Matthew Shoemaker got the news a little after 9 a.m. today, on Twitter.
The Ward 3 councillor spotted a tweeted link to a Canadian Press article announcing that Toronto was the only Canadian city that made the shortlist for HQ2, the Amazon's proposed second headquarters in
Shoemaker had spearheaded Sault Ste. Marie's bid for the $5 billion initiative that would have brought 50,000 jobs here.
But from the beginning, Councillor Shoe had been upfront that the Sault's proposal was a long shot.
Even if we didn't win the grand HQ2 prize, maybe we'd impress enough people to win a 50-job consolation prize from someone else.
"Plucky we will remain," Shoemaker tweeted after getting the news today.
"The #Sault's ec-dev efforts won't end with the @Amazon bid!"
"We punched above our weight with our #AmazonNorth bid, and we’ll continue to do so."
We didn't make it to Amazon's short list of 20 metropolitan centres, but Plucky Shoe has enough pluck left for one more Amazon-related City Council resolution.
He tells SooToday he intends to bring forward a motion soon to have city staff investigate how the momentum and national attention we got from the Amazon North bid might be transferred to other economic development prospects.
"All the reasons that we were a great fit for Amazon... all those reasons haven't gone away because we didn't get Amazon," Shoemaker says.
Instead of waiting for companies to come to us, he argues we need to get more proactive in looking for new prospects.
"We're still an option. We need to find where the growth is and go and find those companies."
The presentation that the Sault's 12-member team prepared is in digital form so it can easily be updated and adapted to target other possibilities.
"I think we can use that package that tells the story of Sault Ste. Marie to pitch ourselves to startups, companies looking to expand, tech companies, companies from overseas looking to have a North American base."
"The document is a great asset. We're Sault Ste. Marie. Here's everything we've got. We can be more than the city that's relied on the same industry that we've relied on for the past 115 to 120 years."
Meanwhile, Shoemaker tells SooToday that at Monday's City Council meeting, he'll add two other initiatives to the 119 resolutions he's moved or seconded since he was elected in 2014.
Resolution No. 120 will propose that Sault Ste. Marie develop a warming shelter plan for vulnerable citizens during times of cold weather.
Shoemaker can't understand why we don't already have one.
And he'll have a Resolution No. 121 on Monday, but when interviewed by SooToday this afternoon, he couldn't remember what it was.
When you get as many ideas as he does, even Plucky Shoe has trouble keeping track of them all.