The federal government is investing more than $3.5 million in 10 projects to boost forestry and economic resilience in the North. Funds announced Sept. 8 flow through a number of funding programs, including Northern Ontario Development Program (NODP), Regional Economic Growth through Innovation initiative (REGI), and the Regional Homebuilding Innovation Initiative for Northern Ontario (RHII). Of the funds, the biggest chunk — a non-repayable FedNor investment of $1,701,000 — goes to the Centre for Research & Innovation in the Bio-economy (CRIBE) in Thunder Bay, which will be used in multiple projects. CRIBE will develop, support and scale up regional innovation clusters and investment hubs in Northern Ontario, and build up and market the forest bioeconomy industry to build biorefinement capacity in the northwest. …The funding was announced alongside a suite of new measures under the Build Canada Strong initiative the federal government said would help businesses affected by tariffs and trade disruptions.

Backgrounder: Government of Canada invests over $3.5 million in forestry industry and economic resilience in Northern Ontario