THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission (CEDC) have announced Cancer Care Ontario’s (CCO) new home in the James Whalen Building located at 34 Cumberland Street North. Cancer Care Ontario’s move was prompted by the addition of five new staff members to its Information Technology team in Thunder Bay, requiring an expansion from 900 square feet to 4,263 square feet, thereby more than quadrupling its office space needs.
Cancer Care Ontario has assumed the entirety of the 6th floor office space formerly occupied by Tornado Medical Systems. The move is a unique opportunity for Cancer Care Ontario to lease first class space in an emerging downtown location anchored by the Waterfront Development, the imminent expansion of Lakehead University’s Faculty of Law and the exciting growth of retail amenities to service the public in the area.
The talented group of five new staff members, including four software developers formerly employed with Tornado Medical Systems, will focus on developing new information management software solutions to ensure CCO delivers the highest quality in IT applications across the provincial cancer system, such as enhancements to CCO’s electronic chemotherapy drug ordering solution.
“Cancer Care Ontario has been a pleasure to deal with,” says Steve Demmings, CEO of CEDC. “I am very pleased that they seized the opportunity to hire many of the former Tornado software developers. As soon as we became aware of the opportunity being created by the Tornado vacancy, CEDC jumped on providing solutions to accommodate the expansion requirements of CCO.”
The fact that this opportunity was sealed so quickly is testimony to the CEDC’s vision to position the James Whalen Building as the home to high end Information and Communication Technology (ICT) related tenancies that can provide a creative work environment for like-minded tenants.
“Identifying and securing a quality tenant such as Cancer Care Ontario in barely a month, is a strong testimony to the quality of amenities offered by the James Whalen Building,” says Mayor Keith Hobbs. “Today’s announcement is a strong validation that Thunder Bay continues to be a connected, healthy, vibrant and strong research and development health cluster and we welcome the expansion of CCO to our community and to the James Whalen Building.”
“We are very excited to add skilled IT experts to our already strong team in Thunder Bay,” says Rick Skinner, Vice-President and Chief Information Officer at Cancer Care Ontario. “As we move forward, CCO endeavours to continue to build capacity in this community and support the ongoing development of Thunder Bay’s advancing healthcare IT and bio-medical economy.”
“This expansion cements our good working relationship with Cancer Care Ontario. We are always seeking to strengthen partnerships that help us address local and regional needs,” says Scott Gillis, Director of Business Development for Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute. “In addition, it creates opportunities for stimulating new IT services and solutions for CCO as well as for the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and its research arm, the Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute. This is yet another demonstration of the vibrant health innovation economy in our community.”
About Cancer Care Ontario: Cancer Care Ontario – an Ontario government agency – drives quality and continuous improvement in disease prevention and screening, the delivery of care and the patient experience, for cancer, chronic kidney disease and access to care for key health services. Known for its innovation and results-driven approaches, CCO leads multi-year system planning, contracts for services with hospitals and providers, develops and deploys information systems, establishes guidelines and standards and tracks performance targets to ensure system-wide improvements in cancer, chronic kidney disease and access to care.
For more information, visit www.cancercare.on.ca