QUEEN’S PARK – I recently had the pleasure of being part of an important event. Tornado Medical Systems, or TMS, announced its first wave of recruitment to build its Thunder Bay product development team. TMS has over 20 employees. In August of last year, TMS announced that, with the help of a $1-million investment from the northern Ontario heritage fund, they were establishing a new state-of-the-art product development facility in Thunder Bay’s historic Whalen building.
Earlier this year, TMS announced that it was expanding its Thunder Bay team, recruiting software developers, electrical, mechanical and optical engineers, and engineering project managers. They are planning to add at least 10 more employees to their Thunder Bay lab alone.
The rise of TMS’s Thunder Bay operations is another important step forward in the evolution of our region’s economy. The rise of the knowledge-based sector in the northwest is helping grow and diversify the number and types of jobs in our community and offering opportunities to our young people.
Tornado Medical Systems has close ties to the Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute, including formal collaboration on the development of medical imaging devices. Several years ago, our government provided $15 million in assistance to help establish the Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute.
That initial investment has helped set some extraordinary things in motion: the creation of a revolutionary new dual-site surgical centre; the growth of RegenMed and its recognition as an Ontario tissue and bone bank; and now TMS, just to name a few.
I want to congratulate Stefan Larson, CEO of TMS; Michael Power, the CEO of TBRRI; and Tornado Medical Systems’ entire Thunder Bay team. Thunder Bay’s knowledge-based economy is on the move.
Bill Mauro MPP
Thunder Bay Atikokan