Northern Ontario is leading the innovative recession recovery

Minister of Research and Innovation, Glen Murray, and MPP Monique Smith present future innovation projects for Ontario at Nipissing University. Photo by Devin Size

You wouldn’t believe it if you heard that North Bay is leading productive and innovative projects revolutionizing labour industries in Northern Ontario – It’s a fact. Nipissing MPP, Monique Smith, along with Minister of Research and Innovation, Glen Murray, stood podium at Nipissing University Friday morning to reveal the true potential of the Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE) innovation.

Via the Ontario Research Fund-Research Infrastructure program, the work of Dr. April James of Nipissing University is finally being supported provincially. Dr. James’s team is currently researching water quantity and quality in an effort to assess how climate changes are affecting northern watersheds.

Right in your backyard, North Bayites from doctors to miners have been designing and inventing new efficient and productive products to improve the lives of Ontarians. Murray says that rural areas often go disregarded when researching the province’s productive ingenuity.

“It’s all based on community,” explains Murray. “I was mayor of a city, that is pretty remote, and I think one of the things I try to bring, and that I feel Monique brings as well, when we come to a community that isn’t in the center of the universe, is having an appreciation for local talent that often goes unnoticed.”

There are several success stories in North Bay.

Tom Palangio, company founder and president of WipWare, designed and developed technology that provides accurate analysis of size, shape, and distribution of raw materials a company needs to measure, simply using image samples. Take a picture, analyze your data. It’s pretty simple. Yet this innovative design saves energy costs, manufacturing costs, labour costs, and in the end, improves a company’s productivity significantly. When Palangio created this company, it came with a motto – You can’t manage what you can’t measure. His technology does just that.

“My roots are in the explosives business,” adds Palangio. “I worked for the Du Pont Company many years ago, and we needed a way to quantify how well we blasted the materials. I got in touch with Waterloo University, and we came up with this system to be able to do that.”

“We have a few imitators, but no competitors. More and more uses for our technology keep turning up.”

WipWare is now used in many more industries such as agriculture, mining, and pulp and paper. It is even currently being used by NASA to test lunar vehicles on Earth. WipWare is working on branching out towards life and health sciences.

“We’re looking into the medical disciplines now. There may be a way to count cells precisely or measure blood platelets.”

He’s not the only one.

North Bay family physician, Dr. Wendy Graham, didn’t set out to take part in the revolution of medicinal practice. Now it’s her priority. Designing a computer software program called MiHealth - which is able to run on any computer or smartphone - she’s achieved her goal. This program allows patients and doctors alike to instantly and securely access key health information, including family history. MiHealth can be updated anytime and as often as necessary and individuals can share their information with any health care provider of their choice.

There are other applications similar to this already, but what separates MiHealth from the rest, is that it is the only personal health record on the market that is doctor-endorsed. Data is entered by doctors and patients and it is instantly encrypted and locked down.

Murray says that the province investing in these initiatives will save companies millions from their budget, allowing for further expansion, development, and therefore hiring. With help from the Ontario government, local entrepreneurs are joining innovators across the province to transform clever ideas into real jobs and globally competitive companies.

Monique Smith and the McGuinty Government are proud to announce that North Bay’s Innovation Initiatives Ontario North is now part of ONE. This network allows experts and researchers the help they need to share and sell their ideas to further their growth. The province has invested $104,300 into this project. Since 2005, the Ontario government has funded infrastructure costs for 1,264 leading research projects across the province. Smith says she feels comfortable knowing the province will be in a good way with her leaving office.

“I think I’m leaving the region in better shape that I found it,” says Smith. “The province has invested a great deal into our region. We’ve seen two new hospitals built, we’ve almost complete the 4 lane expansion of the Highway, all kinds of investments in Nipissing and Canadore, expanding their enrolment and offerings here. We just have more research and innovation money. We’ve seen a great deal of growth in our infrastructure. I think all that is part of my legacy.”