Born and raised in Sudbury, Dick DeStefano had a distinguished career in education, municipal politics and community development. One of his major achievements was the founding of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association, better known as SAMSSA, and now as MineConnect.
In this video, Dick talks about the role he played in bringing together the region’s mining supply and service companies. While Sudbury and Northern Ontario have long been recognized as a globally significant centre of mining, the region’s 500 supply and service companies flew under the radar. They had no means for pursuing their common interests and probably didn’t even realize they had any.
Encouraged by the then current notion that clusters of companies serving a common industry could drive economic development, Dick called a meeting in 2002 that attracted six owners of mining supply and service companies, two of whom left early.
Despite the early skepticism, by the conclusion of the first year, SAMSSA had 40 members. When Dick retired in 2014, there were 140, and today there are 170 members.
Dick recounts the challenges he faced and the strategies he employed to persuade mining supply and service entrepreneurs to transition from a culture of competition to one of collaboration.
SAMSSA and now MineConnect have put Sudbury and Northern Ontario mining suppliers on the map through trade missions, export marketing support and a web site that showcases the products and services of its members to a global audience.
A teacher in the former uranium mining town of Elliot Lake early in his career, Dick was well aware of the pitfalls of relying solely on an extractive industry for a community’s survival. He knew that nurturing the growth of the mining supply and service sector was one way to ensure a sustainable future for Northern Ontario.