Northerners have one choice for cluster.

• Author: Robinson, David (American basketball player)
• Position: Economically Speaking

Vic Power, the mayor of Timmins, is not happy. He has been hearing talk about making Sudbury the mining capital of Canada. He thinks Timmins should be the mining capital of Canada. I know what Vic thinks because reporters from Timmins called me to find out what I thought about what he thought.

As a professional economist, I know that northerners have a simple choice-Sudbury or Toronto. We either build one world-class mining supply cluster in Northern Ontario, or the industry goes elsewhere. It has to be in a city with a research university to drive innovation. It has to be big enough to have a "thick" labour market. It has to have a collection of firms that already competes with southern centres. The economist in me tells me the debate is already over. The North has only one candidate.

To the amateur political pundit in me, the situation looks very different. Knowing how politics works in the North, I think Vic may be shooting Northern Ontarians in their collective feet.

Here is why. To protect the interests of his city, Vic will put pressure on Thunder Bay's Joe Comuzzi. Joe is the Secretary of State for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario (FedNor). Vic will try to convince Joe that Timmins should get a share of any federal projects in Northern Ontario.

Vic is a very smart guy. He was mayor when Timmins identified its mining cluster as a growth opportunity. That report was published in 2000, when Sudbury was still trying to diversify away from mining. Sudbury was chasing windmills.

Because he is so politically astute, Vic will probably recruit North Bay Mayor Vic Fedeli to convince Joe that Timmins and North Bay should get equal billing with Sudbury. North Bay has its own collection of companies that supplies the mining industry.

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Fedeli is another smart guy. He ran a very successful advertising agency and now he is making dramatic changes in North Bay. North Bay's Vic will probably support Timmins Vic because he also fears that if Sudbury wins the title of Canada's centre for mining supplies and services, their cities will lose out.

They are wrong of course--the more international business Sudbury attracts, the more they get. The really scary prospect for North Bay and Timmins is that Sudbury might fail in its bid to become the leading supply and service centre for Canada's...