Home for the think tank

About a dozen expatriate North Bayites coming home for the holidays will be meeting with Mayor Vic Fedeli Boxing Day from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Clarion Resort-Pinewood Park to engage in an informal think tank session.

Fedeli says the people he’s meeting with work in Toronto, Quebec, and the United States for such major companies as Microsoft, Nortel and Textron, and he wants to pick their brains for some business leads.

“They certainly know North Bay, they know what’s good about North Bay, they know all the assets that we have, all the good things,” Fedeli said.

“We’ll spend the time talking about what they do, about what industry they’re in, what contacts they have and what they can push our way in terms of prospective business moves or expansions.”

The session will also be tele-conferenced for those who can't attend but want to be involved, Fedeli said.

Very excited
EVeryone participating in the think tank will be briefed about the costs of industrial land, gas, electricity and tax rates in North Bay.

“That way when they’re back they’ll have this knowledge in mind when talking to prospects,” Fedeli said.

One former North Bay resident, who now works for Microsoft in Atlanta, Ga., wants to talk specifically about the SAGE underground facility in North Bay, Fedeli said.

“He was very excited about it.”

Fedeli has stated in the past the SAGE facility would be ideal to store data for large companies.

"And we need a large company here like a Microsoft."


Good prospects
Holding the think tank session is one of the planks of Fedeli’s 2020 Vision Plan, as well as one of the things he promised to implement within his first 100 days in office.

“This is something I’d like to do three or four times a year, when these people do come back,” Fedeli said.
“If it works and we do end up with some good prospects, I’ll be very happy.”