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Information Technology Solutions WAWA, ONTARIO CANADA This Community Profile is produced by Wawa`s Economic Development Corporation. The information is collected from a variety of sources, and information is updated when new data becomes available. For additional information, contact: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION OF WAWA 96 Broadway Avenue Wawa, ON P0S 1K0 Phone: (705)-856-4419 Fax: (705)-856-2655 www.edcwawa.ca [email protected] WAWA COMMUNITY PROFILE 01 – Welcome to Wawa 02 – Distance to Major Centres 03 – Demographics and Labour 04 – Selected Business Profiles 05 – Available Property 06 – Taxation 07 – Transportation 08 – Utilities 09 – Communications 10 – Government and Business Services 11 – Education 12 – Housing and Climate 13 – Emergency Services and Health 14 – Lifestyle and Recreation 15 – The Greater Wawa Region – Superior East “In Wawa you are never more than 10 minutes from home, work, or play!” 01 –Welcome to Wawa The Economic Development Corporation invites you to explore the advantages of locating your family and/or business in a beautiful Northern Ontario full- service community with many opportunities. With a strategic geographical location in close proximity to an international border crossing to Michigan, USA; Wawa offers many unique advantages to businesses, including financial incentives, affordable housing, untapped natural resources and a bilingual and skilled labour force. Wawa is located 225 kilometers north of Sault Ste. Marie along one of the top-ten drives in Canada that follows the breath-taking Lake Superior shoreline. Providing services to several communities in Northeastern Ontario, the Wawa Region covers 90,000 km2 (35,000 square miles) and encompasses 6,500 people living in: Chapleau, White River, Dubreuilville, and six First Nation communities including our close neighbor Michipicoten First Nation. Wawa's major business sectors include: Gold Mining, Four-Season Tourism, Forestry, Retail and Personal Services. The community boasts a fully-serviced hospital, state-of-the-art communication infrastructure consisting of digital switching and fibre optics, land and buildings available for immediate development at a lower cost than many other towns, competitive wages, and a skilled and efficient workforce and access to many unique government funding programs available only to businesses that locate in Northern Ontario. Wawa also offers a unique competitive advantage to industries that can benefit from low-cost transportation by providing both rail and shipping services through Michipicoten Harbour on Lake Superior. The Wawa Community Profile provides an overview of the superior quality of life, availability of skilled labour, affordable land and opportunities that exist in the community. Additional information is also available at www.edcwawa.ca or www.2ontario.ca. The EDC of Wawa welcomes all of your inquiries and questions. Please contact us anytime and enjoy your visit! Economic Development Corporation of Wawa 705.856.4419 [email protected] www.edcwawa.ca 01 –Welcome to Wawa History of Wawa The Michipicoten area has a long and rich history filled with times of prosperity and hardship that were influenced by the natural resources abundant in the area. Settlers have been attracted to the area for over 3,000 years beginning with the Anishnabwe people. Aboriginal settlement occurred around the Michipicoten area in at least four locations and these settlements have been traced back as early as 1165 B.C. Between 1617 and 1622 Etienne Brûlé became the first European to reach and travel the shores of Lake Superior. During this period Brûlé discovered and made contact with the Ojibway tribe living on the Michipicoten River. In Ojibway, Michipicoten means “Big Bluffs” or “the big bluffs there,” a reference to the very rugged coastline and large hills found along the shore and on the island about 40 km west of the river mouth. Due to Brûlé's explorations, the name and location of Michipicoten appeared on Samuel de Champlain's map of 1632 of explored areas of the New World. Michipicoten is one of the oldest original place names found on any map of Ontario. The first fur trading post was built in 1725 on the south shore of the Michipicoten River where it merges with the Magpie River to flow into Lake Superior. The Michipicoten Post became the headquarters for the Hudson Bay Company from 1827 to 1887 and closed in 1895. Remains of the Post site can still be seen on the banks of the Michipicoten River. Michipicoten First Nation On September 7, 1850 "Treaty No. 60" was negotiated and signed between the Honourable William Robinson on behalf of Queen Victoria and Chiefs Totomenai of the Michipicoten Ojibwas and Joseph Peau de Chats. The consequences of this historic document are that the Ojibwa Nation turned over all their lands from Batchawana Bay to Pigeon River (except three