Timmins Mayor Steve Black is back in the city following his trip to China. While there, Black worked on a formal deal to bring an insulation factory into the city. This is following a trend of the city attracting foreign investors, in an effort to help diversify the local economy.
Black says it’s something the city has been talking a lot about in recent years, and it’s great to have a couple of wins recently. He’s referring to the sulphur plant from Calabrian and now this potential new Chinese facility. Black says it gives Timmins a real chance to have some large players come into the community, while employing a number of people that aren’t directly tied to mining and forestry.
The mayor says he is always looking to strengthen the local economy, and have enough industry to handle the up’s and down’s of the mining cycle. But, he does say in the end Timmins is still a mining community and will be for years to come.
Black says the city has always been very reliant on those industries, and concedes there is still a lot of work to do with diversifying the economy.