Northern towns look to revitalize Main Street

FORT FRANCES — A healthy small business sector is crucial for rural communities, say local officials, and Northwestern Ontario towns are looking at ways to boost their commercial cores.

“We definitely see this right across Ontario, and probably Canada, is that your downtown cores, your small businesses, are tending to slowly go away due to prices and lack of local shopping,” said Heather Johnson, the executive director of the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce.

In Fort Frances, Johnson said Scott Street — the town’s main commercial strip — has slowly morphed to include more service-oriented outlets as local shops have closed up.

“So, that takes a little bit away from the downtown core being used on a regular basis by our shoppers,” she said. “Also, we're an aging community — we’re a lot m