There’s a call for more northerners to be on the board of the regional economic development agency FEDNOR.
Wendy Landry, the president of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association, tells us the request was made to FEDNOR members when the two organizations met in Thunder Bay this week.
She says northern applications are going in “trying to convince people who have no idea about the north and what our needs are, making the decisions on… who gets accepted and who doesn’t.”
NOMA also asked for more access to FEDNOR board members and to shorten the decision making process, noting the waiting period of up to 80 days, is a long time for requests that are under $100,000.
In addition, the Association thinks it would streamline the funding process if northerners had easier connections to the agency’s decision makers for applications up that are up to $250,000.
