Pierre Belanger is a successful entrepreneur and community leader in Earlton, a town of approximately 1,000 people in Temiskaming’s fertile Little Clay Belt 183 kilometres north of North Bay. In this interview, Pierre reminisces about the so-called Earlton Beer Hall Plot hatched in September 1961 when a group of businessmen like hotelkeeper Larry Belanger, Pierre’s father, were sitting around a table drinking beer and complaining about a recently completed bypass that diverted traffic away from the town.
Rather than accept their fate, the men each signed a promissory note for $3,000, payable at a rate of $20 per month and used the notes to obtain a loan. They purchased lots and built houses to solidify the population of the town. They invested in business startups, and lured a bank and a grocery store to the community. One business, Earlton Manufacturing, built recreational vehicles and influenced the startup of another business to supply the steel frames for the trailers. Today, Nor-Arc Steel Fabricators has 160 employees.
The syndicate, renamed the Earlton Development Corporation in 1963, inspired a spirit of creative entrepreneurship that led to the establishment of several other businesses in town, including a tile drainage manufacturer, a milk transportation company and a bison ranch.
Pierre also provides an overview of the changes impacting the region’s agricultural sector, including the increased focus on cereal crops, the in-migration of farmers from southern Ontario and the trend toward absentee ownership and tenant farmers.
He also tells us about the Temiskaming Community Foundation, a creative financing instrument that has built seniors housing and a health clinic, funds a reading program for 900 children in Temiskaming schools and matches Registered Education Savings Plan contributions by parents in the community.
The creative financing models Earlton has used for sustainable social and economic development may be applicable to other Northern Ontario communities facing similar challenges.