Health care, education jobs transforming Thunder Bay's economy: First Nation partnerships key to restoring city's tarnished image as regional hub.

• Date: 01 May 2019
• Author: Ross, Ian

In the early 2000s, much of Thunder Bay's economy leaned on the pillar of the forestry industry.

For Doug Murray, the former general manager of the Resolute Forest Products mill, he remembers 2003 as being the city's best employment years with two kraft mills humming, a stable of paper mills, and five sawmills operating.

The upheaval in the forestry sector that resulted in mill closures and layoffs has taken Thunder Bay more than a decade for the city's once-staggering economy to recover.

Murray, now the CEO of the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission (CEDC), said the city is in a healthier place due largely to its position as a regional hub for medical services, education and aviation.

The CEDC's new three-year action plan puts forth ideas on First Nation partnerships, workforce attraction and retention, and marketing Thunder Bay's potential to the world.

The document is a compilation of months of interviews Murray and the CEDC's board directors conducted in asking various stakeholders what was important to them and what direction the city should be going.

As the largest city in northwestern Ontario, the action plan frequently referencing Thunder Bay's regional hub status and the reciprocal relationships to be had with outlying...