Elliot Lake mall was critical to attracting retirees

At the public inquiry into a deadly mall collapse last year in Elliot Lake, there are questions about whether the optics of a successful, bustling mall to attract retirees to the city might have had any impact on what officials did to attend to the Algo Centre Mall.

The former chief administrative officer with the city of Elliot Lake, Fred Bauthus, testified city meetings were underpinned — at least in part — by the city's retirement community branding strategy.

The senior counsel for the commission, Peter Doody, asked Bauthus to recall city meetings in the late 90s about how to position the mall as an attractive centerpiece to prospective retirees.

Bauthus acknowledged to Doody the mall would continue to be a viable entity in the city. As Elliot Lake tried to build an attractive retirement brand after losing mining as its economic engine, retirees were expected to be the economic driver.

One of the crown jewels in the retirement package was a convenient, central shopping and social hub in the Algo Centre Mall.

Retirement Living is the organization in Elliot Lake that handled that marketing strategy for the city and the inquiry will continue to see just how involved it was in the decisions made at the mall.

Retirement living evenutally bought the retail space in 1999, when the leaks still hadn't been fixed.