THUNDER BAY - Northern Ontario’s business community toasted three outstanding individuals and seven remarkable companies for their business acumen at the Northern Ontario Business Awards gala in Thunder Bay tonight.

NOBA gala attendees were alternately moved, inspired and delighted upon hearing stories about Northern Ontario entrepreneurs who have overcome obstacles such as climate, geography and a changing economy to make a go of it in the often harsh business world.

“The Northern Ontario Business Awards program is an opportunity to pay tribute to this fierce sense of entrepreneurship in our region,” said Michael Atkins, president of Northern Ontario Business Ltd. “Once a year, we gather in a major Northern Ontario city to celebrate our successes and to share these stories.”

Patricia Mills, publisher of Northern Ontario Business, said to continue to inspire and to encourage the celebration of entrepreneurship in this region, the Northern Ontario Business Awards program introduced a new award to its line up.

“This year we decided to launch the Judges’ Choice Award to showcase the calibre of businesses in our host communities,” she said. “This award will be presented annually to a nominee from a host city who has been chosen by an independent panel of judges from the total number of nominees from the area.

“For example, the first winner of this new award category is a company from Northwestern Ontario, chosen from all of the nominations from Northwestern Ontario. Nominations for the new award must follow the same criteria as other Award categories, but in order to qualify for the Judges’ Choice Award; the nominee must also be from the region of that year’s NOBA host city.”

Winners were feted at a lavish dinner at the Valhalla Inn in Thunder Bay, and were presented with the distinctive Northern Ontario Business Award, made of Northern Ontario materials, which feature a windswept pine tree, the very symbol of survival in Northern Ontario.

NOBA would like to take this opportunity to thank its sponsors:

Major Corporate Sponsors - Northern Ontario Business, MCTV CTV, Kia Canada and the Northern Ontario Kia Dealers, dougallmedia, City of Thunder Bay, Bearskin Airlines, NOHFC, and the Government of Canada.

Award Sponsors - Bell, Scotiabank, Wasaya Airways, CIBC, Tembec, Union Gas, Ontario Power Generation, IRAP-PARI, Northern Ontario Business and an anonymous supporter.

Membership Sponsor - plm group

Corporate Sponsor - BDC

Event Sponsors - TBAYtel, Bowater, Signature Group and One to One Fundraising Consulting Services Inc.

Patron & Donation Sponsors - Dominion Construction, BMO Bank of Montreal, Thunder Bay International Airports Inc., Lakehead University, Quality Inn – Sudbury, Valhalla Inn, College Boreal, Bristol Machine, Brooks Marketing.

Company of the Year (51+ employees) sponsored by an anonymous supporter
Atlas Copco – North Bay

No mining head frames are silhouetted against the North Bay sky, but Atlas Copco Exploration Products has solidified the city's diversified industrial base as one of the pillars in its mining cluster.

In aiming to be a sizeable and sustainable player in the mineral exploration field, Atlas Copco has grown organically through a series of strategic acquisitions. These acquisitions have enhanced its global market presence as a leading edge producer of mining exploration equipment, and also deepened its roots in North Bay.

Strategically located near the mining camps of Sudbury, Timmins and the Timiskaming region in northeastern Ontario, the Stockholm, Sweden-based industrial manufacturing giant has grown substantially in North Bay from 33 employees in 1998 to more than 80 today.

Company of the Year (16-50) sponsored by Bell Canada
Miller Technology – North Bay

Ask the folks at Miller Technology Inc. the secret behind the company's longevity in the highly competitive mine equipment market and they sum it up to being innovative and flexible to customer needs, taking a few calculated risks on occasion and doing the little extras for customers.

That philosophy, instilled by owner and founder Ron Miller, has made the family-run North Bay company a world innovator and manufacturer of custom-built forklifts, tractors, trucks and multi-purpose utility carriers.

Company president Ron Miller, a former chief designer with Jarvis Clark, a predecessor company to mining equipment giant Sandvik Tamrock, started the business in his garage in 1979.

In 1985, When the city and the neighbours complained about noise pollution from Miller's diesel tractors, he shifted operations to his present site on Seymour Street and started out with a 3,000-square-foot shop and warehouse. Today the company employs 37 people at its shop on Seymour Street, and a sales office on Ferris Drive with a total combined space of 20,000 square feet..ca

Company of the Year Award (1-15 employees) sponsored by Tembec
Lacasse Fine Wood Products – City of Greater Sudbury

Ask Karen Lacasse anything about her wood products, and more than likely you will receive an educated reply. “Anybody can throw wood out to the normal consumer…but I am a compulsive information gatherer and I love to learn, so every customer that comes in here and they have a particular hobby, I get to pick their brains,” says Karen, co-owner of Lacasse Fine Wood Products Inc., with husband Roger,

Researching solutions and finding the right products for her customers is her passion.
It started when she and Roger opened up the family business designing and building furniture in 1984. Within five years they soon realized they could not compete with tradesmen who pursued woodworking as a hobby.

“Cabinet makers are a dime a dozen and that does not mean they are all the same skill level, but because their financial agenda is not the same it was difficult to compete,” Karen explains. It became evident to her and her husband that a change was necessary, so they decided to venture into the business of mouldings, spindles, railings and flooring by purchasing second-hand equipment.