small reservations) to the Crown. Totomenai and his tribe were given four square miles at Gross Cap just north and west of Michipicoten Harbour. The Indians also were to receive "the sum of Two Thousand Pounds of good and lawful money to them in hand paid; and a further perpetual annuity of 500 Pounds, the same to be paid to the said Chiefs and tribes - not later than the first of August at the Hudson's Bay posts at Michipicoten and Fort William." The Mission —‘The Michipicoten River Village’ The Hudson's Bay Co. contributed significantly to the growth of the Michipicoten area. Aboriginals originally living at the post relocated to a high bank across the Michipicoten River that came to be known as the Michipicoten Mission. The original development of the Mission was influenced by the location chosen for the first church in the area. European exploration of the Lake Superior frontier was quickly followed by adventurous Jesuit missionaries eager to establish contact with the native people. Established by the Jesuit Order, the Sainte Margaret- Mary Church is believed to have been the symbolic centre of the Mission since the early 1800's until 1980 when it was destroyed by fire. Though the church is gone, the Mission survives as a picturesque sister community of Wawa that has maintained its original image. This community has since been renamed to Michipicoten River Village. 01 –Welcome to Wawa Logging Of all the communities in the Superior East Region, Wawa has had the least amount of historical participation in the logging industry. This includes a short-lived surge of lumbering along Lake Superior and major rivers in the area during the 19th Century. During the early 1900’s, timber was harvested and floated down the Agawa, Magpie, and Michipicoten River systems. The logs were gathered into huge booms at the mouths of the rivers and towed by tugs to the pulp mill in Sault Ste. Marie. Boom logs, steel pins and cables are still visible along the eastern Superior shoreline and river banks. The remnants of early logging camps can be found in isolated areas of both Pukuskwa National Park and Lake Superior Provincial Park on Mijinemungshing Lake. Gold Mining The exploration and extraction of mineral resources have been ongoing activities in the Wawa area since the operation of primitive copper mines in the late 1600's. Short-lived copper and ore mining ventures occurred in the 1770's and unsuccessful mining exploits continued in spurts until 1897 when gold was discovered on the south shore of Wawa Lake ensuring Wawa's future as a mining town. Described as a miniature Klondike, the Wawa gold rush lasted until 1906. Wawa was surveyed and plotted into a town site in 1899 and was registered with the land office in Sault Ste. Marie as Wawa City. Wawa is an Ojibway word which is believed to mean "wild goose". This name was chosen for the town site because of the large flocks of Canada Geese that used Wawa Lake as a resting place during their annual migrations. In the 1920's, a revitalized interest in the gold deposits near Wawa led to the discovery of new gold veins at Michipicoten. Gold mines that were operational during the first Wawa gold boom were redeveloped and in 1926, Grace Mine was re-opened and by 1932, Jubilee, Minto, Darwin, and Parkhill mines had begun operations. These four mines were the most successful of at least fifteen other gold mines that also commenced during this time. The gold mines led to the creation of short-lived communities directly adjacent to the mine sites that have now all disappeared. Gold mining in Wawa has fluctuated experiencing peak production and profits in the late 1980's when Ontario became the largest gold producer in Canada. Due to the advent of a poor gold market in 1990s, the industry declined leaving only one gold mine remaining in operation, River Gold. Exploration in the area has recently increased. Iron Ore Mining Gold mining led to the coincidental discovery of high quality iron ore in the area. Francis Hector Clergue and his newly formed Lake Superior Power Company began mining operations at Helen Mine and, from 1900-1918 Helen Mine was the largest producer of Iron Ore in Canada. 01 –Welcome to Wawa The Helen Mine remained an open pit operation until 1950 and in 1960 the George W. MacLeod Mine went into production next to the Helen Mine. Throughout the nineties, Algoma Ore continued to be challenged by international markets and in December of 1997, Algoma Steel announced that they could no longer support the high cost of extracting low grade iron from Algoma Ore. Even though Wawa's mountain of iron ore still had more to give, operations were shut down in June of 1998, 100 years after iron was first discovered in this remote corner of Northern Algoma. The Wawa Goose For many years Wawa's only links with the outside were by way of a steamboat service (until 1941), air (floatplane) and the Algoma Central Railway from Hawk Junction to Sault Ste.