE NORTH

The Destiny Sault Ste. Marie strategy is starting to produce results and attract investment, says the city's top development official.

"There are business opportunities coming from within the community that are pretty neat and lot of them are reacting very positively to some of the opportunities identified in Destiny," says Bruce Strapp, CEO of Sault Ste. Marie's Economic Development Corp.

Their industrial marketing strategy delivered a new GP Flakeboard melamine plant now under construction in the city's west-end industrial park. It is scheduled for a July 2005 opening, but behind that are a number of "active clients," including an undisclosed steel production facility scheduled for unveiling in early 2005 and a bio-waste conversion opportunity that is ready to proceed.

One long-awaited development is the $50-million Legacy Quest destination tourism attraction at the waterfront Gateway site. Together with Toronto developer Philip Garforth, the city plans on sending its detailed proposal and private financing package to the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. by early spring to secure $15 million in provincial funding.

Development of a bioforestry cluster--Science Enterprise Algoma (SEA)--built around the research produced at the city's two world-class government forestry labs, is a high-priority item for 2005.

Strapp expects a "wave of energy projects" being developed through a local consortium with some co-generation initiatives and a bio-fuel project now in feasibility study stages. The city's location on Lake Superior's windward side has made it ideal for the upcoming development of a 100-megawatt wind turbine farm near Gros Cap.

RELATED ARTICLE: City of Sault Ste. Marie

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