The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
… mining analyst Stan Sudol would like to see the consolidation
of the province’s post-secondary mining engineering and geology programs at Laurentian University. Sudol isn’t the most popular man among University of Toronto and other academic types from southern Ontario. But the creation of an international “Harvard of hard-rock mining” in Sudbury … “By relocating mining and geology programs from Queens, in Kingston, and the University of Toronto — neither city has any mines — to Laurentian, the province would save money and further enhance Sudbury’s global expertise in mining research and education.”
Focus on the city’s strengths and think outside the box. These ideas are part of the economic blueprint for Sudbury’s growth in 2012, say community leaders.
It’s no surprise that job creation is at the top of Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk’s wish list for the city in the New Year. Although she’s rooting for Cliffs Natural Resources to build a chromite processing plant here and create 400 to 500 jobs, Matichuk said it’s important to build and support the businesses already here.
“We also need to take advantage of some of our unique opportunities,” she said. “If you look at us as world leaders, you look at our environmental rehabilitation.”
Matichuk said she has spoken to delegates from international mining companies who are interested in Sudbury’s land, water and air rehabilitation efforts.
“I see it as an economic engine to create jobs in our community,” she said.
“We can bring that expertise to the rest of the world.”
In recent months it seems as though Sudbury has caught the movie bug. Matichuk said there’s great potential for our city in the film and television industry.
“There’s some work already being done by people in the community to bring that forward so that we can take advantage of the economic spinoffs from movies.”
Matichuk said she’s also consulting with Sudburians for their input into how to grow the city.
Former mayor Jim Gordon hopes to see the day the economy will improve enough that young people don’t have to leave Sudbury to find work.
“I’d like to see a olid level of employment, especially for young people,” said Gordon.
“Seeing what’s going on and knowing a lot of families with young people, I’m increasingly concerned with employment prospects.”
The mass exodus of youth has been a “feature” of this city for some time.
“We’re largely a resource based community,” he said. “We have diversified — there’s no doubt about that — but we’re still living in a smaller centre where it’s harder for people to get the jobs they would like to have.”
Although employment opportunities have improved in specific sectors in the city like mining and trades, there is little outside that, said Gordon. Youth continue to leave the city in order to find a career in their field.
Even finding a permanent teaching position is difficult in the province and specifically Sudbury, said the retired educator.
In the mid-1990s and into the 2000s, there was a demand for more teachers with pending retirements.
“In education, to be a teacher, your only real prospect is to get on the supply list,” he said, “which doesn’t offer much hope.
“All these people graduating and they can’t get a job so there’s the supply list which already has a ton of people on it from last year and the year before, all waiting and praying prospects will improve.”
Gordon said projects like a new architecture school downtown and the potential development of a chromite plant are great, but not the answers to our economic woes.
Yes, “they add something more to the economy, which creates more jobs,” he said.
The school of architecture will bring in students who will live and spend money here. Unlike the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, which turns out doctors that are desperately needed in Northern Ontario, the school of architecture isn’t filling a void, said Gordon.
“How many architects do you need in Sudbury? How many can make a living in Sudbury. So, we’re actually going to be training people to go elsewhere. The medical school was more of a win-win project.”
Laurentian University economics professor David Robinson is optimistic the world economy will improve and grow, albeit at a slow pace.
“The big thing that makes Northern Ontario different from most of the industrialized countries is that mining takes a long time to ramp up,” said Robinson.
“The mining companies are saying that it doesn’t matter what happen this year or next, they’re going to need a lot of productive capacity, two, three or five years from now.”
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