Innovation Award sponsored by National Research Assistance Program (IRAP – PARI)
Ionic Engineering Ltd. – City of Greater Sudbury

There is something incongruous about Stephan Matusch’s and Steve Reichle’s office.
It is not the office itself that forms the nerve centre of Ionic Engineering Ltd. on Kelly Lake Road in Sudbury. A couple of desks, a computer and a laptop, file cabinets; pretty much what one would expect of the office of a couple of industrial engineers. Nor is it Matusch. Bespectacled and slight of build, but with a strong handshake grip denoting someone as comfortable with an AutoCAD display as he is with a wrench, Matusch seems to be what one might expect from engineer.

“We’re an engineering company specializing in automation and robotics,” Matusch says in describing the company. “If a client has a problem - such as three guys doing a job that can be done by one, or one doing a job that’s unsafe, or if they are looking for cost reduction and need to reduce the manpower involved in a process - we can design systems that make that happen.”

Entrepreneur of the Year Award sponsored by CIBC
Tom Palangio – Topex Inc. – Bonfield

Tom Palangio has one of those jobs that most of us can only dream about. As president and primary consultant of explosives consulting firm Topex Inc., and vice-president of marketing and sales for WipWare Inc, he gets to travel the world, visit exotic places like Peru and South Africa and advise mining and quarrying companies on the best way to blow things up.

"Every mining company uses explosives, but we have found over the years that, if they are used properly, a company can save a lot of money downstream," says Palangio. "Everything is related to that first break. If you try and go cheap and not use enough, there's more maintenance of equipment as you try to break up the bigger pieces and there's more energy that has to go into crushing the material."

The company's client list reads like a veritable who's who in mining spanning the entire globe.

Palangio operates his company out of a home office in the Township of Bonfield about 27 kilometres east of North Bay. Many companies have come to rely on Palangio's expertise in blasting. "We've really filled a niche market," he says.

Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award sponsored by Scotiabank
Fabio Belli, Just Soccer – City of Greater Sudbury

Fabio Belli started Just Soccer, formerly known as Sports Excellence, as the manager. Six months later, the owner offered Belli the opportunity to purchase it. It was around that time another soccer store in the south end of Sudbury announced its closure. Belli believed that would provide him an opportunity to capture the whole soccer market in the city.

Belli took a shot at an open economic net and scored one of many goals in his quest to be a profitable and growing business. This year Belli expects sales to be close to $500,000, a moderate estimation, when taking into account an increase of staff and overhead expenses.

First Annual Judges’ Choice Award sponsored by Northern Ontario Business
Norfab Buidling Components – Fort Frances

If there were poster children for the importance of value-added wood in today's volatile forestry sector, Norfab Building Components Inc. would be the source of inspiration.

From a modest 8,000-square-foot operation of about a dozen people almost two decades ago to a six-building complex with more than 175 employees and 65,000 square feet of production space, the story of Norfab in Fort Frances is one of phenomenal growth.

Bill Boulton, Norfab's national sales and marketing manager, says the company's secret to success is simple. "We're aggressive, we're no-frills, we're not scared of anything and (owner) Mel Degagne's always been willing to expand. We're constantly out there pounding for the big accounts. We're willing to try anything regarding new products and we're willing to go head-to-head with anyone.”

First Nations Business Award of Excellence sponsored by Ontario Power Generation
Serpent River Trading Post - Cutler

The Serpent River Trading Post, once known as a mom-and-pop store in the mid-1980s, has now become the hub for the First Nation community and its guests.

Originally, the trading post, which was three times smaller than its present size, offered trinkets and foreign-made souvenirs to customers travelling through the First Nation territory. In an opportunity to increase revenues, and promote First Nations arts and crafts, the trading post made it a policy to only sell items crafted by Aboriginals, says Michael Meawasige, manager of the trading post. "We are a complete Native-owned and operated company and it does not seem right to sell items that were made in other countries.”

Knowing they could gain more tourism dollars by selling First Nation arts and crafts, the community, the chief and Serpent River band council and a steering committee gathered to create a plan to make the trading post a stop customers would remember. Members wanted the band-owned store to reflect the true nature of the North American First Nation communities


Entrepreneurial Community Award sponsored by Wasaya Airways LLP
Discover Abitibi - Timmins

While many mines in the Timmins and Kirkland Lake area - known collectively as the Abitibi Greenstone belt - are potentially nearing their end, individuals heading up the $12-million Discover Abitibi initiative are certain the effort is going to yield even more opportunity for the future.

Discover Abitibi is a multi-phase regional geo-science project, which makes use of new technologies and applications to explore the mineral and metals potential of this region. The effort is being co-ordinated by the Timmins Economic Development Corp. (TEDC) and will result in a comprehensive database of information showing prospectors and mining companies likely targets for future exploration.

Recently, Discover Abitibi announced the impending release of its airborne gravity evaluation survey, hard copies of which would be made available at Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines resident geologists’ offices throughout Ontario.

The economic benefits of the initiative are many.

The Union Gas Essay Scholarship winner was Laurie Thompson- Hilton Beach, a graduate of Central Algoma Secondary School who is currently attending Lakehead University in Thunder Bay. Thompson wrote about “Maple Syrup –An Entrepreneurial Dream in Northern Ontario.” Her essay chronicles how her family acquired a sugar bush in Jocelyn Township on St. Joseph Island in 1977 from an island old-timer who wanted "suitable new stewards" for his prized lot.

Over the years, the Thompson's learned the ropes, installed new sap lines, improved their boiling methods and tapped more trees on the property to become Ontario's second-largest producer of maple syrups.

Now enrolled this fall at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay to study forestry, Thompson plans to return home to the Island upon graduation and someday go into business with her father.