Canada – Five Northwestern Ontario airports to share more than $4.14M from federal government to maintain regional connectivity and jobs

Sep 1, 2021 | International

Sioux Lookout, ON – Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario – FedNor

Regional air transportation is crucial to local economic growth, the movement of goods and the connectivity of Canadians across the country. The pandemic has had major impacts on regional air transportation ecosystems, affecting communities and local businesses from coast to coast to coast.

The Government of Canada’s Regional Air Transportation Initiative (RATI), launched in March 2021, supports access to air transportation and regional ecosystems. In particular, it enables the continuation of existing air routes and ensures airports remain operational and able to contribute to regional economic growth, while adapting to new post-COVID-19 realities and requirements.

Marcus Powlowski, Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay—Rainy River, along with Terry Sheehan, Parliamentary Secretary for FedNor, today announced more than $4.14 million in financial support for five Northwestern Ontario airports. Of the total, Sioux Lookout Airport will receive $1,892,640, Dryden Regional Airport $885,020, Red Lake Airport $702,578, Kenora Airport Authority $439,512, and Fort Frances Airport $225,705. The announcement was made on behalf of the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages and Minister responsible for FedNor

These non-repayable contributions will help mitigate the financial pressures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic by supporting the operations of all five airports for a one-year period. The projects are expected to help maintain 32 jobs across the region.

Regional air transportation is key to the economic development of communities and businesses right across Canada. It is essential to connecting Canadians living in rural and remote communities to urban centres, delivering Canadian goods to the global market and welcoming international visitors to all parts of the country, when it is safe to do so.

“It is important to protect our regional air transportation ecosystems for the thousands of workers employed by this sector and for the many businesses and communities that depend on it. We know that air connectivity to all regions is essential to healthy, inclusive economic growth, and supporting it is part of our plan to build back a stronger, more resilient economy.”

– The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages and Minister responsible for FedNor

“Today’s announcement will help the Fort Frances, Red Lake, Kenora, Dryden and Sioux Lookout airports land on their feet and reconnect family friends and businesses following the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also allow them to be in a position to play a meaningful role in the region’s economic recovery in the months to come. This investment of more than $4.14 million will help not only ensure the commercial viability of the airports but also help maintain and grow critical economic development infrastructure in Northwestern Ontario.”

– Marcus Powlowski, Member of Parliament, Thunder Bay—Rainy River

“The Sioux Lookout Airport is an important economic driver for our municipality and beyond serving as a regional transportation centre for people, goods and services that are distributed to the surrounding region, including 29 remote First Nation communities. It is also a critical transportation hub for professional services, including medical personnel employed by 17 nursing stations located throughout several of the remote northern communities. I would like to thank the Government of Canada and FedNor for this critical funding for our key community asset.”

– Doug Lawrance, Mayor of the Municipality of Sioux Lookout

Northwestern University’s Prof. Noshir Contractor, to Keynote at PLM Road Map & PDT Spring 2021

May 10, 2021 | Books, Business

This presentation will show how the requirements for assembling a mission-critical team for space travel might also apply to setting up a PLM implementation team.

Using a mission to Mars to shape your PLM team

Using a mission to Mars to shape your PLM team

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – March 31, 2021 – PRLog — CIMdata, Inc. and Eurostep are pleased to announce that Professor Noshir Contractor from Northwestern University will make a keynote presentation at PLM Road Map & PDT North America Spring 2021. The event will take place virtually over two half days on May 19 & 20. The theme for this year’s event is “Disruption—the PLM Professionals’ Exploration of Emerging Technologies that Will Reshape the PLM Value Equation.”

Cooperation is critical in space, and NASA has identified important traits for successful teamwork in anticipation of an upcoming Mars expedition. To help assemble a team for the three-year mission, NASA is working with researchers to develop a predictive model of group performance, one which anticipates conflicts and communication breakdowns based on personality traits. At PLM conferences, presentations often mention the dependency on people, processes, and technology for success but mainly focus on the technology. The introduction of disruptive technologies puts even more pressure on the people aspect.

In his keynote presentation, Designing and Keeping Great Teams. Lessons from Preparing for Mars. What Can PLM Professionals Learn from This? Professor Contractor will share research findings on assembling a mission-critical team for space travel that might well apply to setting up a mission-critical team for a multi-year PLM implementation.

PLM Road Map & PDT Spring is a highly relevant event for PLM industry leaders and PLM practitioners globally, providing independent education where ideas, trends, experiences, and relationships critical to the industry germinate and take root.

For more detail on the agenda, please visit https://www.cimdata.com/en/education/plm-conferences/plmrm-pdt-spring-2021.

About Professor Noshir Contractor

Noshir Contractor is the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences in the McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Science, the School of Communication and the Kellogg School of Management and Director of the Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Research Group at Northwestern University. He is also the President-Elect-Select of the International Communication Association.

Professor Contractor has been at the forefront of three emerging interdisciplinary areas: network science, computational social science, and web science. He is investigating how social and knowledge networks form – and perform – in various contexts, including business, scientific communities, healthcare, and space travel. His research has been funded continuously for 25 years by the U.S. National Science Foundation with additional funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, NASA, DARPA, Army Research Laboratory, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

His book, Theories of Communication Networks (co-authored with Peter Monge), received the 2003 Book of the Year award from the Organizational Communication Division of the National Communication Association. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Association for Computing Machinery. He also received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Communication Association and the Lifetime Service Award from the Organizational Communication & Information Systems Division of the Academy of Management. In 2018, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California.