Sault groups receive $3 million from FedNor (Updated)

Sault Ste. Marie MP Terry Sheehan, accompanied by Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services and Minister responsible for FedNor, announced new FedNor spending of $3,172,320 to support five projects in the Sault and area on Thursday morning at Sault College.

Beneficiaries and dollar amounts from Thursday’s funding announcement include:

• $1,846,662 for the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre’s Rural Agri-Innovation Network- RAIN - to continue its Sustainable New Agri-Food Products & Productivity program, also known as SNAPP, for another three years
• $533,208 for Sault College’s new Bachelor of Engineering in Mechatronics degree program
• $500,000 for the City of Sault Ste. Marie to build a connecting section of the waterfront boardwalk, joining the two sections between the Roberta Bondar Pavilion and the area where eatery Montana's now stands
• $300,000 for Destination Northern Ontario to modernize and expand Tourism Excellence North 
• $92,450 for Executive Aviation Fuels to invest in an electric ground power unit and other infrastructure upgrades

Hajdu and Sheehan expressed their enthusiasm over FedNor being a standalone agency.

News of that development came in August 2021. 

FedNor previously operated as an initiative within Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

“We really felt that because of that we often had executives that were working in Ottawa that were not necessarily as integrated with northern Ontario and didn’t really understand the needs and the challenges and the opportunities in northern Ontario,” Hajdu told reporters.

“As an agency we’re able to respond much more quickly and with a lot more agility around what the needs of northern Ontario really are.”

“We need rapid decisions. Decisions on projects just took too long. People would apply, things would sit on desks, there would be a number of different layers of approval and often the state of business is fast, fast, fast. I think one of the best outcomes of an independent FedNor is that now we have that capacity with its own separate Minister to be able to make quick decisions,” Hajdu said.

A standalone FedNor means applicants for funding won’t have to wait as long for approval and funding for their organizations, businesses and projects, Hajdu said.

“Some applicants who have worked with FedNor before can expect a response within 30 days because they know the ropes. We’re seeing decreased complaints from people around the time it takes to get a response from FedNor and also an increased appreciation for the staff at FedNor who don’t turn anyone away and say ‘here’s where you’re at and here’s how we can help you shape this a bit further.’ It depends on the applicant but in general it’s 30 days, 50 days. It’s much, much shorter than what it used to be.”

“Our vision for the future is to have a better granting and loaning capacity so we’re obviously always looking for additional funds from the finance minister to be able to grow and operate in northern Ontario, and also the ability to find applicants and ensure that applicants all across the region know that FedNor could possibly be a really good partner and finally to make sure that we really have a strong footprint here in northern Ontario for the future. We want to make sure that any future government doesn’t undermine the work of an independent FedNor,” Hajdu said.

“The big difference for me is that we have a minister from northern Ontario who is responsible for FedNor. Before that it used to belong to another minister from northern Ontario,” Sault MP Sheehan said. 

Among the list of previous Ministers responsible for FedNor is Mélanie Joly, a Quebec MP now serving as Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“Minister Hajdu is from Thunder Bay. She gets it. She knows it. Combining Indigenous Services with FedNor is so important. We’ve seen the opportunities with Indigenous communities in the Sault and area and across northern Ontario. Having a minister from northern Ontario for FedNor is really important for us in northern Ontario,” Sheehan said.   

“It’s a great feeling to be able to continue this SNAPP program,” said David Thompson, RAIN director, speaking to SooToday.

RAIN received well more than half of the FedNor funding announced on Thursday. 

“What this funding essentially does is that it gives us grants that we disburse to our small businesses, which are farmers and food processors here in Algoma and across northern Ontario. Each of these projects that we review and look at to approve for funding are either creating a new innovative product on a farm or it’s a food processor that’s doing that work. They have a lot of needs, capital needs, equipment needs to get something started so this allows us to really grow the sector.”

Thompson said funding such as that announced on Thursday will help in the battle against rising food prices.

“By getting producers the right tools they’re able to better control their costs so that they can pass savings on to the end consumer. They can essentially cut down their costs and pass that on. What we’re finding through new technologies that are coming in, such as advancements in food processing, is that these technologies and the farmers and the entrepreneurs that are working with them are going to be able to optimize them to a point in the future which will make food more accessible in northern Ontario.”

“It’s exciting,” Thompson said.