Visiting Home, Returning Home
THUNDER BAY – Over the holiday season, many people come back to the Thunder Bay region to visit with family and friends. However, over the past several years, a growing number of professionals are also returning to our city to make their homes here.
You may be one of those Thunder Bay region residents who have left, and are now home visiting your family for the holidays.
This year you may want to take a closer look at Thunder Bay, and consider coming back home to help lead our community to a dynamic and exciting future. This future includes people like you who have already returned to our city and region, and other professionals who have moved here from elsewhere in the world (and there are many).
While our population has remained fairly stable for the last 10 years (around 109,000) our city has had an amazing turnover of people with over 35,000 leaving and just as many moving in. The Young Professional Network (now SHIFT) had only a couple of hundred members just a few years ago. They now have over 1,400.
These are people who share a common vision; can clearly see some of the amazing opportunities emerging in Northwestern Ontario, and have also the desire and expertise to move diligently towards this future and help shape it.
Returning Home with New Perspectives
Those who have grown up here and then return are bringing a new perspective on the world, and on Thunder Bay. These new ideas, perspectives and experiences help them make their lives and careers more enjoyable.
Your reasons to return can vary. They can be to have a great place to raise a family, opening a new business in our city, or to have your children have a better relationship with their grandparents and family.
It might be that the lifestyle you can have here in our region is better than you could have almost anywhere else in Canada, or around the world for that matter.
For many people who have left Thunder Bay, and ended up in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver or Ottawa, or anywhere else in the world, they start finding that the community they thought, as teenagers was “boring,” is actually an amazing place with lots of things to do.
Thunder Bay Emerges as Major Player
In recent years, Thunder Bay has emerged as a major player in many fields such as bio-medicine, technology, green energies, tourism, education, mining, engineering, the arts and culture (particularly film), and Aboriginal relations.
Thunder Bay and region has always enjoyed a rich and diverse cultural scene and the Internet allows us to do business with anyone, anywhere in the world. It’s an exciting time of change for this area. Why not be a part of it?
If you are a returning professional, someone who just moved to Thunder Bay region, or would like to know more, you are invited to share your own ideas and experiences. In the mean time please take a moment to watch the video with Kathryn, and Frank, who will share their own experiences.
Frank Pullia
Frank Pullia is a community activist, has served on Thunder Bay City Council and is a long-term resident of Thunder Bay. He can be reached at 767-6579 or via e-mail at frank@frankpullia.com
Video with Frank and Kathleen was shot and edited by Paul Morralee of Morvision in Thunder Bay.
