Iroquois Falls is getting $125,916 for its airport from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund.
At the airport Wednesday, northern economic growth and development minister George Pirie said it’s for installation of jet fuel tanks and a new hangar door.
Pirie says the government has been trying, ever since Resolute Forest Products shut down its newsprint mill in 2014, to help Iroquois Falls. It attempted to convert it to a cardboard mill, but the municipality had other plans. Still, the minister says the province never stopped trying to find an industry.
“You see the vast expansion in the agriculture sector here in Iroquois Falls,” he says, “and I think that’ll be a big part of the future in Iroquois Falls is going to be agriculture.”
The airport money is the first funding announcement since NOHFC tweaked its focus. Continuing his theme of something helping one part of the region helping all of it, Pirie says the north is a community of communities.
“Especially in these days with the geopolitical tensions as they are with Trump’s tariffs, we are refocusing our efforts on the areas of the economy that would be tariff-proof.”
That refocus was approved at a Tuesday meeting of the heritage fund board, held in Timmins.
NOHFC FUNDING
- $400,000 for The Bucket Shop Inc., located in Timmins, to purchase and upgrade equipment to improve efficiency and increase its production and field services capabilities
- $400,000 for Superior Grading, located in Timmins, to expand its shop through the purchase of a new building, allowing for more shop space and new equipment to diversify its customer base
- $383,949 for Kilmarnock Enterprise, located in Haileybury, to redevelop a recently purchased facility, add new welding and machining equipment to improve its service offerings, and develop a larger Northern Ontario customer base
- $343,825 for Caron Equipment Inc., located in Timmins, to purchase new equipment to support mining activity in the area with a wide variety of services
- $125,916 for the Town of Iroquois Falls to enhance Iroquois Falls Airport infrastructure by installing a new jet fuel tank and dispensing equipment, as well as replacing the hangar door header.
