New head office will help boost local economy: Fedeli UPDATED

Cementation Skanska Canada's securing of a $160 million contract will keep the company going long-term and secure its head office operations in North Bay, company president Roy Slack says.

The mining contractor has consolidated three offices and 65 employees into its new digs at 590 Graham Drive.

Adds security
It has signed a letter of intent with Falconbridge Limited to design and build two main access shafts for the Nickel Rim South exploration project near Sudbury.

Slack said the Falconbridge contract adds security because the mine contracting business is dependent on metal prices.

"Metal prices drive mining company owners to make decisions on whether to carry projects out or not," Slack said.

"And in times when metal and precious metal prices are down, a lot of projects are usually possibly put on hold, so what it does for our employees is provides security that we will have a volume of work for years to come, which is always nice in the contracting business."

Unique things
The Nickle Rim project involves the sinking of a main 1,785-metre deep shaft for exploration and a ventilation shaft which will go down 1,630 metres.

It's expected to take five years to complete.

Cementation Skanska is currently sinking the Kidd Mine D shaft for Falconbridge, in Timmins, which when completed, will be the main access for the deepest base metal mine in the world.

"These are the unique things that we do, and the design-build aspect and the amount of engineering and techinical personnel we have in our group is failry unique in this industry," Slack said.

"I think that's helped us to secure some of the major contracts."

Skilled resources
Slack said when it came time to consolidate its offices, North Bay became the obvious choice for the prime location.

"We already had an office in North Bay, we're well established here, we looked at different areas, but we felt that we could find in this city the skilled resources and personnel we need to operate this company," Slack said.

Really attractive
The Aurora office has been closed and a field office will be maintained in Sudbury, Slack said.

He added one of the considerations of moving the head office to North Bay was the quality of life in the city.

"The access to our clients is nice, but at the same time the lakes, the different facilities that are here," Slack said.

"It really is not a major metropolis, but it's a small community with a lot ot offer, so it was really attractive for a lot of our employees."

Room for growth
Slack said the company plans on being in the city "indefinitely."

"Although we've grown substantially there are a number of opportunites we haven't even begun to look at so there is still room for growth," Slack said.

Great spin-off
Mayor Vic Fedeli said Cementation Skanska Canada's consolidation in North Bay will have many "spin-off" effects for economic growth.

"Having a head office here there will be a tendency for them to start to buying local, and I don't just mean nuts and bolts down the street," Fedeli said.

"I'm talking about big mining fabricators located in North Bay. It's easier to run down the street and deal with a mining fabricator here than half-way around the world, so it's a great spin-off for mining manufacturers already here."

Used as a model
Fedeli also said there's now the opportunity to bring other mining manufacturing companies to the city to be near Cementation Skanska.

"There are now several head offices in North Bay now now for worldwide mining companies and this could help the city become a bigger centre," Fedeli said.

Most importantly, Fedeli said, Cementation Skanska Canada could be used as a model for Southern Ontario companies to look at coming to North Bay "as a consolidation and as an inexpensive and really forward-looking move."

"We've got the dollar an acre that we're looking at for the 112 acres in our industrial park, and we're trying to finalize that this summer," Fedeli said.

"This could be the model to say to other companies in southern Ontario and Toronto 'look what Cementation Skanska did. They left their office in Aurora, sold it and consolidated in North Bay, a less expensive place to do business.'"

Fedeli said it's one thing for North Bay economic development officials to say those things, "but a testimonial from Cementation Skanska speaks volumes."