Government helps local businesses.
Independent dental hygienist Lianne Cameron got her new business Oasis Dental Hygiene Services off the ground with help of a Northern Ontario Entrepreneur Program grant.
Cody Storm Cooper/Sound Business News
PARRY SOUND – Seven Parry Sound District companies were given a financial hand recently through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation grants.
One of the businesses to receive the Northern Ontario Entrepreneur program is Oasis Dental Hygiene Services, currently based in Britt, which received a $17,000 funding allotment.
Two programs
The funding announcement under the Young Entrepreneur program and Northern Ontario Entrepreneur Program was made late last month.
The Young Entrepreneur program grants a maximum of $25,000 and the Northern Ontario Entrepreneur Program splits eligible costs with businesses up to $125,000.
“Our government is committed to fostering new and sustainable economic development opportunities in northern communities to create more jobs and a stronger economy for all northerners,” said Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci, Minister of Northern Development and Ministry and chair of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation in a press release.
Independent dental hygienist Lianne Cameron started Oasis Dental Hygiene Services this spring to take dental care closer to those in more remote communities. She has a mobile dental unit and is booking appointments out of the Britt Nursing Station when not at her part-time job at a clinic in Parry Sound.
Mobile dentistry
She plans to make arrangements for space in other communities in the West Parry Sound area.
“I’m looking at communities that are removed from Parry Sound and so, for instance, focusing on Britt, they’re an hour from Sudbury or Parry Sound, approximately,” said Cameron, who lives in Pointe au Baril and grew up in McKellar. “And, I know people don’t have regular enough visits (to their dentist). They might have a dentist but many people have to go two, three, four times a year to have their teeth cleaned and I know there’s many people in the removed communities who don’t get there because of the distance.”
30 years experience
Cameron has been a dental hygienist for 30 years.
A dental hygienist can’t diagnose dental health concerns, such as cavities, or administer x-rays, but can clean and whiten teeth.
She’s using her provincial money to buy eligible equipment, such as the mobile suction and compression unit.
Other recipients
Other recipients of the Northern Ontario Entrepreneur program are RTP Mechanical Limited, a heating, ventilation and air conditioning business in parry Sound; and ELM’s Manufacturing that builds exterior auto parts out of recycled plastic in Novar.
Those receiving the Young Entrepreneur program funding are Northern Paradise Wedding and Events, a Parry Sound-based wedding and event planning business; Kudos Kuisine, a downtown Parry Sound restaurant; JS Custom Builders, a Seguin Township general carpentry and construction business; and, Bonazza Dry Ice Blasting, a Sundridge-based dry-ice blasting service for residential and industrial cleaning.