Sustainable Economic Growth & Prosperity

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• Sustainable Economic Growth & Prosperity

  Our CEDC: we can have results or excuses — not both

  August 14 2026

  Here's what excites me about Thunder Bay's future: we have every ingredient for real, lasting economic growth. Not just taxbase growth but sustainable economic and business growth.MoreLess

  Here's what excites me about Thunder Bay's future: we have every ingredient for real, lasting economic growth. Not just taxbase growth but sustainable economic and business growth.

  And here's what I want to fix: making sure every taxpayer dollar behind that growth is earning its keep.

  Our Community Economic Development Corporation (CEDC), founded in 2006, works with a $3 million annual budget and 17 staff. It spent up to $140,000 on a consultant to build its 2026-2030 strategic plan, launched this past January. It is a 16 page document, no financial or labour force targets or metrics of success.

  Now, just months later, it has issued yet another RFP for another consultant, this time to study what retail and business sectors Thunder Bay is missing. That's information a five-year "strategic" plan should have already answered. Don't Thunder Bay residents know this already, too? Will the consultants just be telling us the time using our own wristwatch, yet again?

  Compare this to Waterloo, where their regional economic development corporation reports its results checked against Statistics Canada: $1.5 billion+ in economic impact and 12,500 jobs, all independently audited, and not just presented at internal board meetings or an annual report to council. That's the standard of transparency Thunder Bay deserves.

  As Mayor, I'll bring that same data-driven review and public reporting to how your economic development dollars are spent every 6 months. We will amplify what's working, cut what isn't, and let measured results against our specific targets guide every dollar from you.

  Accountable, ambitious, and action-oriented growth leadership: I'll bring it all to City Hall.

• Sustainable Economic Growth & Prosperity

  No more Boom and Bust

  August 26 2026

  Thunder Bay has a pattern, and it's worth calling out: for twenty years, we've staked too much of our economy on too few employers in too few sectors — and paid for it every time one of them turned. If our plan is "find the next big anchor project and hope it lasts," we'll have learned nothing.MoreLess

  Thunder Bay has a pattern, and it's worth calling out: for twenty years, we've staked too much of our economy on too few employers in too few sectors — and paid for it every time one of them turned.

  If our plan is "find the next big anchor project and hope it lasts," we'll have learned nothing. Real diversification means growing depth across construction, tourism, critical minerals, and small business together — not just betting bigger on one new thing.

  We've paid this price twice in twenty years. Let's not pay it a third time.

  Forestry cost us nearly 5,000 jobs between 2003-2010. This January, Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper cut 150 more as newsprint demand fell 40% since 2022.

  Bombardier/Alstom's Thunder Bay workforce swung from 1,100 to under 400 in waves since 2019. It has since landed a $2.3B TTC contract worth 240 local jobs. Great news, but that's the same volatility, just pointed up instead of down…for now. VIA Rail is deciding a $3B fleet contract right now, no guarantee it stays in Canada. Defence spending also is offering opportunities to diversify our capabilities and our customer base. We haven't even looked at the untapped opportunities in STEM enabled by our universities, college and health sciences sector. There is more upside.

  That is the crucial strategy now: diversification of our economy based on our strengths, not on hope and a half-baked wish list with no budgets, no accountabilities, and no timelines. No more boom and bust.

  Let's look at what's ahead:

  • Ground has broken on the Webequie Supply Road into the Ring of Fire (facing a pending legal challenge over environmental/consultation concerns), with the Marten Falls access road set to follow.
  • Rock Tech Lithium's $80M Georgia Lake deal.
  • A 90%-First-Nations-owned hotel at our airport.
  • Building permits are up 2-2.5x.
  • A new Ontario-focused $1B housing infrastructure fund and an opportunity for Thunder Bay's fair share.

  Yes, every one of these is a win.

  None of them is a strategy on its own.

  None of them on their own provide long term prosperity. Some could disappear just as fast as they appeared.

  A real economic plan, with achievable outcomes, and with short- and long-term sustainable output growth and job creation is needed.

• Sustainable Economic Growth & Prosperity

  Thunder Bay's Moment — And the Plan to Earn It

  September 1 2026

  Ottawa is preparing to send the largest wave of nation-building investment this country has seen in a generation into ports, critical minerals, and trade corridors. Thunder Bay isn't a spectator to that story and can't be in any sense of the word — we're the infrastructure it runs on.MoreLess

  Ottawa is preparing to send the largest wave of nation-building investment this country has seen in a generation into ports, critical minerals, and trade corridors. Our federal government is racing to diversify Canada's economy. Prime Minister Carney's Invest in Canada Summit in Toronto September 14-15 is just the start.

  Thunder Bay isn't a spectator to that story and can't be in any sense of the word. We're the infrastructure it runs on: a deep-water port that moved over 10.7 million tonnes of cargo last year, most of it already headed to markets beyond the United States, and a front-row seat to one of the largest untapped critical mineral deposits in the world, 500 kilometres up the road in the Ring of Fire.

  Here's my plan to make sure we don't miss this foundational window for Thunder Bay's sustainable economic growth, working with the Major Projects Office, Invest in Canada, and whoever comes next.

  First, I will assertively pursue federal "National Investment Corridor" recognition for Thunder Bay, putting this city forward for its share of the investment pipeline in critical minerals, port infrastructure, clean energy, and trade diversification, rather than waiting to be noticed and looking for scraps as has been the approach for many decades.

  Second, I commit that none of this happens behind closed doors. Every conversation this city has with federal investment bodies – provincial as well - will run through our newly formed Investment and Infrastructure Office, in public, with reporting taxpayers can read and understand - quarterly. Thunder Bay's future is too big a prize to be managed by a city development corporation that has dithered for more than two decades, with little to no public accounting of what's being pursued on our behalf or the outcomes achieved (or not).

  Third, I will use the professional network and discipline I've built over a 30+ year career that includes two stints at McKinsey & Company - one a decade before, one a decade after leading TBaytel's business transformation and growth - advising governments, infrastructure builders, and investors on some of the most consequential telecommunications and infrastructure decisions in countries in South America and the Middle East.

  That's the kind of rigour and access I'll bring to bear getting Thunder Bay's case in front of the Major Projects Office and Invest in Canada. Deals cannot be made quietly or secretively as they have so often in the past. I will open these doors, then show the public exactly what came through them, why it matters, and what it means for our city's shared economic future. That is my commitment to bringing it all to City Hall - capability and experience, along with unprecedented transparency and accountability to you, the taxpayers of our city.

  Getting Thunder Bay into these rooms with decision makers matters. A lot. But it isn't the hardest part.

  The truly hard part, the part this city hasn't seen enough of for decades, is proving to you, its residents, the outcomes possible for our city once we're there.

  That's the standard I'm setting for myself, and the economic and sustainable growth outcomes I will pursue for this city, starting Day One as Mayor.