CORNER BROOK — From transportation and infrastructure to culture, heritage and tourism, agriculture and food security right on down to healthy communities, Memorial University’s Harris Centre has a lot of ideas for possible projects in Corner Brook.
The centre held a regional workshop in partnership with the Humber Economic Development Board at the Pepsi Centre Wednesday, which brought together people from the board and other organizations and agencies in the area with people from Memorial’s St. John’s and Grenfell Campus.
Mike Clair, the Harris Centre’s associate director of public policy, said the idea behind the workshop was to come up with possible collaborative opportunities between Memorial and the communities of the Humber Economic Development Board’s region. It was a chance to connect with various partners and stakeholders to build relations to foster economic development within the region.
“How can Memorial be of assistance to help you solve your problems,” said Clair.
Each of the ideas coming out of group discussions gets brokered by finding a local champion and somebody from one of the university’s campuses to work together on moving the idea forward.
Clair said out of 13 community workshops held by the centre, 55 per cent of the ideas have been brokered.
He facilitated the group discussion on transportation and infrastructure.
During the discussion several possible projects were identified, including the potential for an Atlantic gateway for global marine transportation, short sea shipping, the need for a logistics officer to help with exporting, highway signage, technology, moose fences and regional recycling sites.
Clair said there are a lot of manufactured goods coming from China and these goods are blocking the ports of western North America.
By looking at shipping routes, Newfoundland is in position to be the first port of call for many ships.
He said a study of the province’s port facilities would be needed to see if they can meet the needs of big container ships.
Because of the recession, Clair said there’s not as much goods coming from China, so the pressure for developing an East Coast port is not as high.
“But that gives us time to plan, because at one point we know it’s all going to take off again.”
Another thing looked at was the number of container ships that come into the area full, but return to their point of origin empty.
Clair said there are people in the province who are into exporting who could make use of those empty containers.
So the group discussed the hiring of a logistics officer who could do some scheduling and co-ordinating with exporters and shippers.
The overview of the group session on healthy communities generated a lot of discussion among all participants.
One key idea was the need for a study of healthy behaviours. Often, it was noted, focus tends to be on unhealthy behaviours, so it was suggested there could be research conducted on people who live health lives, in order to learn from them.
Tara Noseworthy is the primary health-care manager with Western Health. She thinks such a study would be a good thing,
“A lack of illness does not always equal health, there are a lot of determining factors out there.”
She said by looking at people who are healthy, you can help others.
She said it’s all about health promotion and illness prevention through the whole lifespan.
“The Harris Centre provided a great opportunity for collaboration of community partners,” said Noseworthy, who’s looking forward to seeing some of the ideas move forward.
