Strong economy driving Timmins success.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: SPECIAL REPORT: TIMMINS

With strong mineral prices spurring all manner of economic activity throughout the area, Timmins is rapidly coming into its own as a growing regional centre for the northeast, according to mayor Tom Laughren.

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"We're the smaller of the five large Northern Ontario cities, but I believe some of the boom that has hit places like Sudbury is now coming to Timmins," Laughren says.

"When you look at retail activity like Home Depot and the larger Canadian Tire store, that has a lot to do with regionalization, and some of our outlying communities, even as far to the northwest as Hearst, now utilize the city to service their needs."

Local growth is such that the need for additional hotels in the region is becoming a pressing issue, as people passing through town can have a tough time getting a room without booking in advance, Laughren says. However, preliminary interest in this sector has already been shown from unnamed parties, and Laughren expects that "something is going to happen there."

As another sign of the city's general well-being, long-time Timmins airport manager Harley Nikkel points out that flight traffic has increased in all categories since 2006.

In particular, commercial flight movements have increased by more than 2,500 to reach roughly 26,000 takeoffs and landings in 2007. Nearly 127,000 scheduled passengers passed through the airport, marking an increase of the 125,000 seen in 2006 and the 115,000 in 2005.

While this still pales in comparison to the high of 145,000 seen in the early 1980s during the operation of the Detour Lake Mine, it nevertheless represents a growing surge, which has mirrored the recent rise in mineral prices, Nikkel says.

In this vein, the run-up to the opening of the De Beers Victor project has caused the cargo freight activity at the Timmins airport to swell to three million pounds of goods and construction material in 2007.

This increased activity is expected to raise the airport's 2008 revenues by 2.5 per cent, even without raising fees, which have not changed since 1999.

"We're the key aviation hub for northeastern Ontario, servicing Hudson Bay and James Bay communities, and the continued air services to those communities is a key component in our airport operation services," Nikkel says. "We're the right size at the right time, and we're ready to meet future needs and demands for air services."

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