THUNDER BAY — Thunder Bay is on track to host Central Canada’s largest natural resource sector trade show and conference this September. The Central Canada Resource Expo — CEN CAN Expo 2022 — will feature more than 300 indoor and outdoor displays from many sectors including mining, forestry, construction operations, energy, northern communities, Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations, academia, and the supply/service industries. The event was held online the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s in-person gathering in Thunder Bay should help build the event for the future, according to Glenn Dredhart, president of Canadian Trade-Ex and expo organizer. “Thunder Bay is recognized internationally as a global leader in mining and the number one jurisdiction in Canada for both mineral production value and exploration spending,” Dredhart said. “There’s so much going on and it’s all located within that 300- to 500-kilometre radius of the hub city of Thunder Bay. It’s just amazing what’s going on in the industry. ” He says that Northwestern Ontario stands to benefit in the face of global demand for electric vehicles, given the region’s rare-earth elements and metals. There are several projects “in the pipeline” that are located around Thunder Bay. Ontario represents one of the largest market opportunities in the world for mining supply and service companies, with more than $10 billion in annual mining production value. “Northwestern Ontario is poised to play a major role in adding to that production value to an already active Ontario mining industry,” Dredhart said. Paul Pepe, manager of Tourism Thunder Bay, sees mining and exploration as a major driver of corporate travel markets to the city and says it goes beyond the expo’s events. “It’s the culinary experiences, a lot of these folks have side meetings, they’re taking guests out for dinner and they’re exploring the city on their own,” Pepe said. “The Cen Can Expo is going to be a big event unto itself and some of the (visitors) are staying for the weekend for other cultural events that are going on, like ThunderCon. “When we look at what is going on regionally with gold and lithium, we look at Thunder Bay’s efforts to become more of a gateway and become more of that base camp for those explorations and those initiatives. Events like this become huge corporate travel and corporate tourism drivers for our community, and I think that this could become an annual event. “We could be known as the annual gathering place for the regional, national and even international players in the mining and exploration sector. ” Meanwhile, ongoing collaboration and communication with Indigenous communities and organizations is the key to any development. “What that means is that if you’re looking to start up a mining operation in Northern Ontario, or even in Ontario as a whole, it’s very important to have consultation and agreements made with the First Nation communities in which you plan to operate those mines,” Dredhart said. “A lot of the First Nation communities have stepped up their game and they’re starting to look at ways of creating economic growth within their communities. And the mining community is looking at ways of reaching out to get more involvement from these communities at the same time because there’s definitely no shortage of workers . . . this is a stream of the workforce that has never been utilized and should have been years ago. ” New partnerships that are spinning off from the mining industry are developing into partnerships with suppliers and service groups, many of which will be exposed at this trade show. “You are going to see a lot of new companies that have been established that are Indigenous companies, and they’re exposing what they have created as far as new or existing business lines, and what they can offer the industry,” Dredhart said. Three conferences are tied into the expo, under the titles Hiring Challenges, Ring of Fire and Projects in the Pipeline. Meetings on hiring challenges will be hosted by the Northwest Connector and the North Superior Workforce Planning Board. Dredhart says it’s not the type of conference for someone specifically looking for a job. “It’s a conference geared to helping the human resources staff from an organization to overcome these challenges and turn them into opportunities,” he said. “They’re selecting a really key group of speakers that can address a crowd of (human resources) representatives, whether it be from a business or a mine, or a mill or a forestry operation, and talking to them about how to overcome their challenges. ” The Projects in Pipeline sessions, moderated by MineConnect, which will speak to new mining operations that will start up in 2023 and the outlook for operations in the next five years. The Ring of Fire conference will focus on critical minerals, address moving forward in the development of the project and illustrates projections of where the project is heading in the next five years. Ontario Mines Minister George Pirie, who has been tasked with the Ring of Fire development process, will be the featured keynote speaker. The Ring of Fire mining region is in the James Bay lowlands, about 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay. Although remote, the area has potential to produce many critical minerals including chromite, cobalt, copper, nickel, palladium, and platinum. Canadian Trade-Ex has been around since 1994 and has produced almost 60 trade show/conference expos across Canada. They are a self-sustaining organization that normally survives by charging an exhibitor’s rate. “But because of COVID, what normally would take us a year to produce an event like this has taken three years,” Dredhart said. “So we needed some financial help, not much, but that’s the only reason why we reached out to the government for funding. ” The 2022 expo, which Dredhart calls a “goldmine of information,” is supported by more than 35 sponsors including funding from the Ministry of Tourism, the Organization of Economic Corporation and Development, and the Municipal Accommodation Tax Fund through the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission (CEDC) Tourism Development Fund. CEN CAN Expo 2022 takes place Sept. 14-15 with exhibits at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Grounds, a gala dinner at the Valhalla Inn and Conference Centre, conferences at the Cineplex Silver City theatre and a social networking night at the DaVinci Centre where more than 650 guests will enjoy dinner and entertainment. Go online at www. cencanexpo. ca to register or call toll-free at 1-866-754-9334. The Chronical Journal.