Program established to link buyers, sellers.

• Position: Northern Ontario Marketplace program

The province has unveiled a new pilot program to encourage trade and commerce in Northern Ontario.

Northern Development and Mines Minister Shelley Martel announced the new Northern Ontario Marketplace program last month during the fifth-annual Northern Ontario Business Awards in North Bay.

The three-year pilot program is intended to connect northern suppliers with buyers in the public and private sectors.

"The procurement of goods and services by the public and private sectors is a multi-billion dollar market," Martel told the audience of business leaders and politicians. "But it is a market which has not been tapped."

The program will begin in January with the opening of two store-front offices, one in Sudbury to be managed by Cambrian College, and the other in Thunder Bay to be managed by Confederation College.

Each office will be staffed by a full-time director, and each college will work with an advisory committee composed of representatives from the local business community.

The two operations will provide information on the purchasing needs of the federal, provincial and municipal governments as well as their agencies and institutions.

In addition, they will try to match Northern Ontario suppliers with purchasers in order to stem the flow of business lost to southern Ontario, other provinces and the U.S.

A toll-free telephone number and regular bulletins for participating firms will be provided.

Martel...