THUNDER BAY – October 15, 2026 – The Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario announced $4,985,998 for five projects in Thunder Bay and across the region on Wednesday. The largest piece, $3,226,303, goes to the PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise. The rest is split between Thunder Bay Ventures, the Anishnawbe Business Professional Association, and the Association des francophones du Nord-Ouest de l’Ontario.
PARO’s money is non-repayable. It is meant to support strategy, business development, and technology adoption for women-led small and medium-sized enterprises in Northern Ontario. The sectors listed in the federal backgrounder are AI, health and wellness, food processing, e-commerce, creative industries, and related technologies. PARO founder and CEO Rosalind Lockyer said the organization’s Launchpad program is built to help those businesses “connect to the technology of today,” by “meeting them where they are, but also linking them to resources, training, finances, and connections with people.” The investment is supposed to cover start-up, scale-up, and expansion funding, plus access to networks and both physical and virtual support spaces. It comes through FedNor’s Northern Ontario Development Program.
Thunder Bay Ventures receives $1,050,000 in total for two pieces of work. One is $900,000 to keep operations running for three years starting this month. That covers business counselling and financial assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises, and regional economic development and strategic planning help for rural communities in the catchment. The second is $150,000 to administer an investment pool program delivered by seven Community Futures Development Corporations across Northwestern Ontario. The pool lets those CFDCs make business loans beyond their individual lending limits. The operational funding follows another announcement for the same organization last week.
The Anishnawbe Business Professional Association receives $394,020 to hire a procurement navigator for three years. The job is to help Indigenous-owned businesses navigate and secure federal procurement contracts. ABPA has operated with a volunteer board. President Jason Rasevych called the ability to hire the first paid staff “a big milestone for our organization.”
The Association des francophones du Nord-Ouest de l’Ontario receives $315,675 to hire a coordinator for three years. The coordinator is supposed to match qualified bilingual workers with employers and support longer-term settlement. The stated aims are labour needs, French-language capacity in the northwest, and worker retention. That piece comes through the Economic Development Initiative.
Minister Patty Hajdu, who is also responsible for FedNor, made the announcement in Thunder Bay. The federal backgrounder does not include a quote from her. The money is real. The projects are local. Whether the Launchpad program or the procurement navigator changes the number of businesses that stay open in the northwest is not something the announcement measures. The cheques are for three years of operations and one non-repayable development grant. The rest is the work of the organizations that received them.
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